CTRL + SPACE for auto-complete. jQuery("#inline_cta_btn_356034 a").attr("href",inline_cta_url_356034); “Our role in all of the BLM events is to support these organizations however they need — from medical, security, logistics, supplies and manpower,” he added. It was June 20 and we anti-war vets had traveled all the way to Tulsa, Okla., in the midst of a pandemic to protest President Trump’s latest folly, an election 2020 rally where he was to parade his goods and pretend all was well with this country. 10 organizations honoring Native peoples’ history and future on Thanksgiving, Quick guide to explaining left and right wings to kids, Nearly two-thirds of older Black Americans can’t afford to live alone without help – and it’s even tougher for Latinos, The tide is turning: Change and the coming of Maitreya, Teachers are on a tightrope with no safety net, How conservatives have laid waste to America for 50 years, The minute Trump leaves office, investigators must pounce. var inline_cta_2_button_text_356034 = ''; magazine_button_url_356034 = 'https://subscribe.thenation.com/flex/NA/key/G0EECAT/'; David Smith of Continue to Serve said that he and VFP share a common commitment. The true meaning of ‘Armistice Day’ — a commitment to peace if( inline_cta_text_356034 !='' ){ jQuery("#magazine_button_356034").html(magazine_button_text_356034); They are wrong to ask that. tn_keyword: ['donald-tru', 'george-flo', 'military-i', 'us-militar'], magazine_button_text_356034 = ''; Veterans have been involved in the movement since before June 1, when protesters were tear-gassed in multiple cities, including in front of the White House, where National Guard troops were deployed. The Registered Agent on file for this company is About Face: Veterans Against The War and is located at 64 Fulton Street Room 403, New York, NY 10038. While the majority of veterans were escorted out, four people were arrested attempting to raise flags that said “End the war on Black people” “Defund the police” and “Invest in Black communities.”. Why don’t you?” In response, two officers assaulted him, breaking all the bones in his right hand. slotId: "thenation_right_rail_356034", Tweet on Twitter. Subscribe now for as little as $2 a month! For our small group of multi-war/multi-tour combat veterans, it was hard not to wonder whether many of these flag-and-weaponry enthusiasts had ever seen a shot fired in anger or sported Old Glory on a right-shoulder uniform sleeve. “Right now, our veteran members are mobilizing as part of the largest united front effort in U.S. history to protect the election and fight for our future regardless of the outcome,” read one email from About Face, formerly known as Iraq Veterans Against the War. 4:50. UPDATE: Almost 900 Veterans have signed this open letter and we are receiving messages from dozens of troops looking to refuse orders or know their options if they get them. The Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) had at least 25,000 members — 80% were combat veterans –and the VVAW became leaders in the anti-war movement in the early 1970’s. About Face: Veterans Against The War is a Pennsylvania Domestic Non-Profit (Non Stock) filed on May 19, 2008. slotId: "thenation_article_indent", Michael Thur­man, 32, is an active mem­ber of the anti-war vet­er­ans’ orga­ni­za­tion About Face: Vet­er­ans Against The War (for­mer­ly called Iraq Vet­er­ans Against the War). magazine_button_bg_color_356034 = '#ffcf0d'; tn_subject: ['activism', 'armed-conf', 'global-jus', 'us-wars-an', 'war-and-pe'], 72K likes. jQuery("#inline_cta_1_module_356034").addClass("tn-inline-cta-module"); In fact, for all their chatter about the Constitution, oaths betrayed, and citizen rights violated, anti-Trumpism ultimately glues this star-studded crew together. About Face: Veterans Against the War 995 views. I’ve never seen so many representations of the Stars and Stripes in my life, classic flags everywhere and flag designs plastered on all manner of attire. Yet, tellingly, the closest we came to outing ourselves—before later pulling off our disguises to expose black “About Face: Veterans Against The War” shirts—was during the national anthem. var inline_cta_2_url_356034 = ''; He will complete his service obligation as a noncombatant in the Medical Service Corps. inline_cta_bg_color_356034 = '#ffcf0d'; Remember, I went to West Point. For Reprints and Permissions, click here. if( cta_1_check_356034 ){ jQuery("#inline_cta_2_356034").html(inline_cta_2_text_356034); At its first notes—we were still waiting in the arena’s encircling lobby—our whole team reflexively stood at attention, removed our hats, faced the nearest draped flags, and placed our hands upon our hearts. tn_author: ['danny-s'], As vets were doing so in mid-September, the LA Wall’s main organizer put her own body between LAPD and protesters, suffering a leg wound from a rubber bullet. 72K likes. For more information, visit our Privacy PolicyX, A military veteran against Trump in Washington, DC. Portland was just one epicenter of protest that week, but the city made headlines for the deployment and behavior of agents from the Department of Homeland Security. magazine_button_url_356034 = 'https://www.thenation.com/email-signup-module-donate/'; View our current issue To become a member of About Face: Veterans Against the War, valid proof of service is required. In a moment of crankiness this January, using a bullhorn pointed at the University of Kansas campus, I decried the pathetic student turnout at a post–Qasem Soleimani assassination rally against a possible war with Iran. He also sits on the board of directors for Veterans for Peace and About Face: Veterans Against the War. 4:50. They see it as theirs—and only theirs. “Antifa!” one man yelled directly into a Marine vet’s face. Last month, one of those former cadets of mine became the first West Point graduate in the last 15 years to be granted conscientious objector status. In fact, there’s evidence that something is indeed astir in both the soldier and veteran communities the likes of which this country hasn’t seen since thetail endof the Vietnam War, almost half a century ago. Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) was founded by Iraq war veterans in July 2004 at the annual convention of Veterans for Peace (VFP) in Boston to give a voice to the large number of active duty service people and veterans who are against this war, but are under various pressures to remain silent. Today the use of nuclear in space is being pushed harder than ever. They believe they are defending freedom and democracy. 3:02. Please lift up our voices. They put up a notice on Facebook and organized a Wall of Vets, along with fellow Navy veteran Dan Nisevich and ally Kim Holloway. Then there was the powerful visual statement of Marine Corps veteran Todd Winn, twice wounded in Iraq, who stood for hours outside the Utah state capitol in the sweltering heat in full dress uniform with the message “I Can’t Breathe” taped over his mouth. jQuery("#magazine_button_356034 a").attr("href",magazine_button_url_356034); var inline_cta_2_text_356034 = ''; 3:02. In August, Reppenhagen said that VFP still had a steep “learning curve” about the role of police and settler-colonialism in both policing and the military itself. Thus was born ContinuetoServe.vet, which now has dozens of members and works closely with D.C.-based Black organizations. Korean War veterans reflect on the 'Forgotten War' - Duration: 4:50. Cancel Accept. While others in the group infiltrated and the flagpole climbers donned their gear, five of us—three white male ex–foot soldiers in America’s forever wars and two Native American women (one a vet herself)—took a breather in the largely empty upper deck of the rally. That image, of course, had been lifted from the Reagan-era, pro–Vietnam War film Rambo: First Blood Part II, a fitting accompaniment to Trump’s classically plagiarized Reaganesque rallying cry “Make America Great Again.” Finally, a black banner with pink lettering read “LGBT.” Above the letters, also in pink, were logos depicting, respectively, the Statue of Liberty, a gun (an M16 assault rifle), a beer mug, and a profile bust of Donald Trump. Copyright (c) 2020 The Nation Company LLC. The Registered Agent on file for this company is About Face: Veterans Against The War and is located at 64 Fulton Street Room 403, New York, NY 10038. } The Veterans of About Face speak for ourselves this Veterans Day. At a minimum, 10 service members are known to have taken “concrete steps” to avoid deployment to the protests and, according to a New York magazine investigation, some troops were “reconsidering their service,” or “ready to quit.”. inline_cta_2_url_356034 = 'https://ssl.drgnetwork.com/ecom/NAT/app/live/subscriptions?org=NAT&publ=NA&key_code=68F1CGS&type=S'; Schrader earned a Ph.D. in political science at the University of Hawaii and is the author of Fight to Live, Live to Fight: Veteran Activism After War. You can read our Privacy Policy here. Nor did deliberately visible veteran’s gear offer any salvation from the instantly jeering crowd, as the rest of us were being escorted to the nearest exit and tossed out. About Face: Veterans Against the War 995 views. NOTE: The views expressed in this article are those of the author in an unofficial capacity and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Command and General Staff College, Department of the Army, Department of Defense, or the US government. P.O. Box 3565 New York, NY 10008 +1 929-430-4988. — Maggie Lee (@maggmountains) September 6, 2020 Not only does this guy think Joe is disqualified, he has no love for Dubya, either. Read writing from About Face: Veterans Against the War on Medium. } cta_1_check_356034 = true; In Tulsa, Oklahoma during Trump’s June 20 visit, About Face and VFP were there to provide on the ground training for the local “Unify Tulsa” coalition — along with Grassroots Global Justice, Climate Justice Alliance, It Takes Roots, BlackOut Collective and the Ruckus Society. inline_cta_button_text_356034 = ''; However, About Face quickly received scores of calls from concerned soldiers and Guardsmen, while VFP reported the first mobilization refusals almost immediately. tn_pos: 'rectangle_1', By a rough estimate, half of the attendees had some version of the flag on their clothing, Trump banners, or other accessories, signaling more than mere national pride. That line also attracted national press: Former Army infantryman Clint Hall told the New York Times that the federal response was “over the top,” and that what they sprayed “felt worse than the tear gas he recalled from his time in the Army.”. McPhearson’s successor as VFP director, Garett Reppenhagen, was among those arrested for climbing the flagpoles at the BOK Center to raise a Black Lives Matter flag. jQuery("#inline_cta_btn_356034 a input").css("background",inline_cta_bg_color_356034); tn_keyword: ['donald-tru', 'george-flo', 'military-i', 'us-militar'], The music irked me instantly. The exchange went as follows: VETERAN: I’m an Air Force Veteran, here with an Army Veteran. Given that “Billie Jean” blatantly describes an out-of-wedlock paternity battle and that odds were this woman was a pro-life proponent of “family values,” there was something obscene about her carefree shimmy. cta_1_check_356034 = true; Georgia Senators Loeffler and Perdue Are Campaigning Against Democracy. tweet; This past month ... formerly known as Iraq Veterans Against the War. They included former Secretary of Defense and retired Marine Corps General Jim (“Mad Dog”) Mattis and that perennial latecomer, former Secretary of State and Joint Chiefs Chairman Colin Powell. And thousands of veterans have formed a Frontline Election Defenders team to use skills honed in the military to protect polling stations and post offices. if( inline_cta_bg_color_356034 !='' ){ That said, going undercover in Trumplandia means entering a universe in which it’s exceedingly clear that one political faction holds the flag hostage. tn_ptype: 'article', Recall, for example, that Saint Mattis resigned his post not over his department’s complicity in the borderline genocide underway in Yemen or pointlessly escalatory drone strikes in Somalia, but in response to a mere presidential suggestion of pulling US troops out of the quicksand of the Syrian conflict. Notably, such rates of anti-war sentiment exceed those of civilians, something for which there may be no precedent. Koni Delgado , Air Force. var inline_cta_2_bg_color_356034 = ''; Education Secretary Betsy DeVos urges career staffers to block Biden’s agenda when he steps... Nukes in space: Elon Musk’s push for nuclear propulsion. They believe they are defending freedom and democracy. Portland veterans answered that call with some vigor. “The deaths continue to occur,” Smith said. “Then a buddy of mine called and said, ‘We have to get out there,’” referring to the stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue now known as BLM Plaza. “Trump 2020: Fuck Your Feelings” was a fan favorite. } Veterans Against The War. Nervous joking then ensued about the absurdity of wearing the Trump “camouflage” that had eased our entrance. In fact, one reason local black and native communities undoubtedly requested our attendance was a vague (and not unreasonable) assumption that maleness, whiteness, and veteran’s status might offer their protests some semblance of protection. Some of the fiercest anti-racists I know are veterans. WHAS11 507 views. Nothing better exemplified the contrast between what I’ve come to think of as the “pageantry patriotism” of the crowd and the more complex “participatory patriotism” of the dissenting vets than that moment. Somewhere in the middle — in partisan affiliation and tactical approach — are VoteVets, Common Defense and Vets for Responsible Leadership. We are Post-9/11 service members and veterans organizing to end a foreign policy of permanent war and the use of military weapons, tactics, and values in communities across the country. “And we will not stop in our support of the BLM movement until all citizens are treated equally.”. if( magazine_text_356034 !='' ){ var inline_cta_font_color_356034 = ''; Wall of Vets Los Angeles responded immediately, first exposing the fact that many L.A. sheriffs and police officers are members of cliques — often called gangs — with names like “Vikings” and “Executioners.” Using the #JusticeForDijon hashtag on Twitter and Instagram, Wall of Vets called on veterans to support protesters who were already filling the streets. Donation Total: if( inline_cta_2_button_text_356034 !='' ){ } if( inline_cta_2_text_356034 !='' ){ Chris Lombardi is the author of "I Ain’t Marching Anymore: Dissenters, Deserters and Objectors to America’s Wars." var is_user_logged_in = getCookie('SESSname'); } However, in the month-plus since George Floyd’s death, I’ve gotten nearly 100 such messages from serving strangers—as well as from several former West Point students turned lieutenants—more, that is, than in the preceding four years. I am an aging veteran of the American War in Viet Nam and a co-founder of Veterans For Peace. About Face: Veterans Against the War, New York, New York. About Face: Veterans Against the War, an anti-war veteran’s organization, identifies the man as Michael Thurman, an Air Force veteran and conscientious objector that is a member of the organization. Cassidy is a civilian who’s organized alongside About Face: Veterans Against the War members since 2012 and joined the staff in 2016. inline_cta_url_356034 = 'https://www.thenation.com/donate-website/?sourceid=1020084'; }. attach_money Donate. if( is_user_logged_in != null ){ if( inline_cta_2_url_356034 !='' ){ What I do know is what my favorite rock star, Bruce Springsteen, used to repeat before live renditions of his song “Born to Run”: Remember, in the end nobody wins, unless everybody wins. jQuery("#inline_cta_2_btn_356034 a input").css("background",inline_cta_2_bg_color_356034); Notable shirts included: the old Texas War of Independence challenge “Come and Take It!” above the sort of AK-47 assault rifle long favored by America’s enemies; a riff on a classic Nixonian line, “The Silent Majority Is Coming”; and the slanderous “Go To Your Safe Space, Snowflake!”; not to mention a sprinkling of the purely conspiratorial like “Alex Jones Did Nothing Wrong” (with a small flag design on it, too). We can guess though, since the late Tom Petty’s family quickly denounced the use of his rock song “I Won’t Back Down” at the rally. At the left end of the veterans’ community, the traditional heart of anti-war military dissent, the ranks of the organizations I belong to and with whom I “deployed” to Tulsa have also swelled. And it still remains an open question whether the array of activist groups that About Face and Veterans for Peace have so recently stood in solidarity with will show up for our future anti-war endeavors. inline_cta_2_font_color_356034 = '#ffffff'; Trumpian patriotism only goes so far. Yet, tellingly, the closest we came to outing ourselves—before later pulling off our disguises to expose black “About Face: Veterans Against The War… targeting:{ magazine_text_356034 = '

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'; inline_cta_font_color_356034 = '#000000'; Korean War veterans reflect on the 'Forgotten War' - Duration: 4:50. This past month, the news seemed filled with veterans involved with right-wing armed extremists — whether Marine Corps veteran Daniel Harris, one of the Boogaloo Bois arrested this month in Michigan for plotting to kidnap the governor or their role in the Nazi-leaning Oath Keepers. I watched an older white woman in a “Joe Biden Sucks, Nancy Pelosi Swallows” T-shirt gleefully dancing to Michael Jackson’s falsetto (“But the kid is not my son!”). The company's filing status is listed as Active and its File Number is 3811097. Vets all around the country followed suit, forming their own walls of veterans at protests. Should the sudden wave of military and veteran dissent keep rising, it will invariably crash against the pageantry patriots of Chickenhawk America who attended that Tulsa rally and we’ll all face a new and critical theater in this nation’s culture wars. 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