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Veterans

Veterans For Peace Applauds Israeli Soldiers Who Refuse To Fight In Gaza

Veterans For Peace applauds the Israeli military reservists who are calling for a ceasefire and the release of hostages, and who say they will not participate in genocide. You are doing the right thing. Your courageous stance may be answered by official threats and even imprisonment. But you will never regret refusing to kill innocent Palestinian men, women and children. Palestinian Lives Matter. Yet Palestinians are being systematically slaughtered before the eyes of the world. The ongoing US-backed Israeli genocide in Gaza is unacceptable. It is a stain on human history. And it must be ended. Veterans For Peace has consistently called for an end to the genocide in Gaza, for a permanent ceasefire, and most importantly, for an end to US arms shipments to Israel.

US Military Veteran Arrested By Israeli Forces In Occupied West Bank

A United States military veteran was arrested by Israeli forces while accompanying a Palestinian farmer in a village in the West Bank, according to the International Solidarity Movement (ISM). Michael Jacobsen was in the Palestinian village of Masafer Yatta in the Hebron governorate when he and other activists as well as Palestinian land owners were approached by Israeli soldiers on Thursday morning. The ISM said the farmer Jacobsen was accompanying was facing "daily harassment, attacks, and invasions of his private land by Israeli settlers and occupation forces".

Veteran’s Trial To Highlight BAE Systems Inc. Complicity In Genocide

Endicott, NY – On Wednesday, June 26, 2 pm, in Endicott Village Court, 225 Jefferson Avenue, Jack Gilroy, an 89-year-old former machine gunner in occupied Austria, will tell the court why he was compelled to deliver a letter to weapons manufacturer, BAE Systems, and should not be convicted of trespass. Gilroy, a member of Veterans For Peace (VFP), will testify that he has written letters to public officials, given talks, voted for antiwar candidates and signed petitions, but the genocide continued, prompting him to try to meet directly with BAE Systems management to implore them to stop. “This case is not about trespass," Gilroy said.

US Veterans Denounce Prolonged Militarization, Ongoing War In Korea

Two members of Veterans for Peace participated in a recent delegation to South Korea to mark the anniversary of two young girls who were killed by a US tank during a military exercise. Clearing the FOG speaks with Ellen Barfield, a long time activist who was on delegation and who was serving in South Korea in 1980 when the massacre of students and leftists occurred in Gwangju, about the trip and the ongoing war in Korea. Barfield also discusses the RIMPAC military exercises that begin this week in the Pacific and the veteran-led Peace Walk that is headed to Washington, DC for the anti-NATO activities starting the weekend of July 6 and 7.

Active Duty, Veterans And GI Rights Groups Launch Anti-Genocide Campaign

As more members of the military and State Department resign over U.S. funding of the genocide in Gaza, a new campaign will be launched tomorrow to allow military personnel to directly contact their congressional representatives.  Initiated by active-duty military members, veterans and G.I. rights groups, “Appeal for Redress v2,” is modeled after the 2006 Appeal for Redress conducted during the highly unpopular occupation of Iraq, to allow G.I.s to tell their representatives they are opposed to U.S. policy. Active duty service members are opposing U.S. funding of Israel’s genocide not only because it is immoral, but also because U.S. government employees violate several federal statutes every time weapons are shipped to Israel, as cited in this letter from Veterans For Peace to the U.S. State Department. 

Veterans For Peace Memorial Day 2024 Statement

Members of Veterans For Peace remember America's war dead not just once a year, but every day of our lives, with the solemnity they deserve, not the crass commercialism Memorial Day has become. We remember the war dead and the far greater number of wounded with missing limbs and the even greater number living with invisible, lifelong devils and injuries in their heads. We remember the lost contributions they could have made to society that they literally bottled up or destroyed in the epidemic of suicide rampant among veterans. We remember the domestic violence caused by their devils. We remember their children whose lives were more painful and less joyful than they could have been because of those devils.

75-Year-Old Former Paratrooper Walks The Walk Against War

Fifty-four years ago, Windsor Wade marched off to war. Today he is walking for peace. The 75-year-old former paratrooper is on PeaceWalk 2024, organized by Veterans For Peace, winding its way for 700 miles from Maine to Washington, D.C. Wade served in Vietnam in 1970-71 with the 173rd Airborne Brigade, Binh Dinh province, Landing Zone English, in one of the infantry’s most dangerous jobs – a Radio Telephone Operator – for the company commander. His decorations include the Combat Infantry Badge, Parachutist Wings, and Air Medal from the government of South Vietnam. The retired Rochester City Schools history teacher said, “Making this walk for peace as a former paratrooper is the best way for me to let the world know my absolute disgust with Israel’s abhorrent actions in Gaza and the West Bank."

US Veterans To President Biden: Arming Israel Violates The Law

In a letter today to President Biden and top members of his administration, Veterans For Peace cited existing federal law that gives the President “…no discretion whatsoever to allow any military assistance of any form to be delivered to Israel,” based on that country’s “serial violations of the Symington-Glenn Amendments, codified at 22 U.S.C. § 2799aa.” The letter states, “The President may not waive the cutoff of the above aid and exports under the Glenn Amendment where there has been a nuclear weapons detonation, or the offending state has received a nuclear explosive device.

Biden’s Mixed Messages On Gaza Aren’t Fooling Veterans

President Biden added to the confusion over U.S. policy when, during his press conference announcing the airdrop, he twice said the aid was going to “Ukraine.” His confusing Gaza with Ukraine is understandable given that he is pushing for a huge funding bill that would send $61 billion to keep the Ukraine war going, while sending an additional $14 billion in military aid to Israel.  This would be in addition to the normal huge US military aid to Israel, and supplemental shipments of tanks and 2000-pound bombs that have obliterated entire civilian neighborhoods in Gaza.

Veterans For Peace Calls For Criminal Investigation Of Biden Administration

In sixteen U.S. cities, March 5-7, members of Veterans For Peace will hand deliver an exhaustively researched letter to U.S. State Department offices that has gotten no response from the department’s Inspector-General since February 11. The cities are Buffalo, New York, Minneapolis, St. Louis, Portsmouth, NH, Greensboro, NC, Boston, San Diego, Tucson, Chicago, Philadelphia, Atlanta,  Bridgeport, CT, Los Angeles, Dallas and Houston. Josh Paul, former State Department senior official who resigned over weapons shipments to Israel said, “The Secretary and all relevant officials under his purview should take this letter from Veterans For Peace with the utmost seriousness.

The US Postal Service Network Consolidation Plan

A core feature of U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s 10-year plan, “Delivering for America,” is an initiative to restructure the nation’s postal network by consolidating processing and distribution operations in regional centers, mostly in urban areas. In 2023, two years into the 10-year plan, USPS reported that the agency had committed $7.6 billion out of a total $40 billion restructuring budget and plans were on track to open 60 new Regional Processing and Distribution Centers across the country in the coming years. Through this consolidation plan, many postal processing and distribution facilities in smaller communities will be converted to Local Processing Centers with reduced functions.

Veterans For Peace Joins International Delegation Attempt To Reach Rafah Border Crossing With Gaza

VFP member Danny O’Brien, VFP Board member Gerry Condon, and VFP Advisory Board member, journalist Chris Hedges, are among an international delegation of writers, lawyers, journalists, activists, students, and organizers who arrived in Cairo, Egypt this week with the goal of reaching the Rafah border crossing with Gaza. VFP Advisory Board member, retired Colonel Ann Wright, was refused entry into Egypt. Their goal is to exert pressure to open the border for the immediate entry and sustained flow of urgent humanitarian aid—food, water, fuel, and medical aid to 2.3 million Palestinians facing starvation and death as genocidal Israeli airstrikes continuously pound defenseless civilians.

Armistice Day And The Empire

In 1954, the US Congress renamed Armistice Day to Veterans Day. The stated reason was to remember all generations of US veterans, not just veterans from the First World War. Congress advanced this rationale on the disingenuous notion that Armistice Day’s purpose was a celebration of veterans. It was not. Armistice Day’s purpose was to serve as a reminder of the horrors of the First World War and carry forward the declaration of those veterans of Never Again. For a US government implementing a militarized Cold War foreign policy in 1954, a reconciliation-based holiday was inconvenient and problematic.

As Wars Expand, Veterans And Others Plan Peace Walk To Washington, DC

The Israeli War on Palestine, made possible by US support, is beginning to become a regional conflict. In addition to this, the US is backing conflicts in Ukraine targeting Russia, in the Horn of Africa and in Latin America and increasing its aggression against China. Congress is appropriating hundreds of billions of dollars for the Pentagon while the majority of people in the United States struggle to meet their basic needs each week and the climate crisis worsens. To raise awareness about this, Veterans for Peace is organizing a Peace Walk 2024 from Augusta, Maine to Washington, DC, arriving in July to protest the NATO meetings being planned then. Clearing the FOG speaks with Tarak Kauff and Ellen Davidson, two of the Peace Walk organizers.

Book Review: Soldiers As Workers In A Toxic Workplace

For decades, the armed services and contractors on bases abroad used massive burn pits for waste disposal, rather than safer methods. They burned everything from tires to computer equipment to medical waste and more, often using jet fuel, a known carcinogen, as an accelerant. These dangerous fumes would probably never have been allowed in stateside civilian workplaces. In the U.S., a company may risk penalties for illegal emissions or dangerous working conditions. If a civilian worker is lucky, their job may even have a union contract and a way to fight an unsafe workplace. Even without a union contract, if a job is lousy or overtly unsafe, a person can often walk away.

Urgent End Of Year Fundraising Campaign

Online donations are back! Keep independent media alive. 

Due to the attacks on our fiscal sponsor, we were unable to raise funds online for nearly two years.  As the bills pile up, your help is needed now to cover the monthly costs of operating Popular Resistance.

Urgent End Of Year Fundraising Campaign

Online donations are back! 

Keep independent media alive. 

Due to the attacks on our fiscal sponsor, we were unable to raise funds online for nearly two years.  As the bills pile up, your help is needed now to cover the monthly costs of operating Popular Resistance.

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