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Veterans

Critics Of Veterans Administration Cuts Say, ‘This Is Life And Death Stuff’

March 21, 2025 Suzanne Gordon and Steve Early, Washington Monthly. , , , ,
Earlier this month, Vietnam War veteran Paul Cox went to a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) medical center in St. Louis to visit a sick friend. When he left the hospital, he encountered a woman handing out flyers in its parking lot. “VA workers are being fired,” her leaflet said. “This can hurt your care. This is an assault on the VA. Call or email your Senators and Representatives as soon as you can.” Cox, a leading Veterans for Peace (VFP) member and supporter of its Save Our VA (SOVA) committee, has distributed similar appeals on many occasions, often to support VA caregivers.

Veterans Administration Research Funding Slashed

February 26, 2025 Suzanne Gordon and Steve Early, The American Prospect. , , , ,
In 2024, Congress funded $984 million in VA research, which is a pittance compared to the NIH. But VA researchers operate at 102 research sites and are engaged in 7,300 ongoing projects, while publishing more than 10,000 papers in scientific journals last year. VA research also allies with private-sector researchers and contributes to advances, which helps not only veterans but all Americans. The VA research website appeals to research scientists to join its team. It also asks veterans to volunteer to participate in ongoing clinical studies that could not only help them but new cohorts of former military service members.

Holocaust Remembrance Day, January 27, 2025

January 25, 2025 Colonel (Ret) Ann Wright, Popular Resistance. , , , ,
On January 24, 2025, the Veterans Administration of the Pacific region sent out a notice to all veterans registered in the Pacific region to not forget Holocaust Remembrance Day.  Not surprisingly, the email did not say one word about the ongoing Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, nor U.S. complicity in that genocide. The VA email, which is probably duplicated by other U.S. federal agencies to their workforce and clients reads: "On January 27, 2025, we observe Holocaust Remembrance Day, a solemn occasion to reflect on one of history’s darkest periods. The Holocaust began with the opening of Dachau Concentration Camp on March 22, 1933, and ended with the surrender of Germany on May 8, 1945. During this time, millions of innocent people—among them those with disabilities, LGBTQ+ individuals, people of Jewish heritage, and Romani communities—were systematically exterminated.

1968 And 2025: What Prospect For Resistance Inside US Military?

January 25, 2025 Johnnie Lewis, Workers' World. , , , ,
A recent article in the British Guardian newspaper recounted the experiences of veterans of the U.S. military and their thoughts and feelings in opposition to the U.S.-aided and -abetted genocide on Palestinian Gaza perpetrated by Zionist Israel. This opposition is to be applauded. The U.S. military is now “all-volunteer.” So, this opposition will allow youth contemplating joining the military a different, sobering perspective. No doubt many young people already have this perspective because all branches of the military are failing to meet their recruiting quotas. My experience in the U.S. Army from 1968 to 1969 was quite different from that of these veterans.

Why The US Gets Violent Wake-Up Calls From Vets

January 17, 2025 Steve Early and Suzanne Gordon, Popular Resistance. , , ,
According to the University of Maryland’s National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), “A U.S. military background is the single strongest individual-level predictor of whether a subject …in the PIRUS ( Profiles of Individual Radicalization In the United States) data is classified as a mass casualty offender.” A record of military service, START explains, is, in fact, an even more reliable predicator than mental health problems or a criminal history. Consider the long list of those who preceded Din Jabbar and Livelsberger down the same path. In 1995, Gulf War veteran Timothy McVeigh parked his Ryder truck, with a home-made bomb, outside the federal building in Oklahoma City.

The Military To Prison Pipeline

January 5, 2025 Steve Early and Suzanne Gordon, Popular Resistance. , , ,
Like old soldiers around the country, a group of former service members gathered in Crest Hill, Illinois to remember fallen comrades on Memorial Day, 2024. Several months later, The Veteran, a newspaper published by Vietnam Veterans Against the War, ran a photo of the event they attended. It shows a multi-generational group of men--white, Black and Latino—lined up proudly between two flags. In his dispatch to the newspaper, African-American Navy veteran Robert Maury explained why everyone in the Stateville Veterans Group was wearing government issued clothing of a non-military sort.

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

October 23, 2024 Veterans For Peace. , , , , ,
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

October 12, 2024 Umar A Farooq, Middle East Eye. , , , , ,
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

June 25, 2024 Veterans for Peace, Popular Resistance. , , , , ,
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

June 24, 2024 Margaret Flowers, Clearing the FOG. , , , ,
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

June 4, 2024 Veterans for Peace, Popular Resistance. , , , ,
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

May 27, 2024 Veterans For Peace. , , ,
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

May 21, 2024 Veterans for Peace, Popular Resistance. , , ,
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

April 19, 2024 Veterans for Peace, Popular Resistance. , , , , ,
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

March 5, 2024 Gerry Condon, Popular Resistance. , , , ,
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.
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