>Nobody made them sign up. Period.
No, most of them did it because there were not more attractive options, and there was a lot of lying. Deception is a form of force, I wouldn't be the first to argue.
Our city commission passed a proclamation last night 'supporting the troops' to which anti-war veterans there responded the best way to support them is to bring them home now. "I had a lot of friends that are on that wall in Washington, and I don't think we bought much with their lives, according to our government their lives were cheap" one vet told the TV news. The mayor made a motion to add something saying Bush shouldn't go to war without going to Congress first, but it died for lack of a second.
I think the answer to the warmongers demand that we support the troops is to show just how they're the ones that don't give a fuck about the troops, they're using depleted uranium munitions (in the last go-round they didn't give anyone instruction on how to handle them) they're using experimental vaccines, they're putting a bunch of people in harm's way to ensure the domination and wealth of a class of "lazy annuitants." As Jesse Jackson said during the first Gulf War, 'we support our troops all the time, we supported our troops before they became troops, we'll support them after they stop being troops.' People should be reminded that Bush is cutting VA funding right the fuck now.
In terms of support for those who decide to resist in one way or another, for the last three months in the local monthly I co-edit we've been running contact info for Citizen Solider (www.citizen-soldier.org), their GI Rights hotline 1-800-394-9544, Military Families Speak Out (formerly Military Families Support Network) www.mfso.org (617) 522-9323, and the Central Committee on Conscientious Objection www.objector.org along with our local Veterans for Peace organization. We also ran the Veterans Call to Conscience, signed by Howard Zinn, Jeff Peterson and others (www.calltoconscience.net). I've referred two friends with loved ones over there to Military Families Speak Out. By the way, the mother of a GI who's just been sent has just gone on a hunger strike here.
More Vietnam vets killed themselves after the war than died in combat. Conscienceless machines?
Jenny Brown