On Dec. 16, President Barack Obama reported on the findings of the
intelligence analysis of the war in Afghanistan. Through all the
rhetoric of “progress” in the country, one fact was made crystal clear:
the war will rage on, with heavy combat and increasing casualties, for
many years to come.
While inside the White House the politicians attempted to dress-up
the grim findings, outside the White House the truth about the war was
being told by hundreds of veterans and supporters who occupied the fence
directly in front of the White House and refused orders by the police
to disperse.
Organized by Veterans for Peace, March Forward!,
the ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) and several
other organizations, the action was the largest veterans-led civil
disobedience since the wars began 10 years ago. Veterans of Afghanistan,
Iraq, Vietnam, Korea, World War II and other conflicts were among those
arrested.
Those arrested included Brian Becker, National
Coordinator of the ANSWER Coalition; Mike Prysner and Ryan Endicott,
both Iraq war veterans and March Forward! organizers; Mike Ferner,
president of Veterans for Peace; and Daniel Ellsburg, who leaked the
famous Pentagon Papers during the Vietnam War.
Drawing hundreds
of veterans and anti-war activists, this dramatic act of civil
resistance came at a time when the U.S. government has made the
admission that it will not cease its war drive in Afghanistan, its
frequent drone strikes in Pakistan or undertake any real withdrawal from
Iraq.
The masses of people rejected U.S. foreign policy in the
2008 election, voting for President Obama with the misguided but
well-meaning hope that his election would lead to real change. This hope
has proven to be false. Left to its own devices, Washington will
continue its war drive to carve up the globe in the interests of Wall
Street. The only thing that will stop it is a dedicated and militant
fight-back from veterans, GIs, youth, activists and working people who
operate outside of the political establishment, who fight back in the
only way history has shown that progressive change is made–as a united,
independent people’s movement in the streets, challenging the entire
system.
March Forward! co-founder Mike Prysner spoke at the
rally at Lafayette Park, joined on stage by nearly a dozen March
Forward! veterans of Afghanistan and Iraq, including active-duty troops.
He said: “This government isn’t going to end these wars, because it’s
not our government. It’s the government of the rich, of Wall Street, of
the oil giants and defense contractors. It’s their government. And the
only language they understand is shutting down business as usual. That’s
what we’re doing today, and what we will continue to do in the days
ahead until we end these wars.”
While being interviewed by the
press at the action, Ryan Endicott, a March Forward! member who served
as a Marine Corps infantryman in Ramadi in 2005, said: “The
transformation I went through, from being on the front lines of the war
to the front lines of the anti-war movement, is something that every GI
can go through, because at bottom, these wars are not in our interests,
and we have no reason to fight them. Actions like this one today, and
the ones we will continue to carry out, will reach those GIs and
veterans who have questioned the war and inspire them to join us in this
fight to stop the crimes committed against our brothers and sisters in
uniform, and our brothers and sisters in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
In
total, 135 veterans, community leaders, and anti-war activists were
arrested for refusing to budge from the White House fence. Supporters
braved the snow and freezing temperatures, and kept lively chants going
for hours until the last veteran was dragged away by the police.
It
took the police over four hours to clear the area of the civil
disobedience action. In the spirit of a long, rich history of using
civil resistance to advance the struggle for progress, this act of
defiance marked a significant step in the reinvigoration of the anti-war
movement, in this era of perpetual war that will rage on until halted
in its tracks by the people themselves.
