The following was a response to: http://twitter.com/TheLogistician on his blog site
My recollection as a protestor of the US war in Vietnam was the role of vets and military personnel as one of many vanguards in the anti-war movement. At the time, I was unaware of any public revulsion of vets, but I have since been aware, through connections to the medical community, of abandonment at all levels of the US government, including the VA, of vets since the US war in Korea. There are veterans who served in Iraq living on the streets of the US right now.
I believe your tweet link may have come about as the result of my opposition to the US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and their continued funding both of military and contractors. Furthermore, I did protest US funding of the mujahideen and the Soviet Union invasion of Afghanistan as well as imperialist incursions into sovereign countries in the Americas.
I think most US residents do oppose these wars and believed candidate Obama would act to stop them. We are all paying the war’s price in the demise of our economy, and many understand these links.
It is easy to romanticize the opposition to the Vietnam war: there were actually fewer folks on the streets then than the millions who opposed the invasion of Iraq in 2002 and 2003. The war powers have developed new strategies to stifle dissent, including using contractors instead of the draft. Or, as in a local case, Ft. Lewis sent spies to the anti port militarization groups blocking Stryker materiel shipments through publicly funded "commercial" ports of Olympia, Tacoma, and Greys Harbor. Now the US is sending 10,000 troops to Haiti: for an invasion? The anti-war sentiment in the US may appear to need galvanizing and leadership: I believe resistance needs not merely push-back, but creativity, flexibility, persistence and activism FOR peace. Thanks for your thinking on this subject.
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