A Veteran's Iraq Message Upsets Army Recruiters

As those thinking of becoming soldiers arrive on the slushy doorstep of the Army recruiting station here, they cannot miss the message posted in bold black letters on the storefront right next door. "Remember the Fallen Heroes," the sign reads, and then it ticks off numbers - the number of American troops killed in Iraq, the number wounded, the number of days gone by since this war began.

The sign, put up by a former soldier, has stirred intense, though always polite, debate in this city along the edge of Lake Superior in northeastern Minnesota. In a way, many of the nation's vast and complicated arguments about war are playing out on a single block here, around a simple piece of wood. The seven military recruiters here, six of whom have themselves served in Iraq, want the sign taken away. "It's disheartening," Staff Sgt. Gary J. Capan, the station's commander, said. "Everyone knows that people are dying in Iraq, but to walk past this on the way to work every day is too much."

But Scott Cameron, a local man who was wounded in the Vietnam War, says his sign should remain. Mr. Cameron volunteers for a candidate for governor of Minnesota whose campaign opened a storefront office next door to the recruiting station, and he has permission to post the message he describes as "not antiwar, but pro-veteran."

"We're still taking casualties from Vietnam, years later," Mr. Cameron said recently. "Is the same thing going to happen again?" Despite the location, he insists that his purpose is not to prevent new recruits from signing up for the Army, but to honor those who made sacrifices. Still, Mr. Cameron also says, "Before they join the military, people better know what they're getting into."

Scott Cameron, a wounded Vietnam veteran, with his sign noting the numbers of Americans killed or wounded in Iraq.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/27/national/27duluth.html?hp

"Everyone knows that people are dying in Iraq, but to walk past this on the way to work every day is too much."

No, it most certainly is not too much.

It's not enough.

How dare they complain about the truth making them uncomfortable?

Just because the chicken hawks in Washington get to ignore the truth doesn't mean everybody else should have the same luxury.

Especially recruiters.

What if they had a war and nobody came?

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/S?pp/yan:@OR(@field(AUTHOR+@od1(Encore+Art+Prints,+copyright+claimant+))+@field(OTHER+@od1(Encore+Art+Prints,+copyright+claimant+)))

The link doesn't work though...do you have another one?

That is a link to a collection at the Library of Congress.

I couldn't figure out from there how one would go about getting
a high-quality print and permission to reprint it.

I have no idea how to find the original artist.

I did a search on Google but there are tons of images with that name.

I did find out it's part of the "Yanker Poster Collection".

It looks like the reason there's no reprints of it is because it's part of that collection.

A shame, really.

I would put that image on t-shirts, posters, everywhere it could be seen.

That's just how the Library came by a copy.

I read the artist as "Beshi", who also did some other antiwar posters in the 60's.

The poster also turned up at an exhibition called "Decade of Protest"
and was printed (very small) in a book that documented that exhibition.
That book is out-of-print, but the page containing the poster is in
the excerpt on Amazon.com.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0964642646/ref=sib_rdr_zmin/103-7517917-3715830?p=S003&j=1#reader-page

Go here: http://tinyurl.com/aamc7 and click on "How to obtain copies of this item". I haven't investigated further so I'm not sure about the size or resolution of what's available.

On eBay. A reprint from the original artist and copyright holder. Go here: http://tinyurl.com/du3a5
The auction ends in about a day and a half and I don't know if they'll be selling any others. Maybe we can convince the artist to sell reprints, t-shirts, etc. on someplace like cafe press.

I bid on the poster, and utilized the "contact the seller" feature to ask about doing another run of the posters.

You should mention that there would probably be a market at least here on DU. I would think that there would be a good market beyond DU also. If they were to use cafe press there would be no initial investment on their part and therefore no risk.

posters and other merchandise if the artist is willing to do another run.

If it had this much of an impact on us, I'm sure many other DUers would appreciate it as well.

I couldn't see the name on the mask until I saw the print on ebay.

It belonged to Mars.

IIRC "What if they gave a war and nobody came?" showed up on items with graphics other than this poster. I also have a black on yellow postage stamp sized sticker with the slogan and a daisy.

The point is, unless the artist somehow copyrighted the slogan along with the poster, you can create new graphics if you want.

OTOH, the old artwork still looks fresh -- and it is just as relevant today as it was all those years ago.

Thanks for bringing it to our attention -- and I'll be looking for the reprints!

Hekate

"Everyone knows that people are dying in Iraq, but to walk past this on the way to work every day is too much."

I can't imagine the mental gymnastics they must perform to make it ok to recruit young people to sign up for Iraq and beyond, especially since they themselves have pulled a tour. Recruiting even without the patholigical murderers in the WH isn't easy, and the recruiters that I have known always reminded me of used car salesmen. I can't even imagine the slick salesmanship that they must engage in now, I can't imagine they sleep too well at night.

Good for Mr. Cameron. Tough shit, recruiters - we still have some free speech!

I'm glad the Times picked it up.

I didn't even know this was going on. What do you think of Steve Kelly?
:pals:

they could get killed?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5693570

Great minds all around!:toast:

The day they stop lying to kids, they can get upset when someone tells the truth.

"Everyone knows that people are dying in Iraq, but to walk past this on the way to work every day is too much."


People are injured in the war every day, and others die nearly as often. You actively recruit men and women to potentially add their names to the list of wounded/dead, and you have a problem having this sign outside your office? What's the matter honey--the cognitive dissonance making your little head want to explode?

My, don't we have delicate sensibilities!! God forbid you should be disheartened by people dying, pal.

Good for this vet.

It really shows you how empty the Reich Wing "Support the troops" rhetoric really is.

Support the troops, honor the fallen, but for God's sake, don't humanize them! It makes people sad!

:eyes:

I don't want your cookies, but I will take some more fodder for the war- Recruiter mentality.

clip-
For now, the neighbors on Superior Street have agreed to disagree. An offering of cookies by Mr. Cameron was not accepted, Sergeant Capan said, but Sergeant Capan insisted that relations on the street remained polite nonetheless.

"We're going to move on," he said. "We're soldiers."

--
Freedom is on the march, now more out. :argh:

so that if he disappears or "commits suicide", we can know about it and raise HOLY HELL.

Then it hit me why you put quotes around the words...

:cry: :nuke:


What if they gave a war and no one came? A most excellent question.

"You know you could always quit your job as a recruiter and you won't ever have to see that sign."
The Professor

sent off to die for our "freedoms!" Poor people. How will they shop? Why poison their beautiful minds with thoughts of war casualties. Come on! How heartless can this guy be?

A-HOLES!! One of things our soldiers are supposedly fighting for in Iraq...:banghead: