The Few. The Proud. The Disillusioned.

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/04/07/364/

The Few. The Proud. The Disillusioned.
Some active duty troops, while proud to serve, are speaking out and signing a petition against the war
by Joe Garofoli

Mike Ergo is a 23-year-old honorably discharged Marine who fought in Fallujah. A tattoo on the inside of his left forearm depicts the first insurgent he killed in Iraq. A tattoo on his right arm reads: “Born to Fight.” He loves the Marines, is proud of what he and his colleagues did overseas and is on inactive ready reserve through July 2009.0407 02Yet a few weeks ago, the Walnut Creek native marched near the front of the anti-war demonstration that rolled through San Francisco. Yeah, he said, it felt odd to march among the 9/11 conspiracy theorists and socialists. Still, Ergo said he’d march again to underscore his opposition to U.S. foreign policy in Iraq and would try to bring more than the handful of Iraq War veterans who demonstrated with him last month.

But Ergo knows that the number of soldiers who publicly oppose the war is likely to remain small for now. A chief reason: Unlike the men drafted into military service during the Vietnam War, those fighting in Iraq are volunteers and feel obligated to be patriotic defenders of post-9/11 soil.

Yet a few signs of dissent are appearing in the military aside from conscientious objectors and newly realized pacificists. Last month, a career chief master sergeant in the Air Force wrote an opinion piece in the military newspaper Stars and Stripes opposing the war, and a busload of retired veterans and civilian activists toured military bases in the South, hoping to coax more support from active duty soldiers. Over the past month, more than 1,700 soldiers have signed an online Appeal for Redress — www.appealforredress.org — a legally sanctioned way for members of the military to oppose the war.

A couple of underground publications like GI Special at www.militaryproject.org, have sprung up online, and supportive troops have clandestinely dropped hard copies inside military barracks.

Last week, retired Marine Corps Lt. Col. Andrew Horne, who served in the Persian Gulf two years ago, rebutted President Bush’s weekly radio address.

Said Horne: “The commander-in-chief has failed to properly lead the troops, and previous Congresses didn’t ask the tough questions or demand accountability. The result is the mess we are in today.”

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Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind...War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today.


-- John F. Kennedy

by a team of Germans, posing as Russians working for the Gehlen organization.

The Nazi Connection to the John F. Kennedy Assassination

http://www.maebrussell.com/Mae%20Brussell%20Articles/Nazi%20Connection%20to%20JFK%20Assass.html">Link



General Reinhard Gehlen, shown (center) in a rare photograph taken during WWII.