This report was written by a Diablo Valley College student who helped bring the “We Are Not Your Soldiers” tour to the University of California at Davis campus. It has been slightly edited.
The “We are Not Your Soldier Tour” made its way to UC Davis on February 27th, 2009. This was the day in which Oscar Grant would have celebrated his 23rd birthday. Of course, the Oscar Grant tragedy is only one of countless examples of how the ruling class and their policies, deliberately and carelessly, ruin the lives of people worldwide in order to fulfill their own selfish agenda. This parasitic nature is precisely one reason why this tour goes to high schools and colleges nationwide, to prevent more lives from becoming victims of the seemingly inexorable military industrial complex.
At the presentation about 25 students attended and participated in the discussion that ensued 
afterwards. Rafael from World Can’t Wait in the Bay Area covered various issues stretching from Barack Obama’s broken promises, military recruiter tactics, Iraq war statistics, war profiteers, Afghanistan, widespread use of depleted uranium (U-238), veterans being denied healthcare, and in general, what is the ROTC really recruiting for? We showed two videos: one of the Winter Soldier hearings with Jon Turner, and the other with the Berkeley high school students protesting the Marine recruiting station that is exploiting the disadvantaged in their community.
afterwards. Rafael from World Can’t Wait in the Bay Area covered various issues stretching from Barack Obama’s broken promises, military recruiter tactics, Iraq war statistics, war profiteers, Afghanistan, widespread use of depleted uranium (U-238), veterans being denied healthcare, and in general, what is the ROTC really recruiting for? We showed two videos: one of the Winter Soldier hearings with Jon Turner, and the other with the Berkeley high school students protesting the Marine recruiting station that is exploiting the disadvantaged in their community. Many of the students were very conscious about the state of affairs and were concerned about the oppressed peoples of the world, but were frighteningly unaware of some basic facts and controversies surrounding the “War of Terror” and the Iraq war in particular. For example, no person in the audience was aware that over one million Iraqi civilians have been killed during the U.S occupation. One person in the audience made a guess that the estimated civilian death rate in Iraq was at 650,000 (a statistic from a Johns Hopkins study done a couple of years ago).
No one raised their hand when asked whether or not they heard of the Winter Soldier testimonials. There were only two people who could identify what Blackwater was, which stunned me. Especially because as I witnessed in the discussion afterwards, these students have great abilities to critically think about the issues, great capacities for knowledge, and great potential for success, and still, many of the students did not know some of the key facts regarding the occupations. It just makes me wonder that if bright, compassionate people don’t have the full story, then what is the general public’s understanding of these serious issues?
As I mentioned earlier, the discussion was both insightful and productive for the students. They were able to identify the problems of this system, the problems with mainstream America, and the flaws of the anti-war movement. As one student added “American people just don’t care about what doesn’t affect them.” One person mentioned how Barack Obama is being used to sell the war to minorities for recruitment purposes. One young lady though was still supportive of Barack Obama despite the fact that she acknowledged that he was running an empire saying, “Obama has to appeal to everyone and can’t do exactly what we want him to do”. Another student commented on that point of view stating, “bombing to please people” is not justified under any circumstance. I was amazed when one student was telling everyone about how recruiters went as far as offering him marijuana if he enlisted. Overall, everyone who participated in the discussion had their own educated ideas that were worth noting and bringing to the table.
Critical analysis: comments on what the students had to say.
As the students brought forth their opinions, I began to really focus on the problems that face the activist community. We have a larger percentage of the population against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan than the percentage of people who were against the Vietnam War, but the anti-war movement does not nearly have 10% of the momentum that the anti-war movement did in the 1960’s. What is causing this pathetic complacency, is it Barack Obama’s presidency, laziness, consumerism, or media? All I can say is this; one of the biggest root causes of our social problems is individualism. As one student said, people don’t think that they can make a difference. This, “What can I do, I’m only one person” is the mentality of many involved in the anti-war movement. This is because people have been conditioned to not become empowered by their passionate concerns and to believe that an astronomically large problem can only be confronted first with an equally astronomical solution. This is true in the long term, but the first step of a thousand mile journey is often the greatest. Though we find power in numbers we only find true courage within ourselves. Without courage, numbers mean nothing. Without effective leadership, solidarity, and self-empowerment, a movement will become nothing but a petty discussion group.
"We are not your soldier" not only wants students to not join the military, but "we are not your soldier" wants students to get involved in the anti-war movement and help drive out military recruiters. This tour has a long ways to go before transforming into a national movement, but if the tour persists, has strong leadership, and improves step by step, school after school, it will succeed with its objectives. I hope that at least if we did not motivate people to become active, that we planted some seeds of knowledge so that their concern will blossom into an unstoppable force when the time is right. That time is coming sooner than we think.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcScqQXwhAI