World Can’t Wait began sending veterans of Afghanistan and Iraq into classrooms in 2007, as GW Bush, and then Obama, claimed the wars on Iraq and Afghanistan were being won. Not “won” and not over, as we know now. The Trump/Pence Regime has roared in with MAGA, pushing its plan to “win” in Afghanistan: sending more troops, having dropped the biggest bomb ever – MOAB – and threatening Pakistan, as well, of course, as several other countries. Looking at the whole picture: Trump’s explicit threats of the use of nuclear weapons, direction to take the restraints off commanders in the field and keeping Guantanamo open heighten the danger that students in school now will be sent to commit war crimes.
I hope you’ll join in helping to get We Are Not Your Soldiers veterans in front of students, who are targeted to be the force bringing war on the world.
Your donations help provide stipends to vets who volunteer for this project:
Spring 2018 Plans – We Are Not Your Soldiers Project
The new semester has started for high schools and colleges – and that means it is time for We Are Not Your Soldiers to start scheduling its rounds of class visits. As the Trump/Pence Regime envisions and plans for even more militaristic engagements in the countries the US is already attacking and expanding those wars to additional countries, including sending in more ground troops and, at the same time, increasing drone warfare, it is more important than ever to go in to speak to students who are largely unaware of what’s happening internationally.
Take a look at four of our speakers and think of inviting them to your high school or college if you are a student or an educator. If you don’t fall into either of those categories, then perhaps you’re a parent or a neighbor or a friend or a relative of a student or educator. Or, maybe you live near an educational institution. Do your best to get us invited to come in to speak.
John Burns and Lyle Rubin visited two colleges and five high schools this fall in NYC. Usually, we spent the entire day going from class to class. In one school, a few classes came together for the discussion. Here are their reasons for sharing their stories through the We Are Not Your Soldiers project.
John Burns, veteran, U.S. Army:
I do the We Are Not Your Soldiers visits because I feel it’s important for students and young adults to have information to make well-informed decisions. The fact that these kids are usually exposed to only one side of the story with countless movies and media glorifying war in general is an extreme disservice to the people of the United States. Given that I use these speaking tours as my own therapy should say a lot about how much the military affects you. I want to say on record that I do not hate our military. I hate what our military is being used for. I love my country and that’s coming from a Haudenosaunee Native American whose own ancestors were slaughtered by the very institution I enlisted in.
Lye Rubin, veteran, U.S. Marines:
I do the We Are Not Your Soldiers school visits because I believe I am obligated to do something like this as someone who took part in wars that I now believe are unjust. I really do believe that the kinds of classes or sessions that I am involved with in these schools makes an impact on these students. It might not convince them immediately to agree with me on everything I am saying but I really do believe I am planting a seed of doubt in most of their minds. What we need now in our society, more than anything else, is for the people in the United States, particularly our young people, to start seriously questioning the politics and policies of our government as well as all powerful corporate institutions.
Miles Megaciph not only speaks to the students of his experiences in the US Marines but, as a spoken word artist, raps about it in via a hiphop approach.
Joe Urgo, a veteran who was in the US Air Force in Vietnam, speaks to classes that are studying the US war on Vietnam or doing a comparative study of current US wars with past wars in Southeast Asia. He recently wrote this article on the 50th anniversary of Tet during the historic year of 1968 and the Winter Soldier Investigation, which he helped organize, which informed the public in the US of much of which that public was unaware.