Two Stories of GI Resistance

SunshineBurn

As a bit of an introduction, I was formerly an infantryman in the US military and fought hard for a conscientious objection discharge so stories of soldiers standing up to the machine hold a special place in my heart. Send these guys some Love please, its not easy to do what they are doing.

Two Stories of GI Resistance

Ryan Jackson hails from IVAW's Savannah, GA chapter. He joined the U.S. Army and served in South Korea until 2007. After reading the words of visionaries like Dr. Martin Luther King and Gandhi, Ryan decided he could no longer serve in good conscience. He Spent 100 days in a Charleston, SC brig after going AWOL for his beliefs. See Ryan tell his story here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwqIUE2aY_w

Marc Hall is a father serving on active duty at Ft. Stewart, GA. He's already completed 1 tour of duty in Iraq and is set to deploy again in another week. Marc's military contract ends this February, but he has been Stop-Lossed for his unit's up-coming deployment back to Iraq.

Marc is also a hip-hop artist and recently recorded an angry song entitled "Stop Loss" as an artistic outlet for his frustrations about his situation. He explains on his website, "I am a political artist. I rap about real issues in life in hopes to recover a solution."

You can listen to Marc's song by clicking here. (Be aware that the song contains explicit lyrics.)
http://marcwatercus.com/sitebuildercont ... oploss.mp3

News of the song reached Marc's chain of command at Ft. Stewart which claims that the song's lyrics amount to the "communication of a threat."

The Army placed Marc in jail last Friday charging him with an Article 134. We believe that Marc's right to freedom of speech is being violated. IVAW Field Organizer, Jason Hurd, has been in contact with Marc including phone and in-person visits to get more details of his story.

Here's how you can help Marc today:

Call the jail at 912-876-6411 to demand an end to his illegal confinement.

Send letters of protest to: CPT Cross, Commander, B 2-7 INF BN, Fort Stewart, GA 31314.

Byrnzie

Have you seen the movie/documentary 'Sir! No Sir!'? If not, then I think you'll like it.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 4418913071

Interview with the director: http://www.ironweedfilms.com/films/sirnosir

Torrent: http://btjunkie.org/torrent/Sir-No-Sir- ... ba79e9fc4d






http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir!_No_Sir!

'Sir! No Sir! is a 2005 Displaced Films/BBC documentary film about the anti-war movement within the ranks of the United States Military during the Vietnam War. It is subtitled "the suppressed story of the GI movement to end the war in Vietnam." It was completed in 2005 and won the audience award at the Los Angeles Film Festival and the Golden Starfish Award for best documentary in 2005. The film is also a part of the Iraq Media Action Project film collection.

The film was produced, directed, and written by David Zeiger. It consists in part of interviews with Vietnam veterans explaining the reasons they protested the war or even defected.

The film tells the story of how, from the very start of the war, such as with the Green Berets, there was resentment within the ranks over the difference between the conflict in Vietnam and (as Jane Fonda and others state in the film) the "good wars" that their fathers had fought. In the beginning some servicemen simply left the military as individuals; according to Pentagon figures, between 1966 and 1971 there were over 500,000 incidents of desertion in the U.S. military.[1] Over time, however, it became apparent that so many were opposed to the war that they could speak of a movement. Howard Levy noticed this when he stopped training soldiers and got a lot of support from fellow soldiers. Protest newspapers started to be printed. This resulted in a severe crackdown by the Army, sending people to prison for years. The organiser of one protest newspaper was sent to prison for ten years for the alleged possession of marijuana.

Another cause for discontent was that a large number of the soldiers sent to the front were black and at the time a black movement was rising. One notion was that blacks should only fight against black oppression and that was not going on in Vietnam, so blacks should not go there. This resulted in one revolt, at the Long Binh Jail in South Vietnam in August 1968, in which one white soldier was killed.[2]

The movement eventually made the U.S. Army almost unoperable. In response to this, U.S. president Richard Nixon decided to "Vietnamise" the war, leaving the ground fighting to South Vietnamese troops and limiting U.S. involvement to bombardments. As a result, the presence of U.S. soldiers at the border was denied, leaving these soldiers to fend for themselves. When six of these soldiers were ordered to go on what was effectively a suicide mission, they refused and instead decided to send a message to the home front. Nixon responded to this by pulling that company out, but then other companies started to stop fighting as well. Some officers were killed by their own men. Because this was often done with fragmentation grenades, it became known as fragging.

When, during one offensive, more bombs were dropped on Vietnam than were used during the whole of World War II (by both sides), the Navy also started to protest. A ballot was cast on the aircraft carrier Constellation, in which the crew decided not to go to Vietnam

SunshineBurn

Yes, that was an amazing film. If you enjoyed that, you may also be interested in the Winter Soldier testimonials. There first was done from veterans in the Vietnam era, and the second was recently finished by Iraq and Afghanistan veterans.

You can find the testimonies here www.ivaw.org
and here www.thisiswherewetakeourstand.com

Thank you for the recommendation though, I know there are a lot of powerful stories of resistance contained within that documentary

Byrnzie

SunshineBurn wrote:

Yes, that was an amazing film. If you enjoyed that, you may also be interested in the Winter Soldier testimonials. There first was done from veterans in the Vietnam era, and the second was recently finished by Iraq and Afghanistan veterans.

You can find the testimonies here http://www.ivaw.org
and here http://www.thisiswherewetakeourstand.com

Thank you for the recommendation though, I know there are a lot of powerful stories of resistance contained within that documentary

Yeah, I've seen Winter Soldier - good stuff. One scene that sticks in my memory from that footage is the black dude who say's his piece. It's beautiful -real poetry. I don't know what you call that black language of the street but it's fucking wonderful - he bangs it down hard. It's some kind of ghetto language/rhythm which just hits all the right notes. The language of the Black Panthers e.t.c - I love it.

If you watch the documentary 'Heart And Minds' you'll see a black dude lay it down the same way - he spins a verbal web around his listeners and leaves them all dumbfounded - beautiful stuff!

SunshineBurn

Yah, the Panthers were a powerful group of revolutionaries. I actually worked for The People's Law Office in Chicago (though I was only copying papers and other grunt work). They were the law office that took on the case of Fred Hampton, the local Chi-town leader who was murdered by the FBI while sleeping in his bed.

OffHeGoes29

These ass holes crack me up…..the last time I checked…there isn’t a draft. Don’t join the military if you don’t agree with it….and don’t use the “my recruiter lied to me” speech….if you’re not smart enough to know what you’re getting yourself into…then I have zero sympathy. It is the military….why it a surprise when they go to war? People like this usually use this as an excuse to get out of a deployment or some other disciplinary issues the public doesn’t know about.

WaveCameCrashin

OffHeGoes29 wrote:

These ass holes crack me up…..the last time I checked…there isn’t a draft. Don’t join the military if you don’t agree with it….and don’t use the “my recruiter lied to me” speech….if you’re not smart enough to know what you’re getting yourself into…then I have zero sympathy. It is the military….why it a surprise when they go to war? People like this usually use this as an excuse to get out of a deployment or some other disciplinary issues the public doesn’t know about.

brandon10

OffHeGoes29 wrote:

These ass holes crack me up…..the last time I checked…there isn’t a draft. Don’t join the military if you don’t agree with it….and don’t use the “my recruiter lied to me” speech….if you’re not smart enough to know what you’re getting yourself into…then I have zero sympathy. It is the military….why it a surprise when they go to war? People like this usually use this as an excuse to get out of a deployment or some other disciplinary issues the public doesn’t know about.

I can't believe that someone could actually be this stupid.

So because there is no draft, if the army tells you to kill and rape women and children...well that's just too bad. So if the govt tells the army lets attack Texas next then all the soldiers should just obey orders??? These soldiers have been on the front lines and know that these people aren't our enemies. That we are only creating more enemies by killing women and children.

fucking moron

brandon10

prfctlefts wrote:

OffHeGoes29 wrote:

These ass holes crack me up…..the last time I checked…there isn’t a draft. Don’t join the military if you don’t agree with it….and don’t use the “my recruiter lied to me” speech….if you’re not smart enough to know what you’re getting yourself into…then I have zero sympathy. It is the military….why it a surprise when they go to war? People like this usually use this as an excuse to get out of a deployment or some other disciplinary issues the public doesn’t know about.

Idiots like you two are a dying breed.............good riddance.

OffHeGoes29

brandon10 wrote:

prfctlefts wrote:

OffHeGoes29 wrote:

These ass holes crack me up…..the last time I checked…there isn’t a draft. Don’t join the military if you don’t agree with it….and don’t use the “my recruiter lied to me” speech….if you’re not smart enough to know what you’re getting yourself into…then I have zero sympathy. It is the military….why it a surprise when they go to war? People like this usually use this as an excuse to get out of a deployment or some other disciplinary issues the public doesn’t know about.

Idiots like you two are a dying breed.............good riddance.

Wow, thats a lot of hate.

Thats ok, I still think you're a good person on the inside....you're forgiven.

Byrnzie

brandon10 wrote:

OffHeGoes29 wrote:

These ass holes crack me up…..the last time I checked…there isn’t a draft. Don’t join the military if you don’t agree with it….and don’t use the “my recruiter lied to me” speech….if you’re not smart enough to know what you’re getting yourself into…then I have zero sympathy. It is the military….why it a surprise when they go to war? People like this usually use this as an excuse to get out of a deployment or some other disciplinary issues the public doesn’t know about.

I can't believe that someone could actually be this stupid.

So because there is no draft, if the army tells you to kill and rape women and children...well that's just too bad. So if the govt tells the army lets attack Texas next then all the soldiers should just obey orders??? These soldiers have been on the front lines and know that these people aren't our enemies. That we are only creating more enemies by killing women and children.

fucking moron

+1

Byrnzie

OffHeGoes29 wrote:

These ass holes crack me up…..the last time I checked…there isn’t a draft. Don’t join the military if you don’t agree with it….and don’t use the “my recruiter lied to me” speech….if you’re not smart enough to know what you’re getting yourself into…then I have zero sympathy. It is the military….why it a surprise when they go to war? People like this usually use this as an excuse to get out of a deployment or some other disciplinary issues the public doesn’t know about.

Maybe some people enlist because they want to defend their country? Invading and destroying Iraq had nothing to do with defending America, therefore these people felt it right to withdraw their services. Vietnam was also a bullshit war that had nothing to do with protecting Americans.

OffHeGoes29

Byrnzie wrote:

brandon10 wrote:

OffHeGoes29 wrote:

These ass holes crack me up…..the last time I checked…there isn’t a draft. Don’t join the military if you don’t agree with it….and don’t use the “my recruiter lied to me” speech….if you’re not smart enough to know what you’re getting yourself into…then I have zero sympathy. It is the military….why it a surprise when they go to war? People like this usually use this as an excuse to get out of a deployment or some other disciplinary issues the public doesn’t know about.

I can't believe that someone could actually be this stupid.

So because there is no draft, if the army tells you to kill and rape women and children...well that's just too bad. So if the govt tells the army lets attack Texas next then all the soldiers should just obey orders??? These soldiers have been on the front lines and know that these people aren't our enemies. That we are only creating more enemies by killing women and children.

fucking moron

+1

I love you too.

OffHeGoes29

Byrnzie wrote:

OffHeGoes29 wrote:

These ass holes crack me up…..the last time I checked…there isn’t a draft. Don’t join the military if you don’t agree with it….and don’t use the “my recruiter lied to me” speech….if you’re not smart enough to know what you’re getting yourself into…then I have zero sympathy. It is the military….why it a surprise when they go to war? People like this usually use this as an excuse to get out of a deployment or some other disciplinary issues the public doesn’t know about.

Maybe some people enlist because they want to defend their country? Invading and destroying Iraq had nothing to do with defending America, therefore these people felt it right to withdraw their services. Vietnam was also a bullshit war that had nothing to do with protecting Americans.

Was that what it was like when you were in the military?

TriumphantAngel

OffHeGoes29 wrote:

Byrnzie wrote:

OffHeGoes29 wrote:

These ass holes crack me up…..the last time I checked…there isn’t a draft. Don’t join the military if you don’t agree with it….and don’t use the “my recruiter lied to me” speech….if you’re not smart enough to know what you’re getting yourself into…then I have zero sympathy. It is the military….why it a surprise when they go to war? People like this usually use this as an excuse to get out of a deployment or some other disciplinary issues the public doesn’t know about.

Maybe some people enlist because they want to defend their country? Invading and destroying Iraq had nothing to do with defending America, therefore these people felt it right to withdraw their services. Vietnam was also a bullshit war that had nothing to do with protecting Americans.

Was that what it was like when you were in the military?

you don't have to have been in the military. all you have to do is listen to some of the people who have been there. there are people who are completely destroyed because they figured out it was a bullshit war and they were lied to. and don't forget there's plenty of peoples lives who have been forever changed by knowing someone that has been there, and having to cope with the grief and pain they go through when they come home. if they come home.

byrnzies right.

fuck

http://www.amazon.com/Collateral-Damage ... 066&sr=8-1

WaveCameCrashin

Byrnzie wrote:

OffHeGoes29 wrote:

These ass holes crack me up…..the last time I checked…there isn’t a draft. Don’t join the military if you don’t agree with it….and don’t use the “my recruiter lied to me” speech….if you’re not smart enough to know what you’re getting yourself into…then I have zero sympathy. It is the military….why it a surprise when they go to war? People like this usually use this as an excuse to get out of a deployment or some other disciplinary issues the public doesn’t know about.

Maybe some people enlist because they want to defend their country? Invading and destroying Iraq had nothing to do with defending America, therefore these people felt it right to withdraw their services. Vietnam was also a bullshit war that had nothing to do with protecting Americans.

Let me ask you this then. what about all the Iraqis that are happy we got rid of Saddam. What about all the Innocet people that Saddam tortured and murdered ? We went there to remove Saddam from power and help them to build a new GOV. We aren't the suicide bombers that go into markets and blow up innocent civilians. How come every person that is enlisted right now doesn't feel this way ? Why do we still have young Men and women signing up.What about all the schools and hospitals that we have rebuilt because some suni or shiite blew it up ? What about all the road side bombs that have maimed thousands of soldiers ? We have done a lot of good over there more than you will ever know or care to know because you only care to see the negative in anything America has ever done.

Byrnzie

OffHeGoes29 wrote:

Byrnzie wrote:

OffHeGoes29 wrote:

These ass holes crack me up…..the last time I checked…there isn’t a draft. Don’t join the military if you don’t agree with it….and don’t use the “my recruiter lied to me” speech….if you’re not smart enough to know what you’re getting yourself into…then I have zero sympathy. It is the military….why it a surprise when they go to war? People like this usually use this as an excuse to get out of a deployment or some other disciplinary issues the public doesn’t know about.

Maybe some people enlist because they want to defend their country? Invading and destroying Iraq had nothing to do with defending America, therefore these people felt it right to withdraw their services. Vietnam was also a bullshit war that had nothing to do with protecting Americans.

Was that what it was like when you were in the military?

You don't need to have been in the military to have a brain.

Byrnzie

prfctlefts wrote:

Let me ask you this then. what about all the Iraqis that are happy we got rid of Saddam. What about all the Innocet people that Saddam tortured and murdered ? We went there to remove Saddam from power and help them to build a new GOV. We aren't the suicide bombers that go into markets and blow up innocent civilians. How come every person that is enlisted right now doesn't feel this way ? Why do we still have young Men and women signing up.What about all the schools and hospitals that we have rebuilt because some suni or shiite blew it up ? What about all the road side bombs that have maimed thousands of soldiers ? We have done a lot of good over there more than you will ever know or care to know because you only care to see the negative in anything America has ever done.

Iraq has been destroyed with over 1 million dead. Don't try to paint it as any kind of victory. You wrecked that fucking country and now you try to brush off the effects by blaming the Iraqi's themselves. Balls to that. Bush et al should all be sent to the Hague with their criminal buddies in Israel.

gimmesometruth27

prfctlefts wrote:

Byrnzie wrote:

OffHeGoes29 wrote:

These ass holes crack me up…..the last time I checked…there isn’t a draft. Don’t join the military if you don’t agree with it….and don’t use the “my recruiter lied to me” speech….if you’re not smart enough to know what you’re getting yourself into…then I have zero sympathy. It is the military….why it a surprise when they go to war? People like this usually use this as an excuse to get out of a deployment or some other disciplinary issues the public doesn’t know about.

Maybe some people enlist because they want to defend their country? Invading and destroying Iraq had nothing to do with defending America, therefore these people felt it right to withdraw their services. Vietnam was also a bullshit war that had nothing to do with protecting Americans.

Let me ask you this then. what about all the Iraqis that are happy we got rid of Saddam. What about all the Innocet people that Saddam tortured and murdered ? We went there to remove Saddam from power and help them to build a new GOV. We aren't the suicide bombers that go into markets and blow up innocent civilians. How come every person that is enlisted right now doesn't feel this way ? Why do we still have young Men and women signing up.What about all the schools and hospitals that we have rebuilt because some suni or shiite blew it up ? What about all the road side bombs that have maimed thousands of soldiers ? We have done a lot of good over there more than you will ever know or care to know because you only care to see the negative in anything America has ever done.

let's get one thing straight. we know that you never cared about any iraqi citizin, as far as you are concerned they all want democracy, which is an unknowable conclusion. most articles i have read say they were happier under saddam because saddam kept all of the warlords that are now running rampant in some sort of check..we have done alot of good over there....first we destroy the place then we rebuild it....sounds like a lot of good to me...last i heard the average iraqi now has electricity for an average of 7 hours a day, and they are just now getting access to clean water.....real good...

gimmesometruth27

Byrnzie wrote:

prfctlefts wrote:

Let me ask you this then. what about all the Iraqis that are happy we got rid of Saddam. What about all the Innocet people that Saddam tortured and murdered ? We went there to remove Saddam from power and help them to build a new GOV. We aren't the suicide bombers that go into markets and blow up innocent civilians. How come every person that is enlisted right now doesn't feel this way ? Why do we still have young Men and women signing up.What about all the schools and hospitals that we have rebuilt because some suni or shiite blew it up ? What about all the road side bombs that have maimed thousands of soldiers ? We have done a lot of good over there more than you will ever know or care to know because you only care to see the negative in anything America has ever done.

Iraq has been destroyed with over 1 million dead. Don't try to paint it as any kind of victory. You wrecked that fucking country and now you try to brush off the effects by blaming the Iraqi's themselves. Balls to that. Bush et al should all be sent to the Hague with their criminal buddies in Israel.

+1

completely agreed here...