Veteran Learns of Militarism, Joins the 99%

from Joanie Connors via Dwayne Knox

Thursday, December 1, 2011

VETERANS UNPLUGGED: A HOOSIER ANTI-WAR ACTIVIST CONNECTS RETURNING

VETERANS TO THE 99%

Harry Targ

“I grew up in Chicago and Northwest Indiana. Working-class family,

father was a Union Ironworker…mother was a stay at home Mom.” Vince

Emanuele joined the Marines after graduating from high school. “I came

out of boot camp a hard chargin’ Devil Dog.” He served in the Marines

from 2003 until 2005 stationed in California, Kuwait, and Iraq. His

eight month deployment in Iraq involved him in street patrols, looking

for snipers and land mines “…along with shooting at innocent

civilians, destroying their property and beating up prisoners….”

While in Iraq the fascination with war that he had acquired as a kid

playing video games dissipated. His father sent him reading

material--Noam Chomsky, Gore Vidal, Hunter Thompson, the Nation--and

he and friends began to reflect on what they were doing in Iraq. He

came to the view that the war was “illegal, immoral, unjustified, and

unneeded.” He was not spreading “democracy” or “peace” and the U.S.

war effort was not winning the “hearts and minds” of the Iraqi people.

After returning to the U.S., Emanuele joined Iraq Veterans Against the

War, has been organizing vets in Indiana and Illinois, created a

weekly radio show called “Veterans Unplugged” which is available

on-line, and has become a prominent activist for social, economic, and

political justice in the heartland of America while finishing an

undergraduate political science degree.

Emanuele recently spoke on a panel organized by the Lafayette Area

Peace Coalition. He elaborated on the current plight of veterans,

particularly veterans who served in the two longest wars in U.S.

history, Afghanistan and Iraq. While acknowledging that the current

military force has chosen to enlist in regular army or reserve units,

the 21st century enticement to serve is really an “economic draft.”

With declining incomes, wages, job opportunities, and rising

educational costs, more and more men and women, he said, have seen

military service as the only escape from lives of economic

marginalization.

He spoke of the culture of militarization to which every new recruit

was exposed: a process of dehumanization; the spread of racism,

particularly targeting stereotypes of Muslims; sexism; and homophobia.

In reality the military experience of young people, Emanuele said,

involves placing raw, uneducated, teenagers in a war zone, with

weapons and a license to kill. The victims of the actions of these raw

recruits, schooled in video games and super-patriotism, were the

millions of Iraqi and Afghan citizens who most fervently wanted the

young foreigners off their land.

Emanuele presented some figures on the impacts of military service on

returning veterans. (According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics in

2010 there were 20.2 million men and 1.8 million women who had served

in the military). In 2011, Emanuele reported;

-Rates of unemployment of returning veterans from Afghanistan and Iraq

are higher than in the non-veteran population, both men and women

-African-American vets experience double the unemployment rate of white vets

-80,000 returning veterans are currently homeless (56 % of homeless

vets are African American or Latinos)

-20% to 50% of 21st century returning veterans suffer some form of

Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (an estimated 350,000 to 1 million

vets)

-1,000 returning vets attempt suicide each month

Emanuele, connected the plight of returning veterans to the

military/industrial/complex and imperial wars. As a member of Iraq

Veterans Against the War, he highlighted the long tradition of

soldiers resisting participation in unjust wars. He referred to

patterns of resistance to war running throughout U.S. history:

-In 1781 the Pennsylvania militia mutinied against war profiteers and

for food

-Between the 1870s and the 1890s, National Guard soldiers often

refused to fire on striking workers

-In 1919 unknown numbers of U.S. soldiers refused orders to go fight

against the Bolsheviks who had come to power in Russia

-Thousands of World War I veterans, known as the Bonus Army, assembled

in Washington D.C. in 1932 to demand back pay due them from their

active duty experience.

--From 1964-75 a massive GI anti-Vietnam war resistance movement

emerged with over 300 GI anti-war newspapers produced, 10 % of all

Vietnam era soldiers going AWOL or deserting, and a broad array of

other forms of anti-war resistance, and opposition to military

recruiting.

Emanuele stressed the commonality of experience and vision that is

shared by most veterans with the Occupy Movement. He suggested that

peace and justice activists must understand that returning veterans

are a vital part of the 99% movement committed to radically

restructure American society. He argued that the 99%, including vets,

must see the vital connections between the global capitalist system,

the military/industrial complex and the pain and suffering that have

generated war and economic insecurity in the twenty-first century.

Emanuele ended his talk with reference to the frank admission of

General Smedley Butler who oversaw the effort to crush the army of

Augusto Sandino in Nicaragua in the early 1930s. Butler admitted that

he, as a Marine General, had served as an instrumentality of Wall

Street, putting down popular rebellions in the service of profit.

To learn more about Vince Emanuele and his weekly radio show check out

http://www.veteransunplugged.com/

To learn more about Iraq Veterans Against the War see http://ivaw.org/

See my blog at http://www.heartlandradical.blogspot.com/

-----

The PJSA is a non-profit organization that was formed in 2001 as a

result of a merger of the Consortium on Peace Research, Education and

Development (COPRED) and the Peace Studies Association (PSA). Both

organizations provided leadership in the broadly defined fields of

peace, conflict and justice studies.

We are dedicated to bringing together academics, K-12 teachers and

grassroots activists to explore alternatives to violence, and share

visions and strategies for social justice and social change. PJSA also

serves as a professional association for scholars in the fields of

peace and conflict resolution studies.

For more information please visit our website at:

http://www.peacejusticestudies.org.