Cocktailhag, the blog » media

What will a war protest really accomplish?

rmp — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 17:43:53 +0000

(CORRECTION: The song by Dave Martin that was written the night before the rally was one called ‘We Mourn.’ Dave wrote ‘Speak Out Truth to Power’ in March of 2003, the weekend after the US began bombing Iraq.)

On a sunny day in May of 2007, after having been recruited to become a precinct committeeman, I attended an Anti-War Rally for a county protest group, DAWN (DuPage Against War Now) at an outdoor pavilion in Bloomingdale IL. Yesterday I returned to that same pavilion for one more protest against the Afghanistan War. I gave a four-minute talk, which ondelette helped me prepare, on the complexities of Pakistan and Afghanistan and how our government War Hawks want simplistic answers while refusing to learn about the culture, history, and critical needs of the land they want to invade which only leads to death and destruction instead of winning hearts and minds and helping struggling people live better lives.

It also means our military and their families give their bodies and lives to gross arrogance and inhumanity so our political leaders can be reelected and corporate communism can increase its power over the people. In the case of both Iraq and Afghanistan, we didn’t even have a military strategy or exit strategy. Our war lovers now pound our president because he wants to pause and rethink Afghanistan. So, once again the more sane among us gather to protest this gross indecency while the media virtually ignores our pleas.

The local Daily Herald reporter who did cover the event ignored all my words in his brief story even though I gave him a copy of my remarks and instead only used one quote from me in answer to a question that he asked after getting my name, “What will an event like this really accomplish?” I found the answer to that question which was far better than my answer in the words to a song written one day before our protest by local folk musician Dave Martin who debuted it for us:

SPEAK OUT TRUTH TO POWER

Chorus: Speak out truth to power, gather friends around you. Speak out truth to power, don’t let silence seize the day.

I found it in the hearts of other speakers and protesters, especially Kathy Kelly’s who has been nominated three times for the Nobel Peace Prize. That’s her picture you saw in the Daily Herald link. She co-coordinates Voices for Creative Nonviolence, (www.vcnv.org) a campaign to end U.S. military and economic warfare. As a co-founder of Voices in the Wilderness, she helped form 70 delegations, from 1996 – 2003, that openly defied economic sanctions by bringing medicines to children and families in Iraq. Kathy and her companions lived in Baghdad throughout the 2003 “Shock and Awe” bombing. More recently, she has visited Gaza and Pakistan, writing eyewitness accounts of war’s impact on civilians. She was sentenced to one year in federal prison for planting corn on nuclear missile silo sites (1988-89) and served three months, in 2004, for crossing the line at Fort Benning’s military training school.

She talks about the horrors she has seen with an almost constant, beautiful smile on her face. I had a chance to chat with her on our walk with the flag-draped photo caskets over to Republican congressman Peter Roskams office who we knew on a Sunday, or any other day for that matter, would not welcome our presence. We went to that location because it is on a busy main street and we could listen to the honks for peace. In May of 2007, we did the same thing without caskets and the number of war supporters yelling at us outnumbered the horns we heard. Sunday, the horns were high in numbers and only one car’s occupants yelled “kill” at us.

Kathy smiles because of the friends around her and because she firmly believes peace can be found every time she awakes to a new day. She absolutely refuses to let the War Hawks and idiots get her down. She told me about her recent visit to Gaza and how vicious the Israeli attack was and how desperate the people are still today for meaningful help. When undergoing Shock and Awe in Baghdad, she remembers how confused our Marines were when they watched Iraqi Sunnis raid a building removing weapons until one member of her group decided to tell a Marine what was happening before their eyes and that he might want to stop it.

Another smiling heart that touched me was an immigrant from Pakistan and his ten-year-old son. I never asked his name. I did learn he was an engineer and had returned to Pakistan several times. He kept telling about the extreme corruption that controlled his country with an iron fist. What counted was who you knew, not who you were or how much knowledge and humanity or logic you possessed. Saying the wrong thing to the corrupt police or Army could put in you jail or worse. He said if you knew the “right” people and were entering the country you didn’t need any entry visa or maybe even passport and you could go anywhere you wanted with impunity.

He said that from the time in 1956, when the military took over his country, they had two goals, money and power. The military leaders lived in huge mansions and Musharraf even had mansions outside of Pakistan. Then he praised America because here merit counted more than who you knew. He could work hard and succeed in building a better life for his family. He brought his son to the protest so that he could be among the best of America’s citizens.

We talked about video games and violence and how he insisted his son play games like “Sim World” instead of the vicious killing games. His son then proceeded to do the machine gun killing moves that his father could not keep him from seeing or playing with fellow students. I told him my son believed the only choice for children to understand that this video violence was not real violence but just pretend violence, was to keep explaining the difference. I asked the Pakistani’s son what he thought of “Sim World” and what he learned from it. He said he was tired of that game and wanted his father to buy some new roller coaster game. “It’s like “Sim World,” because you have to decide how to use your money best or you will run out.”

I decided to tell the son in front of the father something that he no doubt intrinsically knew, but no one may have said to him. “You are very lucky because you have this man as your father. Probably also your mother, but I don’t know her. It may take you until later in life to fully realize how lucky you are. Trust me, many people in this world, don’t have a father that is such a fine person as this.” I then shook the father’s hand, thanked him for sharing his thoughts with me and moved on to talk to someone else.

One thing I know for sure, I am so glad I took my wife’s advice and got off my ass and started doing more than yelling at my TV. I have met so many wonderful people in person and on the Internet that sustain me no matter how overwhelming the challenges. I also am so much better informed than I could ever possibly be on my own.

Dave Martin’s words to his song speak out for why so many of us gather together in person or on the Internet to attempt to bring change to our country, the world and our grandchildren.

Silence can wear you down

Make you feel that you are all alone

But, when we gather our voice together

We can make a sound that will wake the nation (Speak out truth to power)

Those who lust for power at others’ expense

They cannot be sustained, except by violence

But there’s sisters and brothers ’round the nations

Who say there is wealth enough for all creation (Speak out truth to power)

When there’s money for a war, but not for people

And corporate profit’s worshiped like a steeple

Comes a time when you can stay quiet no longer

You know our struggle here – it will make us stronger, If WE (Speak out truth to power)

Can a government own a newspaper and not exert political influence?

rmp — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 20:11:14 +0000

We’re very familiar with civilian publishers and the political slant they force on their staffs. There are many foreign governments, especially in the East who totally control their papers, not ones they own, but all papers. When I was stationed in Korea 1970-71, President Park Chung Hee would not let any Korean papers print a story he didn’t like even if the news was about one of our Air Force jets that crashed in his country.

The Department of Defense has been tarnished during the Bush Administration for developing a propaganda machine made up of retired generals and just this week stories have emerged about how the Pentagon tracks and rates reporters and favors those who publish favorable stories. An April 28 AP story reported that, “The media-military relationship is often contentious enough that the Army’s war college devoted three days this week to consider and discuss ways to improve it even though no official military doctrine exists to foster good working relationships.”

With all the corruption going on in US government, would you be surprised to learn that our government has owned a paper off and on since 1861 that is flourishing today and never has political influence controlled the editorial content? And would it surprise you even more to learn that paper is owned by our Department of Defense?

In fact it was DoD’s Stars and Stripes newspaper that first reported the ratings story, not any civilian media. S & S was developed as an independent source of news for our military stationed overseas where news is not available due to combat or isolated conditions or the host countries papers are not printed in English. During the Civil War Union soldiers using a captured newspaper plant in Bloomfield, MO, created a paper called the Stars and Stripes and printed only four editions. During WWI, the S & S was revived in 1918 and was published weekly for the doughboys of Gen. “Black Jack” Pershing.

After the war ended it stopped publishing until 24 years later in 1942 it was revived in England during WWII. During that war, S & S ended up being published in 32 separate editions and at the peak there were 25 publishing locations. A Pacific edition was launched a week after VE day in Europe. S & S has remained vibrant until today.

The About Us section of the paper’s website tells the story of how Ike kept it free of government influence so the troops could learn the unvarnished truth.

Stars and Stripes also found a special champion and protector in Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Allied Commander. Eisenhower enforced a hands-off policy in regard to Stars and Stripes, routinely defending us against whatever complaints and protest ensued from material we published. World War II ended, but the command wasn’t ready to dismantle Stars and Stripes. In the end, the military instructed us to continue publishing as long as U.S. troops remained abroad. Since 1942, Stars and Stripes remains in publication without interruption. As wartime military staff began returning to the States, the newspaper began replacing them with a full-time civilian staff. Gradually they built a top-of-the-line team of professional journalists and newspaper business people, augmented by a small contingent of military journalists and managers.

Stripes reporters and photographers continued to join American troops in the field. Throughout the Korean and Vietnam conflicts, Stars and Stripes published the news. It took not only courage but also perseverance to get the news to the readers, and our staff proved equal to the task over and over again.

During Operation Iraqi Freedom, Stripes reporters have embedded with military units in Kuwait and Iraq, as well as on Navy ships in the region. Staffers are still reporting from those countries, and today a separate Middle East operation prints more than 70,000 copies of the paper and distributes them daily throughout the war zones.

Stars and Stripes is a daily newspaper published for the U.S. military, DoD civilians, contractors, and their families. Unique among the many military publications, Stars and Stripes operates as a First Amendment newspaper, free of control and censorship. We have published continuously in Europe since 1942, and since 1945 in the Pacific. Today, our readers number well over 350,000. (providing newspapers in over 48 countries)

Stars and Stripes is a Department of Defense-authorized daily newspaper distributed overseas for the U.S. military community. Editorially independent of interference from outside its own editorial chain-of-command, it provides commercially available U.S. and world news and objective staff-produced stories relevant to the military community in a balanced, fair, and accurate manner. By keeping its audience informed, Stars and Stripes enhances military readiness and better enables U.S. military personnel and their families stationed overseas to exercise their responsibilities of citizenship.

-Revised DoD Directive 5122.11

As a public affairs officer serving eight years in Japan, one in Korea and three in Germany, I can attest to the fact that none of my commanders no matter how mad they got, could ever influence what S & S printed even when they yelled over the phone at the Colonel in charge of the paper. From the stories I have seen printed during the reign of Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld, I don’t think they were able to violate regulations and exert political influence either.

So, with quality leaders like George Marshall and Gen. Eisenhower and clear regulations prohibiting influence it is possible for the government to publish a paper free of political influence. Amazing, but true.