Anti-war veterans led by Veterans for Peace in Saturday’s NYC Veterans Day parade (l), while onlookers cheer their anti-war message

Marching with anti-war vets, and seeing - first-hand - broad public support for their call for immediate withdrawal from Iraq

By Don DeBar

NEW YORK CITY – Veteran’s Day has always been a tough one for me. On the one hand, I have always understood and appreciated the sacrifices made by millions of our men and women who donned the uniform of service and suffered the horrors of war on our behalf; after all, my own family lost two of our promising young men to the Vietnam war. On the other hand, I have always been troubled by the shadow of militarism - which has loomed so large over the nation for the past five years, and which has always been present, if often latent, in our culture.

The historical root of the day itself overflows with irony - it began as a celebration of the end of “the war to end all wars” and survives today with ceremonial remembrances honoring those who have served in the many wars since.  I have thus viewed the day with mixed feelings – gratitude for the sacrifices made by veterans, coupled with apprehension that the willingness of so many to selflessly subsume their lives to military service has too often been, and could again be, exploited by unscrupulous leaders and placed at the service of their own personal ambitions.

Since the run-up to the Iraq war, I have, like many, many others, spent much of my time working to oppose it. First, we spoke out, and those of us with access to the media did our level best to insist that the opposition get coverage – or at least acknowledgement of its existence. Then we joined the effort to organize the growing opposition into a political force that could compel the US government to stop the war and bring the troops home.

Two years ago, my own efforts brought me to New York City to join with a group of anti-war veterans who were marching as a group in the 2004 official Veterans Day parade. Camcorder in hand, with my WBAI press credentials at the ready, I felt that I needed to witness and report on the response from the crowd of onlookers to the message being carried by such as Veterans for Peace and Iraq Veterans Against the War. I also wanted, should the mood get ugly and these people of peace face scorn or worse, to stand in solidarity with them and bear witness to whatever might have come their way as a consequence of their taking a stand.

“You will be surprised at the reception from the crowd,” Ben Chitty from Vietnam Veterans Against the War promised me that day, telling me that, even then, veterans and their supporters were in the main calling for an immediate withdrawal from Iraq. If the people lined along Fifth Avenue that day in 2004 were any indication, his estimation was an accurate one. Even uniformed NYPD officers threw the familiar peace sign to the marchers and joined in the chant “Bring the Troops home – NOW!”

Two years later, the war has somehow continued unabated, despite polls indicating that a majority of Americans – Democrats and Republicans, Red states and Blue – want the troops to come home. As if the very existence of that situation were not enough of an affront to democracy, this years crop of incumbent politicians from both parties failed to include a pledge to begin withdrawal from Iraq, compounding the insult.

Nevertheless, the strong identification in the public mind of the war with the Bush administration and the Republican congress led to a thorough trouncing of Republicans in last week’s elections, and the pundits of the airwaves – including the right, far right and center - have all acknowledged that the election was a referendum on, and repudiation of, the war and occupation.

With this hopeful note in mind, I waited at the corner of 26th Street for this year’s anti-war delegation to the Veterans Day march. After an hour or so, I saw them approach, and joined them as they passed.

I sought out David Kline, a veteran who has been a vocal opponent of the Iraq war since it was first proposed, and thanked him for his tireless effort. I marched with the veterans, whose members survived wars in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Bosnia and elsewhere. We joined in cadences that told of shared memories (Vietnam), war profiteering (Halliburton and Bechtel) and the neglect of veterans by the government. The call was issued frequently – “What do we want?” and each time was enthusiastically answered with “Peace!”

I am unsure if it was the emboldening result of the election, or simply that people have finally wearied of being fearful and intimidated, but whatever the reason, the crowds lining the avenue in review were extremely enthusiastic – no, exuberant – in their response to our message. They joined in the cadence, answered the calls, flashed the peace hand sign, held placards in support of the message. The people – and many of the veterans who were marching not with us, but with their own groups - were publicly and unequivocally demonstrating their support for the call for an immediate withdrawal.

I am now certain of where the people of New York stand on the question of withdrawal from Iraq – they want out, and they want it now. The question is, what is to be done about it?