Articles > April 2010
April 2010
Peace Activists Turn Backs on Gen. Petraeus at GA Tech
Original source: The Atlanta Progressive News(APN) ATLANTA -- On January 19, 2010, thirteen Atlanta activists from Veterans for Peace, Vietnam Veterans Against the War, Georgia Peace and Justice Coalition (GPJC), and Atlanta Grandmothers for Peace stood in silence and turned their backs on US General David Petraeus before being removed from the 1,100-person Ferst Theater on the Georgia Tech campus.The activists wore t-shirts with messages like War is Not the Answer, Money for Jobs Not War, No to Endless War and Occupation, Veterans for Peace, and End the War - Yes We Can!The activists included Randy Aronov, Bernice Bass; Doris Benit; Mike Burke; Pamela Chubbuck; David Epstein; Reid Jenkins; Ann Mauney; Betsy Miklethun; Dot Shaw; George Sossenko; and the present writer--Gloria Tatum.Mauney, of GPJC, contradicted Petraeus's public relations message that the US is winning in the occupations of Iraq or Afghanistan."There is no military solution to the Afghanistan conflict, and... Gen. Petraeus, as a chief strategist for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and occupations, carries responsibilities for bankrupt US war policies," Mauney said during the protest."General Petraeus, the man from CENTCOM at MacDill AFB in St. Petersburg, definitely had the glint of a fifth star in his eyes and he reinforced that by telling a giant whopper about how the invasion of Afghanistan was launched after 9/11 because that's where the terrorists were from," Burke, a veteran of the US Invasion of Vietnam, wrote in an email obtained by Atlanta Progressive News.In fact, the US government's own investigation into 9/11 contradicts Petraeus's assertion by concluding that the majority of terrorists who attacked the US were from Saudi Arabia, not Afghanistan.Petraeus then began his question and answer session with the rows of clean-cut Tech students and academics who were far more interested in the economics of occupation than a pull-out date.Outside the Ferst Center, other opponents of endless war and occupation held a press conference and anti-war rally."Ever since the escalation in Afghanistan was announced, there has been a sharp upsurge in terrorism in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and the US," Dianne Mathiowetz, International Action Center Atlanta, said in a statement."Isn't it obvious that these endless wars just create endless terrorism?" Mathiowetz asked.
Josh and Conor – Home from War in Iraq
Stand up and repeat these words in marching cadence: “I went down to the market Where all the people shop I pulled out my machete And I began to chop I went down to the park Where all the children play I took out my machine gun And I began to spray” This is a chant that our young are taught to march to in our military today, and this is how two young veterans of the Iraq War begin their presentations to groups across the country.
