Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 132.241.245.49 (talk) at 08:25, 6 February 2006 (→External links). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Veterans For Peace is an American organization founded in 1985. Made up of male and female veterans of World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, and other conflicts, as well as peacetime veterans, the group works to promote alternatives to war. The stated objective of the group is as follows:

"We draw on our personal experiences and perspectives gained as veterans to raise public awareness of the true costs and consequences of militarism and war - and to seek peaceful, effective alternatives."

An official non-governmental organization (NGO) represented at the United Nations, Veterans for Peace is structured around a national office in Saint Louis, Missouri and composed of members across the country organized in chapters or as at-large members.

Anti-war activities

Iraq War

In 2004, Southern California chapters of Veterans For Peace began installing Arlington West, a weekly "temporary cemetery" in tribute to those killed in the war in Iraq, each Sunday in Santa Barbara and Santa Monica, California.

In August 2005, Veterans For Peace provided support to Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a U.S. Army soldier killed in Iraq who embarked on an extended anti-war vigil near the ranch of U.S. President George W. Bush in Crawford, Texas. In May 2004, one month after the death of her son, Casey, Sheehan had first learned of the organization after seeing coverage of the Arlington West display on television. On August 5, 2005 she spoke at the organization's 20th annual convention in Dallas, Texas, just a day before traveling to Crawford to begin her vigil. Members traveled from California to install an Arlington West display at "Camp Casey," the site of Sheehan's protest.

Veterans for Peace has been involved in many recent protests against the 2003 Iraq war.

Currently, the Veterans Truth Project is working to tell the stories of soldiers returning from the Iraq war to inform the public and connect veterans with their communities.

Areas of concern

Some major areas of concern and involvement for Veterans for Peace are:

WAR IN IRAQ: When our government threatened invasion, we conducted public forums, met with elected representatives and participated in marches to express our opposition. As the war began, we gathered in Washington, DC, with other veterans groups for Operation Dire Distress. Since then, we joined together with Military Families Speak Out and others in the Bring Them Home Now campaign and supported recently returned vets who formed the Iraq Veterans Against the War. Local chapters continue to conduct educational forums, demonstrations and ongoing Iraq memorial displays, such as Arlington West, to remember the growing human cost of the war, to end the occupation and to bring our troops hone now!

AND AT HOME: Members and chapters actively participate in efforts to save VA healthcare and defend of veterans rights; to protect our civil liberties threatened by the Patriot Act and other repressive legislation; to provide counseling through the GI Rights Hotline to active duty military needing assistance; and providing alternative information to counter military recruiters in the schools.

VIETNAM: VFP has worked with other Vietnam veterans to bring medical supplies, help build clinics, hospitals, and schools, advocate for Agent Orange victims and promote reconciliation and friendship between our two countries and peoples.

SOA WATCH: Each year VFP members from across the country go to Fort Benning, Georgia, to demonstrate for the closing of the Army's infamous School of the Americas, a training center for thousands of soldiers from repressive regimes in Latin America with long records of human rights abuses.

KOREA: After revelations of the massacres of civilians by American soldiers during the Korean War, we sent several fact-finding delegations to investigate these allegations and bring the hidden history of that war before the public. Today we continue to work for an end to that conflict through our Korea Peace Campaign.

VIEQUES: Along with other veteran and community groups, we actively supported the people of Puerto Rico in their struggle to end the US Navy's six decades of bombing and shelling on the island municipality of Vieques. We continue to support current efforts for cleaning up the environment and return of the land to the people of Vieques.

COLOMBIA: VFP sent fact-finding delegations to this violence-torn land and educated U.S. citizens to the US military involvement, the murder of union leaders by para-militaries and other human rights abuses, including the harmful effects of chemical defoliants used in the "war on drugs".

CENTRAL AMERICA: In the 1980s, we opposed US sponsored wars and continue to support people struggling for their rights and dignity. We regularly send election observers to Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador in support of justice and peace. Veterans For Peace was founded in 1985, as a non-profit 501c3 educational organization and recognized as a United Nations Non-Governmental Organization in 1990. Chapters and members are active in communities throughout the United States and Puerto Rico. National conventions are held annually and members communicate through quarterly newsletters as well as daily list-serve news, on line discussions groups and the national and many chapter websites.

External links

• Veterans for Peace official site
• http://www.veteransforpeace.org/A_pawn_in_their_042904.htm
• http://www.indybay.org/news/2003/02/1577030.php
• http://www.archive.org/details/jmoon
• S. Brian Willson

See also

• Veterans Truth Project
• Arlington West
• Cindy Sheehan
• S. Brian Willson
• Ron Kovic

• Veterans' organizations opposed to the Iraq war and/or George Bush
• Pacifism