This is image displays perfectly what both corporate political parties think of our troops. Disposable. just like the constitution.
sad times
sorry guys. you had to come back to your country to shed your blood for democracy. Keep strong. heal soon.
carry on!

The situation within the US right now, with this brutality coming in right on the heels of the recent unprovoked attacks by military and police forces against peaceful demonstrators at the St. Paul and Denver mobilizations against the war, underlines what the Weather Underground had to say immediately after the US Government massacre at Kent State in 1970: "The Shield is Gone".

This was in reference to the characteristic phase of Empire in which the system has gotten stuck again now, in this period: when the Empire is acutely and successfully challenged by its own people on the basis of its own morals and principles, when it is challenged to uphold the morals and principles to which it pretends and when the challenge proves irrefutably that system is thoroughly founded on lies, on illusions and on nothing else but sheer brute force, then that brute force becomes unleashed by the masters and allowed to come forth to crush "its own" people.

And in this period, who else embodies more perfectly the description of the Empire's "own" other than the men and women of its armed forces? These are the people who enlisted to go kill for money, kill for the Corporate State they mistook for a homeland and for reasons of some twisted sense of ideology, got themselves immersed in torture, in mass slaughter and genocide of totally innocent people ...and some of them suddenly woke up!

Embracing now a deeper and more true version of patriotis, a more profound sense of Justice and Democracy, some of those soldiers oriented with a more finely tuned moral compass and with a political awareness of the lies, the illegalities and violations of the Constitution they swore to protect, are coming home and mobilizing themselves and others to help the people of the homeland to see the Truth. What else can the system do now but try to brutalize them into silence?

The US soldiers used to be presented to the population as "the best of the best". Hailed as the "nation's heroes". With good reason the soldiers are now using that good reputation bestowed on them by the Empire and suing for Peace, moving for Justice and appealing to the moral integrity of the politicians to set things right again. But alas, they are finding out there is no moral integrity to appeal to...

Even the US Peace movement, on the whole, is asleep nowadays. What happened to its spirited demonstrations of tens of thousands in even small cities? The self-appointed leaders of the US Peace movement said, "got to sleep" and the people did that. The only significant and tangible moral and material forces in this period actively bringing us closer to Peace are the Iraqi, Afghani, Lebanese and Palestinian Resistance movements - by continuing to defeat the US, UK and Israeli forces on the battlefield. At a tremendous cost in lives. An incomprehensible price of lives lost to the cause.

But the cause is sacred, it is necessary, and it continues to lead the people of the Middle East to victories.

If the Empire's politician's won't hear the voices for Peace and Justice coming from their own people, coming from the soldiers who served them with weapons and up to their throats with blood (their own, as well as that of a multitude of innocents), then there's no other option available within this reality: the forces of Empire will continue to sustain military, moral, and political defeats on every front until they are kicked out permanently from where they do not belong. There IS, of course, a better scenario: it would be preferable if its own people, those within its homeland, can stop the Empire. As soon as possible.


The "Shield" that the Weather Underground was refering to in its communique after the Kent State massacre is the special priviledge with which the system endows some of its "own people" in order to maintain class rule by exploiting, cultivating, preserving and utilizing authoritarian patterns among us, embedding racism, sexism and homophobia in our day to day affairs of life within the microfolds of the Empire.

Those who are bestowed with a special priviledge like white skin priviledge, male privilidge, or "straight" priviledge become micro-emperors within the family, within the workplace, the schoolyard, the neighborhood. They operate as the vehicles of class rule, the prime perpetrators of the "divide and conquer" policy, the flags and mouthpieces of imperial propaganda.

The system endows those people with special privileges of many different flavors, and those find expression on all walks, all twists and turns of life. All of them add up to a special kind of privilege, keeping the system's chosen people safe and comfortable on almost every occasion. The Shield ensures that those people - its "own" - will have access to education, to employment, better salaries, access to healthcare, will be safe from institutionalized discrimination, will enjoy freedom of movement, the right to own property, the right to get married, to own weapons, to be free from illegal search and seizures, will enjoy basic political rights, will have access to safety in a crime scene, and will have the ability to get away with murder. None of "the other" people are allowed to enjoy all of those rights, certainly not gay and lesbian people, transsexual or bisexual people, people of color, women, the undocumented, the unorganized, the poor, nor any others among the multitude of "others" who are targeted by racism, sexism and homophobia.

In times of moral and political crisis things happen in regard to this special arrangement within Imperial society: When some of THOSE people, the people who have special privileges and who carry the special protection of the Shield - the Empire's "own" - begin to question the system, when they attempt to shed the priviledge and stand to challenge the system ...the system faces one of its greatest threats. Losing the moral high ground, losing the ideological domination of its people, is one of the greatest dangers for the Empire. If the challengers gain the upper ground, morally, nothing can stop the sense of moral imperative from infecting the population and spreading out everywhere... From there on, past the first few triggers, all it would take is spirited community organization, mobilizations, co-ordinated abstentions from the workings of the system, an avalanche of moral and political awakenings congealed into material and social force moving in larger and larger sweeps until a General Strike can bring down the whole damn thing.

But it all starts with the battle over morals and principles. If the Peace movement and the people who were formerly the Empire's "best of the best" become able to launch successful moral challenges to the system, the system has only two options left: either allow the next step of the avalanche to take place and face organized community mobilizations, or respond to peaceful gentleness with brutality.

When Imperial soldiers put their weapons down they renounce the Shield. Up until that moment, the Shield was protecting them not from the "enemy", but from the cannibals and demons who are the top of the pyramid. You dare challenge my Divine Right to make war for profits? I will eat you alive.

The oppressed - at least the large numbers of the oppressed - know the Truth. But when the Empire's "own" people realize it and attempt to make things right they find out that the system has no mercy for the righteous. Its horses will trample you; its assassins will kill you while you sleep; its operatives will threaten your loved ones; its "cultural attaches" will torture you in underground chambers buried in countries that are not on the map.

Friends and Comrades, we're in that period again: the Shield is Gone.
Welcome to the slightly deeper folds of the Movement.

Petros Evdokas
from the Belly of the Beast,
member of Cyprus IndyMedia Collective
 http://petros-evdokas.cyprus-org.net/Another-sort-of-Introduction.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Published as a Comment on the article:
"Veterans arrested, trampled at debate, war protest
Police charge Iraq veterans with horses, trample and arrest them"
 http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2008/10/veterans-arrested-trampled-at-debate.html


"Anti-War Veterans and Supporters Arrested and Trampled While Trying to Enter Final Presidential Debate":
 http://indymedia.us/en/2008/10/34162.shtml
and:
 http://www.indymedia.org/en/2008/10/914757.shtml

And this came from their own brother's in arms, some of whom served over there. All they wanted to do was ask the candidates some questions. I'll bet you the immigration applications into Canada are in the hundreds of thousands by now.

If you wonder just how the Obama campaign has responded to date about the concerns of peace and justice voters, the images and video below, shot by Nancy Foreman, should prove illuminating.

Not a single word from the Obama camp about the police bruality on graphic display outside the last debate in Long Island, or injuries sustained by those antiwar Iraq vets who just wanted to ask questions of the candidates. Nor any comment from "Progressives for Obama".

Nancy's letter and links to images and video are reposted below

Hello All-

I just wanted to draw your attention to this video, particularly these video stills, that I shot during the Iraq Veterans Against the War protest at the final U.S. presidential debates, last Wednesday, in Long Island, NY. The video is extremely disturbing and clearly shows Iraq War Veteran Nick Morgan at the moment when his head was crushed to the sidewalk under a police horse. This story has been completely ignored in the media. He was legally, peacefully and standing on the sidewalk when the event occurred.

The still images speak volumes to this moment in history, please look atthem and please get them to people (journalists, activists, veterans)who can use them!

www.flickr.com/multiplefronts

The video is on Youtube
www.youtube.com/watch
(watch in high quality)

Video links and more information are posted at -
www.iwitnessvideo.info

On October 15th 2008, former Army Sergeant Nick Morgan, a 24 year old veteran of the US war in Iraq, was nearly killed by riot police, his face crushed under a police horse, during a peaceful protest outside the final US presidential debates.

Morgan is a native of Annapolis, MD who spent four years the US Army and one year in Iraq. He was a participant in the Winter Soldier hearings and is an active member of the Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW), a national organization of 'Global War On Terror' veterans who had come to the Presidential debates in Long Island, demanding that veterans'concerns be heard during these nationally televised dialogues.

The IVAW had previously announced, sending a letter to CBS, that twoveterans had prepared one question each for Obama and McCain, to be asked during the televised debate. They had also announced that if they didn't receive a response by 7pm on the night of the debates, that those veterans would enter the debates anyway, in an attempt to be seen, if not actually have their voices heard.

On Wednesday, as the sun was going down, the veterans waited for a response with a crowd of civilian supporters. When no response came from CBS, Obama, or McCain by 7pm, they led a march peacefully to the gate of the debates. Seven veterans were arrested while attempting to enter thegate of the national debates.

Nassau county police immediately began pushing the crowd of media, veterans and supporters backwards and across the street, charging riot cops and horses into the tightly packed crowd. One officer, Officer Quagliano was seen by many witnesses to be driving his horse backwards, in circles and out of control, repeatedly antagonizing Nick Morgan and a group of Iraq War vets who were peacefully holding the front of the line. The IVAW veterans are committed to non-violence and committed to protecting 'civilians' that come out to support them. Video shows him swiping Morgan and veteran Carlos Harris with the head of his horse just a few minutes before trampling them on the ground.

After the crowd was divided in two and fully pushed back onto the sidewalk with nowhere to go, Quagliano continued to run his horse into the crowd and in circles ON the sidewalk. Riot police on foot began pulling people from the tightly packed sidewalk and into the way of Quagliano's out of control horse. At least three civilians and and three veterans were knocked to the ground and trampled in the undertow.

This video clearly shows the moment of impact as Officer Quagliano's horse backs up and steps on Nick Morgan's face. He immediately lost consciousness and his lower orbital was shattered in 3 places. After nearly being killed, suffering a concussion and bleeding profusely from the head, police actually refused to allow other soldiers and friends to give him medical attention and to protect him from Quagliano's horse, still stomping inches from his body.

A police statement later claimed that quote "a 'person' may have been injured when their body came into contact with a horse." While the event happened quickly and in the pitch black, the momentary flashes in the darkness reveal a different story.

Instead, Nick Morgan was flipped, tugged, and dragged by police, bruising and cutting his abdomen. He was pulled from the crowd, face wiped, and thrown in an arrest van with other arrested veterans.

Morgan, who already suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after his tour of duty in Iraq, was eventually taken to Nassau County hospital where he was handcuffed to a gurney, cat-scanned and given a prescription for antibiotics and Motrin. Ironically, Morgan and other members of Iraq Veterans Against the War had come to the October debates with the intention of asking candidates pointed questions about lack of care for veterans.

A few hours later he was taken to jail, chained to a bench for five hours, and given a November 10th court appearance ticket for a charge of disorderly conduct.

Multiple veterans and civilians were injured by horses. All were given insufficient medical attention at Nassau County hospital. Veteran Carlos Harris had his foot stepped on and was refused an X-ray at Nassau County. IVAW supporter Devra Shore actually heard her foot crack under the hooves a horse, and she too was denied any diagnosis in Nassau County.

Nick Morgan has nerve damage and his vision is still blurry. He underwent facial reconstructive surgery this morning to keep his crushed cheekbone from sinking into his face.

The reality is that American police nearly killed an American vet last week with immunity, and with complete silence from the media, as he peacefully exercised those 'constitutional freedoms' he was sworn to protect and was supposedly fighting for across the world. Anti-war Veterans like Nick Morgan have suffered a double betrayal, in Iraq and at home, and their voices deserve to be heard, if not by the presidential candidates, then by the American people themselves.