Monday, December 04, 2017

After Action Report: SOA Watch Encuentro Fronterizo 11/11/2017 Nogales Az y Sonora, Mex

By
Willie Hager
Managing Editor




Nogales, Az y Sonora, Mex, 11/10 - 11/11, 2017 - As the Veterans For Peace (VFP) National Deported Veterans Advocacy Project, our dedicated mission was to deploy VFP's recently Chartered Mexico chapter, the Baja Sgt. Barrios Memorial Chapter 986, from Tijuana to Sonora, and home again.  This would entail fundraising for travel, lodging, and meals. So we had a conference call with the VFP National Office and after a healthy discussion, we all mutually agreed that we would do whatever we could to make this mission happen, and become a success. To that end, we were indeed collectively successful, including generous donations from San Diego  Hugh Thompson Memorial Chapter 091, the VFP National Board, and many others small donors as well.


The greatest challenge for VFP to that success was the fact that the dates for Encuentro 2017 had been changed since last year from mid-October to November 10 - 12. Our chapters participate in Veterans Day (Armistice Day) parades, events, and actions all around the country on November 11. In addition, VFP has a current National Campaign to change the name of the day back to the original Armistice Day. So, it was immediately recognized that VFP would not have the resources or the members available for this SOAW as they had in over 25 years in the past.


VFP Sgt. Barrios Memorial Chapter 986 and Allies, Sonora, Mex 11-11-2017, stepped up and presented a very visible VFP presence at Encuentro 2017. While there, the Chapter would supply speakers for both sides of the border. They would also set up a Deported Veterans Workshop on the Sonora Mexico side. They would be joined on the US side by representatives of  Veterans For Peace Chapters; 191 - San Diego Ca., 174 - Jax Florida, 170 - Savannah Georgia, 055 - Sante Fe NM, 69 - San Francisco, and the Unified US Deported Veterans, Boulder Co Barracks, among others. It should be noted that our Baja Chapter 986 is also affiliated with Unified US Deported Veterans Baja Barracks, as the VFP Sgt. Barrios Memorial Chapter 986. Maurice Martin, VFP East Bay Chapter 162 and Charter Member of the VFP National Deported Veterans Advocacy Project, was the Operations Coordinator for the travel to and from and coordinating on the ground in Sonora on behalf of Chapter 986. We owe him gratitude for his outstanding efforts on behalf of a successful mission.



So, on Saturday 11-11-2017 we began to gather early on the steps of the Americana Hotel in Nogales, AZ for a 9 a.m., in order to jump off on time for our second SOAW Veterans For Peace March on, and across the border to interact in music, speeches, and workshops on the Sonora side of the border.  Pictured below are the Brothers Valenzuela, Manuel and Valente, representing Boulder Co Barracks of Unified US Deported Veterans, Susan Sandoval - Media Coordinator for the Brothers, and myself - Coordinator Veterans For Peace Deported Veterans Advocacy Project. 

                                           

At 9 a.m. there were intro speakers from various groups of the SOAW coalition regarding cross-border protocols and order of March.
 I did a short welcome for all the Veterans For Peace Members, and then; with banners unfurled and flags flying, we were all on our way to Mexico. 
                         
As we approached the border, folks who were going to rally on the US side of the stage turned right to march alongside the US side of the Wall. Manuel Valenzuela continued to march with these folks, as he was to speak on the US side, Valente crossed with us. When we crossed the border, there were over a hundred people who crossed over with us and marched to the stage area on the Sonora side of the Border.




                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       









   Our Deported  Veterans speakers were scheduled in to be the final speakers, at 11:45 a.m.  When it came time, VFP Chapter 986 and allies mounted the stage together with flags and banners unfurled:


    

The crowd was fired up after a morning of music and speakers and we were very well received. All I that I saw and heard from the stage was jubilant UNITY, from marchers, musicians, and speakers alike.  When we were introduced on stage, Hector Lopez and Robert Vivar shared our introduction, touching on the Chapter mission, and acknowledging the VFP National Reclaim Armistice Day campaign on 11/11/2017. After 
that introduction; Valente Valenzuela, in ASU Blues - was introduced on Sonora stage and at the same time, his brother Manuel, in his USMC Dress Blues - was introduced on the stage on the US side of the border wall.  Valente spoke in Spanish on the Sonora side while Manuel addressed the US crowd in English, simultaneously.  What a powerful unifying moment for all who were fortunate enough to be present. More to come on this in upcoming documentary production.

There was one exception to the uplifting spirit of unity; during the march, with a Pro-Palestinian group who had taken offense to VFP 986/Unified US Deported Veterans carrying the American flag during the march from the border to the stage, and we could hear them booing as we mounted the stage. For our Deported brother's and sisters, the American Flag is a symbol of their allegiance to America and their demonstration that they are not enemies of the state; but rather were while originally in uniform, champions of the state. Now they are in exile. It is symbolic of their worthiness to return to their home country, and their American families. This was a sign of divisiveness that I had not in any way expected or had encountered at SOAW in the five years that I had attended, either at Ft Benning, Ga or Nogales Encuentro. Our Chapter 986 Coordinators met with them afterward. They listened to the Palestinian groups' reasoning,  and in turn, shared their perspective on the topic. I was informed later in the day that they all parted friends as a result of 986's outreach.

The morning had been both festive and deadly serious. The afternoon was reserved for workshops to be held at a school across the street from the wall in Sonora, just up the street from the stage.  Time was growing short as we rounded everybody up and hustled up to the school to set up our Deported Veterans Workshop, in Sonora. When we arrived at the school, our film crew was already there waiting for us. They always seemed to know where to be, while we were still figuring things out. They kept up this pace for two days straight. I suspect after spending a couple of days in her company, that Media Coordinator, Susana Sandoval, had a lot to do with that. Once on site at the school, they filmed the workshop from set up until closing, for their production.


Robert Vivar, Co-Director of Unified US Deported Veterans Resource/Information Center in Tijuana BC was the moderator for our workshop:

 Robert Vivar Workshop Moderator welcomes attendees...








Velente Velenzuela, Panelist and Robert Vivar, Moderator

 
Hector Lopez, Panelist



             


            
                                  Rock Hernandez , Panelist

                                                                                                          
Thanks to all of our members and allies that marched across the border and attended second Deported Veterans Workshop in Sonora, making it a success for our second year with SOAW Encuentro 2017


After closing up the workshop, we gathered all of our folks up and headed to the Hotel San Marco, where our veterans and allies from Tijuana were based. There was a restaurant at the hotel, and we decided to gather together for some after action comida and fellowship, before those who had crossed returned to the US side of the border.


After a great lunch together, a few tears, and a lotta hugs; Tommy Griffin, VFP 170 and
Member of VFP National Deported Veterans Project Steering Committee and I were on our way back across the border, feeling fired up for the next opportunity to highlight our mission. We will gather again in Tijuana in late January, following the VFP Board meeting in San Diego on the 26th.  Now though, Tommy and I loaded up and drove across the border to rest up for our return trip to the East Coast, in the morning...this was the scene with the sun setting in the west, as we crossed back into the US at the Nogales crossing.
   


Preview Image

 



Tuesday, November 28, 2017

Reflections on 10th Anniversary of the war in Afghanistan, and the Continuing war in Iraq

Ten Years and Counting in Afghanistan...


Ten Years and counting in Afghanistan, U.S. troops still bogged down in Iraq after eight years, and a country deeply divided politically, ideologically, and now, even religiously, as a result. What a cluster fuck!

How did we get here?  Well, it wasn't easy; we had to work at it in order to position ourselves to be right back where we were following the Gingrich Revolution in Congress in the early 80s; it isn't just happenstance that we here we are again, caught up in mix of a retro Gilded Age, and a painful re-emergence of Nixonian forces and money creeping back into the halls and back rooms of our government. Forces who still threaten our Bill of Rights and our Constitution. 

I suggest that we are here, back from the future, because we as political and social activists have became complacent and self indulgent following our major victories of the 60s and 70s, to name a just a few; the end of the Vietnam War, the breaking down of racial barriers to voting, and the other civil rights victories of the day, including the end of the Draft, the end of domestic spying and political disruption by the FBI COINTEL Program, the downfall of Nixon, and the imprisoning of some, but not all, of his thugs. We in fact, recovered our Constitution, and re-instated the proper application of the Bill of Rights to our society. For reflection on what I think happened, I make the case for how the left actually became complacent and politically self indulgent in a piece that I wrote in 2005 entitled "The Cracker Swamp Manifesto". 

But this discussion has more to do with the future, than with the past. We can't know where we're going, if we don't know where we've been  A quick look back for reference at what has worked and what  has not is called for, whenever doing any kind of strategical planning for the future, whether it is personal or political. None of what I describe above regarding our foreign policy, and the retaking of congress by the Repugs and NEOCONs could have happened, in my considered opinion, if the left hadn't of become a Babylon of minority interest groups fighting among themselves over political power and money.  They sold the power of their all important UNITY in exchange for organizational, political, and cause oriented agendas and political careers that ultimately positioned them into being as ineffective as they were prior to the American social and political revolution of the 60s and 70s, as the "whole" morphed into minority special interest groups of society.  The big losers? The American people.

To my way of thinking these groupings became as a whole so distracted and fragmented with politically correct self indulgence, that they lost the hearts and minds of the American people. The very hearts and minds (and votes) that that these groups as a grand and unified coalition of ant-war and social and political justice activists had fought so hard for so many years to win. These fragmented groups, not unlike the Repugs and Neocons, and most recently the Teabaggers, turned their backs on all who disagreed with their particular doctrine, whether it be a racial, political, or religious platform.  But most importantly, they turned their backs on the American people in favor of their particular constituencies and careers. This dynamic was the birth of political correctness as we have came know it in our country. Prior to this rebirth, here; political correctness had originally a strategy of Mao's Red Guard in the Great Leap Forward in China.Here,it's re-birth ultimately became the death knell for all of our efforts and successes of the 60s and 70s.

In face of all of the above, it is my considered conclusion that this Administration's current strategies aren't going to change until we as a "movement" change our's. Collective GASP!!!  I know, I know, this is politically incorrect thinking.  But, it is my critical thinking assessment that the current, and now decades old, strategies of the left must take on a new profile. This has to happen if we are to have any hope of success in saving our nation from it's second post modern  political Dark Age and the continued decline of the age of free thinking, free speech, and Constitutional democracy. 

Here in the 21st century we need to develop our own strategies that are more pragmatic in their direction and application. That is not to say that militancy, fiery rhetoric, and occasionally manning of the barricades, is not critical to this process; it is to say that our militancy has to be more pragmatic than symbolic, our rhetoric based in empirical thinking and objective truth, as well as documentable evidence of that truth. It needs to incorporate clearly defined and realistically achievable demands and goals. Most importantly, it must appeal to more than those of one's particular organization, race, religion, ideology, and/or political party affiliation.  it must be designed to democratically find the core issues that are common to all of us and rally around them in unity of purpose, and leave the ideological, racial, organizational, religious, and personal differences at the door. The keys to success in my paradigm are Unity of Purpose and Mission Focus

We are after all, all in this together; and we cannot succeed without mutual support, and the support and votes of the American people, who, as evidenced by history, we are potentially able to educate to the truth of our anti-war social justice agenda, and how it applies to them as individuals, and as citizens. To my way of thinking, in today's world this is best achieved by speaking with them, rather that at them.  They must want to join with us and take action, not be verbally bludgeoned or shamed into it. So it is our responsibility to sort out what they agree with us on, and what they disagree with us on, and act accordingly in incorporating their energy and votes into our struggle. 

My other other major consideration is the diminished impact of "mass" demonstrations and rallies in Washington D.C., where we all go occasionally to "confront" the powers that be on their home turf, and get ourselves arrested , or rather; arrange with the police to let ourselves be arrested, celebrities and authors first, in hope that someone out there in the hinterland will see how truly oppressive our government is to those who dare to speak truth to power, in spite of the fact that the buildings we are confronting are empty, and the mainstream media is in conspicuous absence. It's Kabuki Theater rather than Guerrilla Theater to me, and in spite of it's repetitiveness nothing ever seems to come out of it, except some great photos and action reports on  the underground internet activist blogs, and in the foreign press. 

I can only conclude that the government actually welcomes this activity anymore, since they are much more equipped to deal with then they were, forty years ago. They send everyone home for the day so that they can't be accessed or confronted by the revolutionary forces in the street. They reinforce the police ranks with crowd control trained riot police and ariel surveillance, and everyone gets overtime.  Then theythey work closely with civil disobedience organizers   


Stressors from Anonymous...

Stressors. You don't know you have them til that tripwire gets stepped on.... jezus, I'm still shaking.....

I did 20 or so funeral escorts for KIA with the Patriot Guard Riders out of Dago. 5 or 6 a year.... they were all every one different. You would never know a tragedy was driving by but for the growl of all the harleys. A few times it was the family, the military honour guard, and us. 

One time we got a mission that turned out to be a hell of a rainy day, 8 of us showed up at a funeral home in El Cajon. The military honour guard couldn't make it, it fell to us to work out being pall bearers, we found our senior NCO- and old Marine tanker, and he counted cadence low, while we carried the casket out to the hearse for the trip to the cemetery. We went by his ma, white as paper, dad, bewildered, and his young girlfriend, wrapped in a fatigue jacket way to big for her, mascara running black stripes of grief down her young face. That was it. We followed the hearse in the rain, knowing there was someone much colder than we on that run, three people who were more miserable than we could ever know .....

Always different. Sometimes some of the soldiers squad mates are there, sometimes not. The Cav has its traditions, the Marines, Rangers.... but the families are all the same. But different. Wives holding newborns walked down our line, thanking each of us for honouring her man..... that was rough, that. Mothers, eyes filled with tears, thanking us. Wives. Little sisters. Grandparents.......... strangers cared enough, and understood their senseless loss. 

Sometimes we'd meet the planes on the tarmac, and be at attention when the awful reality for families can no longer be denied, and that box with all their hopes and dreams, dead now, gets slid out of the cargo bay. 

One of our regular members lost her own son, and Ive stood across from her in the flag line, watching her struggle and win the fight to keep her composure, and was able to keep mine thereby. 

So I did this again and again, and was starting to ..........get to the edge of my .......sanity. Composure. Ability to maintain, and Tanya got this job in Canada, and I had an honourable way out. 
And while I carried that around, I really had no idea how much of a hole it had eaten in my heart, til about 40 minutes ago, when by chance I came across a movie... "Taking Chance" about a Marine officer and the dead kid he is escorting home.

I came on it at a scene where the coffin is coming off the plane, no sappy music, no wails of grief, just people standing there, the passengers just realizing what was happening.....
And I went to pieces. I don't do that. 

Stressors. Never know when you'll trip one.