Listen Up!-From The Women And Men Who Know First Hand The Bloody Face Of War-The Military Families Against War  

By Frank Jackman

I have often, very often lately, had occasion to mention that during these seemingly endless wars of the early 2000s that those soldiers, sailors, Marines and Air personnel who have one way or the other gotten “religion” on the question of war and peace have more “street cred” on in the anti-war streets than those civilians like these days even an old veteran like myself who whatever their righteous anger cannot convey to the public. I often take the example from my own generation, the Vietnam War veterans, specifically those who worked with and around Vietnam Veterans for Peace (VVAW) like John Kerry before he headed for the main change and became the front man for every imperialist endeavor since, when they took to the streets got the muted admiration (or at least silence) from the most rabid pro-war chicken-hawks. Remembering those famous silent marches through the streets of every major town and the Capitol with the battered, bruised, hurt, scarred, mentally and physically leading the way crying out to the high heavens for an end to the madness, an end to the death tolls, for bringing the troops home and for letting the next generation live without the threat of warrior deaths hanging over their heads.             

If the wounded warriors turned anti-warriors of the endless wars that have plagued this country for this whole century thus far in every place where the American government has decided to put its ugly nose have “street cred” when the deal goes down that holds as true for the organizations of anti-war military families who have lost loved ones to the false policies of that same crazed government. Many times they do not appear on the streets like the grizzled veterans of the myriad conflicts but everybody damn well give a listen to what they have to say because unlike the chicken-hawks and their hangers-on these families have suffered the loss of their sons and daughters to the beast military machine. Yeah, listen up, listen up carefully.