I hope the progressive blogosphere gives this protest and arrest some attention because ignoring our Vets and their concerns is outrageous
IVAW members arrested while attempting to present questions to Obama and McCain
One hour before the final presidential debate of the 2008 campaign, fourteen members of IVAW marched in formation to Hofstra University to present questions for the candidates. IVAW had requested permission from debate moderator Bob Schieffer to ask their questions during the debate but got no response.
The contingent of veterans in dress uniforms and combat uniforms attempted to enter the building where the debate was to be held in order to ask their questions but were turned back by police. The IVAW members at the front of the formation were immediately arrested, and others were pushed back into the crowd by police on horseback. Several members were injured, including former Army Sergeant Nick Morgan who suffered a broken cheekbone when he was trampled by police horses before being arrested.
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It is an utter disgrace how protesters have been treated throughout this campaign. It is also an utter disgrace how our veterans have been treated for many, many years. Hopefully the new Obama administration will rectify this deplorable reality.
These people just didn’t understand what they were fighting for! This is the new improved America, Ari Fletcher told us to “Watch what we say, watch what we do.” I think they have demonstrated that you may only exercise your First Amendment Rights in Cages approved by the authorities. If you fail to do so, you’ll end up in a, you guessed it, another kind of cage!
But you’ll have the chance to meet a few of the new breed of police, like those Police at Hofstra. The kind who wear special gloves with powdered lead in them, to better beat the crap out of people. You’ll notice that the “Protect and Serve” logo is gone from most department’s cars nowadays. /s
The War is something that People pay lip service to. The Pentagon has the so called All Volunteer Force, notwithstanding the financial inducements. the public self righteously can proclaim that these kids signed up to die and be maimed. There will be no serious opposition to this war until there is universal service. Even then, so much of the economy is driven by the Military Industrial Machine, to the tune of > $600 Billion, which the Congress quietly approved while the public’s eyes were on the bailout package.
Proud VFP Member Post 66
Wasn’t it President Eisenhower who on his last days as President warned us about the Military Industrial Machine? He made a speach about how dangerous it was to allow the Military Industrial Machine to exist as it would come to run our foreign policy and eventually “create” the need for war just as Bush and his VP and Sec. of Defense did to the American people by frieghtening us into believing there were weapons of mass destruction. Cheney, as the former CEO of the company our military now contracts with to feed, clean the clothes and offer so many other services to our military personnel paid at cost plus from taxpayers, pushed for this unnessary war and participated in a think tank with Rumsfeld that tried to plan a way to attack and take control over Iraq before Bush became President.
It’s no wonder we have Vets dissatisfied, depressed and disillusioned over their sacrifice to serve their country in Iraq. Why is it that we only see those Vets in McCains’s news coverage that ask him to, “let us win in Iraq.” McCain is so obsessed with his experiences as a returning Vet from Vietnam to a county seemingly unappreciative of our returning Vets that all he can see is becoming Commander In Cheif to right the wrongs he sees that the government made over the Vietnam War which included drafting and forcing our young men to fight a war that most of us did not support. That’s not the kind of Commander in Chief I want in charge of our country and especially not in charge of the war in Iraq! Who is in control of the media that allows our Vets against the war to be so ignored?
Same shite, different
waroffense against the peace. When there is a story to be told, it will be silenced if it is not the government’s line. Why would this be any different; those in power suppose it is they who will be writing the history.Iraq Vet Against the War
http://ivaw.org/
15 Arrested Outside Presidential Debate in Protest Led by Iraq Veterans Against the War
http://www.democracynow.org/20….._debate_in