Why I’m Going to DC on December 16th

My grandfather Erskine was crippled in the trenches of Europe during WWI, as part of the Canadian Highlander Infantry.  My grandfather Clarence died in boot camp in New Jersey, a victim of the Spanish Flu, before his army unit made it to those trenches of death.  Eskine’s son Gordon was killed in Normandy in July of 1944.  His only other son, Earle, was killed in Belgium later that year.  My Uncle Van was wounded and taken to a German prisoner of war camp as a US Army surgeon in December, 1944.  As a US Army officer, my father inhaled the stench of Buchenwald, one of the Nazi’s notorious death camps, during the camp’s liberation in 1945. 
My generation’s war was Viet Nam.  I visited Viet Nam as a merchant seaman in 1968, determined to see firsthand what awaited me when I was called “to serve” by the US Selective Service.  What I saw in Viet Nam was the total cultural degradation of a people in service to a foreign military occupation.  Prostitution seemed to be the chief occupation of the Viet Namese women.  All the men I encountered were employed in the trades of taxi driver, black marketeering and pimping.  I am reminded of the quotation "'It became necessary to destroy the town to save it,' by an unnamed US Army Major in regard to the wanton murder of Viet Nam civilians.   In 1970 I refused to serve in the Army of Richard Nixon.
Today, my two sons, both of military age, are facing the prospect of “service” in their generation’s wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and who knows where next.  The toll, just in Iraq, should be sufficient to inform citizens:  Thousands of US Servicemen and women killed; tens of thousands wounded and maimed; hundreds of thousands of Iraqis killed; millions displaced from their homes.  This horrific toll is the fruit of what we now know to be intentional lies about WMD’s and Iraqi links to 9/11 from members of the Bush/Cheney administration and their sycophants in the media.   In his excellent new book “War Is a Lie,” David Swanson unravels the myths about “good” wars, “just” wars and “necessary” wars.   The hope that President Obama would be better than “Bush Lite” (stop bragging about torturing detainees) has dissipated like the morning mist.  Obama has demonstrated that he is more the servant to the military machinery than its master.
From WWI to WWII to Viet Nam to Afghanistan and Iraq, to…Iran?  This war madness will not end until it makes planet earth unlivable, or until we put an end to the madness.
I’m going to stand with Veterans for Peace and many others at the White House in Washington DC on Thursday, December 16 to call for an end to these wars which are leading our nation to financial ruin and moral bankruptcy.  I’m going to stand up for peace at the White House so that my grandchildren may know a world without war.  Join us!
John Heuer

www.stopthesewars.org