The year I was in Viet Nam saw the undoing of my character.  I was disassembled by the war and have spent the past 39 years putting myself back together.   The year I was in Viet Nam was July 70-July 71. One year at the age of 19 that would forever change me. I watched and participated in a growing GI resistance to the war. One day in my company three combat medics quit the war. We refused to go out on any more missions and announced our intentions to the First Sgt and Lieutenant. High on binoctal and alcohol we came to blows in the CQ. For striking a superior and mutiny we were arrested and thrown in the stockade. We were all decorated combat veterans but we had had enough of their war. Scotty and Nick refused to return to duty and served time in LBJ (Long Binh Jail) and received BCD (Bad Conduct Discharges) which stripped them of all veterans benefits and constitutional rights. I returned to duty but continued passive resistance. I kept men who were short (about to DEROS home) on sick leave so they were not sent out to the field. I falsified medical reports to keep men out of combat. In the end I too was discharged. I made a choice to retain my human shape and not descend into the Dark.

Back in the World (the US) there was a growing body of politically radicalized veterans. Viet Nam Veterans against the War had over 50,000 members and the GI coffee house movement was widespread. The Winter Soldier hearings put a face on the atrocities and massacres and showcased the pain and rage that was twisting the spirit of the armed forces. We in the armed forces at the time regarded ourselves as citizen soldiers. I was an enlistee, RA all the Way, regular Army and volunteered for Viet Nam. I enlisted out of a sense of duty as a calling. It was not nor ever should be regarded as a JOB. The current professional volunteer armed forces has become a contracted killing machine, a constitutional abomination. I have begun to question who it is loyal too. I swore an oath, …”to protect and defend the US constitution against all enemies both foreign and domestic.” I have never released myself from that oath.

Here is what has become of us. Blackwater(Xe), DyneCorp, Triple Canopy and Hallibuton KBR have become the mercenary assistants of the US Armed Forces. Iraq Veterans against the War in concert with Veterans for Peace and VVAW have exposed the corrupt relationship between the Pentagon and the military industrial complex. Former veterans of the US armed forces have contracted out as body guards and hired killers to the CIA and State Dept expecting to be cared for and protected by the Uniform Code of Military Justice. They do not deserve nor have earned it. They and their corporate employers are subject to the Geneva conventions and International Law under the Nuremberg rulings.

Here is what we can do. We can support and advocate GI resistance. We can constantly put the cost of the war to our economy in the public eye at every and all city council or legislative hearings. Go to icasualties.org and read the names of the American dead in public. We in the Underground can bring the truth above ground.

Dave Ionno
Veteran for Peace

Victor Gerena is Hartford’s anti-hero.
In September, 1983, he allegedly robbed Wells Fargo of $7.2 million. It was a daring, non-violent daylight theft that brought down the full weight of the United States government on him, his family, his friends, and the entire movement for Puerto Rican independence both here and on the Island. Continue Reading

Even in death, the peoples’ historian is dangerous

by Steve Thornton

Historian and activist Howard Zinn’s death on January 27th was a huge loss, but some of the ugly reaction to his passing may be our great teacher’s final lesson.  The media criticism of Zinn right after he died exposes those who control how we view the world. Continue Reading

President Barack Hussein Obama officially marked the end of the first year of his administration with his State of the Union Address Wednesday night. The First Black President kept his record of doing zero for Black America intact, as he announced a spending freeze which will result in the downsizing of already underfunded federal social services. According to the United for a Fair Economy State of the Dream 2010: Drained report, the national unemployment rate for blacks stood at 16.2 % as of December 2009. Latinos came in at 12.9 % while the rate for whites actually dropped for the second month in a row, to 9 %. The report finds that blacks earn 62 cents for every dollar made by whites, Latinos make 68 cents. Blacks possess 10 cents of net wealth for every dollar of whites, Latinos stand at 12 cents. Last month, ten members of the Black Congressional Caucus demanded that 10% of federal job creation funds be allocated to regions with the highest unemployment rates. This plan was shot down by the president. As a result of the CBC boycotting a key House vote on financial industry regulation, $6 billion dollars was added for targeted job creation, assistance to people facing housing foreclosure and other initiatives.

The conclusion of the State of the Dream report is that targeted job creation programs for communities with the highest unemployment rates is the only way to address the aforementioned racial economic disparities. The findings of the report have been met with deafening silence by blacks who still want to believe in their president and white progressives who participated in an unprecedented grassroots campaign to get Obama elected. Health care reform is dead – the president did not refer to this issue until he was 30 minutes into his speech. The vaunted public option was not mentioned, so the crappy bill that passed the Senate is apparently still on the menu. There were never any discussions during the Health Care No Holds Barred Steel Cage Match between the Democrats and Republicans about the impact of racial health disparities. According to a report by Johns Hopkins and University of Maryland researchers, these disparities cost the United States $229 billion annually, enough money to completely revamp the national health care system. The report finds that people of color are generally in worse health than whites and far more likely to die from a wide range of diseases. Militarism will still be well served by the Obama administration as the spending freeze exempts the Pentagon. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq rage on, with Yemen and Nigeria possibly being added to the mix very soon.

After a year of national obsession over health care, job creation (for who?) is now the mantra for the president – he announced that he will introduce a new jobs bill. Tougher bank regulation and cap and trade legislation was promised, along with dough for community banks courtesy of a fee to TARP bailout recipients. Obama announced plans for the abolition of tax breaks for employers who outsource jobs overseas and financial incentives for businesses who keep jobs in America. The most significant announcement was the president’s promise to repeal the Don’t ask, don’t tell policy regarding homosexuals serving in the armed forces. The winners of the first year of the Obama administration undoubtedly were the health insurance industry, Wall Street and war profiteers. Big businesses were provided with icing on their cake by the conservative justices of the Supreme Court, who ruled that a corporation is the same as a person. Political candidates will now be able to receive unlimited financial donations from corporate donors. The U.S. military occupation of Haiti following the earthquake which decimated the world’s first black republic was further proof that U.S. imperialism will continue unchecked under Obama’s watch.

So what’s next? Apparently, more bleak economic times for blacks and Latinos. The president and the Democrats have clearly demonstrated that they have no interest in changing the repugnant status quo, so change will have to come from the streets. I’m calling out white progressives – whether you’re a Democrat, Independent, anarchist, basket weaver, whatever – it’s not enough for you to decry racial injustice on blogs and Facebook. You cannot rub elbows with downtrodden people of color in the streets and feel as if you’ve done your good deed for the day – you are complicit by your failure to engage. I’m also calling out the black Obama disciples who are acting like everything is everything because an African American is in the Oval Office. The State of the Dream report clearly shows that people of color are in worse economic shape since Politician Soul Brother Number One has been in the White House. A warm and fuzzy feeling over seeing a black president doesn’t trump the reality that blacks and Latinos in this country are still catching hell.

I see my country and I no longer recognize it.  I see fellow Americans elected to public office who   somehow remain untouched by the wars destroying my country and its economy. I see fear, but more and more I see rage. The rage is fed by the callous indifference of the media and local elected officials who fail to acknowledge the daily casualties and growing injured and wounded veterans clogging the VA and living in Hartford shelters. The rage is fed by assault on the public institutions by corporate hit men who seek to hijack taxpayer ownership. Sycophantic administrators pad supervisor positions and excise in house  line workers – too many generals and too few grunts. I had a sitting re-elected Board of Ed member tell me that the reason Veterans Day was taken away was because no one turned out to protest, like they did for Three Kings Day. We die for you, we kill for you and no one cares enough to give us one day with our families and our memories.

Here is what you may do to alleviate the pain and perhaps re-focus the rage. Post for real working jobs in Public works, the public schools and public libraries. Cut your supervisors and have crew leaders and classified staff lead on site. Cut all outside vendors and contractors, in house snow removal of all city property by Facilities staff is cost saving. Listen to us and the rage will abate.

I ask that a weekly reading by one of the council of all the names of the casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan be done publicly and broadcast by the media. Call a press conference every Friday and read the names, shame them into covering it. Men and women we know are dying and killing for us every day.  The one who went off to war is not the same one coming home.  Some one else is coming home.

When I was a soldier in Viet Nam we, the grunts, use to play a game while passing a bowl and listening to Hendrix and the Doors.  We called the game, “Suppose”.  It involved our imaginations and was filled with a soulful longing for a just and better world.  It went like this, “Just imagine what would have happened if Hernan Cortez and his men had been blown off course and landed at Plymouth Rock instead of Vera Cruz.  On the other hand imagine that the pilgrims had been blown south by a terrific gale and the Mayflower had run aground in the Yucatan?“

This imagining led to a description of an alternate history that had the Iroquois nation defeating Cortez and the Aztecs confining the Puritans to an island isolating the dreary Protestant work ethic and a Mexican Border patrol would have kept those pasty faced people at bay.  Alexander Graham Bell and James Watt would have been born in Cuernavaca to a Mixtec woman and in 1739 30,000 Aztecs would have joined the Irish in invading England defeating Cromwell as an Aztec soldier tears his heart out.  All of this “supposing” would have meant no United States waging war in Viet Nam as we would have a racially diverse and culturally Amerind nation.

I want to “suppose” an alternate history for Obama and his wars.  Suppose Obama shuts down the Pentagon and withdraws all United States Armed forces from Iraq, Afghanistan, Korea, Japan and Germany.  Suppose he orders all the military industrial complex to re-tool their  factories for economic conversion, to make cars, cargo ships, TV’s, refrigerators, etc.  Suppose he signs the Nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty and has all National Guard and Reserve forces rebuilding Houston and New Orleans. Imagine what our country would look like.   Alfredo Vea, a Nam veteran , wrote of the “suppose” story in his novel “Gods Go Begging”.  His main character is a Nam veteran whose name is Jesse Pasadoble.  Only a Viet Nam veteran who knows Spanish would understand the significance of this name.  He is Jesse “two step”, which is what we called the very deadly and poisonous bamboo viper.  If bitten you took two steps and died.

The will to resist tyranny is born from thought and imagination.  Thought begets heresy, heresy begets retribution, those veterans who resist will suffer retribution.  They will be jailed, discharged under other than honorable, lose benefits they bled and killed for but they still resist.  After my tour in Nam I denied them my body, I denied them my faith and they denied me as a human being.  Suppose what a world we would have if our President listened to us and heard us.  Supangamos mi hijos.

Dave Ionno
Viet Nam Veteran Against the Wars

Dear Santa,

I would like the following presents – hook me up.

1. Justice for the family of Jashon Bryant.

2. A successful defense of social services by the General Assembly.

3. A single payer health care system.

4. A framed picture of Joe Lieberman’s face after the Democrats inform him that he has been stripped of his chairmanship.

5. A candidate who will turn Lieberman into a former U.S. Senator and truly serve the people of Connecticut.

6. An end to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

7. G.I. Joe with the Kung fu Grip ( and a comprehensive veterans health care plan).

8. A conscience for Governor M. Jodi Rell.

9. Jobs for the jobless and homes for the homeless.

10. A real progressive movement.

Sincerely,

David Samuels

The turning away of the American public from the price being paid by veterans fighting two illegal and immoral wars is distressing.  I, a combat veteran of Viet Nam, am in a constant state of hyper vigilance and rage over the complicit silence of the American public and the narcissistic media.  Perhaps if you are too cowardly to put your skin in the game, you can be asked to put your dollars into the game. 

I propose we command Congress to impose a universal war tax to pay for our need to kill.  I propose that this tax be dedicated to the Armed Forces until the forever war on terrorism is finished.  I don’t want to hear any complaints from the Tea Party enthusiasts, the corporate vampires, the Libertarians or Republicrat pogues.  During WW II, Korea and Viet Nam there was a war tax and a draft.  We were all in it together.

My true wish is for Congress to find its courage and to cut off funding completely to the military industrial complex.  The House controls the purse strings and War has not been constitutionally declared by Congress.  I have still not released myself from the oath I swore…” to protect and defend the US Constitution from all enemies, both foreign and domestic.” So be it.

Dave Ionno
Veteran for Peace and Viet Nam veteran against the Wars

Governor M. Jodi Rell is attempting to eliminate detox beds in Hartford and Middletown along with closing Cedarcrest Hospital, High Meadows and other treatment facilities statewide as a means of addressing Connecticut’s budget deficit. Please call the governor’s office Monday-Friday 8 AM to 5 PM and tell her that the state budget should not be balanced on the backs of our most vulnerable residents. Greater Hartford area: 860-566-4840 Toll Free: 800-406-1527 TDD: 860-524-7397.

It is called the hurt locker. This is the place that all members of the military eventually visit. Combat veterans spend more time in it, but all veterans and especially medical personnel, are familiar with its infinite pain. The more skin you have in the game the deeper the hurt.

I am still in the hurt locker. I spent 16 years in the US Army. Thirteen years as an Army brat and then a 3 year enlistment as a volunteer for Viet Nam. I was a medic with the 23rd Infantry, infamous for its killing of over 300 Vietnamese men, women and infants. My war has come from behind me to sit now every day in front of my face. 

Ft. Hood is the latest revelation from the hurt locker. The Major who killed and wounded his comrades was chained in the hurt locker by his pain and rage. The pain was absorbed from the comrades he aided and the rage was fed by inability to stop the pain. Hunters have discovered traps with the gnawed off limb of an animal still in it. This is an apt description of the hurt locker.

Charlie Liteky and Hugh Thompson are perhaps the best two examples of veterans who escaped the hurt locker and somehow preserved their humanity. Charlie Liteky was a chaplain with the 199th Infantry in Viet Nam in 1967. During a firefight he personally dragged 20 men to choppers while under constant fire.  He received the Medal of Honor. In July of 1986 he returned and renounced the Medal of Honor. He left in a brown paper at the Viet Nam Veterans Wall in Washington DC. He was out of the hurt locker. 

Hugh Thompson is the Cobra Gunship pilot who leveled his mini-guns on Capt Medina and Lt. Calley at My Lai in 1968 and promised he would waste them if they didn’t immediately cease firing on Vietnamese women and children.  He was ostracized and forgotten about until he was awarded the Soldiers Medal in March of 1998.  He has since died of cancer. 

These two veterans walked out of the hurt locker by retaining their humanity and resisting the killing and pain that surrounded them.  The US military is being used and abused by its general officers and the civilian leadership of this country.  I fear what is hidden and yet to come out of the hurt locker. 

Dave ionno
Veteran for peace and Viet Nam veteran against War