{"article":{"id":35893,"heading":"Distribute: Vets call to Troops","author":"Vets","created":"2003-03-16 00:35:36","modified":"2013-11-10 23:49:04","last_modified":"Mon, 11 Nov 2013 06:49:04","article":"

Please copy, print and distribute the veterans call to conscience (attached) www.calltoconscience.net

Call to Conscience Fact Sheet

•\tOver 700 veterans have signed the statement. 20% are Gulf war\/ Gulf era veterans. 45% are Vietnam Veterans and 15% are World War II veterans. Many atomic veterans from the 1950s have also signed the statement. At this date the new signers are predominately Gulf War veterans and active duty troops

•\tThe statement has been signed by prominent individuals. These include:


Blasé Bonpane – Director, Office of the Americas


Fr. Bob Bossie – SJC


Fr. Roy Bourgeoise- Founder of the School of Americas Watch


Daniel Ellsberg – Korean Era Veteran and author of the “Pentagon Papers”


Michael Moore- Film maker


Jeff Paterson – First active duty troop to refuse deployment to the Gulf in 1991


Howard Zinn – WWII Veteran, historian and author of “A People’s History of the US”


Kurt Vonnegut – WWII Veteran, POW and author


10 active duty veterans have signed the call.

•\tThe call was initiated by a member of Vietnam Veterans Against the War Anti Imperialist (VVAWAI) who put out a broad call to veterans to help craft a statement that would represent a unified veterans voice. 7 Veterans responded to the call. These included veterans of many nationalities (including one from Scotland), members of VVAWAI, VFP, VSA, NION as well as activists with the GI Rights Hotline. Veterans were from \"Nam, the '80's and from the Persian Gulf war. There were CO's and resisters from Vietnam as well as the Gulf in the writing group.

•\tThe Project receives approximately 200 emails a day. A large majority of these emails are from active duty troops who have received the statement on base, from a family member or in Europe. A great majority of these comments reflect beliefs that the US has not made a case for war, many of these comments are coming from those who are being deployed. Many of these comments are available on the Projects web site (both pro and con statements): www.calltoconscience.net The statement has been posted on numerous military web sites and is regularly broadcast out \tthrough military email list serves.

•\tEuropean activists are leafleting the statement to troops throughout Europe – in Antwerp, Milan, London and Germany. The statement has been taken to troops in Washington state, Hawaii, Texas, California and more. The statement has been translated into Spanish, Italian, German, French, Danish, Turkish, Malay and Farsi. An Arab translation is in the works. American veterans traveling to Europe are doing press interviews and one veterans living in Turkey has contacted press there.

•\tInterviews have been done with press from Egypt, Mexico, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Spain and more.

<\/p>\n","contact":"calltoconscience@yahoo.com","link":"www.calltoconscience.net","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/plain","summary":"If the people of the world are ever to be free, there must come a time when being a citizen of the world takes precedence over being the soldier of a nation. Now is that time. ","numcomment":0,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/","filesize":null,"article_url":"\/news\/2003\/03\/35893.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[]}