Veterans For Peace - Anti-war Activities

Anti-war Activities

VFP first began organizing major anti-war protests in 1987 when, on Easter Sunday, hundreds of VFP members marched on President Reagan's Western White House in California, and Vice President Bush's vacation home in Kennebunkport, Maine, protesting U.S. support for the Nicaraguan Contra counter-revolution.

Starting in 2003, Veterans for Peace became a major participant of protests against the Iraq War.

In 2004, a Southern California chapters of Veterans For Peace began installing Arlington West, a weekly "temporary cemetery" in tribute to those killed in the war in Iraq, each Sunday in Santa Barbara and Santa Monica, California.

In August 2005, Veterans For Peace provided support to Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a US Army soldier killed in Iraq who embarked on an extended anti-war vigil near the ranch of US President George W. Bush in Crawford, Texas. In May 2004, one month after the death of her son, Casey, Sheehan had first learned of the organization after seeing coverage of the Arlington West display on television. On August 5, 2005 she spoke at the organization's 20th annual convention in Dallas, Texas, just a day before traveling to Crawford to begin her vigil. Members traveled from California to install an Arlington West display at "Camp Casey," the site of Sheehan's protest.

In March 2006, Veterans For Peace and coalition partners Iraq Veterans Against the War, Gold Star Families for Peace, and Military Families Speak Out joined with Hurricane Katrina survivors and the relief and rebuilding organizations Savin' Ourselves After Katrina, Common Ground Collective, and Bayou Liberty Relief, as well as a number of African-American churches along the Gulf Coast on a march from Mobile, Alabama to New Orleans, Louisiana.

Originally titled the Veterans and Survivors March, it quickly took on the moniker of Walkin' to New Orleans, in tribute to the famous song by Fats Domino. The marchers traveled the Gulf Coast advocating an immediate end to the war in Iraq and redirection of funds to help rebuild areas Katrina damaged not only in New Orleans, but also in Mississippi, and Alabama. The march and the events surrounding it have inspired a plethora of websites and images on the web.

Currently, the Veterans Truth Project is working to tell the stories of soldiers returning from the Iraq war to inform the public and connect veterans with their communities.

According to Vets for Peace - Peace Action Network, "The military has a clear and dangerous presence at Milwaukee's Summerfest" (June 26 - July 6, 2008). "One exhibit is especially offensive: kids as young as 13 years old can aim automatic weapons from atop a humvee at a large screen to virtually kill people."

Veterans for Peace participated in an anti-war demonstration held on the White House sidewalk in December 2010; dozens of demonstrators were arrested, including Ray McGovern, Daniel Ellsberg, Chris Hedges and a number of Veterans for Peace members.

David Swanson works with Veterans for Peace and hosts Talk Nation Radio. He promoted a talk by Medea Benjamin of CodePink who spoke out behalf of Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, who was killed in Yemen, just because his father, Anwar al-Awlaki "was someone who we don’t like." He also promoted a talk by former U.S. Army Colonel Ann Wright which was co-sponsored by WarIsACrime.org, the Charlottesville Ron Paul Revolution, Socialist Party of Central Va. and the Middle Eastern Leadership Council. The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee will award the 2012 Rachel Corrie Award to Wright who is a VFP member.