GI Rebellion: Helping to Stop the United States as an Empire

By David Starr

 

In strong opposition to the Iran War, and in turn opposing the Trump regime’s actions, U.S. military veterans protested at the Cannon House Office Building Rotunda on Capitol Hill on April 2.

 

This is one example out of many of GI rebellions. The veterans who participated were not screwing around and looked determined to get their point across. They know from experience the horrors of war…and the ulterior motives of the U.S.’s imperial foreign policy.

 

Usually, U.S. imperial objectives are not to promote freedom and democracy. It’s to try to maintain and expand the rule of capitalism, and usually at the expense of labor. And to use and abuse GIs and former GIs who are or who have unfortunately participated in the objectives of U.S. imperialism is moral bankruptcy.

 

There are examples of former U.S. military personnel who gave their feedback on the Iran war as well as other imperial wars the U.S. empire has provoked.

 

Former Marine corps combat pilot and author Michael Lester was interviewed by the Times of India. He called the Iran War a “stalemate,” contradicting the Trump regime’s boast that the U.S. empire is winning.

 

Breakthrough News interviewed Army veteran Michael Prysner who gave his thoughts on the Iran War. He was in Iraq and eventually opposed the Bush Jr. regime’s illegal war against that country.

 

U.S. veteran Brian McGinnis protested at a Senate hearing yelling, “America does not want to fight this war for Israel!” A Republican senator helped to forcefully remove him from the hearing and in the process McGinnis had his arm broken. It figures that a Republican would remove him; probably a Trumpite. McGinnis was interviewed by Zeteo.

 

Not only veterans protested the Iran War, their family members also came out and protested on Capitol Hill. Like the veterans, they know that the Trump regime, e.g., is committing war crimes and violating international law. They also know that the Bush Jr. regime’s illegal war against Iraq amounted war crimes and a violation of international law.

 

There has to be change in the U.S. military. The rank-and-file, as well as officers, need to be a massive wave against the ulterior motives of U.S. foreign policy. It not only makes sense; it is respecting the basic rights of people elsewhere in the world.

 

It was evident during the Vietnam War that U.S. military personnel strongly opposed it. Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) bore this out. One of the major actions of resistance was GIs throwing their medals away in Washington, D.C. in front of the Capitol Building.  

 

But for now, the Republicans and the corporate/neoliberal/Third Way Democrats have a stranglehold on power and are unlikely to ideologically change U.S. foreign policy. But contrary to the establishment’s wishes, the U.S. as an empire won’t last forever. 

 

The decline has already happened.

 

Will there be a fall of the empire? It is pointing in that direction. The only way the U.S. establishment can maintain the empire is to be more anti-democratic. To maintain capitalist rule–essentially the problem–is to cause more hardship on a majority of people worldwide.

 

As with the protests on Capitol Hill April 2, GI rebellion is a big factor in stopping the United States, as an empire.   

 

 

 


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