Iraq Vets and Independent Journalists Speak Out Against the Occupation
10/4 |  New York Indymedia - by Sierra Freeman & John Tarleton
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The UPRISE Counter-Recruitment Tour is traveling via bio-deisel bus to 24 cities in five weeks to promote a culture of resistance not only against the Iraq War but against the economic and social system that makes it possible. “Our country was more radical when it was founded," said one young veteran from Indiana. "We’ve become dumbed down and enslaved by rhetoric and propaganda.”

The event was the sixth leg of the UPRISE Counter-Recruitment Tour, a five-week, 24-city traveling roadshow that seeks to expose the on-the-ground reality of military service. The tour began in Washington D.C. on Sept. 23 and will wind through the Mid-Atlantic region and the Upper Midwest until it concludes in Chicago on Oct. 25. Organizers of the tour are also looking to draw connections between corporate globalization, the need for a permanent “war on terror” and the social inequalities that make military service seem attractive to many people.

The night began with the screening of “Alive in Baghdad”, a documentary by freelance journalist and filmmaker Brain Conley that takes a closer look into civilian life in Baghdad. The film was then followed by a discussion on ways to build solidarity with the great majority of Iraqi people who support the rapid withdrawal of U.S. troops.

Toby, a native of Indiana and member of Iraq Veterans Against War spoke about his feelings about the government, military and war, “Our country was more radical when it was founded. We’ve become dumbed down and enslaved by rhetoric and propaganda.”

Guests in the audience and speakers also discussed how recruiters are hitting the streets, targeting high school aged students in often times, Latino and Black communities. Jose Vasquez, who served 14 years in the Army and Army Reserve and President of the New York Chapter of Iraq Veterans Against War spoke about educating the youth and recruiting methods at his high school, “At my school, Career day was Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard.”

Vasquez noted that the New York City chapter of IVAW has 22 members, the most of any chapter in the country.

Michael from New Orleans, a Hurricane Katrina survivor and Afghanistan vet spoke about his reasons for leaving the National Guard. “If I could sum up in one word why I am against the war, it was because I was betrayed.” He also discussed how many U.S. soldiers are becoming addicted to opium in Afghanistan, a world leader in opium production and returning home without being able to find treatment.

The night closed with performances by writer and folk musician, Ryan Harvey and D-Cypernauts, a New York-based Hip/Hop group. The Uprise Tour held a movie screening and discussion Tuesday night at Ramapo College in Mahwah, New Jersey before heading west for Allentown, Pennsylvania.

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Duty to Tour Against War after Tour of Duty, Say Vets
Pittsburgh City Paper - October 12, 2006 - by Marty Levine
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When Toby Hartbarger was an Army Specialist in Iraq, he says he went on patrol looking for bombs, manned checkpoints and conducted raids in Baghdad and other cities for 15 months ending in August 2004. The Muncie, Ind., resident observed the conditions of the Iraqi people he fought among while "looking at who was profiting from the war while [my] friends were dying.

"I lost my soul for the war and I'm trying to regain it," he said as he stood to protest in front of the military recruiting station on Forbes Avenue in Oakland on Oct. 7. He was one of a dozen people on a 24-city, two-month UPRISE counter-recruitment tour, which began Sept. 23, who joined the bi-weekly picket run by Pittsburgh Organizing Group (POG).

Hartbarger, 22, is a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War. He entered the Army in July 2002, after meeting a recruiter in high school. Why did he join? "Money for college. Get out of the house," he said. "It all happened pretty quickly."

Now he is traveling to colleges and high schools, concerts and rallies, to urge others to come out against the war -- without having to engage in firefights first.

"We had a lot of great responses with youth in particular," says Steve Mortillo of Pennington, N.J., another former Army Specialist, Iraq veteran and UPRISE tour member. "We're trying to link up groups and make connections."

Many of the groups are already connected to POG. "We actually draw a lot of inspiration from POG in their tactics," says a Cleveland counter-recruitment activist who goes by the nom de guerre of Tom Nomad. He says his group spent summer weekends picketing Cleveland recruiting centers in a similar fashion.

The next frontier in anti-war protests, says Local UPRISE participant David Meieran, is to counter corporate recruitment that serves the military-industrial complex, in Dwight Eisenhower's famous formulation. That goal is especially important for the Iraq War, in which many tasks usually undertaken by the military have been privatized.

But the movement continues to focus on the audience on which it can have the most direct influence: young people. UPRISE organizer Ryan Harvey, of Baltimore, writes protest songs with the Riot-Folk Collective and plays them on the tour. "You'll get people to come out to hear some music more than they'll come out to hear speakers," Harvey says.

Chad Rosenbloom, a 15-year-old freshman at Shadyside Academy in Fox Chapel, didn't come for the music.

"I read a lot of Noam Chomsky, but I've never really done anything, never really taken direct action," Rosenbloom said. After discovering POG on the Web, he found himself standing on the curb with a sign saying "Honk for Peace."

Protestors built a wall of boxes -- plastered with photos of the war and names of American war dead -- in front of the locked recruitment-center door. After the group began marching through Oakland, the door was once again spray-painted and smashed.

"People have been coming to me and saying they are against the war," said UPRISE member Toby Hartbarger. "That means nothing to me, because they'll go home and turn the TV on. The question we get a lot is, 'What can I do?' And they want something easy, like 'sign a petition' or 'go out and vote.' That's not what we need. We need a movement."

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Veterans of Iraq war join protest in Oakland to voice 'betrayal'
Sunday, October 08, 2006 - by Milan Simonich, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
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War protesters who gather regularly at the military recruiting station in Oakland were buoyed yesterday by four fresh faces, all veterans of the war in Iraq.

Young and angry, these vets say they were betrayed by the U.S. government. Their cause as they travel from city to city is to end the war.

"This is my job right now. I don't want to be part of the way things are," said Steve Mortillo, 24, an Army veteran who served in Iraq for 11 months in 2004 and 2005.

Mr. Mortillo, born in New York City and raised in Pennington, N.J., said he enlisted because of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

"I could see the twin towers from my house. It was personal for me," he said.

While serving in Iraq, he said, he thought little about the politics of war. But after returning to the United States about six months ago, his outlook hardened into that of an opponent. He said he concluded that the government lied to him and every serviceman when it said going to war in Iraq was essential to national security.

"The situation in Iraq is deteriorating not only while we're there but because we're there. There are rallies to bring Saddam back," Mr. Mortillo said of the deposed Iraqi dictator.

Another veteran, Toby Hartbarger of Muncie, Ind., said he turned against the war for many reasons.

He saw no connection between stopping terrorists and the U.S. occupation of Iraq. Private contractors with government contracts grew rich while servicemen received subsistence pay. Friends in his outfit died.

Mr. Hartbarger served in the Army's 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment. He said he was in Iraq from May 2003 to August 2004.

Now 22, he says he is convinced that the war is a waste of life and American resources.

Mr. Hartbarger joined the Army because he needed money for college. But he has put off enrolling to campaign against the war.

Veterans were joined on what they call the Uprise Tour by other young people who support an immediate end to the war.

One is Kate Flanagan, 20, who has interrupted her studies at the University of California Santa Cruz to take part in the anti-war movement.

"It's a myth that politicians can change things," Ms. Flanagan said. "It's up to the people to make changes. We're building communities to do it."

Mr. Mortillo was not as optimistic. He said the war has no good purpose, yet it continues to have supporters.

"Don't we learn from history?" he asked. "Have we forgotten about Vietnam?"

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UPRISE Tour in Cleveland Along with Amy Goodman
Cleveland Indymeda - by Abigail Thursday, Oct. 19, 2006 at 1:56 AM
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On Friday, they held a series of workshops on the West side of town with a music punkrock show finishing off the night. On Saturday, they held an all day event of workshops on direct action, globalization and war, the military industrial complex, and more at John Carrol University. In the evening, Amy Goodman, the host of Democracy Now, a grassroots, independent Media Daily News Show broadcasting out of New York City was the featured speaker.

Then it was Amy's turn. She's on an 80 city tour to strengthen Independent media all over the country stating that media should cover those in power, not cover for those in power and that it doesn't serve a democratic society to have media be a part of the state. I got an interview with Amy after the show--she was very tired so she gave me three minutes which turned out to be all we needed. Click on the audio link to hear the interview.

On Sunday, UPRISE held a movie showing hosted by C-Space with a special guest from Akron who gave a workshop about Globalization and the Iraq war. After the movie was an open mic with a number of different people singing radical folk songs. The star of the show was hands down our IMC correspondent Scout, who performed her own spoken word poem about the lack of women in the scene.
While they were here, the UPRISE collective strengthened the activist communitiy, educated people by bringing to light the ugly face of the military, exposed the truth that its not honorable to join the military and be on the side of one of the worst oppressive, terrorist nations on the earth right now: the United States. If you are out there and you think you have to join the military because you have no other choice, REFUSE! Don't believe the lies this country tells you.