The event was sponsored by a Seattle group that helps GIs resist in the military (I forget its name) as a fundraiser for Coffee Strong, the GI coffeehouse just outside the gates of Ft. Lewis (there is only one other GI coffeehouse thus far in the country). 100 to 150 people attended, which the organizers appeared to feel (and I too felt) was a disappointingly low number. In addition to the usual leftists, there were a hand-full of serious student-type activists. One woman, an Evergreener (~22 y.o.) to whom I spoke after the event, was enthused to hear that O17 was happening and she assured me that she and her pals would distribute the ~200 half sheets I gave her. I approached her because she asked an interesting question after the talk: she knows it's important to demonstrate, but what ELSE can we do (no hint of electoralism, but rather asked from the direction of conciousness-raising).<br>
<br>DJ spoke, first briefly about his experience in Iraq in 2003-5 as an unembedded journalist, an experience which left him not only severely traumatized, but also profoundly angry at all members of the military for raining such destruction. Starting in 2005, though he started talking to GIs and began to get their stories of how they avoided going on patrols. He described a whole series of "search and avoid" type of activities. He also described many examples of resistance in and out of the military. One key appeal he made is that communities need to be created to provide financial support (medical benefits too, somehow) for the many GIs who enlisted because they need to feed their families. This would allow them to refuse tours of duty thereby losing their military benefits (and being jailed). DJ was particularly laudatory of Erin Watada; he approves of Watada's constitutional-type arguments for refusing to go to Iraq.<br>
<br>After ~1.5 hr of DJ talk, Seth Menzel of Coffee Strong spoke briefly. Their coffeehouse is having hard times lately, largely because Ft. Lewis is mostly de-populated due to all the deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. He also announced an Oct 7 (7pm) meeting at Coffee Strong at which strategizing to provide support for two GIs (AWOL? I'm not sure) who are currently in the brig at Ft. Lewis.<br>
<br>Several interesting points came up in a long question period after the talks. First, DJ is quite firm that the US is in Afghanistan because of the pipelines. He says that the US bases there are adjacent to them. Second, there was some discussion of where the US is going to get >40,000 more troops to send to Afghanistan. He feels a good fraction of them will come from a number of units that are comprised of various types of outcasts (AWOL troops, etc.) from the normal units (I'm skeptical that there are enough of such troops).<br>
<br>Someone please reply to this email that they got it since I'm no sure this is the right address. Thanks. --Ira<br>