Walter Reed Vigil: Every Friday evening 7-9 PM
Our message remains, Care for the wounded, full benefits for the veterans, and BRING ALL THE TROOPS HOME--NOW!
Western side of Georgia Avenue between the two main gates for Walter Reed Army Medical Center (between Dahlia and Elder) in Washington, DC
* June 23, 2007 Presidential Accountability Town Hall Meeting
* May 7, 2007
VFP Chapter 16 and Virginians For Peace and Accountability met with Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA) to petition for the Impeachment of Cheney and Bush and members of the Bush administration. During the first 20 minutes we presented our appeals/cases to (1) impeach the president, (2) support Kucinich's HR333 to impeach the Vice President, (3) restore respect for the rule of law, (4) live up to our responsibility/duty to impeach, (5) relieve a derelict commander in chief as the best way to support the troops, (6) legal reasons to indict and impeach, and (7) political reasons for a Republican to get behind the impeachment movement. We left Mr. Davis a considerable amount of material for late night reading.
VFP Chapter 16 Statement to Rep. Davis
Materials delivered to Rep. Davis
Thank you letter to Rep. Davis
He listened respectfully, said that he was well aware of the country's dissatisfaction with Bush/Cheney, said he was not yet convinced that the abuses rose to the level of impeachment but would keep an open mind, said that he would not present obstacles to serious investigations, and offered us the opportunity to return in a couple months.
* April 28, 2007
Chapter 16 members turned out near the base of the Washington Monumentto help prepare and to participate in the A28 IMPEACH action lead by World Can’t Wait, one of more than 125 such actions that day. With bodies and blankets, 250 people spelled out “IMPEACH!”, and the tableau, with the U.S. Capitol in the background, was photographed from the top of the monument.
Although it was not planned this way, the event took place just four days after Rep. Dennis Kucinich filed articles of impeachment against the vice-president.
* April 20, 2007
Members from Chapter 16 and Virginians For Peace and Accountability www.peaceandaccountability.com meeting with Senator Jim Webb's military legislative advisor Captain (ret.) Gordon Peterson.hold
The Bush Administration must be held accountable for the illegal and unconstitutional actions it has undertaken during its tenure. These actions are grave enough not only to warrant impeachment but require it. The dangers of refraining from impeachment are short and long-term and fall into two broad categories: foreign policy and constitutional separation of powers. Regardless of what harm the President has already done and may continue to do by appropriating legislative and judicial powers to himself (with "signing statements", warrantless surveillance, suspension of the writ of habeus corpus, arrogation of war powers reserved for Congress, etc.), there is the danger of the precedent of unaccountable executive power being set for future presidencies, with possibly severe consequences. The delegation met with Mr. Peterson to ask about Senator Webb's opinion on these matters. To what extent does he agree with us? What actions can he take to help hold the administration accountable? And how can we assist him and other legislators? Specificly the delagtion inquired about 1) Response from the Secretary of State: why has this not been released? 2) Defense contracting: how is Senator Webb's investigation going? 3) Iran initiative: progress? 4) Phase Two of Senate Intelligence Committee: any word from Senator Warner?
Veterans For Peace members presented Mr. Peterson with the Honor Roll of Virginians killed in action in Iraq and Afghanistan and pleaded that the board was full and it is time to stop funding the wars and time to begin impeachment proceedings. The meeting lasted 45 minutes and concluded with Peterson stating that he did not know if impeachment was on Senator Webb's agenda but that he would discuss this with him.
Following the meeting with Gordon Peterson the delegation proceeded to Senator Harry Reid's office to show support of his comments the previous day in the Senate. Colonel (ret.) Anne Wright and Code Pink were there singing songs of support for Senator Reid. The Senate debate on Iraq grew sharper Thursday when Majority Leader Harry Reid said the war had been lost and that President Bush's troop buildup is not stemming the rampant violence. That statement prompted Republicans to declare that Democrats do not support the troops in Iraq. "I believe myself that the secretary of state, secretary of defense and — you have to make your own decisions as to what the president knows — (know) this war is lost and the surge is not accomplishing anything as indicated by the extreme violence in Iraq yesterday," said Reid.
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A.N.S.W.E.R. March on the Pentagon (click)
Chapter 16 organized the lead military contingent consisting of troops, veterans and military families. The lead banner of the march demanding US Out of Iraq Now was carried by Cindy Sheehan, Elliott Adams, National President of Veterans For Peace, Cynthia McKinney, Jonathan Hutto co-founder of Appeal for Redress, Mahdi Bray, Executive Director of the Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation, Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson and youth and students in the anti-war movement.
Iraq Veterans Against the War marches to the Pentagon alongside Veterans for Peace and Vietnam Veterans against the war.
Iraq Veterans Against the War and Appeal for Redress, an anti-war organization of active-duty service members against the war.Congratulations to everyone who made it through the snow and freezing rain to get to Washington and join together in the tens of thousands and March on the Pentagon! Led by a contingent of Iraq war veterans, active-duty service-members, Gold Star families, and veterans from other past and present wars, the demonstration received a large amount of media coverage. CNN has featured the demonstration, which the report described as a march of tens of thousands, in its rotation since yesterday. The major French newspaper, Le Monde, ran a significant article under the headline, "More than 50,000 People Protest Against the War in Iraq," about the March on the Pentagon as the U.S. component of the world-wide protests marking the beginning of the fifth year of the war against Iraq. The rally was broadcast live on C-span and Al-Jazeera and received wide-spread media coverage. C-span will be replaying the rally, check http://www.cspan.org/ (click)for times.
The March on the Pentagon was not a solitary action but one of more than 1,000 protests that will take place in the U.S. between March 17 and March 20. The March on the Pentagon took place the day after a severe winter snow and sleet storm suddenly hit northeastern states that prevented many buses from traveling, 700 fights from taking off, and thousands of cars from reaching the March. Motorists were advised throughout New England and the Mid-Atlantic region to stay off the road. The large turnout at the demonstration was all the more significant given the hardships people had to endure to participate in the activity. People marched to the Pentagon and stayed as long as they could braving 20 mile-an-hour winds and a windchill factor into the teens. 2007 is the year for university campuses throughout the USA to make their mark on the anti-war scene. Veterans For Peace of DC will be participating in a number of upcoming activities at DC area universities.
* March 28, 2007
American University, Panel: Bringing War Home
We learned about war first-hand from veterans, families of veterans, and legislators we were able to "bring war home" in order to better appreciate peace. Panelists included Chapter 16 Vice President, Michael Marceau; former House of Representatives Senior Staff Member, John Judge; founder of the DC chapter of Military Families Speak Out, Elizabeth Frederick; Ms. Gilda Carbonaro, who lost her son in the Iraq war; Jon Tracy who served as a Judge Advocate in Baghdad; and Christopher McCuiston, a former combat medic who has just transferred to the WalterReedMedicalCenter.
* March 31, 2007
Counter-Recruitment Training Session
St. Margaret's Church, D.C.
Led by CHOICES this was a training session by experts on effective counter-recruitment methods, military law and life, realities of combat, false promises, recruiting methods, community organizing and access to schools and youth, and resources.
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* January 27, 2007
Rally and March in DC a Huge Success!
Thousands of people descended upon Washington DC this weekend, including hundreds of members of Veterans For Peace, Military Families, and Iraq War Veterans. Speakers included David Cline, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, Garret Reppenhagen (IVAW), Liam Madden and Jonathon Hutto (Appeal for Redress) and Bob Watada.
*January 20-29, 2007
On Tour with Jimmy Massey
Jimmy Massey, one of the co-founders of Iraq Veterans Against the War, a former Marine recruiter, and platoon Sergeant during Shock and Awe, is in DC, Baltimore, and Philly this week. In addition to these 3 speaking engagements, he had 4 trips to high schools in DC, doing counter recruitment work.
On Sunday January 28, from 11am to 1pm, one of our VFP Chapter 016 members hosted a brunch for Jimmy.
* January 25-27, 2007
Members of Veterans For Peace Chapter 16 and Iraq Veterans Against the War joined forces outside of the US Capitol building to announce the kickoff of Support and Defend the Constitution. They read their enlistment oaths, sections of the US Constitution, and called for the impeachment of President George Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney. For the kick-off press conference of the VFP national “Support and Defend” campaign Thursday, Chapter 016 arranged all permitting, graphics, and logistics. Chapter 016 organized and conducted another “Support and Defend” ceremony immediately preceding the UFPJ rally on Saturday.
65 people attended VFP Chapter 16's DC showing last night of The Ground Truth with Jimmy Massey (and others) following the movie. We: 1) recruited an Iraq war vet, maybe 2, into the chapter, 2) promoted Jan. 25th and 27th, VFP chapter 016 (us!), PTSD, counter-recruiting, etc., 3) collected $700 from the crowd (we gave the church $100), 4) had college students attend from AU and GW, 5) had all the veterans stand up, 6) had those under 25 stand up and gave them free copies of Addicted To War. The event was a huge success on many levels. We knew few people in the audience, so polled folks on how they came to attend. It may have been 'the choir', but it was a choir whom we had not previously met. Folks were from the church, colleges, saw the flyer in a store or newspaper in Dupont Circle, saw an e-mail, or just came with one of us.
* November 9-11, 2006
Back Door Draft/Honor the Fallen
Supporting VFP affiliate MFSO on its “Back Door Draft/Honor the Fallen” action, Chapter 16 provided graphics and transport, and organized the installation of 2880 flags representing the troop fatalities to date on the National Mall on Memorial Day.
* September 30, 2006
Fall For Fairfax
Members of Veterans For Peace Chapter 16 participated in the 14th annual Fall For Fairfax festival at the Fairfax County Government Center, Fairfax, VA. The model implemented was an academic poster presentation with a clearly argued message, presented graphically, with the presenters (tablers, in this case) available to expand on detail. The table was arranged to present a general message of “Bring Them Home Now” in a manner that used facts and figures about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Included was an honor roll of the war dead from Virginia and WashingtonD.C.which numbered 91 and 4 respectively at the time.
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* September 5-21, 2006
During the Camp Democracy action on the Mall, Chapter 16 served as the local organizing center for the many VFP members and chapters visiting from all over the country. The chapter’s activities included organizing the VFP/MFSO/GSFP/IVAW tabling effort, providing banners, arranging installation of 500 headstones from VFP National, and providing lodging for some visitors.
* June 22- August 3,2006
Chapter 16 provided daily transport and nightly storage for the boots, shoes, and other material, and provided some of the display posters, for the Military Families Speak Out “Operation House Call” on Capitol Hill.