Why do They do It? (Soldiers and Cops Against Protesters)

[Demeter]

Original Article at http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_michael__060831_why_do_they_do_it_3f.htm


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
August 31, 2006

Why do They do It?

By Michael Bonanno

Toward the end of the Vietnam War, Americans began to become weary and tired of lower and middle class Americans dying. They began to take to the streets to force the government to end the war.
On many occasions, policemen and National Guardsmen were asked to stop the protestors and obeyed.
Some confrontations were violent. On May 4, 1970, four middle class students were killed by Guardsmen on the campus of Kent State University...Policemen and Guardsmen are not members of the American elite. Yet, they stopped other middle class people from protesting a war that took the lives of over 50,000 American soldiers, many from poor homes, but many from middle class homes as well.

It's happening again today. As Derrick Jackson points out in his article "Soldiers Die, CEOs Prosper" which is posted on the Common Dreams News Center, American soldiers, many of whom earn as little as $25,000 a year, are dying while CEOs of large defense industry corporations are raking in close to $1 billion dollars a year thanks to the occupation of Iraq and the death of the soldiers.
Yet, the soldiers go and stay in Iraq because they've been told that they're fighting for their country, for freedom and for democracy in Iraq, all noble causes, none of them true. 30% of the people back home still support their sacrifices and the "good fortune" of the defense industry CEOs, although they don't see it that way. 30% is a minority, but it's still far too many people.
....

U.S. Army First Lieutenant Ehren Watada, the first commissioned officer to refuse duty in Iraq, says, "The idea is this: that to stop an illegal and unjust war, the soldiers can choose to stop fighting it." Soldiers have a free will. The horribly unbalanced recompense from the Iraq occupation should be enough to inspire the soldiers to lay down their arms and stop fighting...Again, these troops are told that their mission is something it's not. They volunteered and feel obligated to see the phantom mission through. If the awareness of the troops could be raised without interference from The Regime, many just might "quit". No soldiers, no war.






Authors Website: http://minusthemusic.blogspot.com

Authors Bio: Michael Bonanno is a published poet and musician who lives in the San Fransisco Bay Area.

He's had two essays published by the Dana Literary Society.

His album, "Flameland", is for sale at cdbaby.com. It includes a dedication to Casey Sheehan called "Casey's Song".

Bonanno is a political progressive, not a Democratic Party apologist. He believes it's necessary for our government to help the needy. He adamantly believes that leaving the people's well being to the so called "private sector" is social suicide. Bonanno is well aware of what "the private sector" does with its power and money.

[EST]

1. This was the thinking that developed during the VN war.

All the demonstrations and "give peace a chance" were not swaying the power elite. Appeals were made to the soldiers, who were contemporaries and economic mates of the protesters, and when they did not respond either, anger and disdain led to the spitting incidents.

Soldiers cannot just stop. The whole training and culture they respond to will not permit it, except for an individual here and there.

A mass mutiny, if it could develop, would destroy the country as surely as the conversion to fascism is going to.

[dipsydoodle]

4. Would be worthwhile reading up

on the Spanish Civil War sometime. Could be the shape of things to come in other countries.

[EST]

8. I agree.

I recently did a little review of that era and some of the less than stellar activities that took place. The cold chills that paraded up and down my spine got right in lockstep with the ones engendered by our own peril and challenges.

The horror of man's inhumanity to man seems something we can't outgrow.

[rfranklin]

6. What spitting incidents?

This is rightwing whacko aprochrypha.

-more at-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spitting_Image

[EST]

9. In any of the anti-Viet Nam war activities where I participated,

there was never any such disrespect, nor have I witnessed, of my own experience, that sort of goings on period.

I do admit of frustration with some of the returnees from that horrid mistake and there were many spirited arguments but the only spitting that I was aware of was that reported from somewhere else.

Those incidents, true or not, were, as you point out, then cast as a common response from "liberals" by the very same bitter enders who launched the swift boat attacks on Kerry, using many of the same dubious language.

My point was more toward the impossibility of usurping the military command structure to achieve some sort of solution to the * debacle than to figure out details.

Such a sad, sad cesspool these erstwhile "conservative" Einsteins have gotten us into.

Thanks for the link! You be cool.

[dipsydoodle]

2. The soldiers and police alike

are paid to perform a role. Simple fact of life is that some overplay their role and as a result sometimes over-react quite violently at civilian demonstrations.

Role overplay is a common cause of conflict even in simple business situations.

[yurbud]

7. remind them of their other role as citizen and taxpayer

[whistle]

3. Here are three answers to half of the question you ask....

....regarding police tyrany...

<snip>
Law Enforcement or Tyrannical Enforcement with a Badge?
Police Officers are referred to today as "Law Enforcement Officers," which is a very dangerous New World Order globalist term. Most officers proudly puff out their chests as they gladly accept this new and supposed honorable title without a clue as to what is behind this description. Those bloody tyrants of the 20th century could not have succeeded without the aid of "Law Enforcement," people doing their job without questioning their orders.

"My people are destroyed for the lack of knowledge." (Source: Hos. 4:6 (King James).)

It is proven history that governments kill far more people than criminals do! All one has to do is look back at the recent history of the 20th century. The bloody regimes of various communist countries worldwide account for one hundred million deaths in "conservative estimates." U.S.S.R: 20 million deaths, China: 65 million deaths, Vietnam: 1 million deaths, North Korea: 2 million deaths, Cambodia: 2 million deaths, Eastern Europe: 1 million deaths, Latin America: 150,000 deaths, Africa: 1.7 million deaths, Afghanistan: 1.5 million deaths, the international Communist movement and Communist parties not in power: about 10,000 deaths." (Source: Stephane Courtois et al., The Black Book of Communism, trans. Jonathan Murphy & Mark Kramer (Cambridge, Havard University Press, 1999), 4-5.)

What would Adolf Hitler have done without "his law enforcement"? What would Pol Pot, Joseph Stalin, Vladimir Lenin, Mao Ze-dong, Ho Chi Minh and Fidel Castro -- just what would these Communists do without their "law enforcement agencies"?! You must remember all the above leaders functioned within the boundaries of their own perverted system of law with their law enforcement, enforcing illegitimate laws, without regard for right or wrong.
<more>
http://www.angelfire.com/al3/libertieswatch2000/law.html



<snip>
BLIND OBEDIENCE TO ORDERS FROM ON HIGH
By Bernadine Smith

May 9, 2005
NewsWithViews.com

Under the illusion of a program to curb crime, it appears that a new system to control the people is being saddled upon the people with neighbors reporting on neighbors, and close surveillance by government of the people in their homes as to their habits and thinking.

In a recent California newspaper article it was reported that sheriff’s deputies are canvassing county areas. The initial purpose is to conduct a survey, to find out "what the concerns and needs of the people in the community are", but they do not want the citizens to feel alarmed if a deputy suddenly shows up at their front door asking questions. Residents are told that they are being offered “a chance to give feedback to the sheriff’s department" and to participate in a survey to find out what the community’s needs are. The sheriff’s department wants to learn about “problems in their community that involve crime, or things that the neighbors feel need investigation”. The deputies in uniform will knock on doors and ask questions of those adults who wish to participate. They are also being asked if they wish “to participate in the 'Citizens on Patrol' program where they will work with law enforcement to help protect their communities”. They are also being asked to rate the service of the sheriff’s department: “Do you feel your neighborhood is safe?” Cmdr. Don Deeds’ makes this comment: “It helps us reach that level of service they’re wanting”.

Hitler set up a system by which he could manage every household. The neighborhood (which was called by the German word "gau") had an appointed informant in each. The person in charge of the neighborhood ("gau") was also an informant to Hitler’s dictatorial regime. He was called the "gauleiter". Information on the people within those neighborhoods was fed upward by means of the "gauleiter" for use of that totalitarian administration. In turn, instruction was relayed downward through this same conduit as the "gauleiter" received instruction as to what thought and behavior would be tolerated by the administration.
<more>
http://www.apfn.net/Messageboard/05-10-05/discussion.cgi.32.html



<snip>
Carabinieri
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search

Carabinieri's Coat of armsThe Carabinieri is the shortened (and common) name for the Arma dei Carabinieri, an Italian military corps of the gendarmerie type with police functions, which also serves as the Italian military police.

"Carabinieri" are not only military police. Historically, a Carabiniere was a cavalry or soldier armed with a carbine. Their motto is Nei Secoli Fedele (Faithful for the Centuries). Their mission was to control the crime and to serve the community through respect for the Law. <more>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carabinieri

[dipsydoodle]

5. neighbors reporting on neighbors

was how the Gestapo built their files in the early days. The great majority of Gestapo staff were analagous to your local librarian. It was to them that reports were made of women with short hair who must be lesbians, anyone with a "Jewish" nose, anyone either physically or mentally disadvantaged etc etc. In your case I guess it would be anyone with "Librul" leanings.

[whistle]

10. Sounds like mystery shoppers