Fallujah Veteran: 'I Served The 1%'

[kpete]

Wall Street's Wars
Fallujah Veteran: 'I Served The 1%'

Thoughts on the role of veterans in the Occupy movement

By Ross Caputi

November 08, 2011 "Information Clearing House" - I did not serve my country in Iraq; I served the 1%. It was on their behalf that I helped lay siege to Fallujah, helped kill thousands of civilians, helped displace hundreds of thousands of innocent people, and helped destroy an entire city. My "service" served Exxon-Mobil, Halliburton, KBR, Blackwater, and other multinational corporations in Iraq.

My family in Massachusetts is not safer because of my service, and Iraqis are not freer. I helped oppress Iraqis in a manner far more brutal than what has been experienced by the Occupy movement at the hands of the New York and Oakland police departments.

I was an occupier and am now an #occupier. I once served the 1%, but now try to serve the 99%. That is why I must speak up when I see the Occupy movement being led astray by the same nationalism and “Ameri-centrism,” the same thoughtless praises for U.S. troops and veterans, and the same hypocrisy that led us into the so-called “War On Terror” and the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Many of us have joined the Occupy movement, because we identify as members of the 99%, but the media only began to highlight our participation after Cpl. Scott Olsen was shot in the head by the Oakland police with a projectile on Oct. 25. Olsen was immediately rushed to the emergency room, and his name soon became a rallying cry. A nationwide call was put out for vigils in solidarity with Olsen.

MORE:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article29663.htm
http://warisacrime.org/content/wall-streets-wars-fallujah-veteran-i-served-1

[dkf]

1. That didn't serve anybody, not even the 1%.

What a waste.

[MrDiaz]

2. sorry to say

you served the U. S. Government, not to say the U. S. Government hasn't been payed off, but that is a different issue.

[HereSince1628]

4. I'm not so sure it's really a different issue so much as it's

a conjoined twin of the issue.

Rotating a higher dimensional matrix and recasting it's shadow onto 2 dimensions produces different looking alignments...but the relationships of elements within the matrix actually remains exactly the same.

[redqueen]

6. And who was the U.S. Government serving? The oil industry and defense contractors.

It's not a different issue.

[MrDiaz]

12. yes

it is a different issue, we need to be protesting the government for doing this and allowing the corporations to get a hold of the government. All these loopholes referring to bribes and allowing congressmen and women to be bought off. As long as the corporations and the top 1% are legally allowed to do this, they will continue to do so. Even when we had majority in Congress we couldn't do anything about it, and it definately will not happen when repukes are in there.

[femrap]

3. Thank you for posting this....

I have been waiting for a vet to connect the dots on this. Fallujah, from what I read, was horrendous.

Thank you Ross Caputi for your words...I'm sure you will touch many hearts and minds.

[Initech]

5. Wars fought for profit.

[arbusto_baboso]

7. I realized after Desert Storm that I had served the 1%.

I didn't have the words to express it at the time, but that's exactly what I had been doing.

[xchrom]

8. recommend

[Uncle Joe]

9. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, kpete.

[socialist_n_TN]

10. Well at least more and more are seeing it

Now it's time for the active duty military to answer the question. Do you fight for the people or do you fight for Wall Street? We need soldier, sailor, marine, and air force soviets/assemblies so the grunts can decide whose side they're on.

[blindpig]

11. k&r

[dreamnightwind]

13. K & R

for a vet that gets it. We need more of them on our side, and they should be.

[kath]

14. As someone put it here at DU a month or two back, war is yet another way that treasure

is transferred (as well as lives sacrificed) from the poor and middle class to the wealthy elite.

So very true.

[upi402]

15. I didn't think it would become so big...

that the media would have trouble ignoring and dismissing the #occupiers.