By Elaine Brower

It's been over 10 years now that my son joined the U.S. Marine Corps.   From birth, at least it felt that way, he wanted to be a marine.   He wore G.I. Joe underwear, socks, and even carried the lunch box. At Halloween every year he was either a soldier or warrior of some sort.   It was definitely harrowing for me, an anti-war activist from way back since 1969.

I had begged, pleaded and even promised him a new car for him not to join when he turned 18, but hence, he did.   The recruiters showed up at our house the day after he had his high school diploma, and whisked him away to boot camp in Parris Island.   I felt as if someone had ripped my arm out of its socket!   When he graduated, the entire family went to watch as this young boy was supposedly turned into a "man."   I ran up to him after all the military hoopla on the Parris Island field, and he didn't even look at me.   He wouldn't hug or kiss me, told me that he was in his uniform and was not allowed to show emotion.   Needless to say I was crushed.

By Debra Sweet

Ethan McCord will be in southern California (Los Angeles and San Diego) June 9 - 11

Matthis Chiroux in Philadelphia, June 7.

James Brower, a Marine combat veteran of Afghanistan and Iraq, made his first appearance with the tour Monday at an NYC high school. Read the report/watch the videos.

We still have more requests from schools than we can fill! NEEDED: more veterans to speak about their experiences in the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan; funds for transportation, child care and materials.  Every time they speak, students re-think their intention of signing up; grapple with the need to speak out against the wars; and go on to take this message to other students, friends, family members.

From We Are Not Your Soldiers 

On Monday, May 23rd, a new addition to the “We Are Not Your Soldiers” campaign spoke to a classroom of students, and teachers. Former USMC Staff Sgt. and scout sniper, James Brower from Brooklyn, NY, decided it was time that he spoke up and reached out to high school students who are in the most jeopardy of joining the military. James completed three combat tours, one in Afghanistan from 2001 to 2002, and two in Iraq, 2005 to 2006; and, 2009 to 2010.

He said he joined the marines because he “wanted to fight.” All through school he was always in fights, and thought it was something he might like doing, especially as a marine. But after his second tour, he had doubts. By his third tour, he knew what we were doing in Iraq and Afghanistan were wrong. He describes it by saying “there are old men who send young men to war, and they make lots and lots of money. Iraq was fine. They had electricity, internet, homes, families, jobs, clean water, until we got there…and there were no weapons of mass destruction.”

From the report posted at wearenotyoursoldiers.org:

In each class, some students walked into class “disruptive” but when the film came on they were silent, captivated by the horror they were watching. This engagement lasted through the discussion. The youth were very shocked about what they saw in the video, especially the fact that there were children there. They called it scary, disgusting, heartless, and it elicited nervous laughter. In the afternoon one girl got teary eyed and when her friends made fun she said, “don’t laugh at me for crying this shit is sad.” One male student made a very true statement about the video, saying, “This is not a good advertisement for the military.”

Matthis’ point of being less of a man for having joined the military really resonated with students, nodding at what he was saying about losing your humanity in doing these acts. They were moved by both the video and Matthis’ further testimony to these outrages being daily occurrences and his use of the word genocide. It affected them that their government was just killing people in a neighborhood and it changed how they viewed the war. They could see the impact and they, for the most part, definitely didn’t want to be a part of it.

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By Joe Urgo, Viet Nam Veteran

Matthis Chiroux, Iraq war resister and part of the “We Are Not Your Soldiers” tour, and I met with three groups of students at a Vermont High School.

The first group of students was only about 10 in number, the second and third had about 30 students in each. In the two largest groups, 1/3 of one and 1/2 in the other had family and friends in the military. This is important to understand because everything we say can be taken as a personal attack on their family members and make it difficult for them to see the politics and policies that make up these wars for empire and the responsibility to end them. 

By Lauren Martino

“We Are Not Your Soldiers!,” a project of World Can’t Wait, is educating youth about military recruitment through bringing Iraq war veterans to speak in high schools about the reality of going to war for this country.

“After the World Can’t Wait presentation, it was apparent that my students were affected. The next day one student showed me a poem he wrote about a young boy from the ghetto enlisting in the military and dying, another asked for a World Can’t Wait T-shirt, and yet another, who had wanted to join the military, handed me a recommendation form for a vocational school. Others are still lost forever to the military but the “We Are Not Your Soldiers” tour offered the education American youth really need and that more teachers need to be more conscious of.”

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