letter to Independent Re: anti war protests 9 Sept. 2010

This is a longer version of a letter sent to the
Irish Independent...where two writers said that the
actions of anti-war protesters against blair shamed
Ireland.

Anti-War Protests

My first protest was a small anti-war protest in Boston in 1967.
It was small, as it was before the Tet Offensive on 31 January 1968.
I was pro-war.

At one point, I ran into the crowd as did others, and punched a few
protesters. A cop grabbed me and put me in the back seat of a police
car. It was from there that I watched the police let dogs loose on
the anti-war protesters, not people like me...belligerents.

Two police got in the car and drove off. I was imagining the beating
my father would give me for skipping school, and being arrested.
(also, it would break my record of not being caught skipping school:-)

As we turned one corner one cop patted my knee and said ‘that was great.’
Both roared with laughter, and let me out a few blocks away. They just
said not to “go back there”. I learned that most police aren’t neutral.
They didn't arrest me for assault and battery! Some protesters were
arrested.

I went to Vietnam twice, (less than five months total), and came back
a changed person. At a 1974 anti-war protest in Washington D.C. by
Vietnam Veterans Against the War VVAW) the police attacked a group
of us in a Billy club frenzy. I wasn’t hit. I disarmed a cop rushing
at me. He learned what it feels like. He got off very easy. I still
have a photo of one officer with his club raised at me after the incident.
He wanted a go at me to make up for his friend, and I waved him to me
saying he was armed I wasn't(by then). I was a little crazy.

Both protests were peaceful. There was an attempt to club dissent, and
resistance into the ground.

In Vietnam I was a Marine Corps rifleman(a 'grunt')> I went to kill and
be a hero. But, within hours I met my first Vietnamese; she was ‘The Girl
I Met on Christmas Day 1968-Da Nang’. She was part of 20-30 children begging
for money for, food. They were victims of our war; some had no arms,
legs, eyes, or had scars from napalm. A horrible weapon.

So, while Sinead Andrews (letters 8 Sept) settles into a ‘comy’ chair
to watch TV millions of children in Iraq , Afghanistan et al, live in ways
she and Kevin Cullen are oblivious to! Others like me have seen them face-
to-face. It's not pretty. I couldn't understand why they were begging; I
thought that we-the US- were there to help them.

The so-called War on terror is nothing but a cover for illegal wars of
aggression to control resources and dominate the planet. War is built on
a pile of lies miles high.

Uranium from Niger ? A lie.

WMD’s. A lie.

Mobile weapons labs? A lie.

Bringing democracy to Iraq . A big lie; it’s an occupation for oil.

Saddam gassed his own people. Yes, he did with US helicopters.

The US sold Saddam Anthrax, VX nerve gas, West Nile fever germs,
botulism and more. West German, French, Italian, Austrian, and Swiss
companies gave him other toxins. Hey, he was our friend, and it was...
well you know...business.

As long as these wars of aggression continue war criminals like Bush,
Cheney or Blair must not have peace, or be ‘comy’. A jail cell is what
they deserve.

I believe what Kevin Tillman, brother of Pat Tillman said: “So, don’t
be shocked when our grandkids bury much of this generation as traitors
to the nation, to the world and to humanity”.


Paul Meuse MA, LLB

7 Belgrave Place

Wellington road

Cork