Afghanistan war resister needs/would like books sent to him in prison...

196 is the death toll of British soldiers in Afghanistan. Victor Agusto is yet another soldier who is refusing to return. Based on their previous experiences, these soldiers are joining the growing calls for an end to war, for the troops to be pulled out in what many are calling an 'unwinnable war'.

In a message i received this morning from his facebook group he says he is 'ok for money' but would like some books to be sent to him.

Victor returned to Fort Hood, Texas after a 13-month deployment in Iraq and became active with Iraq Veterans Against the War. Victor has been stop-lossed in preparation for deployment to Afghanistan. In May, he told his unit command he would not go. He has refused to follow any order which would support the occupation of Afghanistan, an occupation he considers immoral, illegal, and dangerous to the citizens of the U.S. He faces a summary court-martial and incarceration for 30 days very soon.

For more information on Victor's struggle, visit http://underthehoodcafe.org/victor_agosto_links.html

HIS MAILING ADDRESS IS (for letters and books)

Victor Agusto - B1C

Bell Co. Law Enforcement Center

113 W Central

Belton, Tx 76513

Join his Facebook group HERE

The Mirror reports well on Joe Glenton

It's not often that I want to report what is being said in the red top Daily Mirror but I couldn't resist this one. The last line is great...

Why Joe Glenton should not be facing a court martial

By Paul Routledge 7/08/2009

If you’re a deskbound general continually demanding more men, more weapons and more money to subdue Afghanistan, you get endless air time, a peerage and a gold-plated pension.

If you’re a humble squaddie with service in theatre, whose doubts about the war are so serious you go Awol for two years, you face disgrace, a court martial and possibly jail.

Lance Corporal Joe Glenton, 27, of the Royal Logistic Corps, has been charged with desertion for refusing to return to Afghanistan, and faces extra charges for speaking out about a war he (and plenty of his mates) say is unwinnable.

When MoD top brass say the same thing it makes headlines, not a charge sheet.

Rarely has the class distinction between officers and men been so clearly defined.

Dear Mr. Brown,

From Stop the War Website

Prime Minister

10 Downing Street

30 July 2009

Dear Mr. Brown,

I am writing to you as a serving soldier in the British army to express my views and concerns on the current conflict in Afghanistan.

It is my primary concern that the courage and tenacity of my fellow soldiers has become a tool of American foreign policy. I believe this unethical short-changing of such proud men and women has caused immeasurable suffering not only to families of British service personnel who have been killed and injured, but also to the noble people of Afghanistan.

I have seen qualities in the Afghan people which have also been for so long apparent and admired in the British soldier. Qualities of robustness, humour, utter determination and unwillingness to take a step backwards. However it is these qualities, on both sides, which I fear will continue to cause a state of attrition. These will only lead to more heartbreak within both our societies.

I am not a general nor am I a politician and I cannot claim any mastery of strategy. However, I am a soldier who has served in Afghanistan, which has given me some small insight.

I believe that when British military personnel submit themselves to the service of the nation and put their bodies into harms way, the government that sends them into battle is obliged to ensure that the cause is just and right, i.e. for the protection of life and liberty.

L/Cpl Glenton speaks against Afghan war

The war in Afghanistan is not reducing the terrorist risk, far from improving Afghan lives it is bringing death and devastation to their country. Britain has no business there.

I do not believe that our cause in Afghanistan is just or right. I implore you, Sir, to bring our soldiers home.

Yours sincerely,

Joe Glenton Lance/Corporal, Royal Logistics Corps

Why soldiers quit the army. A letter speaks a thousand theses.

I have been trying to talk my cousin out of joining the army for a while now: I have sent her websites, leaflets, blog posts and all sorts to make her realise the realities of what you sign up for.

I don't think anything can put it as strongly as a heart felt letter from a currently serving, although AWOL, soldier. My Dad would have written something similar.

The following letter was sent in to Socialist Worker.

Why soldiers quit the army

British soldiers are not deserting the army due to mental illness or cowardice. They go Awol because the army puts soldiers through so much harassment and bullying.

The army and government don’t tell you that you will be treated as a slave. The only professionalism in the army is from the ordinary soldier not our leaders.

I’m Awol have no intention of returning, and sorry, no I don’t feel bad about it! The army turned it’s back on the lads but expects us to give a crap? What hypocrisy!

If I had known how unfair, unprofessional, sadistic, demeaning, racist, and bullying the army is I would have never ever signed up for the biggest lie ever!

The army turns brave young lads into fearful oppressed cowardly men who do as their told or else. This is not a professional way to go about doing things.

They can’t get soldiers to respect them so they get them to fear them! It’s an ungrateful evil backstabbing institution.

A Soldier

Desperate recruiting tactics from the HM Forces

HMForces’ Top 11 Reasons to Date a Soldier

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Queen's Guard, Buckingham Palace

- HMForces Staff

A woman will always feel secure with a soldier around them. Find out why a soldier leads the charge for a woman’s heart!

1) They always wear the right protection 
2) They can fire hundreds of rounds before getting tired 
3) They nearly always follow orders from their superiors 
4) They know how to wash, iron and mend their own clothes 
5) Keeping fit gives them real staying power – and the muscles to match! 
6) They’re not afraid of deep insertion ops 
7) Impeccable marksmanship 
8) They don’t get lost in the dark 
9) Always ready for action 
10) They like it rough and tough 
11) The uniform! 

Don't believe me? See it HERE

So, the 'war-efforts' of BME are not recognised after all-SOAS occupation justified

In January, SOAS students occupied the Brunei gallery over the MoD's disgraceful exhibition which was supposed to be celebrating the 'war efforts of Black and Minority Ethnic' soldiers in the First World War. Claiming that the first Britons were those who fought in their wars, the military  were using SOAS space for free in an attempt to attract SOAS students into joining. The exhibition spoke about a few high ranking officers from India and various places in africa who chose to join the armed forces but did not at all, which is whhat we feared, talk about the many who were forced to join and subsequently used as human shields and worse...check out somee of the racist imagery that was used at the time. 

So, now it comes as no surprise that the MoD have issued a series of Action Man dolls in another attempt to recruit even younger kids. (And Hackney Stop the War anti-recruitment campaign fights on...new photos of action HERE)

Stop the War Statement on MOD dolls.

The MOD has sponsored a set of "HM Armed Forces" dolls. All are male, all are white, none have missing limbs or bear the psychological scars of warfare.

Since the ‘war on terror’, the government has been struggling to make the army something to be respected and emulated and to make war seem acceptable and justifiable. These toys are a part of that drive as are the resurgence of military parades and recruitment campaigns aimed at teenagers.

The reality is that the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan are disasters and the last three soldiers to die in Iraq committed suicide because they found their lives unbearable. These toys attempt to make acceptable a completely unacceptable situation. Children have no natural predilection to violence nor do they have any need to play with toys that normalise war. This glamorisation of war and today’s rising levels of unemployment are a dangerous combination. Children should not be targeted for military recruitment.

The Army needs subvertising-we need real jobs not bombs.

Outside my son's college all the phone boxes are covered in these Army recruitment adverts. As the world plunges deeper into recession and unemployment levels skyrocket a 'career' in the army can appear to be an exciting prospect, offering working class kids the 'opportunity' to travel the world and do many things otherwise out of their reach.

I could not believe it when my son came home a couple of weeks ago and announced that if he doesn't pass his exams he's going to join the Navy along with his friend. They had had a visit from the Military recruiters at his college and were told that they wouldn't have to fight in Iraq or Afghanistan!

Given that even MY son can fall for this--he has been on Stop the War demo's and has Free Gaza posters on his wall--I am outraged by the military's blatant lies and propaganda.

As an army brat I did too get to travel the world but at what cost? Attending a military school meant that the education we received was quite different to what other schools teach. Our history lessons, for example, did not teach us about Imperialism and colonialism. We were pushed into attending military training. I was in the Air Training Corp and learnt all about the 'good' work that the military does around the world.

My Dad left in the end because he was disillusioned with the army and went onto to become a nurse. I have met up with other ex-military friends of my dad's and they are still suffering from depression and disillusionmeent. All of them say that they could not resist because at the end of the day they were just 'doing their job' and the only way to protest was by leaving which they could not do until they had served a minimum time or pay thousands to buy themselves out. I understand how many people join the military because they want to help people but what help exactly are they giving?

I fully support this campaign and urge us all to do similar actions.

See Clara's blog post about another fabulous action by Hackney Stop the War

See the article in the Hackney Gazette group

and a link to website offering advice to people thinking of joining the military: http://www.beforeyousignup.info/

Top military lies about recruitment: http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/62945/

Brave Israeli's prepared to stand up and speak out about the atrocities in Gaza.

Protests silenced by mainstream media. Watch videos of their movement at Israel Social TV

The number of refusniks is growing. Bravo to the brave young people who refuse to join the IDF. They say "we will not commit war crimes, we will not bomb children and drive people out of their houses". 

We need to make their voices heard. Spread the word.

Military recruiters kicked off campus at SOAS

One of our demands when we occupied the Brunei Suite at SOAS was to get assurance from the school that military propaganda will not be allowed on campus in the future. The school responded by saying that they would not allow any military on campus in the futuree without prior approval from the Students' Union.

Given that we passed a motion on Tuesday that resolved to oppose ALL military propaganda, a policy which will now last for FIVE years, we now have a mandate to say to the school 'NO, not on our campus'.

We claim this as a major result. An action that is part of an international campaign to oppose military recruiters on campuses and places of study.  UCL, a top university in England passed a motion for this last year and caused an uproar in the right-wing media...well done to UCL Stop the War Society.  Read another story here.

SUCCESS!!

Racist Prince Harry and his 'p@*i' mate, Ahmed. Watch the video here

So, you're only british if you fight in the British army. Fuming about racist exhibition at SOAS...

So, you're only British if you fight in the British army, originally uploaded by solomonsmfield.

Note the racist imagery

Fuming about racist exhibition at SOAS...

Last year we were approached by the Ministry of Defence asking us to host an exhibition about the war efforts of Black and Minority Ethnics in the World wars 1 & 2. We discussed it, put it to the union general meeting (UGM) and voted unanimously not to allow military propaganda into our union.

Imagine my reaction when i found out that the school have gone ahead with it regardless of what the students want...there is much more to this story-you will find it very illluminating. I need to write a motion for our UGM tmrw details of the agenda on post below. I will post the full story soon. Please come to the UGM tomorrow to support our emergency motion. Below is the message from the school...

This week SOAS is hosting an exhibition in the Brunei Suite (ground floor, Russell Square end of the Brunei Gallery Building) called the "We were there" exhibition. All students and staff are welcome to go in and have a look around, any time between 9am and 9pm Monday through Friday this week (12-16th Jan). There will also be some school parties visiting and at those times there will be a small number of serving officers in attendance.

The exhibit features the stories of many individuals from ethnic and religious minorities who have worked in or alongside the UK's defensive forces over the past 250 years including pilots, sailors and soldiers but also technicians and engineers, nurses and spies, all sorts of roles. The emphasis is on professionalism and service, rather than the events in which people became involved. 

This exhibition was developed with support from the Commission for Racial Equality and has won awards for bringing to public attention the involvement of people from minority groups. We hope that you will find it of interest.

URGENT PROTEST: UCL provost undermines student democracy by allowing military recruiters on campus

Last term UCL Stop the War society had a major victory by passing a motion to ban military recruitment on campus. This year the Students' Union has not allowed the Armed Forces to attend Freshers Fayre.

But the school have stepped in and undermined student democracy by allowing the military to recruit for the 3 days running up to the fayre. They will have full use of the 'Quad'-the main area of the college entrance.

Tomorrow 24th Sept to Wed 26th the uniformed Officer Training Core (OTC) along with other military recruiters ULAS and URNU will be on campus armed with leaflets, poster and videos. Along with promises of parachuting, skydiving and travelling the world, they will be offering students FREE education bursaries to anyone who signs their life away to be experiemented on and potentially to be killed, or at least to be trained to kill others.

The school has said that by not allowing recruitment on campus students would be deprived of funding for (what are now very expensive) degree programmes.

Students who opposed the motion at the previous general meeting have prepared a series of action and protests including lecture announcements and are submitting a motion to the first welcome General Meeting of 2008/9 to overturn the ban. Read more on this at in the London Student

UCL Stop the War society has called a counter protest. Details as follows:

Meet 11am outside UCL Quad.

Call Clare on 07958 034 181 for more details.

We need to fundementally oppose the use of public funds to recruit for illegal wars, to call for the upholding of student decision making bodies and to expose the lies that military recruiters tell to our students.

Please spread the word

Israel cracks down on anti-draft websites

Israel is to launch a crackdown on organizations that offer advice on how to evade army service amid a wave of young Jews' disappointment.

Israeli Attorney General Menachem Mazuz ordered on Monday an investigation against the organizations which offer internet advice on evading military service, accusing them of incitement against the army.

Deputy Attorney General Shai Nitzan claims that the material published by such organizations on the Internet constitutes incitement against the army.

He said they not only encourage youths to dodge the draft, but also explain in great detail how this can be accomplished, the Yediot Aharonot reported on Monday.

While opinion polls suggest Israel's young generation is increasingly losing faith to the regime, several organizations are publishing online materials to teach the youth draft dodging tricks.

"Declaring chronic back or head aches can lower your medical profile, and marking the wrong answers on the psychometric exam certainly decreases the candidate's value for security service, even leading to an automatic discharge from the IDF," one of these websites read.

The organizations, however, have their own side of story. For example, New Profile organization says Israeli society is a militaristic one and the army is in control of people's life.

The groups' members accuse the regime of desperately trying to silence them against the freedom of speech.

They say the army has difficulty in understanding society's realities.

From Press TV

Victory as North London College kick military recruiters off campus

Read Socialist Worker report here

Look out for similar campaigns all over the country (SOAS students look for the motion at UGM 3rd October 2008)