We Are Not Your Soldiers made our first visit of the 2024/25 academic year to speak to three classes at a college in the NY metropolitan area. Brittany Ramos DeBarros, who had been an officer in Afghanistan, presented to the students and engaged in discussion with them. Watch here. See a student comment we received […]

By Debra Sweet Since 2008, when we began sending anti-war veterans into class rooms, their presentations have largely focused, very importantly, on their experience in wars across the world, from Vietnam to Iraq, when those running this country and its military were united in war on the world. But those “normal imperialist” times are gone. […]

By 2nd Lt. Joy Metzler From Counterpunch | Original Article Somewhere around the age of 20, I sat in a large auditorium at the United States Air Force Academy with a thousand other cadets and cheered at footage of real drone strikes on real people, laughing along with everyone else as we watched little, pixelated figures run for […]

In April 2024, We Are Not Your Soldiers brought, via Zoom, veteran Rosa del Duca to speak to college students in New York City.

By Nick Turse From Responsible Statecraft | Original Article His role in the 1968 slaughter of over 100 Vietnamese was a feature, not a bug, in the ill-fated US war in Southeast Asia On the evening of March 15, 1968, members of the Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry, were briefed by their commanding officer, […]

We Are Not Your Soldiers has been scheduling anti-war veterans into classroom visits since 2006 via World Can’t Wait and formally, as a World Can’t Wait project, since 2008. Critical thinking is encouraged and demonstrated with the students. We aim, through this deep engagement, to clarify for some students why they should not join up, […]

By Nick Turse From TomDispatch | Original Article U.S. Troops Are Losing a War with Their Deadliest Enemy At the end of the last century, hoping to drive the United States from Saudi Arabia, the home of Islam’s holiest sites, al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden sought to draw in the American military. He reportedly wanted […]

By Guy Davies and Britt Clennett From ABC News | Original Article To see video, visit original article. JERUSALEM — Yuval Green, a 26-year-old reservist who was called up to fight in southern Gaza, said he decided to leave the Israel Defense Forces when his unit was asked to set fire to a Palestinian house […]

By Liza Rozovsky From Haaretz | Original Article Yuval was required to torch two residential buildings; Michael realized how many civilians were likely to be killed during every bombing he observed; and Tal broke down when Israel entered Rafah. They are willing to suffer the price for their refusal to serve in Gaza. When Tal […]

From Democracy Now | Original Article As Israel’s war on Gaza enters its 10th month, we speak with Mohammed Abu Hashem, a Palestinian American who ended a 22-year career in the U.S. Air Force after an Israeli airstrike in Gaza killed his aunt in October. “It was clear to me that I needed to step […]

By Marjorie Cohn From Truthout | Original Article As Israel continues its genocide against the Palestinians, the number of US conscientious objectors is increasing. On June 4, a coalition of active-duty service members, veterans and G.I. rights groups launched a campaign called Appeal for Redress V2 to encourage military personnel to tell Congress to stop […]

Our We Are Not Your Soldiers school visits ended for the spring semester with a presentation by West Point graduate and Army veteran Dean Feinman to two classes at a NYC community college. See this commentary by some NY students at another college he spoke at a couple of weeks prior. …the conversation with Dean from We are not […]

From Democracy Now | Original Article We speak with U.S. Army Major Harrison Mann, the first military and intelligence officer to publicly resign over the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s war on Gaza. Mann left his role at the Defense Intelligence Agency after a 13-year career, saying in a public letter explaining his resignation that […]

We received this request from Mattan Helman, the Executive Director of Refuser Solidarity Network (RSN) and an Israeli refuser. Over the last few weeks, there’s been a noticeable shift in Israeli public sentiment and we’ve received signs indicating the emergence of a new wave of refusal. Increasingly, Israelis view the ongoing fighting not merely as […]

By Alex Horton and John Hudson From The Washington Post | Original Article Maj. Harrison Mann said he feels “incredible shame and guilt” to know his work at the Defense Intelligence Agency has contributed to Palestinians’ suffering and death. A U.S. Army officer working at the Defense Intelligence Agency has resigned from the military, citing his objection to […]

We “traveled” remotely to college classrooms in April — we went to North Carolina and out to Long Island in NY. We also visited in NYC both in-person and remotely. Both NYC visits were to philosophy classes at a public university. Rosa del Duca explained how she had joined the National Guard in Montana thinking […]

By Seth Kershner From COMDWeb | Original Article Beginning in 2022 the New York Times began publishing an astonishing series of investigative articles on Junior ROTC — the most sustained and critical coverage of high school militarism in recent memory. As this issue of Draft NOtices points out, the articles led to congressional action to […]

The 2004 THQ game ‘Full Spectrum Warrior’ started with a contract with the Army for an Xbox trainer for infantry troops. It sold well enough to civilian audiences that it got a 2006 sequel. (Image courtesy of International Games Database) A note from We Are Not Your Soldiers: One of the main purposes for using […]

March saw We Are Not Your Soldiers visiting a lot of schools, one in Philadelphia and the rest in various boroughs of New York City. Lyle Rubin spoke remotely with four Philly high school classes that have been researching different career paths whose teacher wanted them to have more information about the military than they […]

By Gerry Condon From Common Dreams | Original Article Airman Larry Hebert, who began a hunger strike at the White House on Easter Sunday, says he was inspired by the self-immolation of active-duty Airman Aaron Bushnell. An active-duty Air Force airman is on a hunger strike in front of the White House, in solidarity with […]

From Democracy Now | Original Article Democracy Now! speaks with an active-duty soldier in the U.S. Air Force on hunger strike to demand an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. Senior Airman Larry Hebert is on day three of his hunger strike outside the White House, where he has been holding a sign that reads “Active Duty […]

We think this is important to read how the military is analyzing and explaining its problems in recruiting, so we are posting this article originally entitled, “Army Sees Sharp Decline in White Recruits.” We continue to send veterans into classes to tell the truth about the U.S. military and what it does at home and […]

By Oren Ziv From +972 Magazine | Original Article Conscientious objector Sofia Orr explains why she never wavered in her decision despite the crackdown in Israel against opponents of the war. On Sunday morning, 18-year-old Israeli conscientious objector Sofia Orr arrived at the army’s recruitment center near Tel Aviv and declared her refusal to enlist […]

By Lyle Jeremy Rubin (We Are Not Your Soldiers presenter) From The Nation | Original Article The airman who set himself alight on Sunday signed up to sacrifice himself for the greater good—only to discover that he had become an accomplice to evil. I will leave it to others to discuss the precedents for Aaron […]

From Democracy Now | Original Article In an act that has captured the attention of the world, Aaron Bushnell, a 25-year-old active-duty member of the U.S. Air Force, set himself on fire outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington Sunday to protest Israel’s assault on Gaza and U.S. support for the military campaign. Bushnell, who live-streamed […]

From Veterans for Peace | Original Article Letter calls on State Department Inspector-General to investigate illegal shipments and numerous violations of Federal law  In a letter to the Inspector-General of the U.S. State Department, a national veterans’ organization today demanded the State Department terminate weapons shipments to Israel and called on the Inspector General to […]

By Brett Wilkins From Common Dreams | Original Article “Many of us like to ask ourselves, ‘What would I do if I was alive during slavery? Or the Jim Crow South? Or apartheid? What would I do if my country was committing genocide?’ The answer is, you’re doing it.” “My name is Aaron Bushnell, I […]

You feel it when we say “stop the crimes of your government.” You agree “humanity and the planet come first.” Friends – join in the mission of World Can’t Wait and its We Are Not Your Soldiers project. Become a monthly sustainer.  Some sustainers give $2.00 – and many donate more – a month.More sustainers are needed to expand the […]

This evidentiary video episode of the Merchants of Death War Crimes Tribunal is a fascinating conversation with Dr. Kelly Denton-Borhaug, whose work began soon after the events of 9/11 with her investigation of what she came to call “U.S. war-culture.” In more recent years, Denton-Borhaug’s focus moved to “military moral injury.” This invisible epidemic (linked […]

No fee charged to your school: We Are Not Your Soldiers is set to come to your school this semester with an anti-war veteran who will dialogue with your students and be ready to answer any of their questions. Depending on your location our visit will either be in person or via remote technology. As […]

By Oren Ziv From +972 Magazine | Original Article ‘I refuse to take part in a revenge war’: Israel jails teen for opposing army draftTal Mitnick is the first Israeli conscientious objector to be imprisoned since Oct. 7. He explains why the current war has only reaffirmed his convictions. On Tuesday, Dec. 26, 18-year-old Tal […]

By Brett Wilkins From Common Dreams | Original Article “I believe that slaughter cannot solve slaughter,” said 18-year-old Tal Mitnick, who was sentenced to 30 days behind bars for refusing to participate in what a fellow draft resister called a “genocide” in Gaza. A young Israeli man was sentenced Tuesday to 30 days behind bars […]

Formed in 2008, We Are Not Your Soldiers continues to bring veterans into classrooms to share their experiences in the U.S. military while engaging in dialogue with students, exposing imperial wars to a generation – actually, a society – largely unaware of the crimes being carried out throughout the world in their names. In 2023 […]

A panel of filmmakers discusses their role in producing films on the scale and impact of the GI movement during the Vietnam War, the role of artists in supporting antiwar soldiers, and honoring helicopter pilot Hugh Thompson who tried to halt the killing and rescue civilians in the midst of the My Lai massacre. For […]

November was a month of travels – taking us to Georgia, Ohio and North Carolina as well as Brooklyn, Manhattan and Long Island in New York. We began the month with two exceptional visits. We usually go to classrooms where the educators have invited us to enrich their curricula by addressing their students. These visits […]

Although filmed in 2006, it is highly relevant today.

We Are Not Your Soldiers presenter Lyle Jeremy Rubin was one of a group of veterans demanding a ceasefire now who spoke at a press conference organized by Representative Cori Bush. Hear Lyle’s contribution starting at 4:46. Click link to watch.

By Derek Seidman From Truthout | Original Article Hundreds of veterans returned from Iraq ready to fight the horror and injustice of the U.S. military industrial complex. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. It also marks 20 years since the birth of the massive global antiwar movement that […]

From Refuser Solidarity Network In the past few weeks, the Jewish Arab war resistance movement is experiencing one of its hardest and most terrifying moments – perhaps the worst it has been in at least a generation… On October 25th, police shut down an Arab-Jewish meeting in the Israeli city of Haifa, the main subject […]

In October, for the first time since the Covid lockdown in March 2019, we were back doing in-person We Are Not Your Soldiers school visits. Our October visits began in the New York metropolitan area. John Burns, accompanied by his service dog Zero, spoke to students at four varied schools. Some classes viewed either a […]

From Refuser Solidarity Network My Name is Atalya, In 2017 I publicly refused to serve in the Israeli military. I did so because I felt I could not take part in the occupation of Palestine. Subsequently, I spent four months in military prison, but more importantly, I started walking a path of non-violent resistance to the […]

Our friend Barbara Harris, a long-time activist for peace and justice, member of the Granny Peace Brigade, and organizer of a vigorous effort to combat military recruiters at NYC public schools, died recently after a long illness. We’re sharing this extensive page covering some of that work:  A Tribute to Counter-recruitment Activist Barbara G Harris.

Samantha Goldman talks with Will Carless, national correspondent for USA Today on extremism, about his recent investigation: The military ordered big steps to stop extremism. Two years later, it shows no results. Follow him on Twitter @WillCarless and read his work at USA Today. Listen on Spotify. Click here to listen on Youtube. Click here […]

On this episode of the Free Thought Project Podcast, hosts Matt and Don engage in a deeply enlightening conversation with veterans Will Griffin and Joe Urgo of We Are Not Your Soldiers, an organization which boldly stands as a counter-narrative to the enticing pitches of military recruiters. Through the lens of their own profound transformations, […]

By Oren Ziv From +972 Magazine | Original Article On Sunday afternoon, hundreds of Israelis gathered outside the Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium high school in central Tel Aviv for the launch of a new letter by young conscientious objectors under the banner of “Youth Against Dictatorship.” Despite pressure from the far right and the Education Ministry, […]

As the autumn semester begins, We Are Not Your Soldiers is ready to set up a time with teachers and professors to visit classes and engage in dialog with students during this 2023-24 school year. Our speakers, all veterans of the U.S. armed forces are prepared to share their experiences and knowledge and answer questions from […]

We received this message via the Refusers Solidarity Network. This is Yeheli, the coordinator for Mesarvot network (Israeli network supporting Israeli youth refusers)… We have exciting news. In the past few months we have been supporting a group of Israeli youth, obligated by law to enlist in the near future, in the process of writing […]

At a recent Zoom discussion hosted by World Can’t Wait on “The film Oppenheimer & Lessons for NOW,” Joe Urgo, We Are Not Your Soldiers presenter, was invited to speak. Joe, Vietnam veteran and organizer of the 1971 Winter Soldiers Investigation, talked about his experiences guarding nuclear weapons as well as a subsequent visit to Hiroshima where […]

This week on Talk World Radio we’re talking about counter-recruitment, or discouraging people from joining a military. We have two guests. Debra Sweet is Director of World Can’t Wait (parent organization for We Are Not Your Soldiers) who has been working to stop U.S. war on the world for almost 60 years. Hip-Hop Artivist and […]

By C.J. Chivers From The New York Times | Original Article Ian Fishback, who left the Army with the rank of major, was a dissident-in-uniform who died at the age of 42 after entering a dizzying mental health spiral. On a gentle knoll within plain view of the Pentagon he once labored to hold to […]

By Richard Luscombe From The Guardian | Original Article Veterans resign from force established as civilian disaster relief, citing concerns over ‘militaristic’ training and ‘abuse’ A Florida state guard established by the rightwing governor, Ron DeSantis, under the guise of a civilian disaster relief force is instead being trained as an armed, combat-ready militia under his […]

By Debra Sweet On Memorial Day in Okinawa, June 23, I’ve been asked to speak in NYC at an event marking the terrible 1945 battle between the U.S. military and Japan at the end of WW II (in front of NY Public Library, 42nd St. & 5th Ave., 1:30-2:30 pm). There were hundreds of thousands […]

By Debra Sweet We’ve been following the difficulties of the US military in reaching recruitment goals, without sympathy. Those problems are not something to passively applaud, but to actively foster and learn from. The comments by Christine Wormuth, the Secretary of the Army, in a June 11 NPR interview on this “serious situation,” are outrageous. […]

By Lyle Jeremy Rubin From The Forum | Original Article Jordan Neely’s killer and the racist violence at the heart of the American imperial project The man who spent minutes choking Jordan Neely to death on a New York City subway was a United States marine. He enlisted as a private in 2017 and was […]

By Oren Ziv From +972 Magazine | Original Article Left-wing high schoolers describe how the anti-government protests have provided a window for the mainstreaming of views long deemed illegitimate. On April 1, in the midst of one of the weekly mass demonstrations in Tel Aviv against the Israeli government’s judicial overhaul plans, a group of […]

This important full-page letter was published as an advertisement in the print edition of The New York Times on Tuesday May 16, 2023 and is signed primarily by high-ranking U.S. military veterans. It opens by saying, “The Russia-Ukraine War has been an unmitigated disaster. Hundreds of thousands have been killed or wounded. Millions have been […]

Lyle Rubin, a Marines veteran who was stationed in Afghanistan and is one of the We Are Not Your Soldiers presenters, was a panelist in this conversation sponsored by Scholars Strategy Network and Brooklyn for Peace about U.S. imperialism and the recruitment of immigrants into the U.S. military. Watch the video here.

A very interesting interview on Vietnamese TV (with English translation for everything said in Vietnamese) with Ron Carver on the history of the opposition to the U.S. war on Vietnam within the U.S. military. The recent exhibition in a Vietnamese museum on the period of the war and opposition within the U.S. military, curated by […]

Joe Urgo and Will Griffin April took We Are Not Your Soldiers to speaking locations both within and outside the borders of the United States – remotely, although we would have loved to have done all these visits in person! We started with a very new experience – speaking for two hours with graduate diplomacy/security […]

By Fred Hidvegi From Common Dreams | Original Article As my birthday approaches, I grow more and more anxious because a professional organization of trained terrorists that calls itself an army wants me to be one of them. And if I say no, a prison sentence will be the result. As a soon-to-be 18-year-old Israeli […]

By Rowaida Abdelaziz From Huffington Post | Original Article The U.S. government has long celebrated having immigrants in the military, but Sofya Aptekar’s new book shows it’s a much more complicated story. The U.S. government has long celebrated having immigrants in the military and has touted the 158,000 people who have earned citizenship through service […]

By Sam Biddle From The Intercept | Original Article Federal contract materials outline plans to geofence 67 different public high schools throughout the state and to target phones with recruitment ads. The Georgia Army National Guard plans to combine two deeply controversial practices — military recruiting at schools and location-based phone surveillance — to persuade […]

By Nan Levinson From TomDispatch | Original Article Losing Wars and Losing Recruits After more than 20 years of losing wars, recruiting for the U.S. Army is now officially a mess. Last year, that service fell short of its goal by 15,000 recruits, or a quarter of its target. Despite reports of better numbers in the […]

Update from Revolution | Original Article – 4/17/23 Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) brands herself as a “progressive” in Congress who has spoken out against some of America’s war crimes. She’s now pimping on her “progressive cred” to shill for—and legitimize—the U.S. military.  In March, AOC co-sponsored a “student services fair” at a high school in her […]

By Ruben Abrahams Brosbe From Yes! Magazine | Original Article The branches of the U.S. military have long seen high schools as optimal recruiting grounds. Some veterans are beginning to fight the propaganda and tell students the truth about military service. March 20 marked the 20th anniversary of the United States’ invasion of Iraq. The […]

We Are Not Your Soldiers started out 2023 with two visits to a NYC alternative high school special education class: the January visit featured presentations by Vietnam veterans Joe Urgo and Miguel Gabriel Velazquez while Miles Megaciph performed and spoke during the February visit. January related to Martin Luther King’s speech about the U.S. war […]

Airtime: PBS American Experience premier is Tuesday, March 28, but air-times vary with local stations. Most will broadcast at 9:00 p.m. ET or at 8:00 p.m. CT. It will be available for one month streaming on PBS.org and indefinitely on the American Experience web site. We are pleased to announce that We Are Not Your […]

By W.D. Ehrhart From LA Progressive | Original Article Daniel Ellsberg, who risked life in prison to make those documents public, became a hero of mine, a man whose courage and decency have inspired me ever since. I enlisted in the US Marines when I was 17 years old. When the Marine Corps sent me […]

From Refuser Solidarity Network | Original Article My name is Shimri Zameret and I am RSN’s board chairman. These are crucial times in Israel/Palestine and the Israeli refuser movement needs your help as thousands of soldiers have announced their refusal to serve in the Israeli army over the last two weeks. During the Second Intifada, […]

From Refuser Solidarity Network | Original Article In the past few days, hundreds (!!) of Israeli soldiers have expressed their refusal to serve in the army under the new ultra-nationalist and far-right government unless its anti-democratic policies are stopped. Press reported that almost every army unit, including the “elite” commando unit and the air force, […]

By Andrea Mazzarino From TomDispatch | Original Article During a Veterans Day celebration in my small Maryland community, a teacher clicked through a slideshow of smiling men and women in military uniforms. “Girls and boys, can anyone tell me what courage is?” she asked the crowd, mostly children from local elementary schools, including my two […]

By Lolita C. Baldor From AP | Original Article WASHINGTON (AP) — While some Republicans blame the COVID-19 vaccine or “wokeness” for the Army’s recruiting woes, the military service says the bigger hurdles are more traditional ones: Young people don’t want to die or get injured, deal with the stress of Army life and put […]

By Steve Early and Suzanne Gordon From Jacobin | Original Article Several new memoirs from disillusioned military veterans reflect on the horrors of war. They’re essential tools for challenging US empire. Review of Un-American: A Soldier’s Reckoning of Our Longest War, by Erik Edstrom (Bloomsbury, 2020); Pain Is Weakness Leaving the Body: A Marine’s Unbecoming, […]

We received the following notice from Joy Damiani: New interviews on both East and West Coast radio shows are now live! On WABC, Frank Morano gave me a chance to tell his New York listeners what I thought about Veterans Day and the U.S. military, and on the Bay Area’s KPFA, Franklin Sterling dedicated a full […]

As the spring semester has started in high schools and colleges around the country, we look forward to visiting your class and engaging in deep discussion with students. Some schools function on quarters and we’re ready to plan with you for this quarter or next quarter. From time to time we do speak with middle […]

By Peter Maass From The Intercept | Original Article Lyle Jeremy Rubin’s book on Afghanistan wrestles with how to write about war without encouraging readers to follow his footsteps into battle. War is hell, we hear that all the time. If the cliché is true, another one is too: Depictions of war’s brutality can entice people to seek […]

By Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs and Mike Baker From The New York Times | Original Article CAPE CORAL, Fla. — Beneath the fluorescent lights of a high school gym, dozens of teenagers took turns firing air rifles at a series of bull’s-eye targets, part of a marksmanship competition that drew students from schools all along the Florida […]

John BurnsOne of the most telling quotes I remember being told when I first joined was “You get to travel to distant and exotic places, meet interesting and exciting people, and then kill them.” It goes without saying this shouldn’t be something we aspire to. Since I have been alive, we have never not been […]

The world still cannot wait for the United States to cease being the biggest danger to world peace.  Please support the message from people living in this country that humanity and the planet come first with your year-end donation to World Can’t Wait. Dangerous events in 2022 – the proxy war between the U.S./NATO and […]

By Mike Baker, Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs and Ilana Marcus From The New York Times | Original Article DETROIT — On her first day of high school, Andreya Thomas looked over her schedule and found that she was enrolled in a class with an unfamiliar name: J.R.O.T.C. She and other freshmen at Pershing High School in Detroit soon […]

By Pat Elder From MilitaryPoisons.org | Original Article Who knew? Who cares? Army report says eight hangars had suppression systems like these. There was an accidental discharge of foam from the fire suppression system in one hangar which resulted in more than five feet of foam covering the floor of the hangar. In early November, […]

By Alex Skopic From Current Affairs | Original Article Federal legislation enforces the militarization of schools, giving recruiters easy access to teenagers vulnerable to persuasion. An outlier among other nations for this method of recruitment, the U.S. should end this harmful practice. Today’s conservatives, to hear them tell it, are deeply concerned with the safety […]

By Kelly Denton-Borhaug From TomDispatch | Original Article Dear Veterans, I’m a civilian who, like many Americans, has strong ties to the U.S. Armed Forces. I never considered enlisting, but my father, uncles, cousins, and nephews did. As a child I baked cookies to send with letters to my cousin Steven who was serving in […]

World Beyond War has launched a new online tool that allows the user to view a globe pock-marked with 867 U.S. military bases in countries other than the United States, and to zoom in for a satellite view of and detailed information on each base. The tool also allows filtering the map or list of […]

By Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs and Mike Baker From The New York Times | Original Article Lawmakers criticized oversight by the military, which reported dozens of additional cases of abuse of high school students by J.R.O.T.C. instructors. WASHINGTON — The Pentagon received documented reports of at least 58 instances in the last five years in which high […]

By Jim Lobe From Responsible Statecraft | Original Article A new report finds that DOD uses ‘security cooperation’ programs for ‘secret wars,’ recommends that Congress rein them in. Read the full report here. U.S. military forces have been engaged in unauthorized hostilities in many more countries than the Pentagon has disclosed to Congress, let alone […]

By Roberto Comacho From Prism | Original Article As the military falls short of its recruitment goals, it is engaging in manipulative tactics that anti-militarism groups are educating and organizing against With a record low number of potential recruits and few of those willing to enlist, the U.S. military is trying to boost its numbers […]

No fee charged to your school: We Are Not Your Soldiers is set to come to your class this semester, still remotely as the term starts, with an anti-war veteran who will dialogue with your students and is ready to answer any of their questions. Educators and students: please contact us now to set up […]

From Refuser Solidarity Network | Original Article Conscientious objector Einat Gerlitz, 19, is currently serving a 7-day prison sentence for her refusal to enlist in the Israeli army and take part in the Israeli occupation over the Palestinian Teritorries. In addition to Einat, two other conscientious objectors, Nave Shabtay Levin (18) and Evyatar Moshe Rubin […]

By Jordan Uhl From Jacobin | Original Article The US military has a long history of recruiting poor people by offering benefits like free college. With Joe Biden’s partial student debt forgiveness, GOP war hawks are fretting that the military won’t be able to prey on desperate young Americans anymore. Amid a brutal year for […]

By Mike Baker From The New York Times | Original Article | 8/15/22 The House oversight committee wants the Pentagon to report on sexual misconduct in the high school programs and how it holds instructors accountable. Congressional investigators have opened a review of sexual misconduct in the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps program of the […]

From Refuser Solidarity Network | Original Article My name is Shahar Schwartz. I am 18 years old. Today is my enlistment day to the Israeli military. I am going to refuse enlistment and will be sent to jail. When I was 10 years old, during the Gaza war in 2014, I was home alone when […]

From Democracy Now | Original Article The U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly Tuesday night to expand healthcare and disability benefits to some 3.5 million former U.S. service members poisoned by toxic substances from waste burning pits on U.S. military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan. The PACT Act, which now heads to President Biden’s desk to be […]

Watch Joy Damiani, an Army veteran who had been stationed in Iraq as a “journalist,” as she shares her story and answers questions from students at a NYC middle school in the spring. This is one of only a very few instances of a presentation to this age group. These students had done a lot […]

Thanks to you, our supporters, we have had another productive year, without charging any fee to any school! Seven veterans engaged in discussion with some 1000 students, presenting their stories filled with information about the U.S. military and wars of aggression most students had never been exposed to before. Thank you for helping make it […]

Below are a transcript and video of a very interesting speech, “Living Without NATO, Ideas for Peace,” given by long-time German peace activist Dr. Eugen Drewermann at Humboldt University in Berlin on May 21, 2022. From Initiative from the Peace Movement | Original Article How can we regain peace and how can we keep it? […]

Will Griffin, Army veteran, who had tours in both Iraq and Afghanistan, shares his story and a special not-to-be-missed slide show filled with historical and current background information with a class in an alternative high school in NYC during this spring 2022 semester.

Watch Lyle Rubin, Marine veteran who was stationed in Afghanistan. This short video contains excerpts of Lyle’s talk with a college ethics class in NYC where he concentrates on depersonalization and dehumanization in Boot Camp and transformational issues.

By Kyle Anzalone From The Libertarian Institute | Original Article A record low number of America’s youth are eligible for military service, and fewer are considering the military as a career. According to a report from NBC News, every branch of the Department of Defense is struggling to meet its 2022 recruitment quotas. The military […]

By Pat Elder From Covert Action Magazine | Original Article I saw Top Gun: Maverick yesterday. It was absolutely horrible. The film sets a new standard for state-orchestrated, pro-military, mass indoctrination. Goebbels, chief propagandist for Hitler’s Nazi Party, would be in awe of the shiny death plane and the spotlights and the movie star in […]

From Project YANO | Original Article This Guide to Removing Marksmanship Training from High Schools Guide contains information on steps that can be taken to remove JROTC shooting ranges and marksmanship training from high schools. The content is based on decades of research and extensive experience organizing around the JROTC issue, including a campaign that […]

By Madeline Marshall From Vox | Original Article Why are the police bringing military assault rifles to protests? Across the country, Americans protesting racial injustice and police brutality — the overwhelming majority of them peacefully — have been met by police forces that look more like an army. Officers have shown up to protests with […]

In May and June, the school year winds down in high schools and colleges and we made our final visits for the spring semester. Lyle Rubin addressed a NYC college ethics class. Rosa del Duca spent a full day with classes at a large NYC high school, our third visit and third speaker to present […]

By MIR Italia – Movimento Internazionale della Riconciliazione From Pressenza | Original Article In a joint appeal to members of the European Parliament and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, a broad civil society alliance from 20 countries has called on the European governments to grant protection and asylum to Russian and Belarusian […]

We are very much looking forward to the release of this new documentary, “One More Mission,” which is in progress. It is about the Vietnam veterans who demanded an end to the war. Find out more here.

We are pleased that the Memorial Day 2022 interview is available to all listeners here on the WIOX radio archives. Tune in!

By Tori Bateman From American Friends Service Committee | Original Article Military recruiters work in schools and our communities to get young people to sign up for the military. They often target low-income students and students of color for enlistment. In some cases, military recruiters abuse their power. They harass recruits, lie about military service, […]

From TomDispatch | Original Article Introduction by Tom Engelhardt: As we think about the nightmarish war in Ukraine, let me just offer you a few figures: almost a million dead, nearly 400,000 of them civilians; at least 38 million people turned into war refugees or internally displaced; and perhaps $8 trillion in money squandered on […]

The Tale of The Brave Knight is an illustrated book that talks about war and the consequences it has for soldiers and their family members. It is a tale of a family in the aftermath of a war that carried on in their lives for years after the peace treaty was signed. The Tale of […]

By Melissa Chan From NBC News | Original Article The number of sailors who deserted the Navy more than doubled from 2019 to 2021, highlighting the lack of options contract-bound sailors face when they’re desperate to leave. The number of sailors who deserted the Navy more than doubled from 2019 to 2021, while desertions in […]

By Alex Ruppenthal From Chalkbeat | Original Article Hundreds of Chicago Public Schools students at predominantly Black and Latino high schools were forced to participate in what is supposed to be a “voluntary” military-run training program, according to a new report released Wednesday detailing an investigation by the district’s watchdog.  The practice of automatically enrolling […]

The month of April we traveled remotely to educational institutions in three states: New York, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. Our speakers – Joy Damiani, Miles Megaciph and John Burns – also were located in three different states but all our “voyages” worked well via Zoom. We spoke to students in two NYC high schools – […]

By Joy Damiani If You Ain’t Cheatin’, You Ain’t Tryin’ and Other Lessons I Learned in the Army is my answer to all of the questions everyone has asked me about the military and quite a few nobody’s asked. It’s the answer I was never able to give at cocktail parties, or backstage at shows […]

By Dave Philipps From The New York Times | Original Article By Dave Philipps Capt. Kevin Larson was one of the best drone pilots in the U.S. Air Force. Yet as the job weighed on him and untold others, the military failed to recognize its full impact. After a drug arrest and court martial, he […]

As we often show the “Collateral Murder” video when visiting college classes, it’s interesting to see this interpretation presented in NYC by artist Banksy. From Pressenza | Original Article During his tour in New York (on the 9th), Banksy unveiled one of his most political installations to date: the “Crazy Horse” mural, with an audio […]

On the April 8, 2022 show, Full Circle spent an hour with folk music artist, podcaster, military veteran and We Are Not Your Soldiers presenter Joy Damiani. You’ll hear an interview with graduate Apprentice Sara Blanco and Joy Damiani as she speaks about music, the military, the recruitment of our children and of course war […]

In March We Are Not Your Soldiers presenters spoke remotely at three alternative NYC high schools, a NYC middle school and to Spanish-dominant bilingual high school students in Philadelphia. A co-teacher at one of the NYC high schools wrote following Will’s talk: Thank you so much for your visit and your presentation today! I can’t […]

From Veterans for Peace | Original Article Veterans of several U.S. wars are urging President Biden to hold fast against growing political pressure to implement a “no-fly zone.” A No Fly Zone is an area established by a military power over which opposing aircraft are not permitted. No Fly Zones are enforced by military interception […]

By Gerry Condon, Vietnam-era veteran and former president of Veterans For Peace From Common Dreams | Original Article Instead of pouring in weapons and piling on sanctions, we should call on President Biden to begin good faith negotiations with all concerned parties, respecting each of their security concerns. “The first casualty of war is truth.” […]

We are so pleased to announce the publication of this book by one of our We Are Not Your Soldiers presenter, Lyle Jeremy Rubin! Visit here to get further information. An honest reckoning with the Forever War, masculinity, and the violence of American hegemony abroad, at home, and on the psyche, from a veteran of […]

Note: Although this article is from 2016, the life of Donald Duncan continues to be important today. By Robert D. McFadden From The New York Times | Original Article Donald W. Duncan, a Green Beret master sergeant who came home from Vietnam a disillusioned hero in 1965 and became a leading early opponent of the […]

We at About Face: Veterans Against the War are alarmed by the news that President Biden will be sending an additional 3,000 U.S. troops to Germany, Poland, and Romania amid heightened tensions with Russia over Ukraine. In recent weeks, the U.S. has escalated tensions with Russia through its aggressive rhetoric, by sending over 180 tons […]

By Joy Damiani There isn’t much that’ll get me out of bed before dawn these days, but talking to teenagers about the realities of the military is always worth an early morning. The questions they ask are always reminders of how little information they have access to about a job that they are being heavily […]

By Gerry Condon From LA Progressive | Original Article he US/NATO showdown with Russia over Ukraine is a stark reminder of how close the world is to a possible nuclear war.  The one-sided reporting in the U.S. media, with little historical context, is what we see whenever the U.S. is getting ready to go to […]

From Democracy Now | Original Article We speak to award-winning journalist Jonathan Katz about his new book “Gangsters of Capitalism: Smedley Butler, the Marines, and the Making and Breaking of America’s Empire.” The book follows the life of the Marines officer Smedley Butler and the trail of U.S. imperialism from Cuba and the Philippines to […]

By Scott Janssen From HuffPost | Original Article “’What’s it like having people thanking you for your service everywhere you go, James?’ I asked. ‘You might think this is an exaggeration but you asked,’ he said. ‘It’s an act of violence.’” James shifts nervously from one foot to the other, sweat glistening on his forehead […]

We Are Not Your Soldiers is prepared for remote visits to your class this January through June 2022 without charging any fee to your school. Our wonderful presenters, all veterans, dialog with students, sharing their experiences and how they were affected by their time in the U.S. military as well as the effects on the […]

By Steve Early and Suzanne Gordon From Portside | Original Article In recent years, both Republicans and Democrats in Congress have backed privatization of services provided by the Veterans Health Administration (VHA).  As part of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the VHA serves about nine million patients and operates the largest public healthcare  system in the country. Since 2015, […]

Traducido del inglés por El Mundo no Puede Esperar El mundo sigue sin poder esperar a que Estados Unidos deje de ser el mayor peligro para la paz mundial. Por favor, apoya con una donación de fin de año, el mensaje de las personas que viven en este país de que la humanidad y el […]

By David Swanson From World Beyond War | Original Article Most U.S. states still have excuses when asked to make voter registration automatic, but in various states — including here in Virginia — draft registration is automatic even for 15-year-olds who want a learner’s permit to drive a car. (This is still only for males, as […]

Our first presentation of the 2021/2022 school year was a visit to a high school class in Oregon. The students were about to start reading The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien which deals with his personal conflict about whether or not to accept being drafted or to escape to Canada and his subsequent experiences […]

If you missed watching this panel discussion hosted by Cornell University live, it has been recorded so you can watch it when you are able. Click here to access the presentations. Speaking are Anand Gopal, Judith LeBlanc, Samar Al-Bulushi, Tejasvi Nagaraja and Lyle Jeremy Rubin, a We Are Not Your Soldiers presenter who tells about […]

We Are Not Your Soldiers had a remarkable 2021, reaching over a thousand students and engaging them in critical conversations. For example, remote visits were made to classes in a well-prepared New York City middle school; several NYC high schools including a special five-speaker series over one semester to the same five classes; high school […]

By Rich Jahnkow From COMDweb | Original Article The most immediate danger of expanding draft registration to women is not, as some people think, an increased likelihood of a draft. The chance of that happening anytime in the near future continues to be remote. It wasn’t even on the table for serious government consideration after […]

The world still cannot wait for the United States to cease being the biggest danger to world peace. Please support the message from people living in this country that humanity and the planet come first with your year-end donation. Twenty years after bombing its way into Afghanistan, U.S. troops left in chaos, with the Taliban […]

By Jennifer Steinhauer From The New York Times | Original Article Ian Fishback revealed abuse of detainees during the Iraq war, but struggled after leaving the service. He died awaiting a bed at the V.A. Ian Fishback saw the world as cleaved between the just and unjust, the exemplary and the erring. A scholar-athlete from […]

By Sam Roberts From The New York Times | Original Article His letter to two senators about beatings by U.S. troops in Iraq led to legislation in 2005 prohibiting extreme mistreatment of military prisoners. Ian Fishback, an Army whistle-blower whose allegations that fellow members of the 82nd Airborne Division in Iraq routinely beat and abused […]

Three interwoven stories reveal the traumatic effects of war on the psyches of veterans from different generations (IMDB). With Danny Glover, Sam Underwood, Prema Cruz. By Steve Early and Suzanne Gordon From CounterPunch | Original Article In recent years, Danny Glover has used his formidable acting chops and Hollywood connections to boost a series of […]

From Refuser Solidarity Network | Original Article Hello, my name is Oren, I’m 29 years old. I live in Jerusalem and I am an MA student. I run a social worker NGO and work in the Jerusalem branch of the Hadash party (The Democratic Front for Peace and Equality). I was just released after 14 […]

An investigative documentary about the epidemic of rape of soldiers within the US military.

Two songs written by Joe DeFilippo and performed by the R.J. Phillips Band. “Deep Water” Remembering the Columbia Eagle incident (read the historical description on the Zinn Education Project site) and listen to the song performed: https://soundcloud.com/hillipsand/deep-water Lyrics: We left Pier 245JFor Thailand we were boundThe cargo we carriedWas meant to scorch the ground10,000 tons […]

From Refuser Solidarity Network | Original Article I just spent my 19th birthday behind bars and I’ve already served two prison sentences and spent 28 days in jail. Last Thursday I was tried again and sentenced to another 30 days in prison. I will continue facing recurring incarcerations for my refusal to cooperate with the […]

By Murtaza Hussain From The Intercept | Original Article Two new books shed light on what remote warfare does to military operators, the standing of the U.S., and societies abroad. On what would be the last day of his life, Zemari Ahmadi, an employee of a U.S.-based NGO, was being watched by a remote crew […]

View this recording of the October 17, 2021 Gala Film Launch livestream discussion of The Boys Who Said NO! film and its relevance, featuring:  Joan Baez • Daniel Ellsberg • David Harris • Mandy Carter • Mac Hamilton  Plus, a tribute to founding producer Christopher Colorado Jones and an update on federal legislation that will require […]

After an unprededented year and a half in the schools, we look forward to visiting more classes in high schools and colleges this fall semester. We’re raring to go. Educators and students: please contact us now to set up a time for us to engage in dialogue with your classes. For the fall term, visits […]

From Democracy Now | Original Article As the United States ends a 20-year occupation of Afghanistan, a former intelligence analyst for the CIA’s drone program offers an apology to the people of Afghanistan “from not only myself, but from the rest of our society as Americans.” During deployments to Afghanistan, Christopher Aaron says he was […]

From Refuser Solidarity Network My name is Shahar. I’m 18 years old and I live in Kfar Yona, Israel. In two days, I’m going to arrive at the Israeli military enlistment center where I will declare my refusal to be conscripted. I will probably be sent to jail shortly after that. Exactly 6 years ago, […]

By Mike Hastie, Army Medic Viet Nam Once again I am confronted with so many U.S. lies as I watch how the U.S. government uses Afghanistan’s children to convince the American people that we are the greatest country in the world. I have been looking at many pictures of American soldiers displaying compassion as they […]

From Monthly Review | Original Article In the latest of our MR Conversations, Tom Wilber and Jerry Lembcke, coauthors of Dissenting POWs: From Vietnam’s Hoa Lo Prison to America Today, sit down for a conversation with two invited guests, Vivian Rothstein and David Zeiger, to discuss the story of American prisoners who dissented against the […]

We are so excited that our article about We Are Not Your Soldiers came out in the latest issue of the online journal Radical Teacher. Please read it and pass it on. Let’s continue to grow this important project in the upcoming school year! And do let us know your thoughts on it, comments, questions.

By Ryan Devereaux From The Intercept | Original Article With prosecutors seeking a maximum sentence, Hale delivered a powerful handwritten letter describing his motivations to the court. The missiles that killed Salim bin Ahmed Ali Jaber and Walid bin Ali Jaber came in the night. Salim was a respected imam in the village of Khashamir, […]

This is just the beginning of this heartfelt amazing letter written by Daniel Hale to the Judge and the Court as prosecutors seek a maximum sentence against him. Here he delivers this powerful handwritten letter describing his motivations to the court. Hale was indicted by a grand jury and arrested in 2019 on a series […]

By Matthew Hoh From Counterpunch | Original Article Thirty thousand dead from suicide in 20 years among American service-members and veterans. Brown University’s Costs of War Project, utilizing data from the Department of Defense (DoD) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), calculates that four times as many men and women who have served in the […]

The planned, yet abrupt pull-out of U.S. troops from Afghanistan and the bombing of Iranian-backed militia in Iraq, happening while most people living in the U.S. pay little attention, nevertheless call our attention to U.S. global aggression and vulnerability. World Can’t Wait began organizing U.S. vets to speak to students when the US army of […]

By Rory Fanning From Truthout | Original Article In his “What, to the slave, is the Fourth of July” speech, Black abolitionist Fredrick Douglass highlighted the gross contradictions of a country that claimed to celebrate freedom and independence while embracing slavery. Douglass, however, took solace in America’s age. “There is consolation in the thought that […]

From Refuser Solidarity Network My name is Eran, I’m 19 years old and I live in Tel Aviv. I refuse to be conscripted to the Israeli military becuase I am not willing to take part in the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories. I already served 14 days in military jail and last Sunday I […]

Dirty South Chronicles is Miles Megaciph’s new album about the global south and those topics most rappers don’t want to touch – like being an LGBTQ ally and talking about safe spaces and food deserts …. all the not so cool stuff made cool. And about the state of our planet. Find out all about […]

By Paul Benedikt Glatz, Jeremy Kuzmarov and Steve Brown From Covert Action Magazine | Original Article Collusion by the White House, the Pentagon, and the mainstream media resulted in disparagement, denial, and suppression of eyewitness testimony confirming that most POWs were actually well-treated by their North Vietnamese captors (in contrast to the brutal torture and […]

By Mike Hastie, Army Medic Viet Nam With all armaments, whether they were U.S. airstrikes, artillery from Navy war ships, or artillery from U.S. firebases in Viet Nam, or U.S. ground troops, including U.S. allies, or the spraying of deadly Agent Orange, there was not one day during the Viet Nam War, where the U.S. […]

“Thank you both so much for spending the day with us today! Our students really need to hear what John has to say more than ever in this tumultuous climate and your work truly does make a difference — you are saving lives in all sorts of different ways!!” – received from a NYC high […]

On Memorial Day, radio host Dennison Joyce interviewed two We Are Not Your Soldiers presenters, Joe Urgo and Joy Damiani, on his WIOX Catskill radio show “Through the Looking Glass.” When Dennison taught in a NYC high school he often had our speakers visit his classes. On the hour-long show Joe and Joy speak about […]

A great resource Half a year ago David Vine’s new book, The United States of War: A Global History of America’s Endless Conflicts, from Columbus to the Islamic State was launched. The book was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in History. Reviewers have called the book “revelatory”, “brilliantly document[ed]”,  and “a […]

All our April We Are Not Your Soldiers school visits continued to be conducted remotely. We began by going to three classes at a Manhattan college where the students viewed “Collateral Murder” and then discussed, with Army veteran John Burns, the film, his own experiences in the military and the implications of ethics and technology, […]

Joe Urgo, Vietnam veteran who presents at schools with We Are Not Your Soldiers, was interviewed in April on the 50th anniversary of Dewey Canyon III, when Vietnam veterans (and some active duty military) demanded an end to the US war on Vietnam. They spent a week on the streets of Washington, bringing the war […]

“Unmanned” is a short feature film dealing with the conflicts of a drone pilot stationed somewhere in the United States. Its 21 minutes register with viewers just like reading an impactful short story would. We show clips from it during many of our We Are Not Your Soldiers classroom visits.   After viewing it with his high school […]

Find out more about this new book and how to obtain it, here. “It’s hard to believe that a 17-year-old who can’t vote or drink can go to war. Del Duca’s experience as one of those teens — who joined the National Guard to pay for college and then finds herself on the verge of […]

By Edward Hasbrouck From AntiWar.Blog | Original Article As Doug Bandow reported on Antiwar.com Wednesday, military conscription is a bad idea that just won’t die – and right now it’s under active consideration in Congress. Two years ago, Doug Bandow and I were both invited to testify before the National Commission on Military, National, and […]

By Ken Klippenstein and Matthew Cole From The Intercept | Original Article The Army is investigating a possible series of sexual assaults of a female soldier at the Army training base in Fort Sill, Oklahoma, a commander at the base told press yesterday. The investigation, according to a military official with direct knowledge, is scrutinizing […]

By Mike Hastie, Army Medic Vietnam It is Sunday night, around 9:00 PM on March 14, 2021 in Portland, Oregon. In two days, it will be the 53rd Anniversary of the My Lai Massacre. Since I was a soldier in the Central Highlands of Viet Nam, I have made three trips back to Viet Nam, […]

We continue to make remote visits to classes. At the end of February, we went to a large NYC high school with Miles Megaciph, Marines veteran, and spent the day with students in six classes. One student sent a note thanking him “for sharing with us your experience and journey from a former Marine to […]

From National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth | Original Article Change Your mind and want to get out? If you signed up for the DEP (or the Army’s “Future Soldiers Training Program”) and then changed your mind, watch out for recruiters who say you can’t get out of it, or that you must report […]

A dramatic recording of the full famous speech by Gen. Smedley Butler is available here free for your use.  Credit for this dramatized recording goes to Richard Gross, Ioan Ardelean and Christopher Hirschmann Brandt. There are two versions, an MP3 and a wav.

Friday March 12, 2021, 4:00 pm – 6:00 pm EST – A Virtual Event Amid concern about the role of military veterans in the January 6 siege of the Capitol and the recruitment of service members by white supremacist groups, this program will feature soldiers who have followed a different path in speaking out against […]

On February 22, 2021 we filmed an evening panel discussion with the presenters who go into classrooms and dialogue with students. Here’s a chance to meet the whole crew: John Burns, Will Griffin, Miles Megaciph, Lyle Rubin and Joe Urgo. The need to stop the United States’ aggressive militarism and wars against peoples around the […]

From the Vietnam Peace Commemoration Committee The first half of 1971 is seen by many as the peak of the mass antiwar movement. The Peoples Peace Treaty echoed the Moratorium as a vehicle for local antiwar education and organizing. Veterans took a leadership role with the Winter Soldier hearings on US war crimes on March […]

By Eleanor J. Bader From The Indypendent | Original Article From the Revolutionary War onward, dissident U.S. soldiers have defied the brass and fought for peace. Almost 250 years ago, in 1777, Jacob Ritter, a member of the Pennsylvania militia, assessed the carnage surrounding him on the battlefield and decided, right then and there, that […]

You are invited to an on-line panel discussion with the presenters who go into classrooms and dialogue with students. Here’s a chance to meet the whole crew. Monday night, February 22, 2021 8:00 – 9:30 pm EST Participating will be John Burns, Will Griffin, Miles Megaciph, Lyle Rubin and Joe Urgo. The need to stop […]

We Are Not Your Soldiers is gearing up for the spring semester to remotely visit high school and college classrooms across the country. We already have several set for a couple of high schools and colleges in the NY metropolitan area. And, we have something new planned. In one high school, with the same group […]

From The Washington Post | Original Article In this clip from Dec. 28, 1935, General Smedley Butler describes a “fascist plot” to overthrow President Franklin D. Roosevelt and seize the government. (Universal Studios)

From Refuser Solidarity Network Hello, my name is Daniel. I’m 18 years old from Tel Aviv and I’m part of a new group of teens, school seniors and youth refusers. We’re called the Shministim Letter – 60 teens and youth aged 16-21 signed the statement we sent to Israeli Prime Minister, calling for refusal to enlist […]

“22” is written and composed by Joe DeFilippo and performed by the R.J. Phillips Band, a group of Baltimore musicians. Joe DeFilippo: vocals, acoustic guitar, bass guitar. Patrick McAvinue: fiddle. Bill Phelan: electric guitar. Leslie Darr: background vocals. Bill Pratt: drums, keyboards, background vocals. Produced & recorded by: Bill Pratt @ the Bratt Studio, Baltimore,MD. […]

Listen in as We Are Not Your Soldiers spends an hour with a Peace Studies class at Nassau Community College in NY. Professor Susan Cushman introduces her class, followed by Stephanie Rugoff who coordinates We Are Not Your Soldiers. Miles Megaciph, a U.S. Marines veteran and hip hop artist, then starts off with his song […]

Help investigate what the Pentagon is teaching to 500,000+ students in high school Jr. ROTC “Fortunately for the Army, the government policy of pushing the Indians farther west and then wiping them out was carried out successfully.” (Army JROTC textbook, 2000) Statements like the above were uncovered in the U.S. military’s JROTC textbooks when they […]

Formed in 2008, We Are Not Your Soldiers is a grassroots effort bringing veterans into classrooms to share their experiences in the U.S. military while engaging in dialogue with high school and college students. We Are Not Your Soldiers helps expose imperial wars to a generation largely unaware of the crimes being carried out throughout […]

By Rory Fanning From Truthout | Original Article After nearly four years of Donald Trump, far right and white supremacist forces are emboldened in the United States. As a war veteran, I know very well that veterans are far from immune to this problem — in fact, the war machine conditions vets to embrace white […]

The week before Thanksgiving we made two remote visits in New York City. One was a full day, connecting with five classes of students in the arts, at a large traditional high school. Miles Megaciph, performing his vivid stories via the medium of hip-hop reached these young people in a special way. Miles spoke of […]

Our We Are Not Your Soldiers project is back in the schools. Compared to previous years, we got off to a late start due to the changes caused in education by the Covid 19 pandemic. And, it is a different experience doing all our visits remotely, even those right here in NYC where we’re based […]

From The New Press I Ain’t Marching Anymore Dissenters, Deserters, and Objectors to America’s Wars By Chris Lombardi A sweeping history of the passionate men and women in uniform who have bravely and courageously exercised the power of dissent “I am here as a citizen. I want the Congress to understand that as a citizen […]

In this video, Shiloh reflects on their experiences in the Marines. This video is part of a package for teachers, including several other videos as well as lesson plans. Check it all out here at BeforeEnlisting.org.

Contáctanos – wearenotyoursoldiers@worldcantwait.net 347-581-2677 – para que podamos hacer una visita a su salón de clases, sin importar en dónde esté. En We Are Not Your Soldiers estamos nuevamente listos para trabajar con los educadores para presentar veteranos y sus historias del tiempo que pasaron en el ejército estadounidense a sus estudiantes para dialogar con […]

Watch this discussion with four veterans who have personal experience with hybrid warfare.

From Refuser Solidarity Network | Original Article Hello, my name is Hallel Rabin. I’m an 18 years old refuser from an Israeli kibbutz and tomorrow I’ll be sent to prison by the Israeli military. Just before Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, I refused to join the Israeli army and was held in military prison […]

By Samantha Grasso From Discourse Blog | Original Article How an old MTV reality show opened my eyes about the military’s iron grip on our culture. We all have our favorite “grownup” TV shows we remember watching as kids, feeling extremely Cool and Adult to be privy to the kind of content clearly marketed to […]

Contact us – wearenotyoursoldiers@worldcantwait.net 347-581-2677 – us so we can set up a visit to your class no matter where located. We Are Not Your Soldiers is ready once again to work with educators to present veterans and their stories of time spent in the U.S. military to your students and to dialogue with those […]

By Shane Harris From The Washington Post | Original Article A group of lawyers is offering advice to military and National Guard members who worry they may be given unlawful orders if deployed during protests or disputes over next month’s elections. The Orders Project was formed in response to the use of force against protesters […]

From Democracy Now | Original Article As the United States marks 19 years since the September 11 terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people, a new report finds at least 37 million people in eight countries have been displaced since the start of the so-called global war on terrorism since 2001. The Costs of War […]

From Refuser Solidarity Network Everyone is talking about Israel’s “new peace,” and the White House is taking credit for delaying the “annexation” of Palestinian land. On the ground in the West Bank it feels almost like an illusion: the daily annexation, occupation and military violence never stopped. My name is Eden, and in 2014 I […]

By Missy Ryan From The Washington Post | Original Article The U.S. military has made about $2 million in condolence payments to civilians in Afghanistan over the past five years, according to Pentagon data that sheds new light on how officials have sought to address the impact of unintended injury and death in America’s longest war. […]

By John Laforge From Counterpunch | Original Article With this week’s commemorations of the US atomic massacres at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, there will be countless hours spent on speeches, sermons, hymns, and warnings; tons of ink spilled in op/eds, editorials and articles. All will solemnly promote the need to pursue a world without nuclear weapons. […]

Traducido del inglés por El Mundo no Puede Esperar La gran rebelión hacia la supremacía blanca de gente de todo el país y la terrible respuesta de los fascistas en la Casa Blanca, ha abierto el discurso acerca del rol doméstico del ejército. Esto da a We Are Not Your Soldiers (No Somos Tus Soldados) […]

From World Can’t Wait | Original Article In an ominous escalation of fascism, the Trump/Pence regime sent federal agents from multiple agencies to storm the streets of Portland, Oregon and crush ongoing protests. Trump is now deploying them to positions across the country, targeting those who dare to defy this regime and Democratic-run cities with […]

By Matthew Hoh From Counterpunch | Original Article I was born near New York City in 1973, the year the United States officially ended its war in Vietnam and brought home the last of its combat troops. The Vietnam War, known to the Vietnamese as The American War, was always something removed from me, even […]

From Refuser Solildarity Network My name is Yasmin Ricci-Yahav, I am 18 years old. In August 2019 I publicly refused to join the Israeli army, refused to serve the Israeli occupation. I took this picture outside the Israeli military induction base, just before I was imprisoned. Being a conscientious objector was hard -I was locked […]

By Danny Sjursen From TomDispatch | Original Article It was June 20th and we antiwar vets had traveled all the way to Tulsa, Oklahoma, in the midst of a pandemic to protest President Trump’s latest folly, an election 2020 rally where he was to parade his goods and pretend all was well with this country. […]

By Rev. Dr. William Barber II and Phyllis Bennis From InsideSources | Original Article Uniformed U.S. soldiers occupied the center of the city, where an armored personnel carrier was stationed at a major intersection. Was it Kabul or Atlanta? A U.S. military helicopter hovered over crowds of unarmed civilians, its down-drafts whipping debris and broken glass into […]

From Democracy Now | Original Article The U.S. Army says it has a suspect in custody in connection with the disappearance of Vanessa Guillén, a missing 20-year-old Fort Hood soldier whose family says her remains were likely found in a shallow grave near the Texas Army base. A second suspect in the case — a […]

The great uprising against white supremacy of people all over the country and the horrific response of the fascists in the White House, has opened discourse about the domestic role of the military.  This gives We Are Not Your Soldiers the opportunity to broaden and deepen that thinking and take it to an understanding of […]

By Marc Eliot Stein From World Beyond War | Original Article “That’s when I saw this whole thing as a charade. I knew it was wrong.” I’ve been wanting to interview Miles Megaciph for the World BEYOND War podcast since hearing him perform at our #NoToNATO event in Washington DC in April 2019. His set […]

By Andrea Mazzarino From TomDispatch | Original Article A Military Spouse’s Perspective on Racism and Armed Violence in the United States Recently, in this Black Lives Matter protest moment, my five-year-old son looked at me and asked, “Mommy, where did all the brown people go? Did the police here shoot them?” We’d just moved to […]

By Jonah Walters From The National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth (NNOMY) Military recruiters understand that widespread joblessness is good for enlistment. They celebrate the arrival of “Sergeant Hard Times,” recognizing that misery is the best motivator. The coronavirus crisis has been a double-edged sword for military recruitment in the United States. On the […]

By Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J.S. Davies From Common Dreams | Original Article For too long, we have let cynical politicians and business leaders divide and rule us, funding police and the Pentagon over real human needs, pitting us against each other at home and leading us off to wars against our neighbors abroad. On […]

New video just out by Miles Megaciph. Written by: Miles Megaciph Produced by: Steve Wallace All Rights Reserved 2020 Soundcloud link: https://soundcloud.com/megaciph/no-fe… The disregard of Black, Brown, Indigenous and poor lives must stop now. The world has risen up to see the plight of the Black American, the struggle of the stolen Africans still living, […]

From Courage to Resist | Original Article Courage to Resist is currently assisting members of the National Guard who resisted Trump’s orders to violently attack people on the streets of Washington DC peacefully and lawfully protesting racial injustice. Now that Trump is threatening to use the 1807 Insurrection Act to send active-duty troops in cities […]

From About Face An Open Letter from Veterans to Recently Activated National Guard Troops Attention Members of the National Guard, We write you as fellow veterans and service members with full knowledge of what’s at stake as many of you are being asked to mobilize against civilians in your own country. As your neighbors fill […]

From Veterans for Peace Veterans For Peace calls for the immediate withdrawal of the Minnesota National Guard. We are appalled to see military weapons, vehicles and equipment once again deployed in U.S. cities to control community members who are reacting to a long history of state-sanctioned violence. When an already embattled community is subjected to […]

By Mike Hastie, Army Medic Viet Nam Recently I came across an old picture of me when I was in kindergarten. I think it was the first day of school, as my father took the picture in 1950. We were living at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, as my father was a career Army officer and combat […]

From Revolution | Original Article The New York Times published an editorial yesterday, Sunday, May 24, with the title “Why Does the U.S. Military Celebrate White Supremacy?”1 The editorial questions, exposes and condemns the long-standing naming of U.S. military bases with names and figures drawn from the white-supremacist slave-upholding Confederacy, including some of the largest and most “storied” […]

Please read this letter received May 22, 2020 from Rev. Shawna Foster, IVAW/About Face Member since 2006 and then visit the beautiful memorial website. Two days of the year are very difficult for me: Memorial Day and Veteran’s Day. Like many military-connected families and communities, I feel the pain of regret and loss about the […]

On the show, On Contact, Chris Hedges talks to Matthew Hoh, former U.S. Marine Company Commander, about the high rates of veteran suicides. Hoh served two tours in Iraq as a Marine and with the State Department. He resigned his position as a State Department political officer in Afghanistan in 2009 in protest over the […]

By Tara Copp From McClatchy | Original Article Watch video here. Military recruiters are relying on video games like “Call of Duty” and other online outreach to encourage young men and women to enlist during the coronavirus outbreak that has sharply curtailed more traditional recruiting efforts. May and June usually kick off the busy summer […]

By Erik Edstrom From TomDispatch | Original Article “Every day is a copy of a copy of a copy.” That meme, from the moment when Edward Norton’s character in Fight Club offers a 1,000-yard stare at an office copy machine, captures this moment perfectly — at least for those of us removed from the front […]

By David Swanson From World Beyond War | Original Article A new collection of maps found here displays what militarism looks like in the world. Here’s a brief guide to using and understanding them. Across the top are 10 drop-down menus on these topics: Wars, Weapons, U.S. Weapons, Money, Nukes, Chemical and Biological, U.S. Military, […]

Weeks of visits to schools and colleges by We Are Not Your Soldiers volunteers have, of course, been canceled for this spring.  But using the digital tools of the class room, we recently remotely visited three college social psychology classes in North Carolina. We connected Lyle Rubin’s presentation to the classes’ study of both the Stanford prison experiment and […]

From Center on National Security at Fordham Law The U.S. Navy announced Thursday that it had relieved Capt. Brett Crozier, who commands the USS Roosevelt, after he sounded the alarm about an outbreak of COVID-19  aboard the ship earlier this week. Capt. Crozier had written a four-page letter urging his superiors to allow him to […]

This features Braden Chapman, a courageous Australian ex-special forces member, testifying about the war crimes committed by some of his colleagues, which he witnessed when serving in Uruzgan, Afghanistan. The contents can be assumed to apply to all or most ‘coalition’ forces, not just Australians, in Afghanistan and no doubt also in Iraq and any other country at […]

From World Can’t Wait | Original Article During this pandemic, we call on you to engage in physical distancing with the aim of social solidarity. We choose to say it this way, rather than “social distancing,” because this is what we believe is a crucial concept to live by. Today is the 17th anniversary of […]

This week we were still able to visit several New York City schools – from a middle school class doing a study of the war in Afghanistan to an alternative high school to college philosophy classes – where Lyle Rubin, Marine veteran who had been deployed to Afghanistan, engaged in discussion with students. Here are […]

We Are Not Your Soldiers has been visiting Philadelphia schools, speaking in January and February at four Philadelphia high schools and a college class. Will Griffin, a veteran of both Iraq and Afghanistan, presented. Three of the most surprising points for the students in the presentations were that the United States is currently involved in […]

From National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth | Original Article WHAT IS IT? The Joint Advertising Market Research Studies (JAMRS) is a series of projects that seek to collect and buy information about the American public with the intent of formulating marketing and advertising strategies to aid in the military recruitment effort. It is in the service of the […]

Introduction by Mike Hastie, Army Medic Viet Nam (2/18/20) I just got through listening to Dennis Stout’ podcast. Without a doubt, this is one of the most powerful eyewitness stories of the Viet Nam War. You hang on every word, because the truth demands it of you. There is no rest for the messenger until […]

The prosecution of drone whistleblower Daniel Hale is currently scheduled to proceed in March. A former veteran of the drone assassination program who became an outspoken activist and critic of it, Hale is being prosecuted under the draconian Espionage Act because he dared shine a light into a very dark corner. Hundreds of journalists, whistleblowers, […]

By Kevin Hitt From The ESports Observer | Original Article The United States Navy has divested from television advertising and will see 97% of its budget allocated to digital. Esports and YouTube will be the two main focuses of its advertising dollars. The reason for the course correction is that the age demographic of online […]

By Nick Martin From The New Republic | Original Article As the United States staggers toward war, it will try to draw troops from the same poor, rural neighborhoods it always has. In my high school in rural North Carolina, a plastic table was set up just off to the side of the atrium where we all congregated […]

By Graig Graziosi From Yahoo News | Original Article A former US drone operator is speaking out against the atrocities he says he was forced to inflict during his time in the armed forces and says the American military as ‘worse than the Nazis’. Brandon Bryant was enlisted in the US Air Force for six […]

By Alan Mcleod From MintPress News | Original Article The United States Air Force has a new recruitment tool: a realistic drone operator video game you can play on its website. Called the Airman Challenge, it features 16 missions to complete, interspersed with facts and recruitment information about how to become a drone operator yourself. In […]

We Are Not Your Soldiers brings veterans to visit classes, share their experiences and enter into dialogue with the students. They tell their own personal stories of how they were affected by their time in the military, bringing another vision of these wars in which so many have been sacrificed by losing their lives and/or […]

by Anthony Swofford From MIT Technology Review | Original Article Technology makes fighting war easier and more palatable—but it dangerously changes the nature of the fight, argues a US Marine veteran. Shortly after I turned 18, the United States Marine Corps trained me to live, think, and operate as one of the most lethal humans […]

By Tim O’Connor From Newsweek | Original Article The United States has tens of thousands of troops deployed across the Middle East and Afghanistan, many of them in nations near Iran at a time when the two countries were nearing an all-out conflict. President Donald Trump’s decision to kill one of Iran’s most senior figures, […]

From Democracy Now | Original Article The New York Times has revealed a trove of confidential military interviews with the Navy SEALs who accused Chief Edward Gallagher of war crimes. Gallagher met with President Trump over the weekend at Trump’s private resort Mar-a-Lago in Florida, only weeks after Trump overruled his own military leaders and […]

By Stephanie Rugoff and Debra Sweet In the blizzard of outrageous new actions and threats from the current commander in chief, many people heard about “The Afghanistan Papers,” the Washington Post series last week on the U.S. war on Afghanistan.  After three years of lawsuits, the Post obtained partial transcripts of interviews with 400 people […]

On Veterans Day, Common Dreams ran the article about We Are Not Your Soldiers reprinted below. We are pleased that the article drew attention to our project including some leads to expanding our work digitally around the country. Also on Veterans Day, the online edition of The New York Times ran the video and short […]

By Andrea Mazzarino From TomDispatch | Original Article On Being a Military Spouse and Writing About Our Post-9/11 Wars There is some incongruity between my role as an editor of a book about the costs of America’s wars and my identity as a military spouse. I’m deeply disturbed at the scale of human suffering caused […]

By Samuel Osborne From Yahoo News | Original Article Donald Trump has reportedly told aides he wants three convicted or accused war criminals to campaign for him during his bid for reelection in 2020. The US president granted clemency to Clint Lorance and Matthew Golsteyn, and reversed the decision to demote Edward Gallagher on 15 […]

By Matthew Hoh From Common Dreams | Original Article The only way to prevent veterans from killing themselves is to prevent them from going to war. I was very pleased to see the New York Times editorial on November 1, 2019, Suicide Has Been Deadlier than Combat for the Military. As a combat veteran myself […]

By Robert Scheer From Truthdig | Original Article American soldiers born decades apart in the state of New York, Ron Kovic and Maj. Danny Sjursen, are two crucial dissenting voices that have experienced firsthand the futility and brutality of America’s interventionist wars. Kovic, a Marine veteran who was paralyzed in the Vietnam War, has spent […]

By Stephanie Rugoff From Common Dreams | Original Article We Are Not Your Soldiers brings exposure of imperial wars to a generation of youth largely unaware of the crimes being carried out throughout the world in their names. On this Veterans Day, 2019, for the United States, making war is less about amassing human air, […]

By Nick Turse From The Nation | Original Article They called it Castle Black, an obvious homage to the famed, frozen citadel from the HBO series Game of Thrones. In the fantasy world of GoT, it’s the stronghold of the Night’s Watch, the French Foreign Legion–esque guardians of the northern border of the Seven Kingdoms. […]

By Debra Sweet While the evidence piles up that Trump worked to bring down Joe Biden via U.S. foreign policy and obstructed  the Congressional investigation, the Democrats say they intend to keep the impeachment inquiry limited to these narrow grounds of “endangering national security” and possibly obstruction as well as bribery. They are not investigating […]

By Lyle Jeremy Rubin, Donald White, Arti Walker-Peddakotla, Danny Sjursen and Daniel L. Davis From The New York Times | Original Article Video by Mark Hannah and Eric Felipe-Barkin Their harrowing stories from the battlefield shed light on what they see as an unwinnable conflict in a foreign land. There is, these veterans say, no point in continuing an 18-year war […]

Starting on Veterans Day November 11 and continuing through November 15, 2019, come to this series of events in Washington DC. Find full information here.

By Carol Dudek From The World Cant Wait | Original Article I had the privilege of talking with two Veterans For Peace who are being detained in Ireland because of their antiwar actions there. Tarak Kauff and Ken Mayers are U.S. military veterans who went to Ireland with a delegation to join Veterans For Peace […]

Political rapper Megaciph drops his new music video, “Attention,” directed by Chris Smiley of The Peace Report. Check out more of Megaciph, a We Are Not Your Soldiers Speaker. h

From Refuser Solidarity Network| Original Article A quick update to let you know that conscientious objector Yasmin Ricci-Yahav arrived last Monday at Israeli Army’s Tel Hashomer induction center and announced for the third time her refusal to enlist. Upon her imprisonment, she said: “My name is Yasmin Ricci Yahav, I am 18 years old, and […]

We are now scheduling visits for our We Are Not Your Soldiers tour to high schools and colleges for the Fall 2019 semester. Invite us to your school or educational program. If you are not a student, parent or educator, pass this information on to someone who is. Call us at 646-807-3259 or email wearenotyoursoldiers@worldcantwait.net. […]

By Alex N. Press From Jacobin | Original Article I n a high school classroom on the South Side of Chicago, Rory Fanning is telling students about the time he and his fellow Army Rangers occupied a school in Afghanistan. “We walked in and said, ‘School’s canceled, we’re going to use this as a military […]

By Roy Eidelson From Counterpunch | Original Article It has now been four years since the “Hoffman Report” presented extensive evidence of secret collaboration between leaders of the American Psychological Association (APA) and psychologists working for the Department of Defense (DOD). According to that independent review, the goal of collaboration was to ensure that APA […]

Listen here. “Deep Water”, a musical tribute to VFP activist, Al Glatkowski and his anti-war efforts during the Vietnam War, is written by Joe DeFilippo and performed by the R.J. Phillips Band, a group of Baltimore musicians. Joe DeFilippo: vocals, bass, acoustic guitar ; Bill Phelan: electric guitar ; Patrick McAvinue: fiddle; Leslie Darr: background […]

Although this video is from 2007, it has a lot of very interesting information relevant to today.

By Steve Early From BeyondChron | Original Article Fifty years ago this fall, a campus upsurge turned opposition to the Vietnam War into a genuine mass movement. On October 15, 1969, several million students, along with community-based activists, participated in anti-war events under the banner of the “Vietnam Moratorium.” A month later, 500,000 people came […]

Three articles related to the case: the first on Trump stripping medals from the prosecutors, the second two on Republican congressman who says he probably killed hundreds of civilians. Navy SEAL prosecutors to be stripped of achievement medals By Jill Colvin From AP | Original Article In this July 2, 2019, file photo, Navy Special […]

From The Boys Who Said No | Original Article Dear Friends and Supporters of The Boys Who Said NO!  It is with great sorrow that we write to let you know that the initiator and producer of our film, Christopher Colorado Jones, died on June 29 from a head injury suffered the night before. He […]

By Jasper Craven From The Intercept | Original Article Derrick Hathaway served multiple tours in Kosovo, contributing to a NATO peacekeeping mission aimed at preventing ethnic cleansing. While Hathaway envisioned his Marine mission as a humanitarian one, he soon became ashamed of his work. In the course of mapping safe routes for NATO forces, Hathaway’s […]

By Martin Smith From Counterpunch | Original Article I will never forget standing in formation after the end of our final “hump,” marine-speak for a forced march, at the end of the Crucible in March, 1997. The Crucible is the final challenge during Marine Corps boot camp and is a two-and-a-half day, physically exhausting exercise […]

Should another generation of youth living here be sucked into war for empire, the way two million+ have sacrificed their humanity and lives in the so-called “war on terror?”  We say no, and are actively working to present what the recruiters for the U.S. armed forces won’t ever say.  Should another generation of youth in […]

By Shawek Blich From Dissent | Original Article Read this interview in Polish here. What do the crimes of a Navy SEAL tell us about U.S. military culture? In early May 2017, Navy SEALs Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher allegedly murdered a fifteen-year-old ISIS fighter receiving medical assistance for non-fatal wounds in Iraq. Witnesses watched […]

From Courage to Resist | Original Article Daniel Hale, an Air Force veteran and former U.S. intelligence analyst turned anti-war activist was arrested May 9th and charged with violating the Espionage Act. Daniel is a well-known anti-drone activist who has spoken out a number of anti-war events and conferences. He is also featured in the […]

By Seth Kershner From NNOMY.net | Original Article Over the past several years, activists have fought against the use of unmanned aircraft (commonly called “drones”) to carry out targeted killings in the war on terror. Anti-drone activists have aimed their protests at a number of different targets. They have condemned university research on drone technology […]

By Seth Kershner From NNOMY.net | Original Article Although women make up about half of the United States workforce, they represent just 24 percent of careers in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). In order to correct this, major nonprofit groups have been organizing STEM enrichment camps for middle- and high-school girls, driven by […]

By Seth Kershner From Occupy.com | Original Article As a journalist and researcher, I’ve spent the last several years investigating the expanding network of links between public education and the U.S. military. With my colleague Scott Harding, I’ve also been researching the grassroots response to this phenomenon: the counter-recruitment movement. Activists along with outspoken scholars […]

A group of seven U.S. Veterans for Peace took part in a protest against the US Military Base at Shannon Airport on Sunday March 17. Why? Shannon is used for refueling U.S. troop planes bound for Middle East wars. Two US veterans were arrested at Shannon Airport on 17 March for entering the airfield to […]

By Rory Fanning From TomDispatch | Original Article Hilel Garmi’s phone is going straight to voicemail and all I’m hoping is that he’s not back in prison. I’ll soon learn that he is. Prison 6 is a military prison. It’s situated in the Israeli coastal town of Atlit, a short walk from the Mediterranean Sea […]

The American Friends Service Committee, National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth (NNOMY), About Face: Veterans Against the War, Veterans For Peace (VFP), Military Families Speak Out, the Coalition for Peace Action and other groups worked with the producers to develop the program. This film is being continuously updated, so contact info@beforeyouenlist.org for the latest […]

“The real deal on joining the military, as told by veterans … and what the military recruiters won’t tell you.” “Before You Enlist!” (2018) provides a rational voice to counter the seductive and often deceptive recruiting practices of the U.S. military. The message is not “don’t enlist” but rather to provide young people and their […]