"For Over Six Years We Have Been Welcomed By The Significant Majority Of Attending Troops"

"We Do Not Intend To Stop Until The Current Twin Disasters End With Our Troops Permanently Withdrawn"

By Alan Stolzer, Military Resistance Organization

In January, 2004 a group of anti-war activists -- civilian and U.S. Military veterans -- from the Military Project (now Military Resistance) began outreaching to a National Guard armory in New York City.

Understanding troops are crucial to ending the criminal conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan (as they were in Vietnam), the group collected at the armory site each succeeding month on drill date, regardless of weather conditions, a.m. or p.m., with publications opposing the Imperial wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, DVDs and home baked cookies.

An average of 65-75 packages of information are given out at each outreach.

For over six years we have been welcomed by the significant majority of attending troops.

We do not intend to stop until the current twin disasters end with our troops permanently withdrawn.

The report below gives depicts a typical outreach; in this case the most recent:

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On April 9th, Military Resistance met, for a pleasant change, at 5:45 pm for our monthly outreach at a New York City Army National Guard armory.

There were six of us present, and, because it was a warm afternoon rather than a frigid early morning, the soldiers seemed exceptionally friendly.

By the end of the evening we had handed out 63 copies of Traveling Soldier and probably even more packages of cookies, as well as 22 copies of Sir! No Sir! and 14 copies of Querido Camilo.

One soldier told us that she had seen both of the films, and preferred Sir! No Sir! because Querido Camilo had too much talking. This shows that whatever else we are doing, we are giving the soldiers material that they are engaging with.

There were signs indicating that at least some of the soldiers reporting were MP's. Most of the soldiers accepted our material, and many--particularly a few very young soldiers--were clearly encountering us for the first time.

Others, though, were familiar with our work, and one soldier told us that she "always reads your stuff."

As always, the cookies were a big hit, with one soldier enthusiastically noting that they were "home baked."

Toward the end of the outreach, we were approached by a young soldier who took the material and asked if we ourselves had served in the military, and what our experience had been. AS responded that his experience had been both positive, in terms of meeting people from all over the country, and negative because of overly-authoritative officers.

The young soldier responded, "Good answer," and told us that he supported what we were doing, seeming to be familiar with Traveling Soldier.

Although he declined an invitation to attend a Military Resisstance meeting at this time, he did want to stay in touch, and we gave him our contact information. We hope to hear from him soon.

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