Make Portland a Sanctuary City for GI Resisters

Portland seems like such a logical city to become a sanctuary city for soldiers resisting the illegal occupation of Iraq. To be part of this exciting movement, consider going to the this first public meeting:

First Unitarian Church
1011 SW 12th st. Room B002
Saturday, November 17th
11:00am – 1:00pm

On Saturday, November 17, at The First Unitarian Church, from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. , the PDX Peace Coalition will host a meeting to train volunteers and organize signature-gathering peace teams to let the City Council know that there is mass support for making Portland a sanctuary city for G.I. resisters. We will discuss the petition, what we need to do to make it a City (and possibly a County) policy, and how to address the various questions we may encounter from the public. We will also propose a calendar of possible venues for signature-gathering, organize teams to make the maximum impact, and discuss how to use this campaign to build the PDX Peace Coalition and support its continuing grassroots efforts to bring the troops home now.

If Portland becomes a sanctuary city, we can save some war resisters from having to go all the way to Canada for sanctuary, since just today two resisters had their appeals rejected.

There are thousands of military personnel resisting deployment who face a range of punishments. GI Resistance was a part of the end of the invasion of Viet Nam and will almost certainly have to be part of ending our occupation of Iraq.

I need to figure out if I can make this meeting, but expect to see me coming at you with petitions over the next few weeks. I will post more information when I have it about how this will work, and what it can mean for ending the occupation of Iraq.

If you have lots of time, I also found this Harper’s article on AWOL soldiers to be helpful background. There are also some fascinating stories at Courage to Resist.


Posted

in

by

Tags:

Comments

2 responses to “Make Portland a Sanctuary City for GI Resisters”

  1. Michael Pugliese Avatar
    Michael Pugliese

    True?
    http://www.dahrjamailiraq.com/hard_news/archives/iraq/000668.php
    Ill-Equipped Soldiers Opt for “Search and Avoid”

    Inter Press Service
    By Dahr Jamail

    Or false?
    http://blogsearch.google.com/blogsearch?q=dahr+jamail+%22Search+and+Avoid%22
    http://www.blackfive.net/main/2007/10/astroturf-ivaw-.html#comment-87718424
    An impossibility to sit on a field phoning it in. All army (dont know
    about marines)military vehicles are equipped with either BFT (Blue
    Force Tracker) or FBCB2 (Force XXI Battle Command Brigade and Below).
    The position of every vehicle is tracked by someone at all times. That
    tells me that these soldiers have not been to Iraq or been there and
    stayed at the FOB (FOBit). ANyone who has gone out on patrol, knows
    about FBCB2.

  2. Kathleen Avatar
    Kathleen

    Well, since you ask, I think it’s true. Dahr Jamail is a reputable source, and GI resistance is real.

    This equipment exists, and soldiers are smart. That’s probably why one of the reports specifically mentions that soldiers would phone in reports saying that they were performing weapons sweeps to satisfy their superiors.

    GI resistance has a lengthy history. You’ll have to do better than tossing out some military acronyms to refute the story. Good luck and thanks for commenting on my blog!

Leave a Reply