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WILL WILLIAMS: A VETERAN FOR PEACE The only way out of
Mississippi for Will Williams was the U.S. Army. He joined in 1962,
served 2 tours of duty in Vietnam, then realized his hatred for his
and his peoples’ oppressors in central Mississippi had been
transferred onto the Vietnamese; he had been an easy mind control
victim, used to kill Vietnamese. In his talk, Williams demystifies the
euphemisms and acronyms (IED, PDD, CVS, TBI) that hide the ongoing
genocide of Iraqis, the treachery being visited on the American
soldiers, and the privatization of the military via mercenary
corporations. A Madison-based VFP member, Williams spoke at the
Milwaukee Veterans For Peace-sponsored rally, Jan. 26, 2007
18min,
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37megwinmedia,
14megquicktime,
8meg quicktime, 9meg winmedia files below
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TRANSCRIPT: |
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WILL WILLIAMS: A VETERAN FOR PEACE
I was born September 11, 1943 in central Mississippi, a time when my
people were being beaten and killed for no reason other than being of
a different color. So I grew up with a lot of hate. And it was natural
that I grew up that way because that is what I learned. My grandmother
Safronie was Seminole. She told me the stories of what happened to her
people during the early settling of these lands. She also told me that
she saw hate in me that would destroy me -- unless I learned to use it
in a positive way.
I was one of 10 children, so in 1962 upon graduating from high school,
I joined the U.S. Army as a way to get out of Mississippi. I knew, had
I stayed there, I would have been a statistic because I wouldn't have
taken the abuse that my people were taking simply because of who they
were. At that time I did not understand Martin Luther King and what he
was about.
TRANSFERRING HATE: BRAINWASHING
My first tour of duty was in Germany. I re-enlisted for 6 years,
stayed in Hawaii for six months -- and off to Vietnam where I was able
to take that hate that I learned in Mississippi, because of what was
happening. I was able to transfer it to the people of Vietnam who had
done nothing to me at all. Thousands of miles away from my land, I was
able to do this because of the brainwashing I got in the military,
where I was able to strip the face off a human in order to be able to
take their life -- and that's exactly what happens in combat. You
don't see people as people. In the news where you hear people speak
now of 'collateral damage,' to many that might mean a building being
destroyed, but to me it's human life.
WE GET THIS STRATEGY WE ARE LEADERS OF THE WORLD
One thing I learned in life that of all the bad things that happen,
it's always some good to come from it. When I returned to Vietnam
after my second tour, I began to wonder, 'why was I there?'
So it led me to read everything I could about Vietnam and how it came
to be. And it didn't just start in 1960. I think the strategy was set
after the Monroe Doctrine. After the people [the colonial/imperial
occupiers from Europe]] had taken the lands here from the [American]
natives, and moved to Mexico and took their lands, they began to look
elsewhere for resources, so at that time, I think, we get this
strategy that we are the leaders of the world rather than a part of
the world.
EUPHEMISMS AND ACRONYMS FOR LYING
It bothers me to hear people like John Kerry who spoke the other day
about the 'mistake' that was made when he knows that those were not
mistakes. That we went into Vietnam on a lie. And he well knows that
Iraq is no mistake. We went into Iraq on lies and deceptions, but many
of the people we put into office use acronyms and euphemisms that
sound good to people who don't understand what they mean. I'm speaking
of the IEDs, the 'improvised explosive device.
YOU WERE CRAZY BEFORE WE SENT YOU TO IRAQ: GOOD RIDDANCE: Personnel
Disorder Discharge
I'm speaking of the PDDs which is a new term which they use now for
troops that they've been releasing from the military to come back from
Afghanistan and Iraq with disorders. Years ago they might have called
it 'shell shock.' From Vietnam they called it PTSD [post traumatic
stress disorder]. But now they call it PDD -- personnel disorder
discharges -- which they've given people in order not to have to give
them what they need when they come back because they say they have
this disorder before they went.
FORTY YEARS LATER: SAME LIES
We're here not to demagogue Bush because, though he's a part of the
problem, he is not the problem. One can remember back to 1967; I think
it was January 10, 1967 when Lyndon B. Johnson made his request for
more troops to go to Vietnam. And if you'll fast forward to January
10, 2007 and pull both those speeches up, you'll see they're the same
in context. When Lyndon Johnson made his speech in '67, it was less
than 8,000 troops had been killed in Vietnam. After that speech,
another 50,000-plus names went on the Wall in Washington D.C. That's
not a mistake. We were being told lies then and we're being told lies
now.
TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURIES: ALIVE BUT ZOMBIFIED FOR THE NEW WORLD ORDER
You don't hear much about another one of those euphemisms called TBI,
which is traumatic brain injuries. But instead you hear all the high
tech equipment that save peoples lives. And that's true. Many of the
injuries that the troops get now in Iraq, we would have died of them
in Vietnam. But TBI, the traumatic brain injuries is a problem that
many of our soldiers, airmen, marines and sailors are having. And the
funds have been cut for the research on this problem.
CVS: CIVIL VOLUNTEER SERVICE: MERCENARIES
We talk about 'de-funding the war.' The troops have been de-funded
ever since they got there. You might remember Rumsfeld saying, 'We'll
go to war with what we got.' When he [Rumsfeld] was asked a question
by one of the troops who was not afraid to stand up and ask the
question about why they had to go to the dump to get armor to protect
themselves, and Rumsfeld saying, 'We might not have the armor we want,
but in war you go with what you got.' And yet Halliburton, Bechtel,
Blackwater, Custer Battles, all these other contractors, which now,
the new word that George Bush used in his last speech, it's called
'Civil Volunteer Service' -- CVS. What does that mean? It means
mercenaries. It means that part of that strategy that they have to
downsize the military by privatizing it. That they get people from the
military, from the elite units and put them in private companies they
call 'security' and pay them six figures, with taxpayers money, while
our personnel in the military are living on minimum wage.
WE’RE AT THAT FORK IN THE ROAD: ABOLISH IT
We can no longer fool ourselves or believe a politician. I look at the
'left' and the 'right' as if in a big fight, whether I want to be hit
with a left hook or a right cross, because that's all it means.
Because any time you got a two-party system and neither party listens
to what the peoples' issues and concerns are, you got a problem --
unless you do what the Constitution [Pres. Thomas Jefferson] tells us
what you should do, 'Well, governments are instituted among men to
conserve those rights and that when any government is destructive of
those rights, then it's the peoples' duty to change or abolish it.'
And now, we're at that fork in the road.
NON-BINDING RESOLUTION, WHAT DOES IT MEAN? NOTHING.
Many of you might watch C-SPAN or some other channel besides Fox and
you'll see where Congress is now talking about a resolution that's
'non-binding.' What does that mean? Nothing. November 7th [declared]
to those elected that the people were ready for change, not just a
change in power, but a change in the position, the course that this
country is on.
AMERICA IS DYING A SPIRITUAL DEATH WHILE KILLING IRAQIS
I'll got back to April 4th, 1967 when Martin Luther King spoke against
the war in Vietnam. He didn't only speak against that war but against
all wars. I think he used words to the effect that [in using] power
without compassion, that this country would die a spiritual death.
This country has been dying that spiritual death ever since he spoke
those words. So, you have to ask the question, 'Why?' It's dying
because many people don't listen to Martin King and his prophecies
until Jan 15th; they come out once a year and talk about, 'I have a
dream.' You don't have no damned dream if you cannot carry a torch
that was dropped for you to carry on after his death in 1968. What
you're doing is living on a dream of a man that understood the
direction that we were going. He understood that many of us feel [who
are] on that road they call the Jericho Road, that they help somebody
for self-aggrandizement. They never ask the question, 'Why?'
We've been told that people hate us in the Middle East because of our
freedoms. That's a lie. People all over the world have the right and
the desire for self-determination. Our memories might be short here in
America, but people in the regions that we have oppressed have long
memories. I think many people today in Iraq remember how Donald
Rumsfeld was running over there, bringing the gas that he used on the
Kurds.
I think the people in Iran remember how the CIA from this country
overthrew the elected leader Mossadegh and installed the Shah who
reigned for 25 years and when they kicked the Shah out, Americans gave
the Shah asylum.
So it's time, people, that we wake up and realize that we cannot build
puppet governments throughout the world in the name of democracy
because democracy comes from the ground up, not from the top down.
In closing, there's another issue that troubles me and its the issue
of recruiters in the schools. As I watched the young people do their
thing on this program, I thought back and said [to myself], 'This is what will
change the course that we're in.' Because young people come up
believing the lies and the glorification of this country, and the
‘good we do throughout the world,’ the untrue history of America
that's taught. If they're taught otherwise, they will be the ones who
bring the change.
SIGN AWAY YOUR LIFE IN HIGH SCHOOL: BECOME PART OF THE PERMANENT WAR
ON TERROR (Until you’re discarded)
For a long time we've known that the military industrial complex was a
powerful thing, but it bothers me since 2002 when the No Child Left
Behind Act, that section 9528 that's hidden between 140-some pages,
that section that forces the schools to give all the data on students
to the recruiters. That section that says the recruiters have the same
right in the school as all the other [career] recruiters, even though
military recruitment is a consequential thing. If a student signs up
to go to Marquette [University], or U.W.-Madison, they can quit at any
time without a penalty. But if they sign up for the military, they not
only do the two or three years that they sign up for, but they have an
8-year obligation in the inactive services. And if, at a time of war,
that time period is extended indefinitely on something they call Stop
Loss. This is not something the recruiters tell the people.
So it's up to us to keep going to places where we don't want to go,
but we know we have to go, because it's us who will educate the
children and others to get on board. The [political] movement comes
something like throwing a pebble in a lake. One person, you get a
ripple. The more you get, sooner or later you get a tsunami.
I think this is what has to happen in 2008 [when] neither the
Democrats or the Republicans will feel safe, because we are ready for
change, for change that will save not only America, but the world.
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Video of Williams filmed (Milwaukee, Jan. 26, 2007) and edited by Josh
Harvey, Snowshoefilms.
Transcription by Yor Yevrah, Snowshoefilms. |
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