It was nothing short of a privilege to meet men and women who embody and demonstrate the kind of bravery not celebrated by our corporate media, a media that operates with a slavish adherence to an elite-friendly narrative only interested in drumming up support for more illegal and immoral military action around the globe. It’s an end arrived at only by exploiting the public’s distorted notion of patriotism, fostered on overdrive every year during Remembrance season. But how incredibly powerful it is to talk to people like members of Veterans For Peace who have had a change of mind and heart so profound that their entire worldview is shattered, only to be rebuilt on truth.

I followed behind these men and women, along with their families and other supporters, as we turned into Whitehall and headed towards the Cenotaph, and as we did so I became increasingly aware of how much strength each of them must posses and what a deep and painful inner journey each of them must have taken in order to bring them to this place, marching defiantly in public with the words of Harry Patch, the World War I soldier, printed on the back of their light blue sweatshirts: ‘War is organised murder’. Harry resisted until his death all attempts by war criminal elites like Tony Blair to use him as a tool of propaganda. But then this is how those elites use all those who serve in the military; those whom, in reality, they consider cannon fodder are cynically wheeled out to be praised by those who should be on trial at The Hague.

The large crowds were gone as we made our way to the Cenotaph itself, which begs the question, why should these veterans not be a part of the ‘official’ commemoration? They deserve to be. It’s a mainly rhetorical question, however, because the answer is, of course, they are dangerous. They are dangerous because they threaten to expose the corruption of a system using military interventions for strictly strategic and commercial purposes but which must have the support of a conditioned public to effect their aims; aims achieved through a relentless stream of propaganda amplified by the ever loyal corporate media which never wavers from the state/corporate line. They are, as Media Lens have so aptly put it, ‘state stenographers’.

What the men and women of Veterans For Peace know, and are so crucially speaking out about, is that UK and US foreign policy agendas have nothing whatsoever to do with humanitarianism, which is why you will never see Ben Griffin on ‘mainstream’ media news broadcasts where ‘heated debates’ are conducted between those who differ only in degree, never in kind. And thus the charade is played out. In my piece What’s Wrong With Channel 4 News Part III, I mention that I once asked the deputy editor of that programme why he would not report on the Iraq/ Afghanistan Winter Soldier hearings? From the piece:

He dismissed it in four words: ‘because it’s agit-prop’. Yes, the man who so strongly supports ‘our boys’ appears to think they are not worth hearing when they return from war and want to tell their stories; unless, that is, their stories support the official ‘good war fought by good old tommies’ narrative. Should they dare to tell their truth, their experiences become unworthy of Ed’s precious airtime; their incredible bravery is, for him, just an exercise in cynical political propaganda. The word ‘irony’ here is barely adequate. Our soldiers must adhere to a certain ‘noble’ ideal, even when they come back missing arms and legs, even when they are blind and disfigured, they must praise the war’s aims, they must remain ‘on message’ or they will simply be made invisible.

That is why we must do all we can in independent media to support Veterans For Peace and to spread their message far and wide. It sickens me that these amazing men and women should be marginalized and silenced when their powerful testimony is so desperately needed. Our leaders are truly the insane in charge of the asylum, their madness bringing death and misery to millions. Syria is only the latest long-planned roguery for which the innocent are daily paying the price. Only we can stop them, because it is we they are terrified of, we must remember that. It is we who hold the power in actuality. Truth is what they cannot bear; it’s the air that would choke them; the sunlight that would see them burn up like vampires.

So let’s speak the truth loudly and consistently whenever and wherever we can. And if we can’t all be Veteran’s For Peace, we can be activists for peace. Like Gandhi, like King, we can be dynamic and potent agents of change. Let’s do it!

“Why of course the people don’t want war. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.” (Herman Goering)