Let slip the dogs of war

 

October 28


GUEST: Brian Willson, Viet Nam veteran, lawyer, Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization, and author of several books including Blood on the Tracks, the story of how he was severely injured while protesting US weapons shipments to Central America, talks at a recent Alliance for Global Justice panel entitled "US Exceptionalism: Its Story in Nicaragua and Beyond."

S. Brian Willson blog
NicaNotes on Nicaragua

Activist Radio had Brian Willson on way back in September, 2012. 

Guest: Brian Willson, Vietnam Veteran and long time peace activist, talks about Bo Boudart's new documentary "Paying the Price for Peace," which is based on Brian's life.

As a Vietnam Era veteran, and a supporter of the Nicaraguan revolution during the 1980s, I have always admired Brian for his lifetime of antiwar organizing. The panel discussion I aired this time was just too good to pass up. Here is a person who was in the Vietnam War. He was also in Nicaragua during the CIA Contra Wars. He has seen and felt it first hand. He didn't lose his legs in some Vietnamese attack, but was purposely run over by a train full of munitions bound for Latin America. 

This stops a trainload of bullets,

Destined for Central American hearts.


Now there is blood on the heavy wheels,

And a man gives his legs for peace.

Oh shame for those who stand upright,

And pay for murders out of sight.


I will get around sometime to sending Brian this poem I wrote for him. I also plan to ask him to be on the program again. The Democrats are once again making war noises towards peaceful nations in this hemisphere. Twenty years of war, and people like Secretary of State Blinken will never learn. In fact, it is the ruling class in these United States that perpetually risk a world war just so the Military Industrial Complex can get even richer. For bloodshed is the most profitable business model the US has, and there is no end in sight of Black and brown victims for our war machine.


Or as Shakespeare describes the insanity of empire in Julius Caesar:


"Cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war."