The West Point May 26th Organizing Committee:Peace Groups Announce Final Plans For Protesting Cheney Speech To West Point Graduation, May 26, 2007
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MAY 23, 2007
8:00 AM
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CONTACT: The West Point May 26th Organizing Committee
Michael Sussman, sussman1@frontiernet.net 845-469-3581, phone/fax 845-294-3991 and 845-294-1623
Bennett Weiss, BenWeiss@aol.com 845-569-8662
Steve Greenfield, bicyclesax@earthlink.net 845-255-2516, 845-532-0280
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Peace Groups Announce Final Plans For Protesting Cheney Speech To West Point Graduation,
May 26, 2007
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"When people speak to you about a preventive war, you tell them to go and fight it. After my experience, I have come to hate war... I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its stupidity. War settles nothing." -- Dwight D. Eisenhower, 5-Star General, 34th President of the United States, West Point Class of 1915
Hudson Valley, NY - May 24, 2007 - Elected officials, veterans, military families, and grassroots citizen activists for peace, freedom, and justice will hold a march and rally at Veterans Park, Highland Falls, New York commencing at 8:30 am on May 26, 2007 as Vice President Dick Cheney delivers the commencement address to the graduating class of 2007 at the United States Military Academy.
Colonel Ann Wright, who reopened the American Embassy in Kabul but later resigned from the U.S. diplomatic corps over disagreement with plans by the Departments of State and Defense to invade Iraq, will be the featured speaker (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Wright). Representatives of various chapters of Veterans for Peace (http://www.veteransforpeace.org/), Iraq Veterans Against The War (http://www.ivaw.org/), Gold Star Families for Peace (http://www.gsfp.org/), and Military Families Speak Out (http://www.mfso.org/) will all be on hand to help bolster our demands to end this immoral, illegal, and failed policy and to truly support our troops by bringing them home safely and providing them with proper health care and benefits upon their return. Colonel Wright can be contacted by phone 808-741-1141 and by Email: microann@yahoo.com.
"As a 29 year US Army/Army Reserve veteran who retired as a Colonel and a 16 year US diplomat who reopened the US Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan in December, 2001 and who resigned in March, 2003 in opposition to the war on Iraq, I will protest Vice President Dick Cheney's presence on May 28 at the West Point graduation," said Ann Wright, in announcing her decision to attend the West Point rally. "I strongly believe President Bush and Vice-President Cheney's war of choice on Iraq is a war of aggression, which is a war crime. Their policies of undercutting the Geneva Conventions have put our own soldiers at risk. Encouraging torture in violation of domestic and international law has undercut the professionalism and ethics of our military. Our cadets at West Point are at risk because of these policies. I believe every citizen should be protesting the policies of President Bush and Vice-President Cheney. I will proudly do so on Saturday, May 28 at West Point. -- Ann Wright, Colonel (Ret) US Army Reserves
Jim Murphy, who served in Vietnam in 1968, Quang Tri (Northern I Corps), concurred. "When these West Point graduates were first thinking about coming here to serve their country, the Bush Administration was secretly planning this war, a war of choice based on lies," said Murphy, who is speaking on behalf of Veteran's for Peace. "If the war continues, they will be leading young men and women into combat to kill a enemy created by our immoral foreign policy. They will see their own soldiers killed and wounded but equally sad they will bear witness to dead children, dead old people, people that had just hoped to survive. AND like all veterans, whatever they see and whatever they do will always be with them... always," Murphy added.
With over 45 organizations now sponsoring, including several with national reach, and a favorable weather forecast, record attendance is expected. People will begin assembling in Veteran's Park, Highland Falls, at 8:30 AM, and after a period of music and speakers during the gathering period, begin the march to the Thayer Gate by 10:00, followed by the concluding rally back at the assembly point.
The main message of the rally is best summed up by Military Families Speak Out, a group consisting of family members of active-duty U.S. servicemembers serving overseas.
"Military Families Speak Out continues to call on Congress to end funding for the war in Iraq, save what is needed to bring our troops home quickly and safely. Funding the war is not supporting our troops. The way to support our troops is to bring them home now and take care of them when they get here."
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