From Iraq to Standing Rock

About Face Veterans Unite Against Imperialist Wars and Pledge Solidarity with Palestine and Cuba

By Mark Friedman, Member of LA Hands-off Cuba Committee and the International Association of Machinists

Over Labor Day weekend in Indiana, nearly 120 veterans of the armed forces participated in the About Face national convention. About Face, originally known as Iraq Veterans Against the War, is a group of post-9/11 veterans and active-duty service members who advocate against militarism abroad and within U.S. communities. 

About Face veterans joined the encampments during the Occupy Wall Street movement, called on the National Guard to stand down during the Black Lives Matter protests, mobilized on the side of the Standing Rock Sioux protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline, and have called for the end of the genocide in Gaza.

On July 4, About Face launched their “Right to Refuse Campaign,” an initiative that argues that service members deserve legal protections allowing them to refuse orders they believe are unlawful or immoral, without fear of punishment. The campaign aspires for Congress to enact legislation safeguarding this right. 

Scores of veteran members of the Coast Guard, the Army, the Marine Corps, the Navy, the National Guard and the Air Force, from all divisions, were present. For more than half, it was their first convention.  

The veterans spoke of their deployments and collective realization that U.S. troops were not sent to Iraq, Afghanistan, or other countries to help local people, but rather to train military and police forces, and to maintain a military presence at the Guantánamo base in Cuba. Those stationed at Guantánamo added that detainees there were denied due process under U.S. law and that the base should be returned to the Cuban people.

One Haitian-born veteran said, “We were pawns in the U.S. racist war on drugs.”

One veteran speaker after the next, whether Black, Latinx, white, Asian, or Indigenous, explained that they enlisted in the military because they needed money for school, or they were homeless, or were recruited under misconceptions, lies and public school indoctrination via Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC). Some had been deployed in the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt as part of the U.S. government’s support for Israel. Now they feel it is their responsibility to the Gazans to speak up and to organize against U.S. military aid to Israel.

During one of the sessions during the convention, the organizing director of About Face, Brittany Debarros, told the rapt crowd:

“Our stories are a threat to the system that is killing thousands around the world. That machine works so hard to make us think we have no power. We are organizers who fight against militarism and are here to discuss how we can earn the respect of future generations. Our duty, our goal is to make the connections, to build power for the working class.”

Several veterans told this reporter how they became radicalized while in the armed forces and described their current political work supporting service members who oppose U.S. military interventions abroad and want to leave the military. Some, still serving in the National Guard, strongly denounced being deployed for immigration arrests and deportations by ICE in Los Angeles, as well as the deployment of guardsmen or troops to cities targeted by Trump under the guise of “fighting crime.”

Maxine from Texas, who participated this past May Day in the “Labor and Youth Activists” delegation and was interviewed by the Cuban workers union (CTC) newspaper, Trabajadores, said, “I’m here at the About Face convention with other veterans who oppose the U.S foreign policy of forever wars.”

During a press conference at the convention, an About Face member from Kansas, who went by the name Heather, said she was participating “to grow my skills and my knowledge to help create a more meaningful and powerful change here and abroad.”  

Arti Walker-Peddakotla, the board chair for About Face, added, “We are an anti-militarist, anti-imperialist organization that opposes the U.S. foreign policy of forever wars and works to end militarism at home and abroad.” 

Rebecca Roberts, a young Cuban-American from New Jersey, participated in a delegation to Cuba last May Day. She is the current organizing manager with About Face, and commented, “We are veterans who have seen firsthand the devastating impact of U.S. militarism both at home and abroad, and can really speak to the inherent violence of that system. So, we as an organization leverage that privilege and privileged position to speak for causes such as Cuba, Palestine, and against the National Guard being deployed in our own communities as well.”

Chris, from California, was a Marine Corps veteran who had been stationed at Guantánamo Bay on the fence line. He stated, “I’m speaking today to oppose the U.S. imperial overreach and the continued occupation of that island.”

Together, three speakers connected U.S. propaganda and militarism to global struggles — linking Cuba, Palestine and immigrant communities at home — while stressing that true liberation requires ending imperialist occupations and respecting the sovereignty of oppressed peoples.

Heather noted, “When we think about the U.S. government, I think we have to realize that we are witnessing a repetition of history repeating itself. We witness the same mechanisms being used, the same type of propaganda that is perpetuated to sustain U.S. imperialism.”

Cuban American veteran Rebecca said she has seen a lot of the propaganda that is sold to Cuban Americans. 

“I see that as part of the same system of propaganda in the U.S., that is the reason why so many of us even joined the military,” Rebecca said. “Palestine… Cuba… all international struggles, I see [them] as interconnected. Especially with the U.S. military having 800-plus military bases around every corner of the globe. It’s such an overreach, and we stand for the sovereignty of all oppressed peoples, both here in our own communities, where ICE is tearing families apart and terrorizing immigrants.”

Chris believes Palestine is a litmus test for freedom around the world. “Once the occupation of Palestine is over and the blockade of Cuba is over, then we can actually talk about liberation for people around the world,” Chris said.

Their “Core Assumptions” state that:

“We need to build out other mechanisms to withdraw support for the authoritarian regime carrying out US imperialism. The military is both ripe for renewed resistance movement and that significant military resistance movement would have a meaningful effect on Trump’s ability to carry out his aggression and agenda.”

The conference watched a live transmission of a boat of veterans, including About Face members, joining the Global Sumud Flotilla in the Mediterranean, comprised of people from across 44 countries, attempting to breach the blockade that Israel has imposed to provide vital medical supplies and food.

The conference group picture ended by chanting “Cuba Si, Bloqueo No!” More than 30 signed up to go to Cuba with the Labor and Youth Activists delegation sponsored by the Cuban CTC and ICAP. They will be put in contact with local Cuba solidarity committees from a dozen cities to assist with local educational efforts, protests, and the medical aid campaigns, such as the just concluded Saving Lives Campaign for Pacemakers, surpassing its goal of $150,000.