Category Archives: Veterans for Peace

Veterans for Peace Madison Clarence Kailin Chapter 25

Troops Have the Right and Duty to Refuse Illegal Orders

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Refuse Illegal Orders” Billboard Campaign from Veterans for Peace

Upon joining the U.S. military, service members swear to uphold the U.S. Constitution and are bound by the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ). The UCMJ is the foundation of military law in the United States. It applies to all branches of the Armed Forces and establishes definitions, jurisdiction, procedures, and punitive articles for maintaining discipline and justice. It states that all orders from superiors are assumed to be legal, but that this assumption “does not apply to a patently illegal order, such as one that directs the commission of a crime”.

 

Sign on in support and share with others.

Join with veterans and those who believe in peace and justice.

We are increasingly aware of horrendous acts of coldblooded murder on small fishing boats in the Caribbean and Pacific. More innocents were lost on the first day of the war on Iran when the Elementary School in Minab was bombed. Of the 156 civilians murdered, 120 were children. Calls from military personnel to Conscientious Objector organizations have increased dramatically over these atrocities.

 

Last November, Sen. Mark Kelly and 5 other lawmakers with military backgrounds expressed “serious concerns” over the fishing boat murders noting they could be considered war crimes.  They reminded troops “you can refuse illegal orders” and to “stand up for our laws – our Constitution.”  Their patriotism was questioned and they were threatened with harsh penalties.

 

In Spring 2025, Veterans for Peace began a national billboard campaign to inform and remind U.S. military service members of the right to refuse illegal orders. Over two dozen billboards have gone up around the U.S. and Puerto Rico.

 

Madison’s Chapter 25 of VFP responded with a campaign to place billboards locally. Our first went up on July 13 at Volk Field on Interstate 90/94.  On Aug 18 another one was placed near Ft McCoy on Hwy. SR21. Funds have been raised to keep these billboards in view of military personnel and the public through October. Our effort is to make them available through the general election and November. The added cost will be about $2,690.00.

 

Enthusiasm for the billboards and the conversations they create is leading VFP Madison to add another billboard at Truax Air National Guard Base in Madison. The cost is $625 / week.

 

We are also requesting individuals and groups sign on to this statement: “We, the undersigned individuals and organizations, support the obligation of U.S. military service members to refuse to comply with illegal, unlawful, criminal, unethical or immoral actions. “

Help us share our vioices.

To contribute to the “Resist Illegal Orders” campaign, donations can be sent Madison VFP, P.O. Box 1811, Madison, WI 53701

 

 

SERVICE MEMBER SUPPORT – Duty and Conscience

https://www.veteransforpeace.org/take-action/service-member-support

REFUSE ILLEGAL ORDERS – Veterans For Peace has launched a campaign to remind our brothers and sisters, sons and daughter and grandchildren who have joined the military that they have the right and the responsibility to refuse illegal orders, and that we will support them when they do.

 

 

Dare to say no

Billboard from Madison chapter of Veterans for Peace urges military officers to disobey illegal orders

“On a billboard just off the I-90/94 exit near Mauston, Uncle Sam is telling service members to disobey. The Madison chapter of Veterans for Peace is targeting their message —“I want YOU to REFUSE unlawful orders” — to soldiers training at Volk Field in Camp Douglas, more than an hour northwest of Madison.

Renting the billboard costs the Veterans for Peace chapter about $580 a week. “We’ll keep it up as long as we can afford to,” says chapter coordinator Brad Geyer. The first $4,000 is covered by a grant from the Howard Zinn Fund for Peace and Justice. Veterans for Peace is taking donations — only through checks, for now — for it to stay up as long as possible.

The message to disobey orders that rub at one’s conscience has popped up on dozens of billboards across the United States in recent months, sparked by a video last November from a half-dozen service member lawmakers, including Arizona’s Sen Mark Kelly. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth described the video as “reckless and seditious” as he attempted to cut Kelly’s pension and demote him (a move now blocked by a judge).

All service members are bound by the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which is silent on unlawful orders but does make it a punishable offense to disobey lawful orders. Air Force Major Jason Watson was arrested July 1 for protesting the Trump Administration at the U.S. Capitol and is now potentially facing charges, including contempt toward officials…”

“The Center on Conscience & War is a non-profit organization that advocates for the rights of conscience, opposes military conscription, and serves all conscientious objectors to war.”

 

 

Contact the Center on Conscience & War if you’re in the US military and want to seek discharge or reassignment as a Conscientious Objector.

Center on Conscience & War

 

 

https://www.veteransforpeace.org/

 

2026 Memorial Day Peace Rally

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

VFP 2026 Flyer_051526

 

 

Veterans for Peace consists of over 140 Chapters throughout the world.  https://www.veteransforpeace.org/

Statement of Purpose:

We, as military veterans, do hereby affirm our greater responsibility to serve the cause of world peace. To this end we will work, with others both nationally and internationally

  1. To increase public awareness of the causes and costs of war
  2. To restrain our governments from intervening, overtly and covertly, in the internal affairs of other nations
  3. To resist racism and repression in our home communities
  4. To oppose the militarization of law enforcement
  5. To end the arms race and to reduce and eventually eliminate nuclear weapons
  6. To seek justice for veterans and victims of war
  7. To abolish war as an instrument of national policy
  8. To promote a sustainable and peaceful world

To achieve these goals, members of Veterans For Peace pledge to use non-violent means and to maintain an organization that is both democratic and open with the understanding that all members are trusted to act in the best interests of the group for the larger purpose of world peace.  https://www.veteransforpeace.org/who-we-are/statement-purpose 

 

Will Williams is a valued member of our local chapter and a Vietnam veteran, an Army Infantryman. Will tells it like it is.

Oral History Wisconsin Veterans Museum Willie B. Williams: We Were Like Family

 

“While on active duty, Lt. Susan Schnall dropped antiwar leaflets over five military installations and an aircraft carrier from a small plane, held a press conference, and lead a mass peace march while in uniform. She’s been resisting war ever since.”  

Courage To Resist Podcast with Susan Schnall
https://couragetoresist.org/podcast-susan-schnall/   

 

 

Wisconsin Masonic Center

Parking provided and entrance on Johnson Street.

 

 

 

Memorial Mile ~ Setup May 23

~ Take down May 30

Yard Signs ~ Defund War, Fund Better Priorities ~ VFP Madison ~

Yard signs by the Madison, Wisconsin Chapter of Veterans for Peace, Clarence Kailin Chapter 25.  Raise your voice for peace and justice.

The signs are almost gone.

If you would like to provide a donation, we appreciate it.

description: 18”x24”, corrugated plastic, double-sided, comes with metal H stakes

Side 1

 

Donations help us continue our activities like providing educational scholarships to local youth and educating people so we can grow the movement for peace.  Please send us an e-mail, give us a call or contact your local Madison member of Veterans for Peace .  We will make sure to arrange to get signs to you, in the local Madison area.  Outside of the area there will be an additional cost if shipping is required.

Side 2

 

  • Chapter Coordinator and Website Admin:
    Brad Geyer , email: geyerb@yahoo.com
    phone: 920-650-0052
  • Chapter Treasurer:  Paul McMahon  email: heartlandphoto@tds.net

 

 

Ukraine and the Expansion of NATO – Jeffrey Sachs – VFPConvention2023

The crimes related to this current violence in Ukraine began long before Russia invaded Ukraine.

2 minute Summary of the Ukraine – Russia History 

Thank you to Jeffrey Sachs for sharing some of his knowledge.
Saturday August 26, 2023

HOME | VFP Convention

 

“Jeffrey D. Sachs is University Professor and Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, where he directed the Earth Institute from 2002 until 2016. He is President of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, Co-Chair of the Council of Engineers for the Energy Transition, Commissioner of the UN Broadband Commission for Development, academician of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences at the Vatican, and Tan Sri Jeffrey Cheah Honorary Distinguished Professor at Sunway University. “

Speakers (vfpconvention.org) Veterans for Peace 2023 Convention Speakers

The transcript is from an earlier talk in June, but similar topics.

“This conflict is actually decades in the making. It didn’t just come out of a Russian invasion in 2022, as is often said in the Western mainstream media. The war is often defined as an unprovoked attack in 2022. Actually, the roots of this war go back to the end of the Soviet Union and to the geopolitics around that.

In 1990, the US and Germany promised the Soviet government at the time, Mikhail Gorbachev, the President, that NATO would not move one inch eastward if Gorbachev went ahead and disbanded the Soviet Military Alliance. In other words, there would be a deal that on the Soviet side, the military alliance, the so-called Warsaw Pact, would be ended, and on the Western side, NATO would not take advantage and Germany would be reunified, but NATO would not move one inch eastward. The US cheated on that because as soon as the Soviet Union ended in 1991, the policymakers in Washington, especially in the Pentagon and in the permanent state in the United States, immediately planned for the Eastern expansion of NATO.

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So this war started, in my opinion, because the United States could not accept a peace in which the military alliances of both sides of the Cold War would stand down. Well, many things happened over the 30 years between the early 1990s and today, but probably the highlights to mention are that in 2008, George W. Bush forced NATO, pushed NATO, but really pressed that NATO would announce that Ukraine would become a member. And that happened at the Bucharest NATO Summit in 2008. The Russian leadership was furious. They had warned again and again: Don’t do that. We don’t want your military right up against our 2000-kilometer border with Ukraine. Then a Ukrainian President won the election in 2010 on the program of neutrality for Ukraine. Viktor Yanukovych won the election based on the idea that Ukraine doesn’t want to become the battlefield between two superpowers and called for neutrality, which had been enshrined in the original Ukrainian Declaration of Independence, but then was abandoned by some of the NATO-oriented politicians of Ukraine.

So in 2010, Jankovich called for neutrality, but he was overthrown violently in early 2014 with US participation. So this was really a terrible escalation because the relatively pro-Russian president, but one who called for neutrality, which I think was the only safe course for Ukraine, was overthrown. And the United States played a significant role in that. People know about the famous tape of Victoria Nuland, who is now our Under Secretary of State. At the time, she was the Assistant Secretary of State and she described who the US would see as the next government three weeks before a violent overthrow.

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The US signed several statements in 2021 confirming that NATO would enlarge. I think this was all absolutely irresponsible. Russia massed troops on its border and put on the table a draft US-Russia security agreement on December 17th, 2021 based on no NATO enlargement. The Biden administration formally replied that it was not willing to negotiate over that issue in a response in January. Then Russia invaded on February 24th, 2022, making clear that it was the failure to reach an understanding on the NATO question that was central to Russia’s action.

Four weeks later, Zelenskyy declared that Ukraine was accepting of neutrality. In other words, the initial Russian invasion brought Ukraine to the negotiating table, and during the second half of March, with the Turkish government being the mediators, Russia and Ukraine hammered out a peace agreement.

Incredibly, the United States blocked it because the United States told the Ukrainian government you fight on because American policymakers had two ideas. One was that Ukraine should not be neutral. It should be a NATO country. And second, that the war would be won by some combination of Western armaments and financial sanctions.”

JUne 2023 

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