Anti-War Veterans Recreate Battles on the Streets of New York

Organized by a group of anti-war veterans, a group of soldiers who served in Iraq have taken to the streets of New York in an attempt to relive events as they transpired in Fallujah, intent on "demonstrating what it's really like" over there. The hoped for reaction consists of horror and disgust as soldiers clad in full attire hold their hands out much like they would their rifles in a drill, and take down seemingly random citizens. They then bind their victims' hands behind their backs and bag their faces before moving on, yelling, shouting, and swearing as though it were the real thing.

Simple prisoner swoops are not the only thing that they reenact, however, as they also recreate squads being attacked by snipers, and having to carry the wounded squadmate out amidst his cries of howls of pain. Cameramen follow the squads around, recording both the events and the crowds' reactions before posting them on the internet on website such as Geek Army and YouTube.

The scope of the events are rather large, as they also stage full-scale riots, and demonstrate American methods in trying to quell the uprising. Adam Kokesh, who says that he served as a sergeant in Iraq, explains that he is trying to show the people just how "terrible" events are in Iraq, demonstrating fully the horror of what the "poor civilians" have to endure in the midst of American operations.

What is conspicuously absent, however, are any of the signs of why American soldiers are bagging suspects on the street or being hit by sniper fire. While the unit of anti-war veterans is desperately trying to paint an image of what they're opposed to, specifically the "terror" they cause in Iraqi citizens and the unfair treatment extolled to them, they are painting an image without a context. This would be akin to decrying Romeo and Juliet as a play about promoting teen suicide by only listening to the narrator's opening and quickly cutting to Juliet's self-impalement.

Naturally, the veterans cannot be expected to carry out all the recreations of Iraq in order to best explain the authenticity of the situation, as I somehow doubt that the city of New York would be too enthused with explosives ringing across the streets and random citizens being kidnapped, they do their best. The problem is, however, New York simply isn't Baghdad, or Fallujah, or Baqouba, and therefore trying to apply actions in different climates is as absurd as trying to apply a modern moral equivalence to events in the Roman Colosseum.

The fundamental failure of the movement comes from the fact that New York is a peaceful city where people walk calmly and comfortably down the streets, buying, shopping, going to shows (or watching Broadway go on strike for whatever reason), or just hurriedly going to work. There is not a soldier to speak of for a hundred miles - then, suddenly, comes men who look more like lunatics than actual soldiers, waving their hands around, and grabbing people at seemingly random, bagging their faces, and disappearing.

In order for this to be a true to life situation, every person must already be instilled with fear - a constant, chronic fear that comes with knowing that your city is under the complete control of Sharia-fanatics. As the average citizen, in order to get the appropriate story, one would have to, in addition to shopping not for luxury items like universal remotes and nail polish but for essentials such as whatever food and water one can find, look over their shoulder to constantly see men in pick up trucks, often times firing AK-47s into the air, masked with either just a simple ski-mask or black fabric with eyeholes cut out.

Occasionally, the peacefulness of the market - that is, the time between shots of bullets in the air from Kalashnikovs - is broken by one of these pick up trucks or small cars screeching across the pavement and coming to a stop. Bullets rip through the crowd, hitting one or two people, which wasn't really the shooter's intention but it was an added bonus. Men run out of the car, screaming at the top of their lungs in Arabic before grabbing two or three people, stuffing them in the car or trunk, and disappearing.

You'll never see them again, you know, because they're being taken away to a warehouse where a clothing iron is going to be pressed against their skin, their eye is going to be torn out with a scalpel, or their head is going to be crushed in a vice grip. You've decided already, of course, that your children aren't going to attend the local school any more, not after those same group of men stormed the building and put a bullet in the head of the teacher since they taught something about Sufism that was none-too-appreciated.

None of the cars driving down New York have to worry about being blocked in by two others, and knowing one of them will soon detonate, roasting them alive.

With none of this atmosphere, all that the group really comes off as are strange people in army uniforms arresting people at random and putting down fake riots.

But perhaps what's most amusing is how the plan of these anti-war veterans back fires. The events that they show don't really conjure feelings of anti-war malaise, but rather tone down the conflict from the way it is being reported in the media. Where the idea that American forces are constantly shooting at insurgents who are shooting back in 24 hour gun battle royales, these soldiers help demonstrate that American forces are really busy doing what they do best:

Nailing the bad guys, arresting them, and minimizing casualties in the process.

Sources:

http://www.geekarmy.com/political/Iraq-Vets-Creative-Protest.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOwI00dgn5M