Occupy London and war veterans

This video from the USA is about veterans in the Occupy Wall Street movement.

When I was at the Occupy London camp on 8 November, there was a tent with a Veterans for Peace sticker.

Both in Britain and the USA, veterans returned from the wars started by George W Bush and Tony Blair are prominent participants in the worldwide Occupy Wall Street movement. In Oakland in California, at least two veteran participants in Occupy Oakland landed in intensive care because of police brutality.

At Occupy London, I met a northern English veteran from the war in Afghanistan, whose request of anonymity I will respect in this blog. He had joined Occupy London three weeks ago, and slept not in the St Paul’s camp where we spoke, but at the other Occupy London camp at Finsbury Square.

Seeing fellow soldiers in Afghanistan die and get injured before his eyes had left this veteran with trauma.

Warmongering politicians in Britain, the USA and other countries often refer to soldiers as “heroes” while they are fighting the wars for the profits of Big Oil, weapons industry fat cats, etc. However, when those very soldiers return to, eg, Britain, with physical, psychical and/or financial problems, the warmongering politicians do not treat the veterans like heroes, but like less than zeroes.

In the very week that I met the veteran at Occupy London, another English ex-soldier, together with his wife, committed suicide as they could no longer stand the dire poverty in which they had landed.