Treasonous? Hell No!!

I'm so sick of the pro-war, pro-death, pro-military braindead idiots in this country. They're pathetic!!

Showdown looms in 'treasonous' Berkeley

(CNN) -- Military supporters descended on Berkeley early Tuesday, demanding the famously liberal California college town rescind its vote that says Marine recruiters are "not welcome in this city."

The pro-military demonstrators were met by anti-war protesters who had camped out overnight, setting the stage for a dramatic showdown late in the day when the City Council is to discuss whether to revoke its previous vote.

"Their treasonous action, especially at this time of war right now, is not acceptable," said Mary Pearson, a spokeswoman for the group Move America Forward.

"It's very, very important for everyone to stand united ... to give our Marines and all of our military the greatest respect and honor that they deserve."

Before the sun was even up, about 300 demonstrators -- both pro-military and anti-war -- were already standing toe-to-toe in downtown. Many traded jeers and sneers.

"Code Pink doesn't stand for us," one sign said, held by a man in military fatigues. Signs held by anti-war activists read, "End the War" and "Bring the troops home now."

The City Council is to meet at 7 p.m. PT on whether to take back its previous measure urging the Marine recruiters to leave town.

"If recruiters choose to stay, they do so as uninvited and unwelcome intruders," the measure says.

It went on to say the council applauds residents and organizations that "volunteer to impede, passively or actively, by nonviolent means, the work of any military recruiting office located in the City of Berkeley."

Ever since the council measure, protesters with the anti-war group Code Pink have camped outside the Marine recruiting office on Shattuck Avenue, singing peace songs and chanting slogans for an end to the Iraq war.

Republican lawmakers in Washington fired back last week, threatening to recall more than $2 million of federal funding to the city as well as money designated for the University of California-Berkeley, the campus that became a bastion of liberalism during the Vietnam War.

The Marine Corps has said it has no plans to move its office, which is located about a block from the college campus.

Whether the City Council reverses course remains to be seen.

Max Anderson, a Vietnam war veteran who serves on the council, said he fully supports the measure to get Marine recruiters out of town -- despite receiving more than 8,000 e-mails, most of them harsh in tone, on the matter.

"If the aim was to shut us down, get us to back up, get us to eat our words, get us to retreat from our position with the war, they can forget that," he told CNN Monday.

He said he was recruited by Marines after he graduated from high school in 1963 and was promised that he and his friends would serve together. But once they enlisted, he said, they were separated and shipped off to Vietnam.

"We're not against the Marines per se," he said. "We're against this war. We're against the mechanisms that support this war and send our young people over there."

Kriss Worthington, a progressive Berkeley activist and council member for 11 years, believes the council overreached.

"The inflammatory language in the City Council item is really outrageous -- not just to right-wing people, but to mainstream liberal people and even to some peace activists who have said they're insulted that the city would have such language," Worthington said.

He said Berkeley owes an apology to the military and to the peace movement "for having such embarrassing language allegedly trying to promote peace."

"When you make a colossal blunder, you can't just sort of ignore the mistake and go about your way. You have to do something to fix it," Worthington said.

First of all, fuck you!! The city council and the city of Berkeley is not "treasonous". They were exercising their First Amendment rights to free speech, as well as exercising their right to deny entry to people that they don't want in their city. Every city does it!! Does that make every city in the United States "treasonous"? No!! If the city of Argus, California said that they didn't want military recruiters or a military recruiting office in their city, would we even be talking about it? Hell no!! And here's why!! We wouldn't be talking about Argus because nobody knows where the hell that is except for those who live there. It's not Berkeley, the "liberal" city. Argus doesn't grab the attention of people. My apologies to anyone who may be reading this from Argus. I just picked your city off of a map!!

The pro-military people are stupid. They don't get it!! This was about telling the military recruiters to get the hell out of Berkeley. These are the people who lie to your family members and friends to get them to join the military. They promise them the world, and don't deliver on their promises. They tell them that they won't have to go to war, but once they've graduated from BT (that's Basic Training) their asses are shipped off to war. These are the people who show up at high schools and colleges doing everything they can to try to recruit students. I've seen it first hand at the Catholic college that I attended a few years ago. I find it rather disingenuous of the college to have a pro-life stance yet they allow military recruiters there who are there to promote war and ultimately, DEATH!! What's next? Recruitment at pre-schools or in the delivery room when you're giving birth so that they can sign your newborn up for military duty that will come into effect when they turn 18?

This is not about supporting the troops, although I don't get how one can be pro-war and still "support" the troops. This is about taking a stand against these thugs who will say and do anything to make their quotas. They don't give a shit about who they're signing up. They don't give a shit if that recruit lives or dies once he or she leaves their office. Ask a recruiter who they've signed up. I bet you anything that they can't even tell you one thing about that person, including their name. We are nothing but paperwork and a number to these people. Don't you get it?

When are we supposed to speak out against the military and this government if we're not supposed to do it now because we're "at war"? Are we supposed to do it ONE HUNDRED years from now when most of us if not all of us who are alive now will be dead, and we're still "at war" with Iraq, Afghanistan, and who knows who else?

My dad was in the military before I was born. Had it not been for problems with his ship, he would have been sent to Vietnam. Had he not stood his ground and refused to be a medic in the military, he would have been sent to Vietnam. He didn't have a choice to say no to the military. He was drafted. We have choices today!! We can stand up and tell them HELL NO!! My dad may be a Veteran, but I don't respect what the military stands for. The military stands for death and destruction. I don't support that!! I can't support that!! And I will never support that!!