NATO in Chicago, Vets cast off their medals

Democracy Now! is currently broadcasting from Chicago, site of the largest NATO summit in the organization’s six-decade history. Protesters have flocked to the city, many identified with Occupy movements from other states.

On Sunday, veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, as well as members of Afghans for Peace, led a peace march of thousands of people. Iraq Veterans Against the War held a ceremony in which nearly 50 veterans hurled their war medals down the street in the direction of the NATO summit; each veteran spoke individually on why they were taking this action

Said Jason Hurd, a former combat medic who spent 10 years in the U.S. Army, “I’m here to return my Global War on Terror Service Medal in solidarity with the people of Iraq and the people of Afghanistan. … I am deeply sorry for the destruction that we have caused in those countries and around the globe.”

I’ll let the video coverage speak for itself. Among those protesting by throwing his medals was Scott Olsen, the two-time Iraq vet who suffered critical brain injuries last year at an Occupy Oakland demonstration after police shot him with a bean-bag round.

Over the weekend, dozens were arrested — including five men who were jailed on domestic terrorism charges — and there are reports of police brutality (beatings by police, a police van running over a woman).

NATO, for its part, has approved the first phase of a U.S.-led so-called ‘missile defense’ shield to be deployed in Europe. The plan will deploy a U.S. warship armed with interceptors in the Mediterranean as well as a radar system in a German base. Russia has condemned the move and threatened to station rockets in areas bordering the European Union.

Sixties Redux, indeed.