Memorial Day Observance

We will be in Iran on the US Memorial Day. We have gotten positive feed back from our Iranian contacts and from US veterans about having some sort of commemoration of Iranian veterans on that day. We are not sure what form this should take. While we are relying heavily on our Iranian contacts to be sure it has the right tone in Iran, we would also like your suggestions and ideas

LETTERS TO IRAN

Vet to Vet letters of peace

We want to carry the message of peace from US veterans to Iranian veterans.  While most of our veterans come from the Vietnam war, widely seen as a failed occupation, most Iran veterans come from the 10 year war with Iraq which is seen as a war of defense. But there is still common ground for letters of peace between our nations and a world of peace from our veterans to their veterans.  We are looking for help and suggestions for gathering these letters.

Letters of peace from US children to Iranian children

We would like to carry messages of peace from US children to Iranian children. We would like help getting letters and gathering them together.

Christian to Muslim letters of peace

We want to carry letters of peace across both religious and political lines -- peace messages from US Christians to Iranian Muslims or, US Muslims to Iranian Christians or Zoroastrians, for example.  We are looking for people who can help us gather letters and make this happen.

Veterans For Peace National sends a Delegation to Iran May 15^th through May 30^th

http://vfpirandelegation.blogspot.com

Why a Delegation? It is a visible way for Veterans for Peace to stand up for peace between nations. But more concretely as veterans we remember how the military consciously depersonalized, dehumanized and finally, demonized the enemy to get us to fight. The same steps -- depersonalize, dehumanize and, demonized -- are part of preparing the people of a nation to wage war on another nation. People to people diplomacy is about re-personalizing and re-humanizing the people of the another nation. It is about building human bridges that are firmly rooted in the people of both nations and lift the human connectedness over geographic and political barriers.

Delegate Elliott Adams says “As a soldier I found I was the tip of a bayonet of extremist capitalism, as it was plunged into the people of Vietnam cutting apart their lives and their world and, severing any human connections with the people of the US. As veterans we must choose to walk a different path, one of building human relations with the people of other nations and through that process building toward a world at peace.”

Why Iran? Iran is of central importance in the Greater Middle East: it is 3^rd largest in population, 2^nd largest in land area and, 2^nd largest in GDP. It boarders on 8 countries including Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. It has ports on three major water bodies in the area. It has major oil and gas reserves. And, even with the election of Obama, we can not forget that Iran is still in the gun sight of many power brokers in the USA. While there is much that Iran does that Veterans For Peace does not agree with or think right, launching an attack -- overtly or covertly -- on Iran and inevitably on the people of Iran, will not improve any of their policies or actions.

After trying, unsuccessfully, to get an independent VFP Delegation into Iran, we have joined with Fellowship of Reconciliation. We have two delegates now, Will Covert and Past President Elliot Adams, others are welcome. The delegation will be from May 15^th to May 30^th. This trip is expensive, it was not budgeted in the VFP national budget. Any contributions toward the $4000 per person base cost will be very helpful in making this delegation -- this effort for peace -- possible.