Mike Prysner, an Iraq War combat veteran and now director of the Center on Conscience and War, said, “The number one thing cited by our callers as a breaking point for them was the U.S. bombing of the Minab girls’ elementary school, that being the moment where they realized, ‘I’m not going to take part in the killing of children.’”

He added, “When the U.S. and Israel launched the war against Iran there was a shift. We used to get a handful of calls a week; now it’s three or four a day…people with really accomplished careers, in very elite jobs like Special Forces, Top Gun fighter pilots, physicians, surgeons. … Our highest-ranking CO client right now is a major in the military.”

U.S. Army Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson (Retired), said in support of the VFP campaign, “No officer, warrant officer, non-commissioned officer or enlisted man or woman should carry out an order they know is illegal.  Instead, they should carry their objection to the next higher person in the chain of command — and continue doing so until they get to an individual in that chain who will support them — even if they have to go all the way to the Commander-in-Chief.”  

Billboard by Veterans for Peace

VFP President Susan Schnall explained, “Many soldiers refused orders in Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan and most recently to protest U.S. support of Israel’s genocide in Gaza,” added the former Navy nurse, featured in the documentary, “Sir, No Sir!” for disobeying orders and protesting the war in Vietnam. “We know it takes courage. We also know we have to live with ourselves and our consciences long after military service.”

G.I. Rights Hotline coordinator, Steve Woolford, said, “Our phones are busier than ever at the GI Rights Hotline, with the biggest increase in calls coming from military members who are opposed to the ways the US military is currently being used.”  

In a now-famous video, Senator Mark Kelly and five other Members of Congress, all military veterans, told active duty and National Guard troops they have the right and the duty to refuse illegal orders. “No one has to carry out orders that violate the law or our constitution,” they clearly advised.  Veterans For Peace (VFP) publicly supported their statement.

See this link for photos, documentation of all billboards that have run or are now running in: 

·         New Orleans

·         Tucson

·         Great Lakes Naval Base near Chicago

·         Norfolk VA, outside the Norfolk Naval Station

·         3 in Watertown NY, outside Ft. Drum home of the Army’s 10th Mountain Div.

·         Fort Benning GA

·         Aguadilla PR, near a U.S. drone base

·         San Diego CA

·         2 in Fairfield CA, outside Travis AFB

·         2 in Portland OR

·         Fort Campbell, KY

·         Palm Springs CA, outside 29 Palms Marine Base

·         3 near Dayton OH, outside Wright Patterson AFB.

VFP has 100 chapters in the U.S. and overseas. Since 1985, its mission has been to “abolish war as an instrument of national policy.”