The Black Alliance for Peace Solidarity Network’s Afghanistan Committee continues to foreground the situation in Afghanistan and the responsibilities of those in imperial cores toward the Afghan people. The United States continues to be committed to devastating Afghanistan by imposing unilateral sanctions and sponsoring violent, reactionary forces.
This newsletter includes an interview with U.S. Air Force veteran Eddie Falcón, 39, who served four years as a loadmaster aircrew member on a C-130 aircraft. Falcón was deployed twice to Afghanistan (in the winters of 2003 and 2004) and twice to Iraq (in the summers of 2004 and 2005). He also did evacuations in the United States during Hurricane Katrina (2005). Falcón was honorably discharged in December 2005 and moved in January 2006 to San Francisco to start college. He has been a member of activist organizations, such as About Face (formerly Iraq Veterans Against the War), Before Enlisting, Bay Area Copwatch, and Warrior Writers. This work has allowed him to speak about his military experience and anti-war perspective in high schools, colleges, youth programs, and at events across Europe, the United States, Canada and West Asia.
Falcón co-produced the 2011 documentary, “Occupation Has No Future,” with Upheaval Productions, a film set in Palestine and Israel. He is a featured speaker in the anti-recruitment video, “Before You Enlist!,” he has co-starred in two bilingual National Lawyers Guild infomercials for immigrants’ rights, and he has provided “Know Your Rights” training across the San Francisco Bay Area. Falcón is a musician and has performed at several events and fundraisers across the United States. For many years, he was a high school teacher in special education, mathematics and Spanish. Falcón is involved in California’s Indigenous community as an Aztec dancer, drummer, and event organizer with the group Calpulli Coatlicue.
Like many young people in the United States, you enlisted in what you call the "economic draft" in the hope of escaping poverty. What conclusions were you able to draw from being raised in East Los Angeles, and then serving in the U.S. military in Iraq and in Afghanistan?
A big part of me joining the military was for economic reasons. All the benefits offered like the Government Issue (GI) Bill, healthcare, the Veterans Administration (VA) home loan, and an enlistment bonus seemed like they would help me get a boost in society. Though an enlistment bonus never happened and once in, I was told my chosen job as aircrew was bonus enough. If I wanted a bonus, I needed to extend my enlistment to six years, which I didn’t want to do. More important than economic benefits, and much more immediate to me, I wanted to escape the cycle of violence and poverty I experienced. I had been through the foster care system, had an uncle die from police violence, been repeatedly harassed by the police myself, and saw family members involved in gangs, drugs, prison, and being deported. I felt like joining the military was my only escape.
You have said that as one of the few Mexicans in a mostly-white unit, you experienced racism early in your enlistment. Later, you were encouraged to see and treat Iraqis as dirty beings. Iraqi prisoners often mistook you for an Iraqi after you removed their blindfolds. How did these kinds of experiences change how you viewed the U.S. war on this so-called enemy?
The missions on my last deployment, moving detainees in and out of the Basra, Iraq prison, definitely shifted my perspective. To start, I was given a Prisoner Under Containment (PUC) kit, a bag with a tarp, diapers, and such. I was told the prisoners will shit, piss, or try to spit and it was for my protection. I refused the bag, as that sounded absurd. I was then told to remove the seats from the plane and to strap the prisoners to the floor. So yes, it was implied that they were dirty and not worth a seat and seat belt. Upon releasing prisoners, one mistook me for being Iraqi. That moment showed me I was on the wrong side. I thought about the racial slurs my squadron hurled at me daily, my family being taken away by police or immigration, and I related to the struggle of the so-called enemy.
What efforts to dehumanize Afghans did you encounter during your tours in Afghanistan?
One day [in approximately the winter of 2004] in Herat, I was outside the plane getting ready to load it. This little boy, maybe 6 years old, crawled out from under the base’s fence. I watched as he jogged up, pulled some rocks from his pocket, and began throwing them at me and the plane with all his might. I was actually impressed by how bold and brave he was, taking on the U.S. military at his size. Suddenly, the pilot came over the headset telling me, “If that kid gets any closer or hits us with a rock, you need to shoot him!”
My heart sank in my chest in disbelief, but I knew I had to do something. I made eye contact with the boy, laughed, waved and smiled. He paused, smiled too, and ran back home thankfully. I couldn’t believe they wanted me to just swat away this child’s life like a fly.
How did getting involved in the anti-war movement change your understanding of the world?
When I was first discharged from the military [in December 2005], I felt isolated and resentful. I thought no one cared or could relate to all the things I had seen and been through in war. I think I just had a lot of unreconciled anger. I wondered, how could everyone just be living their happy little lives while all this suffering was taking place abroad? I saw students organizing against war at San Francisco City College’s campus [in January 2006] and went right up to talk to them. They, the socialists, had me speaking [about the war] at a campus event and then at a high school by my second semester. Getting involved in the anti-war movement helped me channel some of that energy into activism. It showed me there were people out there who did care and wanted to fight for peace. It also introduced me to other veterans who were critical of the wars and militarism. It pretty much gave me my first sense of community after the military, and I’m grateful for that.
How do you see your role as a rap musician and performance artist in opposing U.S. militarism and wars, both abroad and in the United States?
Music is a way through art to process some of my life, the war, and to communicate my worldview from those experiences. Although I haven’t done a rap performance in years, I do remember people approaching me and saying that they identified with my lyrics. How they had family who served in the military or had been through the prison system, and they spoke of the adverse effects it had on their community. I see this entire range of experience as symptoms of militarism. Nowadays, I mostly express myself through Aztec dance. For me, indigeneity has been the best way to decolonize myself and my community to oppose militarism. Honoring our traditions, rituals, festivals, dances, language, ancestors, and identities before colonization not only can heal generational trauma, but can show the youth that we already have something to be proud of and to fight for, right here in our neighborhoods.
What would you like to tell young people who are thinking about joining the military?
I speak about this very topic in high schools with a group called Before Enlisting. I mostly let kids know the military is historically a place for straight white men and, if you’re not that, it’s most likely going to be difficult just to get along. That’s besides the stress of boot camp, injuries on the job, war, mental health issues and the bureaucracy of pursuing veterans benefits. Try not to make the military your first option after high school. If you enlist and don’t like it, you have rights. The GI Rights hotline can help. You’re not stuck. It’s a process, but you can get out and retain some benefits. If you stay in, put your health and safety first. Get everything you can from them while in and as a veteran. They will get anything they can out of you, including your life and limbs.
Anything else you'd like to share?
Please visit the following websites to see some of the work I have been involved in. Thank you!
National Lawyers Guild immigrants’ rights videos here and here
“Occupation Has No Future” documentary
“Before You Enlist!” educational video for high schoolers
ADDITIONAL READING
CEPR Sanctions Watch: February 2023
February 28, 2023 by Michael Galant for Center for Economic and Policy Research
A Federal Judge ruled this month that the Afghan central bank’s U.S.-based frozen reserves could not be used to compensate families of survivors of September 11. An expected appeal will keep the $3.5 billion frozen for potentially years to come while the other $3.5 billion remains in the control of the U.S.-sponsored “Afghan Fund.”
Foreign Devils on Road to Afghanistan
March 13, 2023 by M.K. Bhadrakumar in Peoples Dispatch
Western powers led by the United States work to find justifications for intervention in Afghanistan, pursuing options that will create anarchical conditions in the country in a quest for regime change.
March 6, 2023 by News Central Asia
China and Russia lead efforts to establish diplomatic relations with the Taliban, discussing ways to improve material conditions on the ground while raising questions centered around women’s rights.
Banner photo: U.S. veterans of Iraq march in protest against war (curtesy, en.wikipedia.org.).