Veterans For Peace (VFP) includes men and women veterans of all branches of service, eras, conflicts and duty stations. We are an official Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) represented at the UN. Our collective experience tells us wars are easy to start and hard to stop and that those hurt are often the innocent. Thus, other means of problem solving and old-fashioned diplomatic negotiation are necessary. As veterans, we draw on our personal experiences and perspectives to raise public awareness of the true costs and consequences of militarism and war - and to seek peaceful, effective alternatives. The picture on the left was done by the then 5-year-old son of one of our members (our Chapter Secretary), posted here in Dec 2009, when that once 5-year-old was 42 years old.

THE VFP MISSION:

Veterans For Peace, Inc. (VFP) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) educational and humanitarian organization
dedicated to the abolishment of war.

The Veterans For Peace Statement of Purpose is:

Having dutifully served our nation, we hereby affirm our greater responsibility to serve the cause of world peace. To this end we will work, with others:

(a) Toward increasing public awareness of all costs of war;
(b) To restrain our government from intervening, overtly and covertly, in the internal affairs of other nations;
(c) To end the arms race, and to reduce and eventually eliminate nuclear weapons;
(d) To seek justice for veterans and victims of war;
(e) To abolish war as an instrument of national policy.

To achieve these goals, members of Veterans For Peace pledge to use non-violent means and to maintain an organization that is both democratic and open with the understanding that all members are trusted to act in the best interests of the group for the larger purpose of world peace. We urge all people who share this vision to join us.

VFP 156 Mission Statement Supplement:

We dedicate Rogue Valley VFP#156 to embracing peace within ourselves as we work toward achieving the objectives stated in the VFP Statement of Purpose and global peace.

Rogue Valley VFP 156 supports service men and women in peaceful, non-violent resistance to the unnecessary and illegal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. We believe that dialogue, discussion, and listening are the best ways to defend our country, end crises and put forth our lobby for peace.

With hundreds of years of combined experience as veterans and Peace advocates, we have found that being "FOR PEACE" better displaces aggression and fear than being "against war"; and that being "FOR PEACE" creates space for opportunities to sprout, and for people to grow in awareness of their connections with one another.

Chapter Resolution of March 3, 2010: "RV VFP 156 supports service men and women in peaceful, non-violent resistance to the unnecessary and illegal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan."
A Chapter Resolution on May 5, 2010 states: "We likewise support resisters and their families who claim reparations from the effects of incomplete disclosure of their enlistment contract."

NEW: We are often asked by parents of potential recruits, "Why do you do what you do?" All we could say is that "We've been there. While we haven't all been in combat, we're simply attempting to let these kids (potential military recruits) in on a somewhat different perspective of military life than what they get from the recruiters."
One of the best advertisements we can reference for this purpose are the WikiLeaks documents released on July 25, 2010, as summarized here a record of war crimes, also the highly prejudicial current versions of military marching chants and, for those that are 'into' reading rather than just video games, some of the highly informative books listed on our 'Costs of War' page, many by veterans of the current Middle East wars.

(Also note this article, "We Should Talk to Our Enemies".)

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QUOTES

"We must not conceal from ourselves that no improvement in the present situation is possible without a severe struggle; for the handful of those who are really determined to do something is minute in comparison with the mass of the lukewarm and the misguided." Albert Einstein, 1934

"Violence causes trauma and unhealed trauma causes more violence." Elaine Zook Barge

The cause of war is preparation for war." W.E.B. Dubois

"Peace is not won by those who fiercely guard their differences, but by those who, with open minds and hearts, seek out connections." Katherine Paterson

“Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience." Julia Ward Howe, in a Mother's Day Proclamation, 1870.

"We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. When the loyal opposition dies, I think the soul of America dies with it."
Edward R. Murrow, CBS newscaster, 1950's-'60s.

"There is no way to peace, peace is the way." — A. J. Muste

"We must be the change we wish to see in the world." — Mahatma Gandhi

“Inner Peace ~ A personal solution for global transformation” - Anonymous

"World peace must develop from inner peace.
"Peace is not the absence of violence.
"Peace is the manifestation of human compassion."
~ His Holiness the Dalai Lama

"To create a culture of peace, we must begin by acknowledging the violence in our own hearts and then learn to disarm it." ~ Sulak Sivaraska

"Peace cannot be 'waged,' it must begin within ourselves... from our inner being." — VFP156

"The greatest purveyer of violence in the world today (is) my own government."
Dr. Martin Luther King, April 1967

"The most destructive decision that an individual can make is to give away his or her decision-making authority."
The Third Millennium, Ken Carey, Harper, 1995, p.43

"There are no winners in violent confrontation. only losers - and more losers."
The Third Millennium, Ken Carey, Harper, 1995, p.81

"It is part of the general pattern of misguided policy that our country is now geared to an arms economy which was bred in an artificially induced psychosis of war hysteria and nurtured upon an incessant propaganda of fear."
—General Douglas MacArthur, May 15, 1951

"Agreement is less important than respect, for with respect agreement may one day occur, but without it agreement is impossible. Honesty and openness will earn you respect. The times we fought when we did not need to fight, we lost both the fight and potential friends." The Third Millennium, Ken Carey, Harper, 1995, p.79

In a quote by retired General Wesley K. Clark, Sunday, December 21, 2008, in the Washington Post: "Above all, don't think that we are anxious to 'use our toys.' Forget about the Hollywood dramatics: Soldiers are the last to seek war. We know its personal and professional consequences painfully well. Those in uniform would prefer that President Obama use every other tool and method -- diplomacy, sanctions, calling in the allies -- before sending troops into combat. You're better off leaving political and economic development to others, too. As for crisis response? Please, let the diplomats work their magic first."