Russell Brown, VFP Leader and Vietnam Combat Vet Walks 165 miles for Peace

January 06, 2016

Russell Brown, a seasoned peace activist and a veteran of U.S. war in Viet Nam, envisioned the walk and reached out to many groups, inviting advice and participation.  He walked  the  entire  route, guiding  the  members  with  his friendly, kindly determination.  Just before the walk began,
he shared with the group his deep disturbance over news of a U.S. airstrike, October 3rd, on a Doctors Without Borders hospital in northern Afghanistan. 

The walkers readily agreed to take a slight detour on the walk’s first day. Our signs echoed those held by Western activists  outside  Baghdad  hospitals  over  a  decade  before: “To Bomb This Site Would Be a War Crime” –a plea that had gone too many times unheeded. In Syracuse we added “Don’t Bomb Afghan Hospitals” by way of explanation.  Assembled in front of St. Joseph’s Hospital, we distributed fliers   remembering   the   30   people   killed   in   Kunduz. Thirteen  were  healthcare  workers;  three  were  children.

Despite the hospital staff’s frantic calls to the U.S military, the strafing, tightly focused on their building, had continued in six blasts, spaced at 15 - minute intervals, from 2:05 a.m. to 3:15 a.m

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