Navy Petty Officer Joins DAPL Protest With Upside Down Flag Our Greatest Enemies Are Right HereBy Claire Bernish Hoisting an inverted American flag as he led, in uniform, a group of Native American water protectors marching defiantly against government-backed industry profiteering, Jackson had a carefully-considered message about patriotic duty everyone must hear: Our greatest enemies are not overseas, he told a reporter for The Young Turks, our greatest enemies are right here. Indeed, images of police better armed for combat in Syria or Iraq or Afghanistan than any of the thousands of servicemen and women in active combat using brutal if nonlethal tactics against wholly unarmed Standing Rock Sioux water protectors and their supporters, have finally made the rounds on corporate media, much to the unsurprising consternation of the American public. Jackson, however, couldnt believe his eyes, and as a former servicemember saw an indispensable need to defend water protectors from the tyranny of a government run amok with power, acting solely to bolster corporate greed. In short, the life and property of citizens are at risk based on the actions of State agents various law enforcement and private, corporate-hired security mercenaries and thus demand the protection of U.S. military personnel sworn to defend them. As a veteran, Jackson is asked by The Young Turks reporter, Have you ever seen, domestically, such force used against unarmed people, peaceful people, to protect an inanimate object [the Dakota Access Pipeline]? Obviously grasping the gravity of the situation unfolding in North Dakota, he replies, No, Ive never witnessed this caliber of militarization against people I mean, Ive weve seen it throughout history, through the Civil Rights era, through Ferguson theres been multiple times in our nations history where weve utilized force like this against people who were peaceful. Most of which I saw during the Civil Rights Movement. Historians, advocates, and activists have, indeed, likened the multifaceted issues stemming from increasingly unscrupulous actions by law enforcement agencies untrained in the military surplus jackpot items the government willingly provides to a new era a nascent, if circular moment in the struggle for civil rights. Ferguson, Missouri, and the tremendously controversial fatal shooting by Officer Darren Wilson of unarmed teen, Michael Brown though decidedly not the first questionable police shooting of an unarmed person of color abruptly snapped to public consciousness that something, indeed, has gone terribly awry in the United States. More than two years hence, rather than sweeping reform of American policing, we stand amidst a widening epidemic of State-perpetrated violence against the public and its parallel, nearly wholesale impunity from punishment. Native Americans and Indigenous Peoples from well over 200 tribes and nations from all over the globe have an inherent and long-standing comprehension of that struggle, particularly as it plays out in Cannon Ball, North Dakota, in opposing yet another potentially dangerous oil pipeline. As the reporter notes of intense and likely illegal surveillance efforts, in prefacing a question for Jackson, it seems like the police can break laws, you know, freely, and theres no consequences. Theyre flying overhead without lights, theyre standing on Army Corps [of Engineers] land, they are standing on top of land [where] ancestors are buried, why do you think the police are doing this in such force? Because weve allowed it in this country, the Navy vet immediately responds, and thats why its occurring. The government and Big Business continues to exploit the citizens of this country, to exploit its resources and its because we, as citizens, have been apathetic to whats going on all around us. Were distracted by so many things occurring in this country that dont mean anything. The World Series is super important but whats more important a baseball, or people? You know, people are more important. If we as a nation dont stand together, united, then our government will continue to do what theyre doing here in Standing Rock. Beyond the militaristic, over-the-top crackdown on water protectors and activists at several encampments attempting to block the pipeline, the U.S. government has undertaken a considerable effort to ensure Dakota Access construction will continue unimpeded. In addition to the appalling presence of police from at least five states, private security mercenaries, and federal agents, Energy Transfer Partners the industry collective overseeing pipeline construction and financially motivated politicians have even re-written a decades-old ban on the export of unrefined crude to guarantee the surety of its completion. Under this suffocating weight and centuries of exploitation opposition continues. Asked if he considers the militarized force against unarmed water protectors citizens a battle against corporate profiteering, Jackson intoned, Whether or not its about greed, I dont entirely know. What I do know, is whats right in front of my face; and, whenever I see the military-style tactics utilized on peaceful people, that is a complete abridgement of First Amendment rights the ability to express yourself freely without being I mean, I shouldnt be intimidated or scared. You know, even for me to stand here the way that I do, in my uniform, people will frown upon that. Ill be attacked personally for this. And it makes me concerned for what could happen. But, if I dont I think Martin Luther King, Jr., had said it an injustice anywhere, is a threat to justice everywhere. And this is an injustice. And Im not going to stand by, as a retired servicemember, who swore to protect the Constitution and their rights, their constitutional rights so, Im here to continue to protect those for them, like I swore to do for twenty years. Further, the veteran expounds on the process of legislative debate happening behind closed doors as a means to exclude the public from the process, as if politicians and legislators indeed have plenty to hide. Thats whats occurring in this country, is that Big Business is in bed with our government. Theres no secret about that. And the government profiting off of stealing and destroying our constitutional rights has to stop. And we, as American people, have to be willing. Standing Rock wasnt necessarily my fight, so to speak; but what is my fight is that these are human beings these are people these are citizens of this country that I swore to protect. And Im going to stand alongside of them and fight with them because I see whats occurring here. Right before my eyes. Theres no better way for me to know and understand whats occurring here than to get in my truck and drive over here. As for President Obamas continued virtual stonewalling, and refusal to take more than a tissue-thin stance about the militarized police response to peaceful civil disobedience the rest of the planet has the integrity to denounce, Jackson adds, as a Commander-in-Chief of this country, he has a responsibility. He swore an oath for that Constitution the same as I did and too many people, veterans included, servicemembers included, they have forgotten about that other piece the vow to defend against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and we always point our eyes outward from our borders; but we never look inward. Our greatest enemies are not overseas our greatest enemies are right here. The shame of the current and coming administrations is the willful blindness the complicity in ignoring and permitting paranoia about dissent to supplant the open debate and criticism of failed policy and legislation. As we witness the failed fruits of rampant hegemony and imperialism, this military veterans words, and inverted flag distress signal, couldnt be more crucial a reminder of what true patriotism an actual defense of liberty must entail. Claire Bernish writes for TheFreeThoughtProject.com, where this article first appeared. Image Credit: screen shot, The Young Turks FTP This is a very poorly written article about a subject that demands more attention. Its a pitiful shame your writer cannot write a readable piece. Would that every man woman in the military that has a conscience would stand up like this brave soul to be countedmy bets.theyd outnumber the mercenary NWO minion Hypnozombs 10 to 1 (imo) KUDOS to the VET. The upside down flag that the Lakota Dakota proudly display is from the battle of Greasy Grass, Little Bighorn. Custers flag was taken when he was defeated has been displayed that way ever since. 