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Why this veteran was arrested protesting the Iran war
Capitol Police detain dozens of veterans protesting Iran war
Capitol Police detained a group of nearly 120 veterans protesting the war with Iran at the Capitol building.
A retired veteran from Augusta County was arrested during a protest against a potential war with Iran.
The protest, organized by several veteran groups, took place in the Cannon House Office Building in Washington D.C.
Protesters demanded that President Trump seek congressional approval before using military force against another nation.
The veteran, Randy Smith, cited Trump’s withdrawal from the 2018 Iran nuclear deal as a central reason for the Iran war.
Randy Smith, a retired veteran local to Augusta County, knew he was about to be arrested.
As he stood in the rotunda of the oldest office building in Washington D.C., dozens of other military veterans standing at his side, Smith felt at peace. He knew he was doing what he “felt was important, a matter of conscience.”
“WE CAN’T AFFORD ANOTHER WAR,” read one black flag with white text.
Capital police were circling, gathering enough backup and zip ties to arrest every protester. Some protesters walked to the front of the lines with flowers.
“END THE WAR ON IRAN,” read a second flag.
Fellow protest organizers and media were standing by, recording everyone’s moves. Smith didn’t plan on fighting back against the police.
“Civil disobedience is peaceful,” said Smith. “I am opposed to violent actions as I am opposed to the Trump regime. Violence has got no place.”
When there were enough officers, they began taking the protesters away one at a time. The chanting did not stop as the veterans were led away.
“Not another nickel, not another dime, we won’t pay for Trump’s war crimes,” the protesters said as they were being zip tied. “Not another nickel, not another dime, the cost of war is too damn high.”
As he was led away and placed under arrest, Smith was captured in a photo that would put his face in front of thousands of NPR readers.
What brought Smith to the Cannon House in D.C.?
Smith could explain his actions in the Cannon House Office Building on April 20 simply – he wants to see President Donald Trump be required to get congressional approval before he uses the military to attack another nation or remove another nation’s leadership, like in both Iran and Venezuela. Although he agreed Iran is “a bad actor that needs to be dealt with,” he didn’t think there was an imminent threat to the United States.
“I believe deeply in the rule of law, our constitution and our representative democracy,” Smith explained. “We’ve seen those things get subverted, turned completely upside down, by the current administration, which is in so many ways lawless, flaunts the Constitution and, now, we’re also seeing he is a war monger. Against that backdrop, I’m strongly opposed to the Trump regime.”
Smith didn’t think Iran was on a fast path to a nuclear weapon when Trump used that as justification for an attack, killing the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Smith compared the logic to that of the Iraq war, where unconfirmed reports of weapons of mass destruction were used as a justification for a U.S. invasion.
Trump, Smith argued, is at the center of the reason for the war with Iran because he pulled out of the previous nuclear deal with Iran in 2018. The previous deal included, as explained by ABC News, “shipping 25,000 pounds of enriched uranium out of [Iran], dismantling and removing two-thirds of its centrifuges and allowing for more extensive international inspections of its nuclear facilities.” At the time, Sen. Mark Warner, in his position on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said pulling out of the 2015 agreement “will only succeed in driving a wedge between us and our allies” and “will effectively greenlight Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons.”
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Smith was also critical of Sixth District Rep. Ben Cline’s political support of Trump as the Iranian war began. He was also critical of the president’s attacks on the six Democratic members of Congress who urged military service members to refuse illegal orders, and fearful he might be met with similar blowback.
Despite that fear, he decided to do something.
“For me, this was taking it to the next level, and I knew I was taking some risk, but that’s what I wanted to do,” Smith said. “To be honest, we should be seeing acts of civil disobedience popping up all over the country from all kinds of organizations, not just veterans.”
How did the protest come about?
Smith started with attending No Kings protests in both Washington D.C. and in Staunton. He showed up for the third Staunton No King’s protest as he was recovering from surgery.
After one of the No King’s protests, he was sent a link to About Face Veterans, an organization composed of “post-9/11 military members and veterans organizing to end a foreign policy of permanent war and the use of military weapons, tactics, and values in communities across the country.”
Like the other veterans present, Smith wanted to see the war in Iran brought to an end. He also wanted to call out to current service members, retired service members and teenagers and young adults thinking about signing up for service.
“War is bad, whether it’s justified or not,” Smith said. “Modern warfare, you can see right now, is affecting the entire world. The price of gas, fertilizers, plastics, the whole world is reverberating with this incredibly poor choice Trump made.”
His mind made up, he got on an Amtrak headed towards Washington D.C.
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Who organized the protest?
Sharing Smith’s risks and concerns are the veteran coalition groups who organized the protest, including About Face, Veterans For Peace, Center on Conscience and War, Fayetteville Resistance Coalition, Military Families Speak Out, 50501 Veterans and the Center on Conscience and War (CCW).
Smith declined to offer details about where the group met before heading over to the capitol building, wanting to protect the behind-the-scenes veteran protestors who ran logistics for the operation.
The protesters’ demand was to meet with Speaker Mike Johnson “to accept the folded flag and pledge to not continue funding of the war.” They were arrested as they waited to hear from Johnson. A video of the protest, and the arrests, is available from DRM News on YouTube.
The CCW, a non-profit that “advocates for the rights of conscience, opposes military conscription, and serves all conscientious objectors to war,” issued a press release shortly after the arrests. CCW Executive Director Mike Prysner spent four years in the army and served during the 2003 Iraq invasion. His goal was to raise awareness of soldier’s right to become a conscientious objector and not deploy.
“The war I was sent to senselessly claimed the lives of thousands of Americans and a million Iraqis,” wrote Prysner. “Like the other veterans here with me today, I have spent the last two decades wishing I could turn back the hands of time and refuse to go … I am getting arrested to raise awareness about that option, because now is the time. This war is already deeply unpopular, and it is already a crisis for the Trump administration.”
According to USA Today, so far 13 U.S. service members have been killed, and 398 have been wounded. An estimated 3,375 people in Iran have died, including over 175 people, many young schoolgirls, in an artificial intelligence-assisted drone strike.
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Randy Smith is taken into custody
Smith was taken into custody by the D.C. Metro Police. The officers who took the protesters into custody were, according to Smith, “just doing their jobs.” He complimented their work, saying “we were treated very well by the U.S. capitol police.”
The protesters were brought to “a gigantic room that, I think, was set up for mass arrests” and held for about four hours. They remained handcuffed but were not questioned. He was charged with crowding, obstructing or incommoding, a charge in D.C.’s code, and released.
When Smith and several dozen other protesters were released, the volunteers were there to pick them up.
“We had support people standing by to take us back to where we were supposed to reassemble,” Smith said. “Very well organized, these veterans don’t mess around. They were in the military; they do things right.”
Smith hopes other local veterans would get involved in fighting against “unjust wars,” and hoped they would reconsider how they conduct military business “at a time when we have this vindictive, oppressive, corrupt, lawless, authoritarian government in place.”
After the last protester was taken away, al
