What Would Happen If They Held A War and No One Came?
This week, Brandon Toy, a Stryker engineering project manager for General Dynamics, posted his resignation from participation in the US military industrial complex. As a paper-pusher for the arms industry giant, Toy says he was ethically implicated in its role arming and fighting US-led wars.
General Dynamics has been mired in controversy for its over 100 years of war profiteering, with profit windfalls from the US-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, thanks to extensive US contracts. The company has been met with harsh criticism for supplying weapons, including Stryker armored vehicles, tanks and guns, to the two wars while operating behind a veil of secrecy.
“I felt a lot of cognitive dissonance for the last two or three years,” he told the website CommonDreams.org. “I knew what the truth was and what the consequences of our actions were. But I needed to make a living.”
Now he says, “I feel fantastic. I did the right thing. I am a little concerned about what I will do for work, but I know I will be working for the good of the world.”
When asked if he has any advice for people in similar positions, he simply stated, “My actions speak louder than any words I could say. You don’t have to continue doing what you’re doing.”
Brandon’s post published on Tuesday, July 16, 2013 on CommonDreams.org
I Hereby Resign in Protest Effective Immediately
by Brandon Toy
I hereby resign in protest effective immediately.
I have served the post-911 Military Industrial complex for 10 years, first as a soldier in Baghdad, and now as a defense contractor.
At the time of my enlistment, I believed in the cause. I was ignorant, naïve, and misled. The narrative, professed by the state, and echoed by the mainstream press, has proven false and criminal. We have become what I thought we were fighting against.
Recent revelations by fearless journalists of war crimes including counterinsurgency “dirty” wars, drone terrorism, the suspension of due process, torture, mass surveillance, and widespread regulatory capture have shed light on the true nature of the current US Government. I encourage you to read more about these topics at the links I have provided below.
Some will say that I am being irresponsible, impractical, and irrational. Others will insist that I am crazy. I have come to believe that the true insanity is doing nothing. As long as we sit in comfort, turning a blind eye to the injustices of the world, nothing will change. It is even worse to play an active part, protesting all along that I am not the true criminal.
I was only a foot soldier, and am now a low level clerk. However, I have always believed that if every foot soldier threw down his rifle war would end. I hereby throw mine down.
Sincerely,
Brandon M. Toy
Stryker Engineering Project Management
General Dynamics Land Systems
Sterling Heights, Michigan
* * *
The crux of the NSA story in one phrase: ‘collect it all’
How the NSA is still harvesting your online data
Revealed: Pentagon’s link to Iraqi torture centres
Guantanamo Detainee Begs to Be Charged as Legal Limbo Worsens
Brandon Toy resigned his job working for US defense contractor General Dynamics as an Engineering Project Manager building Stryker armored fighting vehicles on July 16, 2013. Previously, Brandon served in the Michigan Army National Guard as a Multiple Launch Rocket System Fire Direction Specialist, Team Leader and Vehicle Commander. He was deployed as a military policeman to Baghdad, Iraq in 2004 – 2005.
