Arlington Sun Gazette
Green Candidate Rips Air Force Memorial as ‘Tribute to War and Militarism’
by SCOTT McCAFFREY, Staff Writer
(Created: Monday, October 16, 2006 9:56 AM EDT)
Just hours before the dedication of the Air Force Memorial in Arlington, Arlington County Board candidate Josh Ruebner denounced the memorial as “Arlington’s newest tribute to war and militarism.”
Ruebner, the Green Party candidate for County Board, told board members on Oct. 14 that the new memorial “will be an impressive addition to Arlington’s other monuments glorifying death through war,” the Tomb of the Unknowns and the U.S. Marine War Memorial (Iwo Jima Memorial).
“I find it extremely troubling that we are dedicating yet another monument to the follies of war in the same week that researchers at Johns Hopkins University released a demographic report estimating that 655,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed during our country’s brutal, three-and-a-half-year illegal war and occupation,” he said.
“Unsurprisingly, this monument glorifying war was paid for by the very corporations that profit the most from war,” Ruebner said, noting contributions from Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon.
As part of his campaign platform, Ruebner wants a complete pull-out of troops from Iraq and seeks to “pass a human rights contracting requirement to ensure that corporations which profit from human rights violations don’t receive business from our county,” according to his Web site.
He also wants to “make it more difficult for military recruiters to operate in Arlington’s schools,” according to the Web site.
Ruebner is running against incumbent Democratic County Board Chairman Chris Zimmerman and Republican Mike McMenamin.