CONFRONT
The New York Sun, report by Seth Gitell, September 16, 2008,
Brattleboro Common Sense (BCS) director Kurt Daims presented at the Massachusetts School of Law conference “War and the Law”:
“. . . Where the conference broke new ground was on the amount of time and discussion focused on getting members of the uniformed officers corps to come over to their side. . . .
“A Brattleboro, Vt., activist and author of a successful petition in his town calling for the arrest and indictment of Messrs. Bush and Cheney, Kurt Daims, addressed the audience: “We have been trying to tell Congress, ‘don’t fund the war.’ We’ve just got to go around them,” Mr. Daims, a panelist, said. “We don’t talk to the president . . . We don’t talk to Congress . . . We talk to the military and say ‘Hey, your oath is to the Constitution, not to the president.'”
“. . . Subsequent speakers spoke for and against the concept of anti-war activists bringing their message directly to members of the military.”
The back-story of No-Kings begins in Vermont. Brattleboro particularly has experience with controversial local resolutions, having approved a resolution in 2003 declaring the “Patriot Act” to be a threat to the Constitution. By 2006 there was a concentration of Vermont towns resolving against the act or for impeachment. By 2006 they were joined by San Francisco, Chicago and state legislatures in Minnesota and New Hampshire. Brattleboro Common Sense promoted the Bush Indictment Resolution, for expediting the prosecution of Bush for war crimes in Iraq under a theory of universal jurisdiction. It turned an international spotlight on Brattleboro and presidential war crimes. It was reported in the international press, radio and TV, on the back page of the New York Times, and the front page of US Today. This featured a significant and surprising poll of its conservative readership showing strong majority support and should have received more attention from Bush’s opponents. Other conservatives disagreed; an organized internet backlash overwhelmed town offices for days with death threats and threats to disrupt the election and ruin Vermont’s tourist economy. Brattleboro police assigned a security detail and command trailer at the election site. Many people believed the threats, but Brattleboro stood firm. The resolution was strongly approved in Marlboro, Vermont. Voters strongly rejected it in Kennebunkport, Maine, where the Bush family has a home,
The nation was strongly divided on the issue. The only nuanced view came from some Bush loyalists, Some believed that Bush should not be prosecuted alone because Congress had been complicit. After the conference at Massachusetts Law School activists’ distrust of the military personnel continued to prevent an alliance, and many of them chose to focus on impeachment. Within the North East Impeachment Coalition it was proposed that Republicans would join an impeachment effort that incriminated congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, the house speaker. But these activists could not agree to work with Republicans.
In January 2009 BCS petitioned for the True Pardon Resolution, for President Obama to offer a plea-bargain to Bush in order to expose the “complicit Congress, and . . . powerful special interests who profit from his crimes” This had bipartisan support but was illegally blocked by local government. (BCS later won a court decision and assisted a charter change to prevent such censorship.) This resolution was a legal effort toward reconciliation over the Iraq War.
In December, 2009 BCS was asked to advance an indictment resolution in Jackson, Wyoming, home of former vice president Richard Cheney. Our surveys showed good support for the resolution in Jackson, but also in the nearby conservative town of Laramie. Still, our allies in Jackson underestimated the support from conservatives and were scared to promote the resolution in public, and the effort ended.
In January 7, 2020, BCS volunteer (and now director) Bruce Clauson proposed an emergency ordinance to the Brattleboro selectboard. It was a forceful No-Kings action to provide a legal defense fund for soldiers who defy unlawful orders. Mr. Clauson outlined the proposal and suggested it be named for the hero Major Hugh Thompson, who risked his life to stop the massacre at the Vietnamese village of My-Lai in 1968. The current version, the “Lawful Orders Ordinance,” will create and publicize a legal defense fund for such heroes who defy illegal orders and “. . . deserve the thanks of the nation and the world.” The ordinance also stresses their oath “to defend the Constitution against all enemies . . .” The oath is not to defend the president — a fact not well-known among the public. The ordinance will not be a non-binding resolution. It will be a law providing direct aid from the town treasury to the soldiers who will be positioned to prevent war crimes. (Call the Brattleboro selectboard for its prompt approval.)
The Lawful Orders Ordinance frames resistance as an act of professional honor and shows moral support and respect for soldiers, who may all have a hero like Hugh Thompson inside them. This respect is essential for building a bipartisan front against Trump. Moral support is coming from many directions. In November (2025) a group of U.S. politicians, retired military officers and Pentagon officials, all Democrats, including a NASA astronaut and a former assistant secretary of defense, publicly encouraged all soldiers to defy unlawful orders, and today there are more individual retired officers and new groups in solidarity. But there is a symmetry of distrust in play. The few Republican officers who mention Kelly’s group at all clearly disapprove. The military distrusts officers turning political just as activists distrust the military. Support is also coming from street protests. Although soldiers may logically feel some support in these widespread protests, they will not feel comfortable. These protests are based in community-building and have a festive atmosphere. The organizer’s tent at a recent street protest in Vermont had a colorful poster that read “The PARTY is here”. This is powerfully exclusive: Republicans and soldiers are being asked to impeach and possibly imprison or execute their leader. Do they want to attend a party about it?
The ordinance does not need national or state-wide support to be effective. News of free legal defense can encourage any soldier to do the right thing, and this will certainly be inspirational to others; it may even delay a war crime. A single eminent Republican officer warning against illegal orders would be powerful. But to gain the peace we may need to win over the allies of those in power. The winning step may require community-building of a new sort – one that includes your opponents.
March 30, 2026
Brattleboro Common Sense
Brmse.org
802 490 9363