{"id":269943,"date":"2016-09-28T07:21:19","date_gmt":"2016-09-28T07:21:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/anti-war-artwork-condemned-by-the-sun-and-ex-military-mps-was-actually-endorsed-by-veterans\/"},"modified":"2016-09-28T07:21:19","modified_gmt":"2016-09-28T07:21:19","slug":"anti-war-artwork-condemned-by-the-sun-and-ex-military-mps-was-actually-endorsed-by-veterans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/anti-war-artwork-condemned-by-the-sun-and-ex-military-mps-was-actually-endorsed-by-veterans\/","title":{"rendered":"Anti-war artwork condemned by the Sun and ex-military MPs was actually endorsed by veterans"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.rt.com\/files\/2016.09\/thumbnail\/57ea3c44c4618852348b4573.JPG\" \/><\/p>\n<p>        Former British soldiers have responded fiercely to ex-military MPs who attacked their satirical anti-war art project. The ex-services group accused them of being \u201cself-appointed veterans\u2019 champions\u201d who \u201ctrade off the backs of ordinary soldiers.\u201d<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The response by Veterans for Peace UK (VFP UK) follows a verbal attack on the satirical art project, parts of which were displayed at a Momentum event on the fringes of the Labour Party Annual Conference in Liverpool on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"900\" height=\"506\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/8KtyMcb86go\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The veteran-endorsed <a href=\"http:\/\/www.spellingmistakescostlives.com\/\">\u2018Army: Be the Meat\u2019 <\/a>artwork was originally commissioned by military veterans in 2015 to highlight a number of issues relating to the poor treatment of veterans and soldiers, and opaque military recruiting practices.<\/p>\n<p>On Sunday, right-wing blogger Guido Fawkes and the Sun newspaper reported on the presence of a small amount of the artwork \u2013 including satirical mugs, posters, and badges \u2013 on a stall at the Momentum fringe festival.<\/p>\n<p>Two former military officers \u2013 conservative Johnny Mercer and Labour\u2019s Dan Jarvis \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thesun.co.uk\/news\/1851174\/rally-run-by-jeremy-corbyns-pressure-group-mocks-crippled-british-troops-with-offensive-items-on-sale\/\">criticized the art in the Sun newspaper<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>It appears neither the MPs nor the Murdoch-owned paper realized the project was actually endorsed by hundreds of veterans.<\/p>\n<p>Former Parachute Regiment officer Dan Jarvis told the paper the display was <em>\u201cextremely disrespectful to our armed forces and veterans who provide outstanding service to our country.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cIt is utterly unacceptable that those who have been injured in the service of our country should be pilloried in this way,\u201d<\/em> he added.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"900\" height=\"506\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7ybFboCz7SA\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Mercer, a former artillery officer who campaigns on many veterans\u2019 issues, called those running the stall <em>\u201cBritain-hating anarchists who know the value of nothing.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday, VFP UK responded to the claims\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/vfpuk.org\/2016\/veterans-back-sick-toys\/\">in no uncertain terms.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>They said the <em>\u201csuperb \u2018Army: Be The Meat\u2019 project and the \u2018Action Man: Battlefield Casualties\u2019 films\u201d<\/em> were <em>\u201cconceived in response to years of dishonest army recruitment material and we continue to endorse it.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>They attacked both the MPs and journalists involved in slurring veterans, <em>\u201cmany of whom bear the wounds of active service in wars from D-Day to Libya,\u201d<\/em> and went on to attack the newspaper itself.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cIn their jingoistic ardour for clicks, the reporters clearly did not even bother to check into the background of the project,\u201d the group said, arguing a mere web search would have shown it was backed by hundreds of veterans.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cWe might also note that Johnny Mercer and Dan Jarvis, both former military officers turned politicians, both self-appointed \u2018veterans\u2019 champions,\u2019 used the Murdoch-owned Sun newspaper as a platform to attack the project and, by extension, attack the veterans involved in it,\u201d<\/em> the statement added.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"900\" height=\"506\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/I09aG9gtY-Q\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cThis is the same newspaper group whose senior editorial staff acquired the personal details of dead soldiers, apparently by paying MoD [Ministry of Defence] officials.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Those who <em>\u201cattack the efforts of former service personnel in the Sun, or even speak to the Sun, you are no champions of soldiers or veterans.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>VFP UK said <em>\u201cfor too long\u201d<\/em> the <em>\u201cBritish establishment, the Sun, the \u2018hero\u2019 charities, Jarvis, Mercer and their like\u201d have been \u201ctrading off the backs of ordinary veterans and soldiers to push their pro war agenda.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cThose days are drawing to a close,\u201d<\/em> they added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/uk\/360793-veterans-art-sun-jarvis\/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=RSS\">RT<\/a>. This piece was reprinted by <a href=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\">RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former British soldiers have responded fiercely to ex-military MPs who attacked their satirical anti-war art project. The ex-services group accused them of being \u201cself-appointed veterans\u2019 champions\u201d who \u201ctrade off the backs of ordinary soldiers.\u201d The response by Veterans for Peace UK (VFP UK) follows a verbal attack on the satirical art project, parts of which [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":269944,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-269943","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269943\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}