San Francisco recruits, as Obama deliberates Afghanistan troop surge

October 22, 7:12 PMSF Energy Policy ExaminerAnn Garrison

Previous Next

3 comments Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the SF Energy Policy Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

Fleet Week,  San Francisco. (Ann Garrison)

Each September the City of San Francisco submits its request for a Blue Angels Air Show recruiting drive, which the Defense Department confirms each December, as it has every year since then Mayor Dianne Feinstein requested it in 1981, eight years after the end of the U.S. military draft, six years after the end of the Vietnam War, and three years after the assassination of Harvey Milk, in San Francisco.   

And, in the tenth month of Ronald Reagan's presidency.

The Angels came as part of that year's Fleet Week revival, which became an annual event, expressly timed to coincide with the Columbus Day parade through the City's North Beach neighborhood.

This year's recruitment drive was more excruciating than most because it took place amidst daily reports on President Barack Obama's deliberations as to whether or not to put somewhere between 40,000 and 80,000 more troops on the ground, in the U.S.-Euro war for oil, natural gas, pipeline corridors, and the heroin trade.  

KPFA Radio News interviewed the American Friends Service Committee's Laura Magnani, and me, on the second day of this year's drive, 05.09.2009: