PROTESTER OF THE DAY – Forrest Bibbee: ‘I’m not anti-military, I’m anti-war’

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Forrest Bibbee has been living in a tent that is his message.

It is covered in signs and symbols, some handwritten, some more formal. One is a screen-printed flag with a depiction of a dove and the name of a group Bibbee belongs to: Veterans for Peace.

Bibbee came to the Democratic National Convention from Washington, D.C., where he has been encamped at Freedom Plaza for the past 11 months as part of the Occupy Washington movement.

Bibbee, whose beard is longer than the hair on his head, pitched his tent on Sunday at Marshall Park in uptown. Monday afternoon, he was lying on a tarp and a ratty blanket. Beside him were a pack of cigarettes and a novel.

He said he is fighting for the 2,500 homeless veterans in Washington and the veterans who contemplate suicide.

A U.S. Army veteran, Bibbee was supposed to join the fighting in Vietnam but ended up stuck in Hawaii in 1973, the year the United States withdrew its forces from the war.

As of Monday afternoon, Bibbee hadn’t been a part of any protests. He said he was waiting for more people to arrive for the convention before he marched or raised his voice.

“I’m not anti-military, I’m anti-war,” Bibbee said. “War sucks.”

The foundation of his rage is the role his country has chosen.

“I look back at Vietnam, and now I look at Iraq and Afghanistan. We aren’t fighting for our country,” he said. “We’re being the world’s police. We’re going in there and telling them, ‘You need a democracy.'”

Bibbee said he doesn’t understand how the government justifies intervening abroad when there are so many problems internally.

“I look at it like a lift in a shoe,” Bibbee said. “It might be good for some people, but you don’t need to go around and nail a lift to everyone’s shoe. It’s time we got done being the world’s police.”

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