that gives me some good feelings.

In the 60's there would have been some suspicion of this as potentially being the work of undercover agents, as in, leading the lambs to slaughter -- or in this case not lambs but "gutless worms."
I hope it's for real but have been through many experiences where this type of bravado ended up functioning as a trap and an opening for direct assaults on the protestors. (But then the folks at Pine Ridge learned these lessons in blood and know better than most.)
When I read Wes Clark's macho and militaristic rhetoric, it makes it difficult for me to see him as a freedom fighter. In his call to action for veterans and ex-police officers to come to Standing Rock, he said “Most civilians who’ve never served in a uniform are GUTLESS WORMS, who’ve never been in a fight in their life. So if we don’t stop it, who will?”
Guess that would put most of the protestors in the category of gutless worms (which must reside somewhere near the basket of deplorables) Funny that these self-proclaimed heroes would risk their lives to defend a bunch of gutless worms. But then his latest movie is the tale of a warm-hearted CIA agent who becomes a hero while realizing the folly of his ways.
Hope I'm wrong and that this is a for-real and successful defense of all the protestors doing the heavy lifting for those of us who can't be there. Would love to be proven just an old hardened cynic who's seen too many brutal attacks on the Left. Knew some of those at Kent State who were blown up putting flowers into rifles pointed at them. Heard Bernie talking this week about how the 4 children bombed in Birmingham were just the ones we knew about -- there were 13 bombings at that same time. The city was under siege, it just wasn't reported.
We've been so bombarded with glorifications of the military that I think many lessons of the past have been forgotten. Meanwhile, sent a tipi to the Sacred Stones camp today -- seemed ironic for a gringo like me to be sending a tipi to the Indians -- but I sure hope it reaches them, that they will still be there after next week and deeply appreciate all that they are doing on behalf of all the rest of us.

This is a time when "the military" is truly coming to the rescue. I hope it all works out. These veterans are courageous and doing right by the American people. This is what the military should be about - protecting Americans, fighting for their freedoms - it's what they tell us they do. This time, on American soil, it is happening.

Whoo hoo!

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-11-29/literally-too-many-veterans-hav...

See below for their GoFundMe link.

Excerpt from story:

Last week, the newly formed group “Veterans Stand for Standing Rock” called on veterans to nonviolently stand up to militarized law enforcement at the site of the Dakota Access Pipeline protests. Since its initial call to action, the veterans’ movement has grown exponentially.

Last week, the Facebook event, which was launched by Army veteran Wesley Clark Jr. and former Marine and Baltimore cop-turned-reformist, Michael A. Wood Jr., received widespread media attention. This boost helped increase the number of attendees from a couple hundred veterans to their maximum capacity of 2,000.

A standard email response from the group (as of Saturday) reads:
“We are happy to announce our small campaign has grown to 2,000 Veterans from every corner of the US [and] will be joining us to stand in peace with our brothers and sisters in Standing Rock.”

Their event page states they have over 2,100 veterans signed up and are exploring options for a second trip.

https://www.gofundme.com/veterans-for-standing-rock-nodapl