Six thousand Marines and Navy soldiers invaded the Bay Area on March 16 as a part of the large scale Urban Warfare operation. This was preceded by a similar exercise in Monterey, Calif. during the previous weekend which made the headlines of all the regional newscasts. Urban Warfare included an amphibious landing in Alameda via large 90' hovercrafts and CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopters. This was followed by four days of tactical exercises and maneuvers at the abandoned Oak Knoll hospital in Oakland, a brief exercise in the underground Oakland sewer system, and a short exercise during late rush hour in downtown San Francisco during which uniformed Marines supposedly tested the effectiveness of their radio equipment in an environment with tall buildings, all in addition to a showy recruitment- oriented public display of hovercrafts and ships in downtown Oakland. Initially this set of war games had been planned for the Presidio-Baker Beach area of San Francisco. However, S.F. Mayor Willie Brown used his weight to nix this proposal, due to citizen protests. Across the Bay, Mayor Jerry Brown of Oakland, on a neverending campaign to promote the image of the city, individually invited the military without seeking approval of the city council. Nearly a dozen separate protests were carried out during the week, including a brief sit-in at the Mayor's office which culminated in the use of a lot of pepper spray and 22 arrests. While it is a relatively new phenomenon for the military to practice techniques of warfare in urban areas of the U.S., similar wargames have been staged in Chicago, Staten Island, Jacksonville, FL., and Camp Lejeune, N.C., and the Marines plan to stage more operations in other coastal urban cities in the future. Perhaps we'll witness an invasion of Discovery Park next year! [Ed. note: the Army has staged smaller-scale "counter-terrorism" operations in metro Seattle and many other cities. See ETS! #34, Apr. 29, 1997.]

The major media outlets of the Bay area did a particularly atrocious job of presenting any level of analysis of the events. There was almost no objective reporting of the political issues involved beyond a showcasing of the impressive hardware and technology being used, and allowing the military public relations spokesmen to use freely the news as a recruitment device. Each branch of the military except the Marines has been struggling to meet recruitment goals this year due to the low unemployment rate, thus we see a step-up in TV advertisements, and the Hurricane Mitch relief efforts transformed into a big military-as-humanitarian organization PR gag. The Berkeley Voice had an opinion column which accused peace protesters of classist motivations and attitudes towards members of the military, and asked the holdouts to get over the "Vietnam Syndrome." Except for a very good article in the SF Guardian by Gar Smith, and a cynical (and late) op-ed by Rob Morse in the Chronicle, most television and newspaper reporting appeared to repeat verbatim the same lines which they had been fed by military PR, which actually dared present the exercise as a natural disaster relief drill. In an article in the Oakland Tribune titled 'Mock Aid Mission to begin', a staff writer uncritically outlined the goals of Urban Warfare: "Marines will travel by bus and light armored vehicles to Oak Knoll, where they will launch a humanitarian aid mission to provide water, food and medical supplies to people living in a devastated city....As training progresses, the challenge to Marines is gradually intensified from helping civilians meet daily living needs to quelling riots or looting and then facing off with snipers or terrorists who have blended with the local population." The description of the Urban Warfare exercises on television and in the Examiner and Chronicle were almost eerily identical. Protesters were depicted as a small, deluded, behind-the-times group. After showing an officer explaining how Marines were being trained in feeding children and changing diapers, the ABC affiliate showed a small, ill-planned eight-person protest outside of Jerry Brown's house, ignoring the much larger protest with over a hundred people. A "live, on the scene" reporter responded to the questions of the anchor back at the station asking (approx.) "What do the protesters want? Have they suggested any alternative locations for the Marines? " "No, they haven't proposed any alternatives, because these are peace protesters. They oppose Urban Warfare altogether." Clips of parents bringing their young sons to watch the landing of troops made any idea of rational opposition to the operations seem ridiculous. A repeated assertion was that Marines will only be deployed (for real) in foreign countries at the invitation of their (democratic) governments. Mainstream Bay Area newsmedia almost unanimously failed to correct this claim, as well as call the operation as a whole for what it was: both a large recruitment exercise and an unspoken message that urban terrorism involving bombs and chemical and biological weapons is a real and imminent threat. In fact, our military has been deployed within the United States on several occasions--one only needs to remember back to the Rodney King riots. The military also participates in guarding the border with Mexico where they have killed people, and has historically been used in labor disputes--in the 1910s, Rockefeller forced the governor of Colorado to send in the military to break up a strike at one of his mines, killing dozens. More significantly, the media crucially failed to critically question what the purpose of using a modern U.S. city for Urban Warfare is. What first-world city could we potentially plan to invade in the coming few years? Additionally, Urban Warfare failed to take advantage of the larger urban environment of Oakland. Marines drove in humvees through the neighborhoods to the Oak Knoll hospital site and confined most of their activities to this small area for four days. Such buildings and practice areas already exist on military reservations, or could easily and quickly be constructed. What was the point of doing this in Oakland, where helicopters flew over houses at heights much lower than promised, and the sounds of dummy bullets and blanks could be heard for blocks? How were the Marines and army able to invade Panama, and retake Kuwait City, without having had training in real cities? If delivering humanitarian aid was the major goal of the Urban Warfare exercises, why weren't they practicing dropping packages from airplanes? With an increase in the military budget despite a lack of defined enemy countries, both the on-screen images of anthrax attacks by sneaky terrorists, plus the promise of $4 million spent in local Oakland businesses can help to psychologically justify this expense. The messages of peace activists are increasingly marginalized, yet, as pointed out, hopefully some of us can remember what the real role of the U.S. military has been around the world-- for thousands of people, the high pitched sounds of military planes (such as the Blue Angels) have been the last thing they ever hear.--Christine Petersen