Discourse.net

Joan Baez Unwelcome At Concert For Troops. The Army won’t say why.

“I have always been an advocate for nonviolence,” she writes, “and I have stood as firmly against the Iraq war as I did the Vietnam War 40 years ago… . I realize now that I might have contributed to a better welcome home for those soldiers fresh from Vietnam. Maybe that’s why I didn’t hesitate to accept the invitation to sing for those returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

“In the end, four days before the concert, I was not ‘approved’ by the Army to take part. Strange irony.”

…

“One of my more cynical friends said, ‘They let the rats in, why not you?’ ” Baez said, laughing, referring to a recent exposé of living conditions at Walter Reed.