Return of anti-war street theater

A group of performers from Iraq Veterans Against the War took it to the streets of Manhattan during Memorial Day weekend and in Chicago in June. Go here for the YouTube vid:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkcwVGiEv48

Here's a short description from The Nation:

Pointing imaginary guns and roughing up "Iraqi civilians", a group of antiwar veterans brought the realities of the Iraq debacle to Manhattan, in a Memorial Day protest that briefly turned the streets of the city into a combat zone. In "Operation First Casualty," a half-dozen members of Iraq Veterans Against the War employed the tactics of street theater to stage mini-dramas in Times Square, Union Square and the World Trade Center site, simulating sniper fire and staging mock arrests of
fellow protesters who portrayed Iraqis. The group plans to take Operation First Casualty to the streets of Chicago June 17.

A reminder of the street theater of the Vietnam era. Vietnam Veterans Against the War often put on playlets to distress the populace. During one at a University of Florida homecoming parade, VVAW actors waged a mock battle among the marching bands and frat floats. Some of these same guys were indicted as the Gainesville 8 for conspiring to disrupt the Miami Republican Convention in Miami during the summer of '72. The trial yielded no indictments but plenty of headlines, at least in Florida. I recreated the UF homecoming demonstration in my short story, "Water People on the Shore." You can get a copy of the 2006 book through your local bookseller or at Ghost Road Press. Read a sample at my web site.