The School of the Americas is a black eye for America's democracy, a democracy that claims to stand for human rights.

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"Here is the School of the Americas. It's a combat school. Most of the courses revolve around what they call "counter-insurgency warfare." Who are the "insurgents?" We have to ask that question. They are the poor. They are the people in Latin America who call for reform. They are the landless peasants who are hungry. They are health care workers, human rights advocates, labor organizers. They become the insurgents. They are seen as "the enemy." They are those who become the targets of those who learn their lessons at the School of the Americas." - Father Roy Bourgeois

This weekend Kucinich traveled down to Georgia to protest the School of Americas with a fellow campaign leader who is from Argentina. I know this because that leader from Argentina worked with us to get Kucinich on the ballot in Illinois. Argentina has experienced some of the most egregious violations from this organization now known as WHINSEC. Kucinich said on Sunday in front of a crowd of 10,000:

"The type of thinking that produced this school is the same type of thinking that produced the war in Iraq and is producing a war against Iran."

The School of the Americas Watch details this school as being “a combat training school for Latin American soldiers.” It has:

Initially established in Panama in 1946, it was kicked out of that country in 1984 under the terms of the Panama Canal Treaty. Former Panamanian President, Jorge Illueca, stated that the School of the Americas was the “biggest base for destabilization in Latin America.” The SOA, frequently dubbed the “School of Assassins,” has left a trail of blood and suffering in every country where its graduates have returned.

Over its 59 years, the SOA has trained over 60,000 Latin American soldiers in counterinsurgency techniques, sniper training, commando and psychological warfare, military intelligence and interrogation tactics. These graduates have consistently used their skills to wage a war against their own people. Among those targeted by SOA graduates are educators, union organizers, religious workers, student leaders, and others who work for the rights of the poor. Hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans have been tortured, raped, assassinated, “disappeared,” massacred, and forced into refugee by those trained at the School of Assassins.

The school has for the past few years strove to provide “professional education and training to military, law enforcement, and civilians to support the democratic principles of the Western Hemisphere” since being renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC). However, the school’s graduates include “the late Salvadoran rightwing militia leader Roberto D'Aubuisson, known as "Blowtorch Bob" for his interrogation methods; Efrain Rios Montt, later accused of genocide in Guatemala; Leopoldo Galtieri, the late Argentinian junta leader jailed for human rights abuses, and Manuel Noriega, the former Panamanian leader now serving 40 years for drugs offences in the US.”

It has been thankfully declining in success but unfortunately, the success it still has is unacceptable especially since as Latin American countries decline in enrollment, more and more U.S. soldiers are enrolling.

According to the Guardian, in April of 2006 “the defence ministers of Argentina and Uruguay decided to stop sending soldiers to train at the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (Whinsec), the military academy based at Fort Benning, Georgia.” It joined Venezuela whose leader Hugo Chavez stopped sending soldiers to be trained at the academy in 2004.

Since then, Bolivia has also stopped sending soldiers to train at the School of the Americas or WHINSEC.

The recent protest action resulted in thousands of “the martyrs in a solemn funeral procession at the main gate, 10 SOA Watch activists entered the Fort Benning military base through a side entrance in an attempt to carry the protest to the site of the SOA/WHINSEC: Le Ann Clausen, Diane Lopez Hughes, Stephen Schweitzer, Gus Roddy, Ozone Bhaguan, Arthur Landis, Chris Lieberman, Michelle Yipe, Ed Lewinson, and Joan Anderson were arrested by military police. Teil Rainelli, of Los Angeles, CA climbed the barbed wire fence at the main gate of Fort Benning during the funeral procession, raising the number of arrested to 11. Three more SOA Watch activists face charges from the city for refusing to relinquish crosses at the vigil site whose size exceeded Columbus police regulations.”

The action had scant support from Democratic presidential candidates unfortunately with Chris Dodd and Barack Obama offering these not-so-comforting remarks on the institution:

“I have concerns about the history of the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation...The Institute has made some reforms, for example introducing more courses on instilling an awareness of human rights and democratic principles. At the same time, I believe that continued reforms are essential. I will continue to monitor the Institute's operations closely in the interest of ensuring that it and its graduates hold to the principles and values of our country.” –Chris Dodd

Spokesman for Obama said: “...has not committed to closing down the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, but he will take a hard look at the program and the progress it has made once he is elected... Obama is pleased with the institution's inclusion of human rights courses.”

And if you read the article you can see that Hillary Clinton and Bill Richardson dodge the School of Americas issues choosing to just say they are for human rights and John Edwards and Joe Biden dodge the issue of the School of the Americas even more.

Yet, the candidate that should be against the School of the Americas and who people should be supporting for president in 2008 attended the action [video of speech] and has been very vocal about abolishing the School of the Americas since taking office in Congress in 1997. Dennis Kucinich in a statement for people prior to the action this weekend said that closing school would be doing “God’s work.” An article in the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer said of him:

One of the martyrs in the SOA cause is Dorothy Kazel, a Cleveland nun who was raped and killed Dec. 2, 1980, by El Salvador National Guardsmen.

"I know the Kazel family very well," said Kucinich, a former Cleveland mayor.

His relationship with the Kazels goes back to high school. He knew the family well enough to attend Kazel's going away party before she left for her mission work in El Salvador.

Kazel was known as "Madre Dorthea" in the Central American community where she worked to help refugees of the Salvador Civil War obtain food, shelter and medical supplies. She was one of four women killed that day. Kucinich also knew Jean Donovan, a layperson who was also one of the victims.

When Kucinich takes the Fort Benning Road stage shortly after 9 a.m. Sunday, he will do what he has been doing since he was elected to Congress in 1997 -- call for the closure of the U.S. Army school. This will be the first time he's attended the protest and the first time the protest has had a presidential candidate address a crowd that is expected to be more than 20,000 people.

"I am looking forward to joining thousands of Americans from all around the country in standing for human rights and for a new direction in U.S. international policy," Kucinich said in a telephone interview this week. "This is a question of justice being done. The School of the Americas has trained people to kill innocent civilians. It's a matter of simple justice that requires it to be shut down, and for America to stop supporting regimes that violate human rights."

While Kucinich stands for that new direction, he wants to make one thing clear -- it's not about the soldiers.

"I will also talk about the soldiers and how we can't separate ourselves from the soldiers and their families," Kucinich said. "This is a debate about policy that is set by the commander in chief and by decades of unchallenged international direction."

Eric LeCompte, one of the SOA Watch organizers, said having Kucinich take part in the vigil sends a positive message.

"What it illustrates is this is a national issue," LeCompte said. "Not only do people across the country care about this, but it's reaching the presidential campaign. The presidential debate will allow us another venue to seek the closure of the school."

Kucinich said because this country is at war, it's important that people's voices are heard this weekend.

"We don't give up our rights when we are at war," he said. "We need to stand by our rights. That is when it's most important to do it. This administration has taken this country in a direction that is anti-democratic."

Kucinich worked with the late Congressman Joe Moakley and his successor, Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., to try and pass legislation that will cut federal funding to the school, which trains military and police for Central American and Latin American countries. So far, those legislative actions have been unsuccessful.

He did fight for an amendment to legislation that funded the school. Interestingly enough, this amendment had over a 100 sponsors and has since the 108th Congress. The bill prohibiting funding has yet to make it out of the House yet.

But I am not letting Clinton, Obama, Dodd, and Biden or Edwards especially off easy for ignoring this issue. They should have been at this protest today. Despite the fact that if you look up their votes, you can see that they voted or chose to register a "no vote" on legislation that appropriated further funds for WHINSEC, it does not matter. They are running to lead this country and must be adamantly against this School of the Americas.

Reassessing and reexamining the situation is not an option. The school has got to close its operations permanently.

"The Center for International Policy has estimated that the current annual cost of keeping WHINSEC's doors open is $7.5 million, much of which is U.S. tax dollars," reported the States News Service in June this year. Those U.S. tax dollars continue to flow to the institution because our government would like us to believe it is essential that we train Latin American soldiers to fight in our "war on terror."

I reject war as an instrument of foreign policy. And I reject the training of soldiers for covert operations and education in harsh interrogation techniques. How about you?

We all should have been at Fort Benning this weekend with Dennis Kucinich because it is schools like the School of the Americas that make Iraqs, Irans, Abu Ghraibs, Guantanamos, etc. happen. Only when we remove the militarization of education in America will we truly free ourselves from tyranny.

Authors Bio:
Kevin Gosztola is managing editor of Shadowproof Press. He also produces and co-hosts the weekly podcast, "Unauthorized Disclosure." He was an editor for OpEdNews.com