Mike Prysner was one of the speakers at the event Speaking Truth to Power: a permanent state of war on April 9, 2011 in Asheville, NC.
Mike joined the US Army when he was 17, between his junior and senior years in high school. He left for basic training in June 2001 and was assigned to the 10th Mountain Division in Fort Drum, NY. In March 2003, his company was attached to the 173rd Airborne Brigade to take part in the initial invasion of Iraq.
“I left this Army with a new understanding of the system under which we all live and the nature of US foreign policy. But, I still had the same drive to fight for freedom, justice and equality as I did when I joined and I understood that fighting for those things meant fighting against the US government, not on behalf of it.”
Upon separating from the US Army in 2005, Mike became an active organizer with the ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism), mobilizing for mass anti-war demonstrations. In 2009, he and other veterans and active-duty troops formed the organization, March Forward! to build the anti-war and social justice movement within the military and among veterans.
Mike has become a noted commentator on the wars and US foreign policy, speaking around the country and internationally and appears regularly on a variety of media outlets.
