As of Thursday 11 May 2023, “Fort Benning”, home of the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC) became “Fort Moore”. The name change was part of a broader US military initiative to remove the names of Confederate officers from military bases on the recommendation of a congressional committee.
That the US military acknowledges its racist past is remarkable, and the renaming of Fort Benning to Fort Moore is a positive symbolic gesture. No embargo…. For those of us with School of the Americas Watch (SOA Watch), it evokes memories of the closure of the School of the Americas (SOA) in December 2000 and the subsequent opening, on 17 January 2001, of the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC) – on the same site, and with many of the same professors, classes and textbooks. New name, same shame.
As SOAW founder Father Roy Bourgeois said at the time: “The new institute is no different from the SOA it replaces. It is a combat school. The infantrymen and women of Latin America come to learn how to fight”. By refusing to make significant changes to the new school, the Department of Defense failed to address the real problem: the violence perpetrated against the people of Latin America by US-trained soldiers”.
Similarly, changing the name of the army base to Fort Moore in 2023 does not change the reality on the ground: the base, whatever it is called, is home to the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation.
We must recognise that symbols alone are not enough to bring about real change. While the renaming ceremony attempts to whitewash the past, it does not acknowledge the ongoing suffering and violence perpetrated by the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC). The base, regardless of its name, remains the home of WHINSEC/School of the Americas, a symbol of a system rooted in racism, domination and oppression.
At SOA Watch, our commitment to a world free from suffering and violence remains unwavering. We see the for-profit immigration detention centres, the militarization of the border, and the training of repressive forces at WHINSEC and other sites like Cop City, which will be located just two hours away near Atlanta, Georgia, as integral parts of the same violent and racist system. These interconnected issues demand our collective resistance and sustained efforts to bring about meaningful change.
Together, we must continue to expose the truth, challenge oppressive systems, and advocate for justice and equality. Fort Moore is the same old Fort Benning and should serve as a reminder of the shame that persists within the institution. It behooves us to maintain our vigilant stance, amplifying our voices and standing in solidarity with those affected by the unjust practices taught and perpetrated at such war colleges. As we move forward, let us remain steadfast in our mission to oppose and shut down the centres of violence.
New name, same shame! Together, we will persist in our collective resistance.
By SOA Watch