RT's Anastasia Churkina talks to Occupy activist and war veteran Scott Olsen on the state of affairs in the U.S. today, and the changes that have taken place since the beginning of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

"Most likely people are either going to vote for Democrats or Republicans and I think both those are wrong choices. They are both working for the same system, they are both taking money from the same people, from the same banks and you can see in their policy that they are rewarding their donors. Voting for the continuing of this policy is not going to change anything at all," explains Olsen.

On alternatives in the coming election, Olsen said "You can vote for the third party that may not win. You may count voting for the third party as a waste of vote, but I think voting for a Democrat or a Republican is a waste of vote. You are shooting yourself in the foot if you are voting for either of those."

A great conversation with Scott Olsen. He talks about war, being a veteran, homeless veterans and the tragedy of 18 military veterans daily committing suicide in the U.S.

You'll also hear Scott's thoughts on the Occupy movement, and what's ahead for Occupy Wall Street now that it's approaching its first anniversary.

A full transcript follows below the fold...

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Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! sat down and talked with Scott Olsen in Chicago on March 20th, right after he and other fellow veterans tossed their military service medals during the #NoNATO protests.

Goodman: We're joined at the NATO summit in Chicago by Scott Olsen, who survived two tours in Iraq but almost died when he was hit with a police projectile at an Occupy Oakland protest last year. Olsen returned four of his medals at Sunday's antiwar march. When asked why he's joined the Occupy movement and is protesting against the heavily-policed NATO summit, Olsen says, "I am going to make every effort I can to show them that we're doing the right thing. No matter what they do to any of us, we've got each other's backs and we're going forward."

Full transcript of their discussion available at Democracy Now!.