Winter Soldiers Move Toward GI Resistance

[babylonsister]

Winter Soldiers Move Toward GI Resistance
by Aaron Glantz


SILVER SPRING, Maryland - Hundreds of veterans who gathered outside Washington last weekend to testify about their experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan are returning to their communities across the country with the goal of stoking resistance to the Iraq war from inside the U.S. military.

The so-called Winter Soldier gathering organised by Iraq Veterans Against the War was designed to demonstrate that well-publicised incidents of U.S. brutality, including the Abu Ghraib prison scandal and the massacre of an entire family of Iraqis in the town of Haditha, are not isolated incidents perpetrated by “a few bad apples,” as many politicians and military leaders have claimed. They are part of a pattern, the organisers said, of “an increasingly bloody occupation”.

“We have the power to bring the troops home, when they throw down their weapons and refuse to fight,” said Phil Aliff, a recently discharged combat veteran, who helped start the first active duty chapter of Iraq Veterans Against the War at Fort Drum in upstate New York.

Aliff founded that chapter after serving a year in Iraq from August 2005 to July 2006, a tour that included stints in Abu Ghraib and Fallujah, some of the most dangerous parts of Iraq for a U.S. soldier. He participated in roughly 300 patrols and was hit by so many roadside bombs that the entire unit became demoralised and started to seek out ways to avoid combat.

In April 2007, after returning home, Aliff began talking to other soldiers at Fort Drum who shared his opposition to the war. He refused a second deployment to Iraq, noting he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder from his first tour, and started organising with other soldiers on the base.

more...

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/03/22/7822/

[peace13]

1. A huge thank you to the soldiers who testified and to those

who gathered in DC. You are my heroes! Be safe out there. Peace,Kim

[jwirr]

2. Yes, I did a lot of crying. They have the courage of my kind of hero.

[Peace Patriot]

3. A profound thank you to the men and women of conscience in our military--and

to the veterans who are speaking out and organizing. None of us can spread the truth like you can, who have lived that horror. You are the most precious and important component of our democracy--people who know right from wrong, and make a stand for what is right, and who can distinguish right from wrong even in the most difficult circumstances, such as in combat--the most difficult circumstance of all, with your own lives in great danger. The line between right and wrong is sometimes difficult to discern, and it is always an individual crisis--a criss of conscience--when a person's survival, comfort, advancement and other benefits are at issue. To hold yourself accountable, and hold your superiors, or bosses, or government accountable, in that circumstance, is a great achievement, and a great benefit to society. I want to particularly commend those who have sacrificed potential careers in the military, or who have made comparable sacrifices, to speak out against the war and educate our citizenry about it. And I want all soldiers and veterans who are speaking out to know that I know what it may be costing you--personally, financially, psychologically, as to friendships, work/business, family relationships, and in so many other ways. We all have things at risk from this war--including the grave risk to our democracy, and the welfare of our people, as well as personal impacts--but you have suffered from it more directly than anyone except the Iraqi and Afghani people. My heart goes out to you. I am so proud of you!

Here's one soldier's account of his peace efforts in relationship to other veterans:

Thoughts of an Ex-Marine Officer Turned Peace Activist
By Camillo "Mac" Bica
t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Friday 14 March 2008
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/031408K.shtml