Washblog

I find it very meaningful hearing about the first hand experiences that you had helping at Winter Soldier and at the actions of the week.

I watched and listened to testimony.  It made me weep.

I just hope that we can End This War and help our brothers, sisters, children - another generation - recover.

by ktkeller on Tue Mar 25, 2008 at 05:55:30 PM PST

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I've been reading some of the Winter Soldier testimony and it's very painful. These Vets are tremendously couragous.

by dinazina on Wed Mar 26, 2008 at 05:25:30 AM PST

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testimony?  Appreciating your account and the Op-Ed you sent, and appreciating your appreciation to Code Pink for getting you there, the story is about the returning Iraq veterans.  I value and appreciate that Code Pink has been instrumental in helping financially in a number of the anti-war related events over the years, but this is not their story.

I'd like to hear more about your experience with the veterans themselves.  It is their story - their narrative - their experience.  You said you provided security in keeping the people of the Screaming Eagles - oh, no, that's what my ex-husband said of the 101st when he was deployed with that division in Vietnam.  Oh, it's the Gathering of The Eagles - yes that group that believes it's mission to be beating up on a Gold Star father - Carlos Arredondo,  while he is publicly demonstrating the grief of the loss of his son, Lance Corporal Alexander Scott Arredondo killed in Iraq in August 2004.  

Thank you Sir, for your willingness to go and provide security for the event as those returning Iraq veterans gave their own accounts of what they experienced and witnessed while deployed in Iraq.  Their biggest crime, it would seem, to the likes of such as the Gathering of Vultures, is in speaking out and not keeping the code of silence. But the Gathering Vultures need not fear; there was little to no media coverage of the weekend for the Vultures to have to counter with their empty flag waving.

This is no way to introduce myself to you Buddy Georgia, and I apologize for the bitterness that seems to leak out of me these days.  We are a military family with loved one deployed in Iraq for his second time - his second 'stop-loss' extended 15 month deployment.  We are a military family that has spent several years  in giving voice and speaking out against this Iraq war.  We do deeply appreciate your work in helping with this event.  We do appreciate those who continue to carry on in speaking out against this war and we do appreciate those people who keep trying to find the key that is going to turn this thing around.  

I know one of the Iraq veterans who gave testimony, Hart Viges.  Traveled with him for almost 4 weeks on the 2005 Bring Them Home Now tour; heard his moving account several times and was struck by how powerful it was each time he told it...wondered how he could still be standing at the end and wondered if he was with us or still there in Iraq when he told of his experience.  I personally do know how hard it is on these men and women to tell their stories, to give witness, and a minimum, they deserve to be heard.  

On the fifth anniversary of the Iraq war, the media could easily have turned it's attention to these hearings and given a mention.  I didn't see that happen too much.  If you can say more about the veterans, their stories, your experience of them, it would be useful and appreciated.

On the Surge in Iraq "--we have set the bar so low it's buried in the sand at this point." - Barack Obama

by Lietta Ruger on Sun Mar 30, 2008 at 04:58:55 PM PST

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Providing excerpts from one of the few newspapers willing to write an article on the Iraq Veterans testimonies; excerpts are from the Iraq veterans testimonies only, but the entire article is worthwhile read for context.  (note; I personally know several of the people quoted in the article, and with bias wanted to have excerpts quoting them)

VOICING DISSENT
War-torn vets speak out
Haunted by their wartime experiences, some Iraq veterans are are protesting

By Claudia Feldman
at Houston Chronicle

April 18, 2008, 11:44AM

Hart Viges walks the streets of Austin in a tunic and carries a sign that reads, "Jesus Against War." It's one of many ways, he says, that he must atone for his actions as an American soldier in Iraq.

Army Sgt. Ronn Cantu says lingering memories of killing a civilian in Iraq led him to start a chapter of Iraq Veterans Against the War at his home -- Fort Hood.

And in Houston, Chris Hauff, an Iraq War vet who returned from combat two years ago, wrestles with the feeling that his best friend died in a misguided war.

"The idea that American soldiers are there to spread democracy and liberate the people is all smoke and mirrors," Hauff says.

After five years and more than 4,000 American deaths, hundreds of anti-war Iraq veterans and even some active-duty soldiers are speaking out in protest. Though they make up a relatively small percentage of all the soldiers who have served, certainly they speak from experience. They've had their boots on the ground.

Nationally, more than 1,000 have joined Iraq Veterans Against the War, which is calling for an immediate troop pullout. At a recent IVAW conference in suburban Washington, D.C., 60 vets addressed about 400 peers. Collectively, they described American soldiers unraveling under pressure -- devolving from fighting for freedom and defending innocents to saving their own lives, protecting their friends and getting revenge.

Viges, tall and reed-slim, spoke as if his entry to heaven were on the line.

"I joined the Army right after September 11th," he began. He ended with, "I don't know how many innocents I've helped kill. ...

"I have blood on my hands."

His story, common among the speakers, began with good intentions and patriotic zeal. Then he realized he couldn't tell friend from enemy, and as he dodged mortar fire and roadside bombs, he feared each new day was going to be his last.

In that atmosphere, Viges and other soldiers assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division aimed countless mortar rounds at the town of As Samawah, southeast of Baghdad. They were trying to root out insurgents, but to this day, Viges doesn't know whom or what they hit.

"This wasn't army to army," Viges said. "People live in towns."

Jason Washburn's testimony is preserved on the Internet. A Marine veteran from Philadelphia, he explained how the rules of engagement kept changing until it seemed there were no rules at all.

"If the town or the city that we were approaching was a known threat, if the unit that went through the area before we did took a high number of casualties, we were allowed to shoot whatever we wanted.

"I remember one woman was walking by, and she was carrying a huge bag, and she looked like she was heading toward us. So we lit her up with the Mark 19, which is an automatic grenade launcher. And when the dust settled, we realized that the bag was only full of groceries. And, I mean, she had been trying to bring us food, and we blew her to pieces for it."

Jon Michael Turner, a Marine veteran from Vermont, described 3 a.m. house raids in which "problem" Iraqi men were subjected to his "choking hand."

It was tattooed in Arabic with an all-too-American epithet.

Turner recalled the first time he shot an Iraqi civilian. He offered no context or explanation except, "We were all congratulated after we had our first kills."

Turner also recalled the blind rage that led him and fellow Marines to start fights, spray bullets indiscriminately and fire on mosques. Eighteen men in his unit were killed by the enemy, he said. After that much bloodshed, the surviving soldiers were damaged mentally, if not physically.

"I just want to say that I'm sorry for the hate and destruction that I've inflicted on innocent people," said Turner, who began his speech by ripping off his service medals. "Until people hear about what is happening in this war, it will continue."

Viges, the veteran of the 82nd Airborne, struggled to understand that disconnect.

One of his jobs in Iraq was to stand guard with a .50-caliber machine gun while his buddies searched houses supposedly inhabited by insurgents and enemy combatants. At the conference, searches of that kind were described vividly. Sometimes soldiers kicked in the front doors. Sometimes they upended refrigerators and ripped stoves out of walls. Sometimes they turned drawers upside down and broke furniture.

One day Viges was instructed to search a suspicious house, a hut, really, but he couldn't find pictures of Saddam Hussein, piles of money, AK-47s or roadside bombs.

"The only thing I found was a little .22 pistol," Viges said, " ... but we ended up taking the two young men, regardless."

An older woman, probably the mother of the young men, watched and wailed nearby.

"She was crying in my face, trying to kiss my feet," Viges said. "And, you know, I can't speak Arabic, but I can speak human. She was saying, 'Please, why are you taking my sons? They have done nothing wrong.'

 (article explains concept of history of Winter Soldiers of Vietnam era and divisive impact to this day - including the swiftboating of John Kerry during 2004 election campaign - read for context, and Hauff below is responding to comments by a Vietnam veteran in opposition to the Iraq Veterans assertions in their testimonies)

"Oh, great," retorted Hauff, the Houstonian. Soldiers aren't going to turn themselves in, and they're not going to report their peers or their superiors, either, he said.

"Nobody wants to be viewed as a snitch or a narc," Hauff said. And who, he asked, volunteers for a dock in pay or a loss of rank or a court-martial or worse?

"You're supposed to do what you're told in the military."

For vets who often feel isolated by their experiences and their memories, old war buddies are their best, most comfortable friends.

Viges greeted old friends joyously between sessions at the Winter Soldier conference. Many of them were vets from the Vietnam era.

"They are my fathers," he said.

After struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder, Viges said, he is somewhat better. He still jumps at the sound of fireworks, but he's stopped patrolling the perimeter of his house.

With shoulder-length, brown hair and a goatee, Viges looks very much like a model for velvet Jesus portraits. When he puts on his tunic and takes his anti-war campaign to the streets, he tells anyone who will listen,

"Love thine enemy" and "Turn the other cheek."

A devout Christian, Viges finally left combat as a conscientious objector.

(note; the soldier quoted below, Ronn Cantu is one of the leading voices of dissent inside the U.S. Army, and was promoted this month read more here )

Cantu, the Fort Hood soldier, was one of several celebrity Texans at the conference. He says his pro-war sentiments changed 180 degrees the day he killed a civilian in Iraq. His convoy had been hit by an improvised explosive device, and he wanted revenge.

Next thing he knew, a car was coming toward them, and despite the warnings, it didn't stop.

Cantu opened fire. He didn't know until too late the car was filled with multiple members of an Iraqi family.

"I was literally on the verge of quitting (the military) right then and there," said Cantu, a third-generation military man.

Instead, he's spoken out against the war, through the protest chapter he founded and a 60 Minutes interview in 2007.

He occasionally comes to the attention of his superiors, too.

"All I've done is use my First Amendment rights," Cantu said. "I appreciate the Constitution. You can't really love it until you've actually been protected by it."

Cantu is scheduled to return to Iraq for his third tour of duty in early 2009.

"I've cheated death so many times," he said, suddenly somber. "I hope I can do it again."

Hauff, the Houston vet, didn't try to make it to Maryland. He had his hands full, with his job, his wife and his little girl. Besides, he didn't want to talk about the ugly side of war.

His best friend was on patrol, subbing for Hauff, when he was killed.

Hauff paused, keeping the many things he thought about that tragedy to himself. He had his emotions under control, he said, and he's moved on with his life.

His mother-in-law, sipping coffee and listening to him, cocked her head as if she didn't quite agree.

That year in Iraq changed him, Sherry Glover said. He doesn't like to be touched. He can be impatient with the people, even the child he loves the most. It's almost like he's barricaded himself inside an invisible fence that has a sign: "Keep out."

When Hauff finished talking, he frowned at his mother-in-law and walked away. They're sharing the same house, at least until Hauff and his family can afford to move.

Military families are paying for this war, Glover said darkly. She has a friend whose son tried to commit suicide between tours of duty. Army doctors gave him a bunch of prescriptions and deemed him ready to serve.

Glover couldn't go to the conference -- she wanted to keep an eye on things at home -- and made do by listening to the testimony on the local Pacifica radio station, KPFT-90.1 FM.

She and many other peace activists wondered why only a couple of outlets in the mainstream media covered the event.

The vets also wondered what all the other newspapers, magazines and TV stations were afraid of. The truth?

read full article here

On the Surge in Iraq "--we have set the bar so low it's buried in the sand at this point." - Barack Obama

by Lietta Ruger on Mon Apr 21, 2008 at 11:14:09 AM PST

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by ktkeller on Sat Apr 26, 2008 at 12:50:19 PM PST

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