Opposition to the War Growing Among Troops
“I joined the Army to go to war, and now I’m fighting to get out,” says Pfc. Ryan Follan, laughing nervously. He quickly becomes serious. “Some of the causes are good, but I don’t think the war is for the right reasons.” Follan laughs again, and there’s a long pause. “I’m deploying in a month, actually. I’m not a big fan of it, honestly.” Private Follan is standing in a Taco Bell parking lot just outside Fort Stewart in Savannah, Georgia. Each day, soldiers gather for lunch at fast food restaurants like this one. On this particular day, the soldiers at Fort Stewart have visitors.
Last week, a convoy of approximately 20 veterans riding in converted school buses left Fayetteville, North Carolina. They were sponsored by Veterans for Peace, armed with literature and headed for New Orleans, where they are spending this week rebuilding houses in the Ninth Ward. On the way, the group stopped at military bases throughout the South. Their goal? They were passing out copies of the Appeal for Redress, GI rights information, and copies of the videos “Ground Truth” and “Sir! No Sir!”
Veterans for Peace members say they’re not trying to pressure GIs to resist war. They want to educate soldiers about their rights. They know from experience that the military frowns on dissent and doesn’t go out of its way to educate soldiers regarding constitutionally protected ways to express their opinions on issues like war and peace. Despite popular opinion to the contrary, soldiers do indeed have rights to express political dissent.
The Appeal for Redress is a confidential online petition to Congress asking for an end to the Iraq war. Because the Uniform Code of Military Justice expressly permits members of the military to petition their representatives, the Appeal is 100 percent legal, and since its unveiling in late 2006 the Appeal has gathered over 1,700 signatures.
Private Follan hadn’t heard of the Appeal before, but says he thinks he’ll sign it. “I can’t see any reason why I wouldn’t,” he says, explaining he hasn’t heard a single good reason for the Iraq war. “If there are good reasons, I haven’t been told them yet. Maybe I’ll find out some more reasons when I get there.”
Follan is dressed in desert camouflage fatigues and is with a couple of friends. He’s 18 years old, and he joined the Army last July. He’s young and really earnest. He explains that despite his objections to the war, he doesn’t mind going. “I’m hoping to do the right thing,” he says. “I have no problem going and helping in any way I can.”
Pfc. Richard Jones was having lunch with Follan. He’s quieter, just as young and just as earnest. He’s a cavalry scout, with less than a year in the military. He expects to be deployed in May as well, but isn’t sure. He’s well aware of the complexity of the arguments both for and against the war.
“Nobody should go to war. War’s not a good thing at all. But if that’s what has to be done, then I guess that’s what has to be done to protect your country and your people. It would be a lot worse if they were over here saying if you don’t believe in our religion, and if you speak against it, we’re gonna kick down your doors, then we’re going to kill your family. That’s not good. I wouldn’t wish that on Iraqis either.”
Jones doesn’t know if he’ll sign the Appeal, but he’s glad to see Veterans for Peace. “I think it’s a good thing that they’re trying to help people. I don’t want people to get the impression that we’re just piddling around not really taking things seriously. I have no doubt that if we could get out of Iraq right now we would, obviously.”
“I’m not a big fan of it,” his friend Ryan Follan says again. “But who is, right? It’s war. I can’t wait to go.” Follan appears to think about these contradictions and laughs. “I have no problem being in the Army. It’s just the whole being in the Army thing.”
These views were reflected in a shocking number of soldiers last week. Almost everyone responded favorably to Veterans for Peace, with many soldiers leaving the parking lot with videos and brochures, saying they’d look into the Appeal for Redress. While the majority of the media frames the public debate about the Iraq war in terms of supporting the troops vs. opposing the war, the men and women fighting it see things differently. Soldiers are increasingly expressing unabashed opposition to the war.
Capt. Ben Gatskey is a tank company commander in the 130 Infantry Division, Second Brigade. He already served in Iraq for Operation Iraqi Freedom Three, between January 2005 and January 2006. He was supportive of Veterans for Peace and their outreach to the troops. “I feel that it’s an honest support of us, and I do appreciate that.”
He served as a logistics officer, a battalion planner in Baghdad, and worked on the transition team training the Iraqi Army. He too is scheduled for redeployment in May. “I don’t really think any soldier ever truly wants to go to war, but that’s what we do. Ultimately, it’s why we have a job, and it comes as no surprise that we’re being asked to deploy.”
Captain Gatskey declined to share his personal feelings about the war, reframing the question in terms of obligation. “Part of my duty is leading soldiers into combat, and I take that very seriously,” he said. He also says that, despite the reports of violence and the civil war, he’s seen forward motion. “Based on my interaction with soldiers in the Iraqi Army, it seems like their security forces made quite a bit of progress the year we were there.”
Gatskey believes it’s important that the public take an active interest in the Iraq war, the military and the public policy they’re asked to carry out. “We are direct representatives of the American people and the American way of life, and we take that very seriously,” he said. “We take our role as ambassador very seriously, and don’t want to have a disconnect between the American people and the military representing them.”
A little later, two young women emerge from Taco Bell carrying to-go bags. Although they decline to give their names, each seems almost eager to share their views on the war.
“I don’t believe in the war. I really don’t wanna go to war. But I have to, so I’m gonna go,” said one of them. She joined the Army six months ago, and is assigned to warehouse supply. She’s just learning her job and is apprehensive about doing it in a war zone. She doesn’t feel like she has enough training.
Both women say they’re frustrated with public apathy towards the war and those fighting it. “It seems like if it doesn’t hit close to home, a lot of people don’t really care,” said the first private. This is one of the reasons they’re happy to see Veterans for Peace. “It makes me feel good to know that other people think the same way I do. I’m glad they don’t want to see us go to Iraq, because we really don’t want to go.”
Both women joined the military out of economic necessity. “I don’t support the war either,” said the second soldier. “But we all have necessities, so here we are. I’m scared, but at the same time, I’m excited in a weird way. I’m going somewhere new.”
Throughout their week on the road, Veterans for Peace met with similar responses to their education and outreach efforts. Defying public expectation, most soldiers from Fort Bragg to Fort Benning expressed apprehension, ambivalence and concern. For the most part, they joined the military because they love their country, and because they needed a job. Many of them are perplexed by the tasks their country is now asking them to perform.
“I just want people to realize that we don’t want to go over there. We’re not looking forward to it,” she said. “People are over there dying and suffering. Nothing has been accomplished. We’ve sacrificed a lot of our time, and a lot of people have died for all of this. And for what?”
Sarah Olson is an independent journalist and radio producer based in Oakland, California. She can be reached at solson75@yahoo.com.
Somebody has suggested the best way to convince people that war is not an exciting adventure is to relieve her of one or two of her limbs, burn her house, kill half her family members, and then tell her she is free. Live coverage is almost as effective.
Captain Gatskey makes a good point when he says he doesn’t “want to have a disconnect between the American people and the military representing them.” Sorry, but there is a disconnect. American society hasn’t gone to war with its soldiers since World War 2. Every soldier since then has returned to a society that didn’t really know what the soldier had experienced, and to a society that didn’t even have to sacrifice anything for the war effort. This disconnect allows the government to use military power practically at will. If the American public knew what their veterans knew they could better direct their government away from war.
Hoa Binh
“Despite popular opinion to the contrary, soldiers do indeed have rights to express political dissent.
Private Follan hadn’t heard of the Appeal before, but says he thinks he’ll sign it.”
I guess the military “forgot” to tell him about his rights.
Where do I begin?…..
I agree that there is a massive disconnect between the soldiers that serve and the American people and the experience of this war. But I do think that what is happening now is different than what happened in Viet Nam. The media and Shrub have made it impossible to literally see the raveges of this war. No flag draped coffins, no TV news from the battlefields, no blood, no blown off limbs, no dead babies in sight. It’s hard for me to relate, but I remember the pictures from Viet Nam. I imagine that this war is just as horrible on the hearts, bodies, and minds of our troops today as it was then.
The only way that Americans can tell the troops how much we care about them is how they are recruited and how they are treated once they get back home. I personally am outraged with how our government has behaved. Walter Reed is bad enough, but the government’s disregard for the dignity and health of our returning troops and their families everywhere is appalling. MY Gawd! It’s just been revealed that at Fort Benning they are screwing with the medical records of severly wounded soldiers. Soldiers with serious back and head injuries are being sent back to Iraq for another tour. Some can’t even wear body armor or helmets because of their injuries. This doesn’t even take into account the number of soldiers forced to continue to serve even though they are “shelled shocked” and are at risk to commit suicide, can’t hold their families together, and are at risk of committing atrocities of their own. And what about the injured soldiers that are being shuffled from base to base to inflate the numbers of “battle ready” troops to make Bush look good. This treatment of our soldiers is not just immoral, it’s evil!
And this government is not just “recruiting” new soldiers (more Cannon Fodder). Recruites are being lied to and bribed. The military has lowerd it standards to the point that existing soldiers don’t even know if the new recruits will cut it.
The military has broken their contracts with their troops in so many dispicable ways, I wouldn’t blame one single soldier for objecting, disserting, or refusing to go. The individual soldiers have no reason to respect the contract that they signed. It has already been broken by the U.S. Government.
Chicken hawks, neocons, warmongers and their associates want us to believe that if US troops are redeployed out of combat in Iraq, this will hurt the troops, the Army and the Marine Corps.
No … the failure is that of the Bush-Cheney administration and the neocons who phonied intelligence for this foolish venture.
The troops themselves have suffered and struggled to do their duty.
For more on this, see:
“Victory of Courage, Fellowship and Honor”
PopulistAmerica.com
Populist Party of America
December 17, 2006
http://www.populistamerica.com/victory_of_courage_fellowship_and_honor
Sun Tzu said: The art of war is of vital importance to the State.
It is a matter of life and death, a road either to safety or to ruin. Hence it is a subject of inquiry which can on no account be neglected.
1) All warfare is based on deception.
2) If the campaign is protracted, the resources of the State will not be equal to the strain.
3) We have heard of stupid haste in war, cleverness has never been seen associated with long delays.
4) There is no instance of a country having benefited from prolonged warfare.
5) The captured soldiers should be kindly treated and kept.This is called, using the conquered foe to augment one’s own strength.
There are three ways in which a ruler can bring misfortune upon his army:
(a) By commanding the army to advance or to retreat, being ignorant of the fact that it cannot obey. This is called hobbling the army.
(b) By attempting to govern an army in the
same way as he administers a kingdom, being ignorant of the conditions which obtain in an army. This causes restlessness in the soldier’s minds.
(c) By employing the officers of his army
without discrimination, through ignorance of the military principle of adaptation to circumstances. This shakes the confidence of the soldiers.
6) Hence the saying: If you know the enemy
and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat.
7) If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.
8)There are roads which must not be followed,
armies which must be not attacked, towns which must not be besieged, positions which must not be contested, commands of the sovereign which must not be obeyed.
Hence the saying: The enlightened ruler lays his plans well ahead; the good general cultivates his resources.
9) No ruler should put troops into the field merely to gratify his own spleen; no general should fight a battle simply out of pique.
It’s too bad our commander in chief doesn’t read. I have read that lately he has been reading books of dubious value written by various fools who would promote hatred, but that’s not informing ones self put ather more akin to being an empty vessel that is filled with poison.
I’ll say just this:
What I do to another…..
I do to myself…..
Quoted from a great Prophet who
lived 2000 years ago….
Heaven help America…..
hybridoma, A proctracted war may ruin the nation but corporations are making a lot of money.
Nietzsche, you are so right. In my hurry to quote Sun Tzu, I completely forgot about war profiteering. Now you’ve got me curious about whether or not this existed when Sun Tzu wrote about the art of war. My gut tells me that it did, but I do wonder if such a thing was permitted in his day.
Thanks for the food for thought. Now I have to dig some more.
indictments?
It is a mistake and distortion to call the Iraq intervention a war. It is not a war. War is a military action between states. That was over in three days when the Saddam government fell. This is an occupation. An illegal occupation by a foreign power: the U.S.
Nietsche and Hybridoma, the corporations making all that money off the war is part of the process of the nation ruining itself.
I was drafted in ‘66….same bullshit then as now, the HUGE difference is there is no draft. The majority of our soldiers now come from families with combined incomes under $60,000 per year. Jefferson warned us of this kind of mercenary army and I am starting to see why. This president sees powerless people he can use as he sees fit, use them until they are broken and then just throw them away. With the Draft, there were a LOT more people in resistance. Me, I think every citizen in this country should perform 2 years of service, Military or Civilian in order to enjoy the privledges of citizenship.
When pigs fly.
John Freeman
This is exactly why George Washington frowned on governments that maintain a standing army and refused to do so. He understood the dangers in such a force being easily misappropriated by an errant ideologue. In the early days, this country had only decentralized state militias which could muster in defense of property even in defense of tyranny from within. Today, the federalized military is a corporation, the nightmare Eisenhower forewarned an unwary sleepy public would wake up to.
With the seductive bribes of becoming a citizen, here is Bushes next pool of blood that he will most likely drink from:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/29/us/29citizen.html?ei=5065&en=5da1fd389d4bbbd0&ex=1175832000&partner=MYWAY&pagewanted=print
Best wishes and hope
Impeach the Bush empirical oligarchs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tk1vEuhBuEU
Zeitgeist,
As usual a well informed and timely comment! But on top of the standing army, the federal government has taken over our National Guard units (militias) and sent them to the desert to die. We have lost so much!
John: So true. So true. Not only does this evil administration seduce the powerless to fight and be broken, before he throws them away, it takes the broken and sends them back for another tour of duty.
Throughout their week on the road, Veterans for Peace met with similar responses to their education and outreach efforts. Defying public expectation, most soldiers from Fort Bragg to Fort Benning expressed apprehension, ambivalence and concern.