Last weekend, in the lead-up to the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, a remarkable gathering occurred just outside Washington, D.C., called Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan, Eyewitness Accounts of the Occupations. Hundreds of veterans of these two wars, along with active-duty soldiers, came together to offer testimony about the horrors of war, including atrocities they witnessed or committed themselves.
The name, Winter Soldier, comes from a similar event in 1971, when hundreds of Vietnam veterans gathered in Detroit, and is derived from the opening line of Thomas Paine’s pamphlet, “The Crisis,” published in 1776:
“These are the times that try men’s souls: The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.”
This Winter Soldier was organized by the group Iraq Veterans Against the War. Kelly Dougherty, an Iraq veteran from the Colorado Army National Guard and IVAW’s executive director, opened the proceedings, saying: “The voices of veterans and service members, as well as civilians on the ground, need to be heard by the American people, and by the people of the world, and also by other people in the military and other veterans so they can find their voice to tell their story, because each of our individual stories is crucially important and needs to be heard if people are to understand the reality and the true human cost of war and occupation.”
What followed were four days of gripping testimony, ranging from firsthand accounts of the murder of Iraqi civilians, the dehumanization of Iraqis and Afghanis that undergirds the violence of the occupations, to the toll that violence takes on the soldiers themselves and the inadequate care they receive upon returning home.
Jon Michael Turner, who fought with the 3rd Battalion, 8th Marines, tore his medals off his chest. He said: “On April 18, 2006, I had my first confirmed kill. This man was innocent. I don’t know his name. I called him ‘the fat man.’ He was walking back to his house, and I shot him in front of his friend and his father. The first round didn’t kill him, after I had hit him up here in his neck area. And afterward he started screaming and looked right into my eyes. So I looked at my friend, who I was on post with, and I said, ‘Well, I can’t let that happen.’ So I took another shot and took him out. He was then carried away by the rest of his family. It took seven people to carry his body away.
“We were all congratulated after we had our first kills, and that happened to have been mine. My company commander personally congratulated me, as he did everyone else in our company. This is the same individual who had stated that whoever gets their first kill by stabbing them to death will get a four-day pass when we return from Iraq.”
Hart Viges was with the 82nd Airborne, part of the invasion in March 2003. He described a house raid where they arrested the wrong men: “We never went on a raid where we got the right house, much less the right person. Not once. I looked at my sergeant, and I was like, ‘Sergeant, these aren’t the men that we’re looking for.’ And he told me, ‘Don’t worry. I’m sure they would have done something anyways.’ And this mother, all the while, is crying in my face, trying to kiss my feet. And, you know, I can’t speak Arabic. I can speak human. She was saying, ‘Please, why are you taking my sons? They have done nothing wrong.’ And that made me feel very powerless. You know, 82nd Airborne Division, Infantry, with Apache helicopters, Bradley fighting vehicles and armor and my M4-I was powerless. I was powerless to help her.”
Former Staff Sgt. Camilo Mejia also spoke. After serving in Iraq, he refused to return there. He was court-martialed and spent almost a year in prison. Mejia is now the chairman of IVAW. After he finished the testimony of his experience in Iraq, he laid out the group’s demands:
“We have over a million Iraqi dead. We have over 5 million Iraqis displaced. We have close to 4,000 dead [Americans]. We have close to 60,000 injured. That’s not even counting the post-traumatic stress disorder and all the other psychological and emotional scars that our generation is bringing home with them. War is dehumanizing a whole new generation of this country and destroying the people in the country of Iraq. In order for us to reclaim our humanity as a military and as a country, we demand the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all troops from Iraq, care and benefits for all veterans, and reparations for the Iraqi people so they can rebuild their country on their terms.”
As we enter the sixth year of the war in Iraq, more time than the U.S. was involved in World War II, we should honor the veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, by listening to them.
Amy Goodman is the host of “Democracy Now!,” a daily international TV/radio news hour airing on 650 stations in North America.
© 2008 Amy Goodman
Thank you Iraq Veterans Against the War. Thank you Democracy Now and Free Speech TV for your coverage.
Thomas Kelly
Englwood, Colorado
call bush at 202.456.1111
Once again, shame on MSM. I haven’t heard one reference to these hearing on any regular network or cable news outlet.
SHAME on Democratic candidates as well for failing to bring this or any discussion of war protests to the podium.
I will give Obama some credit for a good speech regarding race in America following the outrageous media coverage of his reverend’s comments.
The comments of Reverend Wright were right on target.
God Damn America indeed. The quote being played over and over follows 9/11 and refers to the same “when chickens come home to roost” ideas that Ward Churchill expressed in his essary that eventually led to his persecution and loss of his job at University of Colorado. All this for merely speaking the truth. There should be no argument that U.S. foreign policy was at the root of the 9/11 attacks! To call him or anyone unpatriotic for saying it is an embarassment to all of us. Until this country faces reality for the many wrongs it has done in support of corporate profits and empire, we will be destined for ruin.
My brother in-law Mat served 17 months in Iraq and 2 years longer then the 3 years he intended to serve. The army would not let him out, they kept delaying his discharge. He finally had to hire a military Attorney and they immediately discharged him. Less then 2 months at home he recieved a phone call from supposedly the military stating he will have to return to Iraq. The 22 year old Soldier broke down and wept. He called his father for comfort and he told his son he will not go back and he will take him to Canada himself before he serves in the military again. I just had to share this with the mostly great people on this site CD.
I listened live for the 3 day broadcast (thank you KPFA Berkeley). I have ONE friend who heard some of it. Mentioning the power of what I heard to others is met by blank stares. One friend asked ‘what is Winter Soldiers?’. My husband, a Vietnam vet, is more hopeful than I. He says: ‘It’ll get out’. Pass it on.
right on beyondempire, your the firs person to share the same views of Pastor Wright as I do do.
schiller2 - there are many of us who see nothing factually wrong in what Wright said/preached. People are so conditioned. My mom’s mouth dropped when I asked her what was so harmful, what wasn’t true. I haven’t changed her mind but she is thinking, and we continue talking. What I find is that people who do not want to consider a different view from their own, ususally don’t. And deserved Black anger scares those who don’t get the anger.
I am 60 and had never seen Winter Soldier.
Last night I viewed this 1971 documentary and am a loss for words as to how difficult it was to watch.
The 90 minutes of the film seemed like and eternity and ignited a variety of memories I thought had been healed.
But today I feel a bit more free.
Try to experience this film. After the content has been digested, you might find this rare dose of brutal truth to be a valuable source of inspiration.
And a related read: Beyond My Lai
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion?pid=109065
schiller, may the result for your Mat be a stable future and some inner peace.
My son served being dropped behind enemy lines in Shrub’s daddy’s war those many years ago. After he came home, he stumbled around a bit then took up semi-driving. Says now, “Had I found trucks first, I’d have never joined the Marines.”
Perhaps others will look to this alternative career.
Umm, President McCain, you wouldn’t mind if I spoke directly to you, would you? Some of us soldiers and contractors, too, got together and everyone wanted to know the same thing, so they asked me to ask you. Umm, Umm, which Iraqis would you like us to kill this afternoon?
If you are in Englewood CO, give FSTV a call. They are looking for volunteers to help during their fundraising drive 3-24 to 3-29. That’s a good way to say thanks for their excellent coverage of something like this that you’d never see on CNN or Faux.
JConrad … the other day, I started watching one of Democracy Now’s one hour shows packed with film clips from this latest ‘Winter Soldier”. Your description of watching the documentary of the first fits so very well my reaction to watching a bit of the latest. Very difficult to watch. But afterwards, you are glad you did.
For those who missed the live broadcasts, IVAW is starting to get audio and video clips up on their website at … http://ivaw.org/wintersoldier/howtowatch
I think sometimes we forget what effective communication tools we have at our disposal. We complain that the corporate bosses at CNN and Faux don’t show what we want, but we forget our own power.
Email itself is a very powerful tool. If you want people to watch or listen to this, simply start sending them emails with this link … http://ivaw.org/wintersoldier/howtowatch
Ask people to watch. And if they are moved by the experience, ask them to forward the email on to others. On the web, sometimes something that simple can grow quickly into a tsunami. We forget our own power sometimes. Don’t wait on a corporate media to act against their own selfish interest. Spread the word yourself.
It was heart wrenching and very informative to watch (on Democracy Now). Especially heartbreaking was the Iraqi father who was holding his apparently dead child.
The imperialists are still killing women and children in both Iraq and Afghanistan. It’s very sad.
beyondempire, your statement is intolerable to corporate MSM because it is that very monstrous foreign policy that guarantees a steady revenue stream for so many of the media’s corporate paymasters. By law they are required to maximize profits for shareholders.These corporations are legalized greed machines. They don’t necessarily want to kill people; but, if their deaths are good for profits, so!?
Amy, those who engage in wars for economic or political gain care nothing for the soldiers who fight them. They are considered to be consumables! Their stories and suffering are unimportant in the scheme of things, in places like the Oval Office.
In the Oval Office are maps of the world that show how America’s influence and domination extends right across the globe. That, and extending it even further, is what interests the leaders, gets them excited, gives them orgasms.
Right down through history, it’s the little people that pay the price while the leaders profit and plot.
When are we little people going to take them down, run the world for everyone?
www.dangerouscreation.com
The Military-Industrial-Compliant Media Complex is alive and well in our Plutocracy.
There will be no National coverage of this subject.
My son-in-law, a career soldier will be deployed to Iraq for the second time in just a few days. He will be there for 18 months or until he gets killed or wounded. His children aged 5 and 7 don’t understand why dad has to work all the time. They don’t understand why war has to last so long. My grandson says that he will not be a soldier like dad. He wants to be a ski patroller. Maybe the little fellow is learning peace somewhere.
The key to dismantling the “War on Terror” and all of this police state madness is examining what happened on Manhattan at 5:20 PM on September 11, 2001. The MSM has actively covered this up. Any journalist or commentator who is aware of this event, and who has not vociferously called it to the attention of the masses and demanded answers about it from the authorities is part of the problem and not part of the solution.
Where was Amy Goodman at 5:20 PM EST on September 11, 2001?
Search the Internet for videos using the key word Amy+Goodman+watches+implode+person
Now, I’ll grant that she might have forces above her preventing her from saying certain things. I know for a fact that I cannot link to Wikskey-Tango-Foxtrot-7 dot November-Echo-Tango on Common Dreams. So it is clear that there are invisible actors skulking in the shadows and conspiring to perpetrate this madness.
Make that: Wikskey-Tango-Foxtrot-7 dot November-Echo-Tango Sorry about this. The edit function keeps giving my SQL errors.
Make that: Wikskey-Tango-Charlie-7 dot November-Echo-Tango Sorry about this. The edit function keeps giving my SQL errors. AND I my coffee hasn’t kicked in yet.
I can’t say enough in praise of veterans and active service members who have the courage to do the right thing.
I just can’t help wondering why it’s any longer even necessary.
Hasn’t history, both ancient and modern, told us the same dismal story of war since time immemorial? From Vlad the Impaler to Adolf the Hitler haven’t we learned that all wars, invariably, are waged by and for raving sociopaths for the sole purpose of advancing their own ideological empires at the expense of anyone and everyone unfortunate enough to fall under their control? Isn’t it yet clear to any rational human that violence solves nothing?
How long will we continue to doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results? I seem to recall that as the definition of insanity according to Benjamin Franklin, or was it Albert Einstein? Who cares who said it? It’s long past time it was taken to heart.
Those who ignore history are condemned to repeat it.
coldwarbaby@hotmail.com
“Those who ignore history are condemned to repeat it.”
Sadly, we cannot say what needs saying.
“Those who control the past control the future. Those who control the present control the past.” ~ George Orwell
http://nedjudy.com/stuff/mp3/PoundReadsUsura2.mp3
Is IVAW and Winter Soldier praising deserters and encouraging enlisted men to desert ? No ? Then it’s as Shakespeare said , ” Full of sound and fury but signifying nothing “
Whom the Gods wish to destroy they first make cowboys. Cowboys make better lovers - ask any COW!
“Bush erroneously says Iran announced desire for nuclear weapons.” Cowboy thinking?
Ronald White, I am a Veteran for Peace and supporter of the IVAW, VVAW, they can’t keep it as a non-profit if they sing it out loud, they have it right on their site, ivaw.org, if you need help you’re not alone, and they tell you how to get in touch, Active Duty and Vets, so it is not always as it appears, okay?
I called my papers pressroom told them everything, dates, schedule, channels on TV and live stream, places about hosting live streams on large screens, NADA. Per Quorum.
Thank you for covering this Amy! Since the MSM in this country is simply a “hand puppet” for the reactionary Republican Party it’s extremely hard to find any honest news. For those of us that love our country and the freedoms and liberties guaranteed by the constitution we are all very appreciative of your courageous unbiased coverage of world events.
It is very important that these proceedings are played everywhere; every school, in the mall, in parks. People are not going to take to the streets until something like this is in their face constantly.
http://www.ryanhartman.wordpress.com
I was not alive during the Vietnam war, but I have read testimony by the Vietnam veterans from that time. It was all very much the same: the senseless brutality, the racism, the hurt, the terrible pain of the soldiers as well as the suffering of their so many, nameless victims.
It is just so unspeakably sad that another generation has to witness these horrors all over again. America did not learn before, and I fear that she will not learn now. So tragically, there will likely be more generations in the years to come returning like Banquo’s ghost with the same psychic wounds and horror stories, trying speak to a nation that does not want to hear the obscenities of war and empire.
I wonder who will win “American Idol” in 2025?
America did learn about the horrors of war. It’s just that war is so damn lucrative to the powers that be. Nothing will change. The only thing that is certain is that man keeps stepping in the same pile of shit his father stepped in and his father before him.
Schiller2 and GKL: Your posts are heart-breaking. Bring them home!
To all:
Do you ever listen to the soldiers who come home and tell stories of hope? I do acknowledge the unfair situations our soldiers are put in on a daily basis; like not knowing who or where the enemy is. However, there still is an enemy. They hate me, you, and anyone who is part of western culture. If we pull out of Iraq and Afganistan like you want, what is the plan then? Will fundamental Islam be stopped by peace signs and make love not war T-shirts? I wish war was not the answer, maybe it isn’t, but someone inform me what the plan will be if we withdrawl our troops from all around the world? If so, are you willing to say goodbye to your way of life?