Winter Soldier 2008: A Marine Mom’s Eyewitness Account of the Testimony
I. I have spent the past seven-plus years as an activist against the policies of George W. Bush and his regime. Already, my son has completed 2 tours of duty as a U.S. Marine, first in Afghanistan and then in Iraq. So my life has been forever altered by the events of the past 7 years. Still, when I initially made plans to attend the Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW)’s Winter Soldier event, I intended to cover it from the perspective of an independent journalist.
However, after spending almost four days within the halls of the National Labor College in Silver Spring, Maryland, meeting new members of IVAW, as well as many old friends from Veterans For Peace, Vietnam Veterans Against the War, Military Families Speak Out and other anti-war groups, and listening to the testimony of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, I realized I can no longer be an objective reporter. So I decided to write this story from the perspective of a Marine mom; one who is adamantly opposed to the so called “war on terror”, the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, and any other wars that this government is cooking up.
On Friday, Day 2, testimony began at 9 AM with a panel about the “Rules of Engagement”. Speakers from the Army and Marine Corps. — people that I have known for the last few years — recounted the atrocities that they not only witnessed but participated in. Anyone who is interested can listen online at www.ivaw.org/wintersoldier. But about halfway into that panel, I lost my objectivity. The stories they were telling about the rules of engagement they learned while training at boot camp, or on a military base “back home”, were the same as what I had heard from my son. I broke down sobbing. The photographs they were showing on the five viewing screens of bloodied bodies torn apart by close gunfire, 50-calibre Machine guns, rocket launchers, and every other damn weapon our great military industrial complex has created, were all too familiar to me. When my son returned home from both war zones, he was so eager to share his stories and pictures.
I could not fathom that my son, whom I raised to be a Catholic, whom I took to Sunday school, who received Communion and Confirmation, had not only been a participant in such horrors, but had pictures to prove it. I immediately told him that I would not listen to his stories or look at those pictures. He could speak with his father. My response may seem too many as being hard on my son, who only wanted to unload what he was feeling on his mother. But I couldn’t come to terms with it then — or now.
Watching and listening to the testimony made me very ill. Here were these young men and women, handsomely dressed, some wearing medals, talking about how they shot civilians who were holding nothing more threatening than a cell phone, groceries, a shovel, a white flag, or a pair of binoculars. Anyone deemed suspicious by the particular soldier or Marine on watch was fair game, subject to the orders, “Take ‘em out!” The Rules of Engagement, as stated by Garrett Rapenhagen were “a joke and disgrace, and ever changing.”
I knew that. I had heard it back home from my son. He told me he had to survive; he had to protect his buddies, so that they could all come home alive. They didn’t know who the enemy was, so they would just “blast them away.” The Marines are taught that. They shoot and don’t even ask questions. Their motto is “Kill ‘em all and let God sort them out!”
Camilo Mejia, who is the chair of IVAW, spoke about how soldiers were trained that dehumanizing the enemy is necessary to survival, and how they are taught to think of Iraqis as “hajjis”. In fact, all of the panel members said Iraqi citizens were repeatedly referred to as hajjis. I know that word all too well; I have heard my son talk about it, as well as other anti-Iraqi slurs such as “towel head,” and “sand nigger.” The expression “if you feel threatened, use your weapon” was also a familiar phrase to me. So, too, was the slogan, “Do what you need to do.” That meant that you use your rifle anytime, and you can crush whoever you want with your vehicle in the street.
Members on the panel recounted how, when they were bored, they blew up dogs and other animals to keep themselves entertained. All too well I had heard these stories, which gave me the creeps more than anything else. I also heard the testimony of former Cpl. Matt Childers, who said that after American soldiers had already beaten and starved detainees in their custody, one of them removed a hat from one of the detainees’ heads and smeared it with his own feces, before feeding it to one of the prisoners who was so hungry that he actually attempted to eat it.
One other Marine, whom I happened to interview personally — which produced a conversation I hope to describe more fully in a future article — was Bryan Casler. Casler was part of the initial invasion of Iraq in 2003. He described Marines taking their MRE’s (Meals Ready to Eat) which were in plastic bags, and defecating in them before tossing them out to Iraqi children on the side of the road. Those who picked them up would think they were food and attempt to eat the contents. Casler also said soldiers would urinate in bottles and throw them at children. They would also remove the chemical packets that were within the MREs (which helped heat the food) and hand them to children to eat. He said that when they went into Babylon, the marines would drive vehicles into mosques and historic ruins, and break off pieces to take home with them.
Some of the soldiers’ testimony was characterized by defiant anger. At the end of his testimony, former Marine Mike Totten ripped up the commendation he had received from General Petraeus, and threw it on the floor in front of him, to a huge applause. One day earlier, former Marine Jon Turner had taken a chest full of medals and thrown them into the audience. “I don’t work for you anymore!” Turner said. At the end of his heart-wrenching account of the atrocities he had witnessed or committed, Turner begged the Iraqi people for forgiveness.
All too well I know these stories, and have known them for years. So I kept crying and asking myself how these young men and women wound up in this position. How someone who joined the military out of a sense of “patriotism” wound up doing such horrible and heinous things that would make a mother sick to her stomach. How do we let our children do this? Casler, like my son, joined right out of high school. Many others do the same. And many don’t have to be recruited; they join voluntarily, out of a desire to serve their country. Many feel that doing so is what makes heroes.
So I spent three days listening to heart-wrenching, gut-wrenching stories, and continuously asked myself the same question: “Why?” More specifically, why do these soldiers and Marines, who represent a critical new breed of resisters, still feel so tied to the military that many of them espouse some variation of the sentiment, “I am proud of my service in the military. I am not proud of what I did.” For someone like me, I can clearly see that statement making sense. But then I had to ask myself why I thought it made sense.
How could you be proud to be in the military, and yet not like what you participated in while in the military? I have often asked my son this question. He says, “I love the Marine Corps. , but hate the government.” What a deep statement - one that conjures up very mixed, confusing emotions. So I have to examine not only the statements of love, but of loathing for war. War is a dirty business, forever has been and forever will be. So why do we encourage our citizens to think otherwise?
II. I had to get more to the root of my feelings about these questions. So, after spending time at this event, I went to downtown Washington, D.C. to visit monuments built to honor soldiers who fought in past wars. I had to make sense of how we keep making the same mistakes. We send an entire generation off to a foreign land to kill people. My father fought in WWII, and was in the Battle of Okinawa, where he was severely wounded. He was fortunate to come home and repair physically, but never mentally. He hated the Marine Corps. He never spoke about that war, but I always knew he was angry.
The first memorial I visited was that one, where my father’s picture is stored in a digital bank and you can enter the name and information surfaces on a computer screen. There he was, in his Pacific Alphas (green wool uniform ), with all his medals, smiling at the age of 27, when he was first drafted. The roiling emotions took over my entire body. I grew up seeing that photo, and loving my father for what he did to “protect” our freedom. Next to the monument are the infamous words “Freedom isn’t Free,” carved into the granite wall. My father eventually died from liver failure, which was caused by Hepatitis C, which he contracted on the battlefield through a blood transfusion from a Japanese soldier that they had taken prisoner.
So why do we do this as a country? I walked around to the Korean monument where they had life-size statues of a platoon on patrol, and faces carved into another granite wall hailing the suffering and sacrifice of those soldiers. For what? I asked myself. I saw bus loads of visitors from all over the U.S. taking pictures with the statues, wreaths in the background, and against the granite walls, smiling and awestruck at our “heroes.” A guide was repeating that freedom isn’t free and how our military is the most honorable and the best in the world. We should be proud of them, the guide said. Small children with their own cameras were taking photos and looking in wonderment at the soldiers standing in formation, their battle- hardened faces carved into metal.
I asked myself why these kids were there. How could this be such an attraction? So this is where it starts, I thought. Taking kids on bus trips to the nation’s capitol and looking at war monuments. They are being indoctrinated from the inception of their lives that America is brave and wonderful because of its military.
I started thinking what wars the U.S. had launched against other nations that actually served the interests of humanity. I thought about Hitler’s concentration camps in World War II, in which more than 6 million Jews were murdered in the cruelest ways imaginable. The U.S. had helped to liberate the concentration camps, defeat the Nazis, and free Europe from the death grip of a madman. That would seem to be a worthy cause, and an argument why we do need a military.
But was the real motive of the Americans in World War II to stop the genocide against Jewish people? It took this nation awhile to enter that war, and it did so only after the attack on Pearl Harbor, which led to my father-at age 27, the parent of a young son-being drafted. Then we dropped two atomic weapons on innocent Japanese civilians, incinerating hundreds of thousands instantly, and causing still hundreds of thousands more deaths in years to come due to radiation exposure.
Was that heroic? No, it was malicious and vengeful, and meant nothing to the security of our shores. People died at Pearl Harbor, the damage was done, so now it was time to pay back the Japanese one-thousand fold.
III. Our military might equals imperialism. Solidifying the U.S. position atop the imperialist ladder was the real motivation for American entry into World War II, and in fact it has essentially been the motivating factor for every war waged against other countries by this nation’s military. So when I asked myself what wars the U.S. had waged against other nations with the genuine motivation of serving humanity, the answer I arrived at is: None.
We train our soldiers and Marines to kill, and to be merciless. They have the best weapons that our money can buy, and are trained to use them on the enemy, whether they are innocent civilians or someone who is actually threatening their lives directly. It is indiscriminate killing at the behest of a government that is seeking to terrify the world into submission to American empire.
Indeed, the history of the U.S. Armed Forces is littered with war crimes in pursuit of a domestic and global “manifest destiny” to achieve greater lands and resources. Keep in mind that the United States as we know it today would not exist were it not for the military’s systematic decimation of first Native Americans, and then Mexicans, in the most unspeakable ways imaginable. During the Sand Creek Massacre in 1864, the U.S. Cavalry murdered hundreds of Native Americans — many of them women and children — in what is today Colorado.
Or consider a recent article in the New Yorker, entitled, “The Water Cure: Debating Torture and Counterinsurgency - A Century Ago.”
After helping free The Philippines from Spanish colonialism, the American conquerors unleashed their wrath on those whom they were supposedly liberating (sound familiar?) As the dawn of the 20th century approached, American troops slaughtered civilians, burned down entire villages, and –yes– waterboarded prisoners.
In 1950, during the Korean War, American soldiers murdered hundreds of Korean civilians — again, many of them women and children — under the bridge at No Gun Ri. The Associated Press won a Pulitzer Prize in 2000 for its series of articles exposing this crime against humanity; the pieces centered on interviews with former U.S. veterans who had carried out the slaughter.
During the Vietnam War, U.S. forces murdered more than one million Indochinese civilians, employing in the process horrific chemical weapons such as napalm and Agent Orange, which burnt the skin of its victims. During the first Winter Soldier hearings, Vietnam Veterans testified about routinely murdering, disemboweling, and raping Vietnamese civilians, throwing bound prisoners out of helicopters to their deaths, and torching villages.
In fact, the final day of Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan marked the 40th anniversary of one of the most infamous war crimes in U.S. history. On March 16, 1968, U.S. troops entered the village of My Lai and murdered hundreds of men, women, and children — young and old — raping some of the women and bayoneting elderly men.
The systematic crimes against humanity that are mentioned above represent only a small percentage of the atrocities committed by U.S. soldiers under the direct leadership of their Commander-in-Chiefs, and they do not even touch on the countless instances of war-crimes-by-proxy carried out throughout the globe by the CIA, and by various puppet regimes installed by the U.S. government.
Without question, the veterans who spoke out against the horrors the U.S. military is inflicting upon the Iraqi people are to be commended for providing tremendously critical exposure at time when the atrocities committed by U.S. soldiers in the Middle East has been rendered “off the table” by the mainstream media and political establishment. These veterans must be praised, as well, for demanding an immediate end to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and occupations; their resistance can play a huge role in bringing these nightmares to an end.
However, denouncing these occupations in isolation from the history of repeated war crimes carried out by the U.S. military no more makes sense than examining one murder committed by a serial killer in isolation from the rest of his murders. In order to both understand, and most powerfully resist, the current manifestations of U.S. war criminality in Iraq and Afghanistan — and in order to prevent future occurrences of crimes against humanity — we must realize that the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars are symptomatic of the historic role of the United States military as an institution.
During last weekend’s Winter Soldier hearings, soldiers repeatedly testified that the crimes against humanity they described were not isolated incidents; that they were the rule, not the exception, of the U.S. occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.
The further leap these veterans — and many others within the anti-war movement– must now make is to recognize that the occupations themselves, taken as whole, are hardly isolated incidents; they, too, represent the rule and not the exception of the U.S. military.
Elaine Brower is a member of Military Families Speak Out and is on the national steering committee of World Can’t Wait.
How do we stop this horror, this madness, we’re supporting with our hard-earned tax dollars? Nancy Pelosi won’t do it. Harry Reid won’t do it. The other Democrats won’t do it.
Maybe it’s time for revolution.
I’m sick to my stomach. And the worst part is that the majority of Americans don’t even want to hear all this crimes committed in their name. No coverage of winter soldier on MSM.
Deep down they know they are complicit.
Empire, and the price to sustain it, is terrible - always has been and always will be. The courage to try and stop it is a noble courage.
It is very difficult to add anything to this essay: Elaine Brower said it all. Her verdict on their Empire is final and proved beyond any reasonable doubts. I cannot call the Empire our, for junta disguising as American Government was not, is not and will never be ours. People who are still under illusion that the US is different from Mongol Empire, or Third Reich are still responsible for the crimes of their voting patterns the same way SS was and still is responsible for crimes against humanity.
The biggest problem with the picture painted by Elaine Brower is that it is truth and nothing but truth, albeit not the whole truth, for the whole truth is even uglier.
Bravo, Ms. Brower!
Sorry to sound cynical but what kind of parent lets their kid join the military? Ah.. a religious nut. Maybe if you would have kept your son out of the Catholic lunatic asylums he would have turned out ok.
To TheLorax
Elaine is a very good friend of mine and I can assure you that she is a very good mother. She is not a “religious nut” she is a very good person. I am a very good mother too and my son got swept up into the military by a recruiter that lied to him. I know Casey joined for college money and an opportunity to be a Chaplain’s assistant. He ultimately became a humvee mechanic and was promised he would never see combat “even if there was a war.” He died 5 days after he got to Iraq; in combat. He refused to go on the mission that killed him and his Sgt dragged him onto the open truck he rode into battle on and he was killed moments later. Thank God, Casey knew the difference between right and wrong.
The testimony of Winter Soldier makes me so sick. I can almost wrap my mind around combatants meeting on a battle-field and duking it out—but I will never begin to understand or excuse the crimes that our troops have confessed to. Killing innocents—rape—torture—killing dogs—defecating and urinating in starving children’s food—the people who do these things are as much monsters as BushCo.
I, and Elaine do what we do so that other families won’t be abused and torn apart by the US Empire. I will have to live with the fact that Casey died for my ignorance for the rest of my life. I think that’s punishment enough.
I wonder what you do, TheLorax, to try and end this abomination. Elaine spends ever spare minute protesting the war and has been arrested in her Congressperson’s office in Long Island and in DC trying to end this. She is very generous with her resources and has supported me and my organization: Camp Casey Peace Institute. Do you contribute to peace efforts? Have you been arrested for peace? Do you travel to DC to protest? If you have, bless you, if you haven’t, then you shouldn’t be criticizing someone who does.
Cindy
cindy-
I greatly admire you and have followed your story for many years. I deeply regret your loss and your courage is admirable.
Religious people are the cause of the majority of evil in this world. Our freedoms come under attack DAILY from them. They assault abortion rights, gay marriage, and anything they they feel isn’t ‘proper’. Afterword they turn around and behead people, commit pedophilia, and all other manner of criminal activity. They are the greatest threat to our freedom and our way of life. I recognize each and every one of them (especially Catholics) as my enemy. I am an American and I will never stand by and have some religious nutcase try to take away my freedom, or yours.
The terrorists we are fighting, the militants, the Islamists, and the dictators haven’t taken away any of our freedoms. Only bush and the religious right have done so. The war in Iraq pales in comparison to our domestic battle (which we are losing). We are definitely under assault here at home. It’s time to start defending it. So I may sound hard against the religious, but it’s with good reason.
Bravo, Cindy Sheehan too.
Brave deeds are what counts. In my country of origin, the SU, the mirror image of US, majority of honest people did not want to deal with dirty government and thus did not participate in public life at al. As an uninended result, US Government acts uncontrolled and unfettered, as loose canon.
Loose canon the size of the US might wreck spaceship Earth.
re “what kind of parent lets their kid join the military?”
it’s officially an “all-volunteer” military, but almost everybody knows that there’s a poverty draft. for all but a fortunate few kids of high school age, the job options are severely limited. then there’s the issue of credentials: recruiters promise money for college, which will allegedly make the veteran more employable; far too often, however, the promises are broken with no recourse.
bottom line? recruiters will say and do anything to get kids to sign up, and not one to my knowledge has ever been held accountable for reneging on a promise—they’re like politicians in that regard.
the good news is that fewer are taking the bait. the real test will come when cheney’s plan to attack iran requires the reinstatement of the draft.
We knew this is how it was going to be. Now we’re waiting for our nation to face up to it. Reading things like “Members on the panel recounted how, when they were bored, they blew up dogs and other animals to keep themselves entertained.” shows how far gone the situation is, and just makes me realize how in denial war supporters are. Not me, but it’s a small comfort.
I hate the attrocities. Now I can’t stop wondering what we will end up hating the most, what the war did to our people, what the war did to other people, paying for the war, or maybe, I wonder, will it be watchinig soldiers condemned, again, as they were after Vietnam, if that happens. This article makes it clear it could happen. What we all swore wouldn’t happen in this war. But we swore a lot of other things too, like we’d never send our soldiers into a civil war, never put them in a war they couldn’t win…never again. So, I don’t have much hope it won’t happen, because for our soldiers it’s the same defenseless position for them as Vietnam, imo. There was no way to “win”, and when they came home…they were damned by crowds with a brush broad enough to paint everybody baby killers.
It’s selfish of me, to worry about this I guess, but for anyone that ever wore the uniform, it’s impossible not to care. Impossible not to cry. Especially when I watched Winter Soldier.
Cindy,
When you first started to protest in Crawford I saw my first picture of you and was taken aback. The pained and heartbroken look on your face had an uncanny resemblance to a picture of my grandmother (taken in her 40’s). She had lost her son in WW2, my uncle, after whom I am named. She never really recovered from the loss, everyone acknowledged he was her favorite, and she died relatively young from what most agreed was a broken heart.
Like most women (and men) at the time she had to bear her grief with stoic silence, it was seldom talked about, or addressed. There were only the celebrations of having won “The Great War”.
I have much admiration for you and for all that you are doing. You have taken your grief, sorrow, and justified anger and transformed them into a force to be reckoned with.
May your efforts continue to inspire and enlighten. Thank you.
Bring back the draft!
TheLorax March 25th, 2008 11:48 am:
“Maybe if you would have kept your son out of the Catholic lunatic asylums he would have turned out ok.”
Hi Lorax, I too, am not a big supporter of organized religions. I would respectfully submit though, that most people that call themselves Catholics or Muslims are, on the whole, neither more nor less “nuts” than you or I. Perhaps you have had some bad experiences? Myself, I had the luxury of meeting all types of people from all over the world and have found them to more alike one another than different. From my recollection of your posts, you seem like a reasonable person. Are you sure you are not going too far with this one?
Dear TheLorax
Please don’t misunderstand my defense of Elaine (who is not a religious nut) with support of extremist religions and the damage they do to the world…whether they are Christian, Jewish or Islamic. Otherwise good people are exploited to do evil in the name of their gods…doesn’t seem very holy to me.
I am 100% with you on this one.
Rebelnow: I think my heart exploded on April 04 when I found out about Casey’s death. I still don’t understand why I didn’t die from grief then. I have a lot to live for now: My other children and my unborn grandson. I want him to live in a better world than his Uncle Casey died in. I have a purpose to live. I think the shock and sorrow may have ultimately shortened my life—I don’t see how it couldn’t. Your poor Grandma and how often has this story been repeated: Millions upon millions of time. We are a strange species.
Love
Cindy
lorax-just because someone is religious does not mean they are a nut. i do believe you are losing your objectivity when you refer to them as such. yes, religious or shall i say zealous people have committed some of the worst crimes in the name of their beliefs, but you can say that about seculars too (Stalin for example)
Cindy we love you! Cindy Sheehan for Congress!!!!
Military, war, and government propaganda make me sick to my stomach. It all has a horrible stench. As long as we continue to glorify war and it’s “heroes”, we will continue to allow ourselves to be manipulated by propaganda in war after war after unjust violent ungodly war. ENOUGH!
I’m glad these soldiers didn’t candy-coat it and told it like it was. It was hard to take. But we needed to hear it, and they needed to tell it.
There is a group mentality and a group-will when one gets into the military or any group really. One does things they would not normally do if they were alone. Environment is stronger than will power. I believe that’s what happened with these otherwise ‘good’ people who went into the military did these things in Iraq. That’s why when they get home and are alone, they kill themselves. I’m glad these soldiers are using the environment now of each other’s company so they can continue to see clearly and use each other as a support system.
War is hell, even the ‘rightous’ ones. This war, which is based on lies that cover up the greedy and selfish intent, is the ultimate betrayal to what it means to be human.
This is a continuation of policies that oppress and squash human rights, both in Iraq and in this country. We have’t learned from history, in fact we are repeating it’s worst atrocities.
I’m in the teaching field and while I don’t ’support’ any student who wants to join the military, I can’t stop them from joining.
I do engage in conversation (which is a little sensitive in my school since some teacher spouses are in the military). Almost all the students are joining for financial reasons. Most think that Iraq had something to do with September 11th so they feel justified. And off they go.
What will have to fundamentally change is our culture of greed, violence, lies, power, fear, and complacency.
What we will have to replace it with is insisting on human rights for all, compassion, justice, awareness, and understanding. We need to become critical thinkers and not follow ‘leaders’ blindly.
Unfortunately, the mainstream elections choices this year don’t bode well for change. There are a few Mike Gravel, Nader, Green Party. And it is not a protest vote, it is a vote of conscience.
that would be a start…
Probably the lowest form of occupation a human being chooses is to be a soldier. It requires the ultimate abandonment of the very attributes that distinguishes human beings from the other beasts - rational thought and free will. Extreme circumstance may give little other choice if the hoardes are indeed at the gates but, in this country in particular, we have long distanced ourselves from such predicaments (we have to travel to other people’s homes to do our deeds and exploit their circumstances). Of course there are the isolated incidents of mindless terrorism (not so isolated if you happen to be one of the unfortunate victims) but by and large we have been able to live in the “land of milk and honey”, whether we deserved it or not. Why then do we continue to promote war and glorify warriors? Where’s the heroism in wanton acts of violence that we now more than ever do at an impersonal distance - the sniper, the artilleryman, the mortar man, the fighter or gunship pilot - killing and destroying we know not what (but we do comfort ourselves that we were told by someone else - “ordered” by our superiors - that there were enemies there that deserved killing). Our MIC has turned war literally into a “game” of predator and prey with soldiers really nothing more than gangsters, as Smedley Butler suggested in his War is a Racket classic, that act in our names. Elaine’s right on with her observation on what makes our kids capable of doing such terrible things on our behalf - it’s indoctrination. Indoctrination in the schools, K-12, where the kids get a very distorted, biased, and downright wrong understanding of history, politics, and, gulp, patriotism. Indoctrination in church, any church or religion, where we’re taught, maliciously or not, that “beliefs” are allowed to trump facts, reasoning, and common sense. Unfortunately, and with greatest respects towards Elaine as a mom, she can not separate her son from what he has become and indeed what apparently he still professes to claim membership in, a Marine. If he’s a Marine, he’s a killer and from his apparent attitude an unreformed one. I understand how difficult it may be to realize that she’s probably raised a mean person, a bully, maybe even a killer - the once perfect baby child has turned himself into a monster of sorts. As parents we are always asking ourselves if we did enough or did the right thing by our kids, but at the end of the day, you can only take responsibility for giving your children the best opportunity (tools and choices)to make the most of themselves and make the right decisions for themselves. You can’t live their lives for them - kids at some point grow into adults and have to be accountable for their own decisions. However, part of creating the “opportunity” for our kids is teaching them to think critically and that there are consequences for their decisions/actions. Which takes me to her son. I don’t know him, of course, but in another senses I do know him because we are surrounded by people like him - it’s the culture we live in. So he loves the Marines but hates the govt. Bull! He’s just denying who and what he has become - it has always been his choice so he shhould grow up and stop blaming something or someone else. Quit compartmentalizing. You’d have to have been a mushroom not to have known after occupying Iraq for over 5 years now, that being a soldier in today’s armed forces has just about zero to do with defending our country from any terrorist or punishing someone for WTC. Please, just take some personal responsibility for once in your life, like those vets participating in Winter Soldier. I’ve agonized over the same situation myself about my own kids. I’ve decided that I will do everything in my power to prevent my son or daughter from volunteering to serve in the military today - there’s just too much shame and too much risk that the bright, intelligent, balanced, cheerful kid that goes into the military will come out at the end as damaged goods - jaded, fearful, overwhelmed with guilt and otherwise a diminished and often defeated human being that I probaly wouldn’t be able to recognize, much like it seems that Elaine is unable to with her own “lost” son.
jlocke said “I would respectfully submit though, that most people that call themselves Catholics or Muslims are, on the whole, neither more nor less “nuts” than you or I. Perhaps you have had some bad experiences? Myself, I had the luxury of meeting all types of people from all over the world and have found them to more alike one another than different. From my recollection of your posts, you seem like a reasonable person. Are you sure you are not going too far with this one?”
It is like walking through a minefield. On one hand I abhor the religious for trying to attack my freedom. On the other hand I would defend to the death their right to worship as they please. It’s a Catch-22. Basically as long as they worship without trying to change other people or assault freedoms, I’m cool with them. My problem is that I have never met any religious person that left well enough alone. For them, everyone else is wrong and they are right. They go on this crusade to try to change the world to their own point of view. I consider this an attack. I’ve been insulted, threatened, ridiculed, and called names by people from all different sects of religion. Each of them produces some book that’s going to tell me what’s right and wrong. Suprisingly, the least instrusive of all seems to be Mormons but that’s just from my own observation.
My own belief is a mixture of several different religions which concerns me sometimes because it’s borderline hypocrisy to my battle. It’s also difficult because my point of view is not shared and no institution exists supporting my beliefs.
These are difficult times. Fingers are being pointed everywhere at everyone. Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, bush, Bin Laden, racists, terrorists, etc. it just goes on and on. What I did about 2 years ago is wiped the slate clean and focused on my freedom and the Constitution. I then asked “Who is REALLY attacking me?” The first attack came from the Catholics with their anti-abortion rhetoric. The next was the Baptists with their anti-gay amendment proposal. There was all manner of assault from the bush adminstration and the Republicans. After that the battle lines became very clear. Understand that I am against no one as long as they respect the Constitution and the freedom of American citizens. All that I am and stand for is in the Constitution.
To answer your question, Yes. I sometimes do feel that I’m going to far. I feel like quitting and giving up. I sometimes wish I could.
How many mothers control what adult children do????
Copy out the testimony of the Winter Soldiers…put it under the windshields of cars with “SUPPORT OUR TROOPS”…
Tell as many people as you can about the testimony. Send it to your Senators and congressmen. Get the word out.
Broken record, here.
Stop paying for killing that you don’t support. They can’t wage it if they don’t have your money. You want a revolution? Step away from the fear that the government has instilled in you if you refuse to pay taxes that they use for purposes you don’t agree with.
Not one more cent for weapons.
Dear Elaine Brower:
Thank You for this excellent piece of journalism.
I was born on the day of the No-Gun Ri slaughter, not very long after the US incinerated hundreds of thousands of Japanese civilians at Nagasaki and Hiroshima, not very long after US air power incinerated hundreds of thousands of Japanese civilians in Tokyo and other cities with fire-bombings, not too long after US and British air forces incinerated and intentionally killed hundreds of thousands of civilians in Europe under the banner of “total warfare.”
This is the birth history of all us “boomers.”
I too was raised Catholic and fell away in my teens, basically because I had to go to CCD and was cut from a Little Legaue team because I missed too many practices.
The falling away was one of the best things that I ever did, and I am a proud recovering Catholic who will never again let that particular insanity grab hold of me as it did in my youth.
During CCD, one of the issues that we were indocrinated with was the strange notion of “original sin.” That is, every human being is somehow born unclean and only through baptism, jesus, blah, blah, blah can you be liberated from sin.
Then I find out the whole thing was turned on its head. People are born into the world in whatever state they enter it, and if you are a citizen of the US, you become part of the largest unoriginal sin ever:
We are the most consciously murderous nation in the history of humanity, and we proudly celebrate our collective murderousness and culture of death like no other before us. Many predecessors tried to be what we have become, but because we have the wealth and technology, we actually successfully achieved it.
We have been perfecting our murder machine since the first days of genocide against the origianl Americans and our founding as a white supremacist nation based on the instutions and economics of human slavery.
I struggled with all this pretty hard during the era of the US wars in Southeast Asia that you so ably describe in quick summary above. I “won” a high draft number in the first year of the draft lottery, so I could duck it. Which I did for awhile, even as I actively participated in street demonstrations against that particular insanity, ate some teargas, etc.
I spent a good deal of time engaging friends and acquaintances who returned from combat, many telling stories like you heard in the Winter Soldier hearings and from your son.
I got to know former Rand Corp interegators, Special Forces soldiers, combat grunts, male and female nurses and those who served “in the rear.” Their stories were consistent with what you tell above.
I wrestled with my own guilt over not going. Because that is what people from my background do. One large reason I didn’t go is because the vets I talked with, those who were still coherent, made me see that stupid romantic gesture as exactly what it was: false and foolish. I actually listened to them.
Eventually I sent my draft card back and got lost hitch-hiking, waiting for somebody or another to come pick me up, whether a ride or the FBI. I’m still waiting.
I’ve killed the time in-between by working as an activist with community groups and labor organizations and have struggled to be a somewhat sane father for a wonderful, often-troubled daughter.
The thing that strikes me most about your wonderful story, is the sameness of the subject matter. Name any period in US history and there is a “war” or occupation that is nothing more than mass murder by another name.
And in every instance, we seem to have this senseless debate over whether the “work” that those we have annointed to actually carry out the killings is good, useful or at least worthwhile.
What makes this piece so brilliant is that you trudge through this “debate” (as you must because it is the only thing that most US citizens can/will actually consider — other than maybe the financial cost of all of this) and you transcend it to come to a lucid conclusion:
“The further leap these veterans — and many others within the anti-war movement– must now make is to recognize that the occupations themselves, taken as whole, are hardly isolated incidents; they, too, represent the rule and not the exception of the U.S. military.”
I would humbly substitute the word “nation” for “military” as your last word.
Thank You
Dear Resistor…
Amen. I don’t pay a penny to the federal government in taxes.
I have a controversial question. I hope this will spark a needed debate here in our country:
Has the anti-war/peace movement gone too far in “supporting the troops?” Have we allowed the right-wingers to control the language on this?
How can we expect our young people to resist going to war to be pawns of the evil empire if they know we unconditionally “support” them even if they commit horrific human rights’ violations?
We don’t have to spit on them, or call them “baby killers” (which is mostly urban legend, anyway). but how can we use our own moral centers to repudiate what they do, while still working to bring them home and making sure that they get the proper treatment to re-integrate them into a society which generally frowns on killing puppies, babies, and torture?
It is also time to fundamentally question war as a foreign policy tool and just flat out recognize that war is an “atrocity producing situation” and even people whom most would consider “normal” under normal situations will commit atrocities in atrocity producing situations as Sociologist Robert J. Lifton states.
It doesn’t matter how well we raise our children—if the military gets a hold of them with their demented claws, it will turn them into something we don’t recognize.
Love
Cindy
“The Marines are taught that. They shoot and don’t even ask questions. Their motto is “Kill ‘em all and let God sort them out!”
Sound like tersts to me.
TheLorax,
While Bush was convincing the majority of Americans to support war on Iraq in 2002, 1.5 million people in Rome, which for all practical purposes is the center of Catholicism, decided to march against the war. With all due respect TheLorax, you sound like a Nativist in the 1800s. From what I’ve seen, Catholics don’t support the war in Iraq more than any other group. Where are you getting your information from? An archbishop just got kidnapped and murdered there, and Iraqi churches are being blown up, so there’s little reason for this war to be especially popular among Catholics. There are also plenty of Catholics who support the right to an abortion. It seems like you’re generalizing a bit too much.
Elaine, you have written a masterful, honest piece that is worthy of being called ‘objective’, no matter what you claim. Your journalism talent is woven throughout this article, and I thank you for your insights.
Unfortunately, America is the ‘monster in the closet’ for many other countries. Although its’ citizens are, by and large, caring individuals, its’ policies do not reflect this.
TheLorax, I largely sympathize with your sentiments regarding religion. As an agnostic, I’ve found myself to be in the minority here in West-by-God Virginia. Fortunately, even my Christian friends don’t try to convert me, although I’m pretty sure many of them pray for my salvation.
One co-worker asked me, in all sincerity and as a person truly innocent of having been exposed to perhaps any other agnostic or atheist, why I don’t believe. I tried to explain, but there was no comprehension. She finally, very kindly, said that some day I might come to believe. It never occurred to her that this might be as offensive to me as my saying that some day she might come to her senses.
The point of this is that most religious people aren’t nutjobs. They simply have been raised with the notion of a heavenly father and the other trappings of Christianity (or other faith) ingrained. It never occurs to them that any of it might be “a bit” irrational.
It is true that religion, if not the direct cause of violence and militarism, certainly has not been a deterent. Of course, the Bible is filled with god’s directives to slaughter whole cities and stone those who deviate from the norm. The US is carrying on an ancient tradition when it engages in wholesale destruction.
I recently received this definition of Christianity:
“Christianity: The belief that a cosmic Jewish Zombie who was his own father can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree-”
Kind of puts it in perspective and makes it sound very similar to any other primitive mytholody, doesn’t it.
My heartfelt condolences go out to Elaine Bower and all the other families who have been victimized by this insane invasion and occupation. I marched against the war in DC, in WV and in Ohio, wrote letters to my newspaper and congression representatives, and spoke out to anyone who would listen. (I don’t agree with all of Byrd’s politics, but I was proud of his opposition to this fiasco in Iraq.)
This article was hard to read, but adds fuel to the valid arguments I often have with my acquaintances who still support the troops and those who sent them.
Cindy,
Loved your idea to run against Pelosi. You should do it. I think you would win, or other candidate of similar mind.
The failure to impeach Bush and Cheney is going to go down as a profound disgrace and abrogation of responsibility.
Keep going, girl. You inspire me.
I was brought up Catholic and I credit it with making me brainwashed into being totally anti-war. I also was brainwashed by the Christian doctrine into seeing the lives as the Iraqi’s as valuable as an American’s. Maybe that was just my experience. Maybe I would have been a peacenik no matter what religion I was born into and maybe some of these violent sadistic freaks would be the same regardless of their religion.
I was brought down Catholic and I’ve spent most of my adult life trying to recover.
I read through all the comments submitted, and want to thank all of you for your support and for taking the time to read my analysis.
First of all I will address being “Catholic.” I come from a first generation Italian immigrant family and the most important thing to them, besides eating and family, was church and receiving the sacraments. I fell away from the religion, but when I had my children, I guess I thought better to make them aware and then allow them to make an informed decision about religions. But I can tell you that had nothing to do with my son joining the marines. It was like he was born into it. He was a baby grabbing little green men in the grocery store while sitting in the cart. I couldn’t stop him, I begged, pleaded, offered him free college and a car when he told me he wanted to enter the delayed entry program. I spent his entire 17 years talking him out of the military! I even went to counselling to figure out why he was so hell bent on joining.
I guess I figured it out now that our culture is based on violence and we make heroes out of them, and he wanted to be a hero. I certainly didn’t make him into a hero, I can tell you that much. And my daughter has been arrested alongside me protesting the war, school tuition hikes, and police brutality.
My son and I respect each other and he, as a matter of fact, appreciates more than my daughter, that I protest against this war. He doesn’t have the courage to resist, I know that now. I am hoping that by my example and IVAW (which he did join last year but is not vocal), he will resolve the conflict within him. When he first returned from combat, pain was written all over him, it took 6 months now to calm him down again, and he’s coming around. We have been very fortunate, he goes to school, works full time and does not suffer from anything, but he is battle-hardened.
Finally, coming to the realization I did when I wrote this article, was very difficult for me, and still is. Sometimes I just want to stick my head back in the sand and forget about everything. I can, my son is home, I have a great job, house, all the comforts, and can easily slip into complacency as the rest of this Country has. So the fact that I can’t makes me very angry, and I will resist what is happening in this Country every way I can.
That’s why I scratch my head about him and his behavior.
Oopps, that last sentence was misplaced in my typing. Also, I want to give credit to Malcolm Shore who collaborated with me on this article.
I am running against Nancy Pelosi!
www.cindyforcongress.org
Love
Cindy
There is an informative book about the decision to use the bomb against the Japanese written by Gar Alparovitz.
He makes the well supported argument that the bomb was dropped on the “yellow bastards” really just to threaten Joseph Stalin, to, among other things, keep him in place in eastern Europe. The argument asserts that the people incinerated were just pawns in a game that did not really have anything to do with Japan. It was the first volley of the Cold War that wasn’t so cold after all if you add up the millions killed over the years in the U.S. Global War on Socialism.
Intercepts of communication between the Soviet embassy in Moscow and Tokyo even before the battle of Okinawa, indicated that the Japanese understood that they were defeated and wanted to sue for peace with only the caveat that the Emperor, who was also a religious figure like the Dali Lama to the Japanese, would be treated with respect.
But Truman and Byrnes had a devilish obsession with the new superbomb, and they believed that the entire world would cower under its might and that they would rule the world, but only if they could demonstrate its power by evaporating a couple of cities. So not only was the claim that the bomb saved American lives a complete lie, it actually cost the lives of any American wounded or killed after about April of 1945 because Truman prolonged the war so they could demonstrate the power of their new weapon.
These facts have come to light with the release of various diaries of the participants many years after their deaths, and Alparovitz does an excellent job of footnoting his assertions and backing them up.
I should mention that I am on the nonprofit board that runs the bookstore at the Manzanar National Historic Site, where the Japanese were interned during WW II not far from where I live, and I reviewed that book for our store where we now offer it for sale.
9/11 Truth is the key to restoring sanity to the system.
Until we acknowledge that war is senseless, stupid, pointless aggression, we will not change. Until we begin to deal with nations in other ways, we won’t change. Until we begin to see murder as murder that deserves no glorification, we will not change. As a psychologist I think that healing begins when we do accept the complete and total pointlessness of war. We enter into a dark moment when we truly begin to change.
I have a 5 year old son. Please do not bring back the draft. I don’t want him to have to undergo the brainwashing that goes on. I choose to learn from those that have gone before me. I am trying to raise him to be part of the solution. Dont let a draft undo all our best efforts. Before we offer up more of our young and vulnerable - as well as some of the brightest - the ones that want to go to college.. Let’s face up to our national complicity. I never wanted any of this and yet I am a part of it. We must face up and be the grown ups that our kids need.
Lorax,
I’m with you completely. The Christian Taliban is largely responsible for the Bush Administration. I don’t blame any segment of our population entirely for this atrocity, but I ask people who still vote Republican how they rationalize their choice, and I keep hearing the same motivation; that is they sincerely believe that abortion, gay marriage, and illegal immigrants are lethal to a moral society. In addition, they sympathize a great deal with creationists. It truly sickens me to hear the hypocrisy of the excuses they have made for their twisted political ideology. It stems from a great deal of fear and a grim outlook for the future.
Cindy,
I have a great deal of respect for you. I started blogging here because you announced your goodbye to activism some time ago and I was discouraged and needed to thank you personally for all you had done. I am heartened that you’re taking the fight to a new level and I support you 100%. I never pitied you. I believe in the great person you have become, not in the person you lost. I, like the Lorax, have little sympathy for the soldiers who join willingly to fight on behalf of Bushco and his religious crusaders. I have a great deal of sympathy for the innocent people who have died at their hands. I hope you win your election bid.
Ruthie
The late Edward Teller’s greatest regret, according to his Memoirs, is that he didn’t take Leo Szilard’s advice and oppose J. Robert Oppenheimer’s wish to use the new atom bomb. Szilard, who ghost-wrote the letter from Einstein to Roosevelt that originally led to the Los Alamos Project, advocated exploding a bomb so high over Tokyo Harbor that it wouldn’t hurt anybody. How the viewpoints of the inventor-physicists at Los Alamos intersected with that of politicians is the stuff of history; but, it would appear that many different people influenced Truman’s bad decision.
heavyrunner:
Thanks for the Alparovitz citiation. Actually, some US POWs on the outskirts of Hiroshima or Nagasaki (I forget which) died in the inferno. Many others died in the firebombings of the Japanese cities.
Kurt Vonnegut has described how the mad US/UK firebombers in Europe merciliessly slaughtered their own POWs there as well.
Once the beast is out of the bag, it doesn’t really differentiate all that much between the “other” and its own. Some kind of justice in that I guess, but it gives no joy.
All who have died . . . the over 4000 in our military; the countless number who have returned home maimed for life and/or who committed suicide; those in the military of other countries; and the over one-million Iraqi citizens - mostly innocents, would all still be alive but for the illegal war started by Bush-Cheney . . . fabricated on LIES, LIES, LIES.
Every person who visits Common Dreams should drawn-up and send a generic letter to every Congressional rep demanding they impeach those who have committed crimes against the United States, it’s citizens, and humanity in general. And Congress must hold them accountable for those crimes in a court of law.
This time around, Congress cannot shirk off its responsibility to uphold the US Constitution, however tragic it is for those found guilty.
The mighty duo has successfully destroyed a country, the lives of over a million persons, plus those left behind; plus the trillions stolen from tax-payers to fund their crimes.
Write and phone congressional reps every day . . . listen to AIR AMERICA, FREE SPEECH TV, and Democracy NOW . . . for starters.
There is no future for America is the rot isn’t removed . . .
a thought about the references to ”religion” in the above articles
i read once somewhere the following which i agree with wholeheartedly..
” without religion, good people will do good things , bad people will do bad things..
but for a good person to do bad things , that takes a religion”..
I paraphrase as my memory is fallible
War is just about an equal opportunity infection with little regard to religion, creed, color or class. The Catholic church has tolerated homosexual pedophilia by their priests and even aided and abetted the crimes by moving priests. On war their record is mixed. Richard Nixon was raised a Quaker and had no problem escalating an immoral war. THE EXAMPLES are endless, every group and form of government has been pro-war as long as they think they can win or gain some advantage.
As far as I can see, there is original sin in every person. I challenge anyone to proudly claim that each of their actions are above reproach. The healthy ones feel guilty at a lower level of evil act. Sick bastards like Bu$h the inferior and Shotgun Dick do not regret their evil even when it is pointed out to them. I don’t think the prophet Nathan could make them feel their guilt. (Nathan accused David of murder and adultery in the Bathsheba incident)
Cindy Sheehan, I wish you were running in my district. I and everyone I know would vote for you. Pelosi and all these Congresspeople need a reality check. Thanks to you and also to Elaine Brower.
Btw, the saddest moment of the vigil we went to on the 5th anniversary of shock and awful, was when a mother announced that her son had just signed up with the Army. He didnt want to waste her money on college when he didnt know what to major in and he wanted to see the world. Her grief was palpable. As though a grim reaper had already taken her son. He had signed on the line and there is no taking it back. She said the community college campus, the one in the urban center, was packed with recruiters. Every day spouting their lies to our vulnerable youth. Shame on sending our “lambs to the slaughter” so they can become (men). Adults need to stop sending our youth into war. War should be illegal on this Planet. Peace.
For all who want the general public to read about the atrocities to civilians in Iraq I urge all to tell people about the book by Dahr Jamail, an UNembedded reporter, (meaning he’s not controlled by the media or by the government) and the book is titled “Beyond the Green Zone”. Much of what is talked about here from the Winter Soldiers is described in his book, and the more average people who know about these atrocities the better! Jamail tells it all - all US citizens should read it. I’ve not seen it in bookstores - I ordered my book from Amazon - (not that I’m advertising for Amazon). Look for it, for you’ll have all the gut reactions mentioned above!
To BarksNotBites :
“Please do not bring back the draft. I don’t want him to have to undergo the brainwashing.”
Did the current “draft” brainwash Elaine Brower’s son ? I can’t believe your muddled-headed reasoning . The reason there is no current draft in place is because selective-service reinstatement would be the quickest way to end the occupation .
Holy smokes lady, with reasoning like that I pity your 5 yr.-old son . I hope his father has more brains than you .
Tell you what , tell all your neighbours’sons that if they want to go to sign up beacuse they are hungry or make money for college that you will let them live at your house and you’ll pay their college expenses so they won’t be “brainwashed” and sign up.
Better yet tell your son that if the draft comes back you will support his decision to either claim CO status or if that fails his decision to desert.
I would have no problem telling my son which it sounds like Elaine Brower neglected to do with her son and that is to eplain very clearly , ” If you enlist to kill , you deserve to be killed “.
Tell your 5yr.old son that .
Mr. White, There is no place to run and hide. Ask any polar bear. I am the kind of person who would take in the whole world if I could; shelter and feed them til they get themselves figured out. “Brainwashing” goes on everyday. I believe the “kill, kill” rhetoric gets stepped up a notch once enlisted or drafted, whichever. Adults need to stop sending our youth to kill. Would the draft reinstatement really stop the war machine?? No. The elites and those with connections will get non dangerous posts and the poor will do the hardest job. Leave my son out of your war and anger. Thanks.
bottle said:
“The late Edward Teller’s greatest regret, according to his Memoirs, is that he didn’t take Leo Szilard’s advice and oppose J. Robert Oppenheimer’s wish to use the new atom bomb.”
Its news to me that Edward Teller, father of the H-Bomb, had a change of heart later in life. He spent lots of time in the industry pushing nuclear power plants, occasionally uncontrolled A bombs that continually contaminate the environment much more than dedicated A bombs do.
Well written and well said.
I am the mother of an Army Capt….three tours in the Middle East, they want her for another one. She went first as an Apache pilot, now as a KingAire pilot.
I am a member of Military Families Speak out and support ceasing this war and bringing our troops home.
I picked this information, below, and suggest that all Americans consider taking to the streets and striking the same day….that means consumers need to strike as well…for this one day.
Peace to all.
________________________________
MAYDAY! US Longshoremen ‘Shut Her Down’ WW Strike Call, May 1, 2008 -
“No Work, No Peace Holiday”
ILWU calls for worldwide ‘No Peace, No Work Holiday’ to oppose US wars in
Iraq, Afghanistan
5 March 2008
(Are The People finally starting to realize their last remaining right -
the right to strike? May 1, May Day
W.Coast dockers to stop work May Day to oppose Iraq war
At the International Longshore & Warehouse Union’s annual Pacific Coast
Longshore Caucus, an overwhelming majority of delegates voted to stop
work during the day shift on Thursday, May 1, 2008 at every West Coast
port, to express their opposition to the war in Iraq.
Delegates called on unions to mobilize for a “No work, no peace holiday”
on May Day “to demand an immediate end to the war and occupation in Iraq
and Afghanistan and the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the Middle East.”
The union issued “an urgent appeal for unity of action to the AFL-CIO and
the Change to Win Coalition…to bring an end to this bloody war once and
for all.”
The Longshore Caucus, or convention, was meeting in San Francisco Jan. 28
to Feb. 8, to prepare for bargaining a new contract for ILWU members in
ports up and down the West Coast. The current contract expires on July 1,
2008.
Letter Carriers local plans May Day action in solidarity with the ILWU
The ILWU also urged other unions to participate in similar events on May
1 to bring the Iraq war to an end and bring the troops home safely. In
response, the 2,700-member Letter Carriers Union in San Francisco voted
to observe 2 minutes of silence in all carrier stations at 8:15 a.m. on
May 1st — in honor of International Workers’ Day, and in solidarity with
the ILWU stop-work action, ”to express our opposition to the war in Iraq.
”
The following resolution was adopted by the ILWU at its Pacific Coast
Longshore Caucus:
ILWU resolution: For Workers’ Action to Stop the War
WHEREAS: On May 1, 2003, at the ILWU Convention in San Francisco
resolutions were passed calling for an end to the war and occupation in
Iraq; and
WHEREAS: ILWU took the lead among labor unions in opposing this bloody
war and occupation for imperial domination; and
WHEREAS: Many unions and the overwhelming majority of the American people
now oppose this bipartisan and unjustifiable war in Iraq and Afghanistan
but the two major political parties, Democrats and Republicans continue
to fund the war; and
WHEREAS: Millions worldwide have marched and demonstrated against the
wars in Iraq and Afghanistan but have been unable to stop the wars; and
WHEREAS: ILWU’s historic dock actions, 1) like the refusal of Local 10
longshoremen to load bombs for the military dictatorship in Chile in 1978
and military cargo to the Salvadoran military dictatorship in 1981; and
2) the honoring of the Teachers Union antiwar picket May 19, 2007 against
SSA in the port of Oakland — stand as a limited but shining example of
how to oppose these wars; and
WHEREAS: The spread of war in the Middle East is threatened with U.S. air
strikes in Iran or possible military intervention in Syria or the
destabilized Pakistan; therefore be it
RESOLVED: That it is time to take labor’s protest to a more powerful
level of struggle by calling on unions and working people in the U.S. and
internationally to mobilize for a “No Peace, No Work Holiday” May 1, 2008
for 8 hours to demand an immediate end to the war and occupation in Iraq
and Afghanistan and the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the Middle East;
and further be it
RESOLVED: That a clarion call from the ILWU be sent with an urgent appeal
for unity of action to the AFL-CIO, the Change to Win Coalition and all
of the international labor organizations to which we are affiliated to
bring an end to this bloody war once and for all. — Adopted by the ILWU
Longshore Caucus, meeting in San Francisco, California, February 8, 2008
San Francisco Letter Carriers on May Day and the War
RESOLVED: That Branch 214 of the National Association of Letter Carriers,
representing 2,700 letter carriers in the San Francisco Bay Area, request
that carriers in all carrier stations observe 2 minutes of silence at
8:15 AM on May Day — May 1st, 2008 — in honor of International Workers
Day and in solidarity with the ILWU longshore workers’ action in stopping
work in all West Coast ports for 8 hours on May Day, to express our
opposition to the war in Iraq.
— Adopted by NALC Branch 214, meeting in San Francisco March 5, 2008, by
unanimous vote.
—————
“ILWU to Shut Down West Coast Ports May 1 (2008) Demanding End to War in
Iraq, Afghanistan”
In a major step for the U.S. labor movement, the International Longshore
and Warehouse Union (ILWU) has announced that it will shut down West
Coast ports on May 1, to demand an immediate end to the war and
occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan and the withdrawal of U.S. troops from
the Middle East. This is the first time in decades that an American union
has decided to undertake industrial action against a U.S. war. The action
announced by the powerful West Coast dock workers union, to stop work to
stop the war, should be taken up by unions and labor organizations
throughout the United States and internationally. And the purpose of such
actions should be not to beg the bourgeois politicians whose hands are
covered with blood, having voted for every war budget for six and a half
years, but a show of strength of the working people who make this country
run, and who can shut it down!
http://neworleans.indymedia.org/news/2008/03/12213.php
I think that Elaine’s son’s comment that he “loves the Marines, but hates the government” is a cop-out, a rationalization for being willing to participate in one of the great atrocities of our time. You are either with them or against them. I feel for Elaine - the pain must be enormous and she must wonder where she “went wrong.”
arpedkedarki
You are off base. One can love their country…and not agree with policies. As David Ware, CNN journalist put it…the soldier is fighting for a policy…he is fighting to get the guy next to him home safely…and to get home safely. When on the lines of combat, policy doesn’t enter into it…it is your buddy next to you…the world condenses into survival…
Elaine did nothing wrong with her son…it was the government that went wrong.
I hope there is someone to watch my daughter’s back when she is there…though she flies non-combat missions…still….I hope someone is watching her back…and she watching theirs.
When Elaine’s son said he loved the Marines…it was the individuals…the mission they are supposed to accomplish…not the one they have been assigned to in an illegal war.
You lack understanding of human nature and survival.
Thank you for your inspiration and hard work Ellen and Cindy.
I just wanted to add to the post below:
Oldsalt3 March 25th, 2008 8:14 pm
For all who want the general public to read about the atrocities to civilians in Iraq I urge all to tell people about the book by Dahr Jamail, an UNembedded reporter, (meaning he’s not controlled by the media or by the government) and the book is titled “Beyond the Green Zone”.
You can see Dahr speak about his experiences at booktv.org. Just type in the book title. A very well spent hour.
Cindysheehan….
Supporting the troops is somehow being alligned with supporting policy…the Repubs call you un-patriotic if you don’t support policy, like somehow you don’t care about the troops….they are totally wrong.
The war is an illegal one and the troops shouldn’t be there.
It is as I told someone….if the government passes a law that you drive 80 through a school zone and run over children, but that is the law….you are supposed to follow the law….or be penalized…we drivers don’t pass the law…but are supposed to follow the law. So….the law is totally wrong, but we have to follow it, nonetheless if we drive.
The fact is, if people don’t inlist in the military…a draft will be instituted and people forced to go in…or worse yet….more Blackwater’s will be hired to replace the military.
It is a damned if you, damned if you don’t situation.
One of my biggest concerns is depleted uranium and the ways in which a person is designated a casualty of war….many more have died there than has been reported because of the way a person must die there to be a casualty. And the idea of colateral damage is ridiculous…colateral damage = dead civilians…why don’t they call it what it is.
I saw a report on depleted uranium recently in a Canadian newpaper>>>
U.S. investigative researchers have discovered an official U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs official, but not well publicized count, of 73,846 U.S. soldiers who have perished as an apparent result of Depleted Uranium based bio-chemical warfare exposure. This exceeds an estimate of 58,000 U.S. soldiers who had been killed in relation to the Vietnam War.
Well over 200,000 American soldiers could be killed by 2010, as a result of the after effects of exposure to U.S. dirty bombs.
Over One million U.S. soldiers have apparently been disabled from Depleted Uranium based biochemical exposure. Over one million Iraqis have also been documented to have been killed.
This is what the U.S. ruling elite including U.S. President George W. Bush and U.S. Republican Presidential candidate John McCain calls a “success”. How many sons and daughters of the American ruling class have been sent in harms way of the apparent biological warfare that is being perpetrated in Iraq? Not to many, huh? The Iraq War is a class-and-racial-inspired war that is being masqueraded into being about fighting “extremists” and “terrorists”. The Iraq War is an extension of brutality by the prevailing elites…”
Ditto to the remark:
Cindy Sheehan, I wish you were running in my district. I and everyone I know would vote for you. Pelosi and all these Congresspeople need a reality check. Thanks to you and also to Elaine Brower
I have to make a comment on the correlation between the war and religion…
There are nuts and pychopaths out there…religion or not…we just happen to have psychopathic politicians using a few of the psychopathic religious right leaders to their advantage.
Mat 7:15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.
2 Pet 2:1 But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them–bringing swift destruction on themselves.
Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute.
In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.
Mark 13:22 For false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall show signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect.
Just because one claims to be a part of religion, does not mean that he is…actions speak louder than words.
On the day that martial law is declared in the US following the next false flag event, how many Winter Soldiers and their still fighting buddies can one expect to stand up for what is right against BushCo and their fellow travelers in and out of uniform?
To fight a war to do anything more than to defend oneself is too often a war based on the lies and personal goals of politicians… take “Saddam’s WMD’s” and “The Gulf of Tonkin Incident” for two excellent examples.
A man who is said to be our greatest general ever, once said:
“After my experience, I have come to hate war. War settles nothing.”
Later he said:
“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.
This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.
This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.” - Dwight David Eisenhower, 1953
Strangely enough, in his final major speech to the nation in 1961 he clearly warned us against Bush and his cronies:
“In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military/industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.” Dwight David Eisenhower, 1961
blucheek…
I feel there will be many, but it will be dangerous time.
People are right now being hired to spy on their neighbors…the FBI enlisted some 30,000, if I am not mistaken…to do just this. Some of the religious right is encouraging people to turn other people in even now…and there is no martial law at this time, that is on the surface, anyway.
It will have to be an underground movement…a very secure one. There are 600 detention centers for people who dare to go against the grain.
Martial law, gun control, security cameras, national ID cards, retinal scans….it will have to be a very organized movement…but there are always those movements.
I agree, there will be a false flag…martial law…and the cessation of elections.
My father was a Winter Soldier of sorts. As a WWII veteran, he would tell me at least once a week that he would cut off both my arms if I ever volunteered or was conscripted to join the military. The worst beating I ever received from him was at age 12, after he caught me collecting spent shells at a rifle range.
Today, I am grateful for the lesson.
My family has been military since pre-Civil War….serving in every war. We had 7 family members in the military during Vietnam….at one time, my husband, uncle, 2 second cousins, brother, and 2 brother-in-laws…all during the Vietnam conflict(another stupid war…with a draft, though no one in my family was drafted, they joined first so as NOT to be drafted and be stuck infantry, but there were 5 pilots out of the 7 that served). My father was Army during Korea. My Grandfater and great-uncle both served in the Pacific…the great uncle being lost at sea after a ship was sunk, and so on and on) My oldest and youngest daughter did or are serving. I have an 18 year old son now…and I am discouraging him from the military with everything in me.
I pray there is no draft.
I admire those in the military who serve with dignity and integrity. I pray for those who struggle within the system of the military. I curse the leaders of this senseless war for killing our young men and all the innocents in a country far from our shores that did nothing to provoke us into invasion and occupation.
Unchained…
You’ve just about summed it up. I would add the Katrina experience as a full dress rehearsal for what the major cities can expect.
It’s time to “follow the gourd” and keep right on going.
I agree, blucheek, Katrina is a prime example. Did you realize that Blackwater showed up there more quickly than the National Guard…and even challenged some of the Guard?
As I said, it is a dangerous time for this country. People better wake up quickly and start getting educated and aware of what is going on…and stop listening to Fox News!
Our government tried to arrest Greg Pallast, the journalist, when he was interviewing and filming some footage at one of the Katrina trailer parks where survivors were housed….officials showed up and told him he had to leave, that it was a “Top Secret” area!!!! Ahem…a trailer park….with civilians….was top secret.
BTW, Greg Pallast wrote “Armed Madhouse”…a great book on the corruption and the Iraq war. Great paper trail. He was the one the justice dept(?) accidentally sent some of the “lost” emails to…like, 500 of them.
As I see it, BushCo has an agenda that’s rarely mentioned, even in these circles.
The reasoning might go like this:
“There are 6+ billion people on a planet that can only carry abt. 1 billion. Five out of every six have got to go, now.
If you can’t untie the knot, do as Alexander the Great did: cut it.”
That’s not to say that the ‘Leader’ ever read about Alexander, but his puppeteers might have.
The next big conflict, past the oil conflict…will be for water. I just read where Canada wants to turn the tap off to the U.S. They send 60% of their water to the U.S.
Check this out:
Herr Bush’s Paraguayan Liquid Gold
http://www.wakeupfromyourslumber.com/node/6179
Bush is trying to lock up the water profits, too.
Unchained…
I’ve come across a blog concerning a movie I’d like to watch soon. There is an excellent trailer and an extensive blog posted by one of the producers.
It’s a big subject and there’s a lot of reading. Very thoughtful comments follow.
Maybe you’re interested?
This is just one of the blog threads. Navigate to the others and the home page for the trailer.
http://www.whatawaytogomovie.com/2007/11/13/build-an-ark-build-it-now/
Yes, some have to go….hence the dirty bomb and collateral damage….genocide being allowed….
They don’t mind wiping out our own citizens with depleted uranium….
These weapons have released deadly, carcinogenic and mutagenic, radioactive particles in such abundance that there is no corner of the globe they cannot penetrate -
More than 1,820 tons (3-million, 640 thousand pounds) of radioactive nuclear waste uranium were exploded into Iraq alone in the form of armour piercing rounds and bunker busters, representing the worlds worst man made ecological disaster ever. 64 kg of uranium were used in the Hiroshima bomb. The very broad human and ecological disaster of the Iraq War has been drowned out by America’s sound-bite driven media organizations, that are owned by the same fascist clique which presides over the Iraq War.
“The nuclear waste the U.S. has exploded into the Middle East will continue killing for billions of years and could wipe out a third of life on earth.
Winds can and will blow the uranium dust from the U.S. weapons around the world. Gulf War Veterans and civilians who have ingested the uranium will continue to die off from uranium poisoning over a number of decades.”
“So far, more than one million people have been slaughtered and four million are homeless as a consequence of the U.S.’s illegal invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan. Birth defects are up 600% in Iraq – the same will apply to U.S. Veterans children.”
I will check out the site/blog
Thank you
Unchained…
So far, Canada isn’t sending a whole lot of water South. However Canada is obliged to send 63% of its oil and 70% of its natural gas production to the US. That is a fixed ratio imposed by NAFTA.
Like an obedient dog, Canada has consistently voted with the US as the only opposition to making water a human right under the UN charter. If water were made a human right, it would become more difficult to corporatize .. errr, privatize access to water. In one South American coutry where this has already been implemented, poor farmers can’t even draw water from their own wells without paying some gringo company.
ruthru
“but I ask people who still vote Republican how they rationalize their choice, and I keep hearing the same motivation; that is they sincerely believe that abortion, gay marriage, and illegal immigrants are lethal to a moral society”
I address those people with this:
Pro-life? You call this Pro-life?
It truly amazes me the “pro-life” issue rises up in the vocabulary of the most corrupt administration that has ever held office under the Republican name.
How can anyone tout a “pro-life” stance when they themselves promote illegal wars which “kill and injure” millions of people? Or is life only valuable before birth? The pro-lifers want to protect the unborn, yet finance invasions of countries….bombing of civilians…women and children. Or is life only valuable if you are in America? Over 1 million Iraqi have died, many of them women and children. Our soldiers die in this ill-conceived war…one based on false information spoon fed by the media and current administration. Soldiers continue to die even when back in the US….suicide rates are their highest, illness from depleted uranium, veterans being denied the care they are due, families torn apart by repeated and long deployments, etc, etc……
Our economy is on the brink of disaster. Billions are being spent on this war….while ignoring the basic needs of Americans. Our country goes down the tubes while the corporations prosper at the cost of the middle and lower classes. Food prices, gas prices, health care costs, medicines, heating oil….all skyrocketing. Privatization of public works that the tax payer built and paid for. Jobs falling away to foreign countries. People losing their homes because of corrupt banking and lending practices. Free trade agreements that injure our economy. Voter fraud and scandals. The dollar plummeting in value.
Genocide being the name of the game to thin out the unwanted…Darfur…Palestine…when will it reach inside our own country…oh, yes…we have already done that…with the Native Americans. How many leaders have we sent aid to that committed these crimes against mankind? Who is next? You? Me? They have the holding facilities ready for you…and the private security armies to enforce it. Bush, Cheney, and Halliburton made sure of this.
Pro-life? You call this pro-life?
Pro-life isn’t just about unborn babies….it is also about those walking the face of the earth right now. I can’t resolve the issue of those screaming pro-life and also being for war, torture, and denial of human rights for the already living. It is hypocritical.
The war on terror?? Keeping America safe by invading and forcing our policies on other countries? Private armies that bully and kill without oversight or law? Suspension of basic rights guaranteed by the Bill of Rights?
This isn’t about keeping America safe…it is about keeping the corporations and investments safe for the elite. It is about funneling huge amounts of tax-payer dollars to cronies. It is the big payoff and grab for control of every American’s pocket book. America’s reputation doesn’t matter anymore…only the bottom line of profit and control over resources.
Pro-life? Torture? Denial of habeas corpus? Spying on Americans? Squashing the Bill of Rights? Detention facilities? Privatized armies that have no oversight or rules? Investment bankers run rampant without federal regulation or investigation? Presidents and administrations that can blatantly break laws without the blink of an eye or accountability? Consumers being in danger of being poisoned or hurt by sub-standard products or FDA approved products that really don’t meet safe standards of testing and use? Loss of homes?
I don’t trust Washington or the current leaders. The only choices have been….worse, worse, and worst…the voters speak…and are ignored by the President and Congress like the “We the People” do not exist. If you are not a part of the solution, then you are a part of the problem.
We the people……yeah, right……We the corporations, in order to form a more perfect profit, will hijack and buy/sell the greatest government established in the world, fill it with corruption and greed, deny the people basic human rights and justice, scare the public and disseminate propaganda through the media, and to hell with the…..We the people.
We the People are subject to the corporate take over of our country. The military complex, as Eisenhower warned. Administrations and lobbyist take-over of the government without the best interest of America continue to press the failed policies that have gotten this country into an illegal war, deep trouble and remorse, and are linking us into a dept so deep we will be owned by China.
Pro-life has been become a big issue. The Republican Party is banking on this to draw the evangelicals and religious right into voting for their party merely on this issue. Pro-life is about more than saving unborn babies, which is anti-abortion. Pro-life is about living…about fair laws….about accountability and respect…about honest and decent representation….about human rights and a quality of living…for everyone.
If the trend continues unabated….welcome to the new third world….the USA.
As this new presidential election comes nearer, it is time for every American to look deep into their hearts and find the candidate who is FOR true change in favor of pro-life…for every American that walks the soil in this country. It takes time to research and dig up the information on your candidates, but the time spent can save this country. Who is corporately sponsored, lobbyist sponsored, big business, big profit sponsored? It is all there, those who opt for and support a corporately owned government.
Pro-life is pro-quality of life…not just for the rich or unborn or corporate, but for “We the People”,
Killing and war is not pro-life. What ever happened to diplomacy?
I do wonder how decent people raise children that go wrong. A friend of my Dad’s had one child commit suicide and one become a born-again Christian.
My Dad, a WW2 veteran, is also very anti-war. I grew up anti-war, but then used to go to see the Blue Angels perform on the fourth of July. I tried once to get my dad to go, and I’ll never forget how he refused. He said that no matter how impressive the flying, he knew that the purpose of those jets was to terrorize and kill people. Also, it was a major waste of oil. (This was in the 80s). I quit going.
I raised my children to never even think about joining the military. And college, that’s another scam. Two of my children have graduated from college. One is unemployed, and one has three part time low wage jobs. The last child flunked out of college. He scrounges by doing temp work. What is the advantage of going to college? None. That bird has done flown. The idea that going to college will save you from a life of poverty is propaganda put out to make each person feel responsible for their own failure to make a decent living, when the vast majority of us don’t make a decent living.
The US is devolving and there is no magic bullet to save us. But participating in the terror and murder that the US military brings to others is a step into evil that no one’s child should make. It’s not honorable and it shouldn’t be supported. That’s ruling class propaganda that the left has unfortunately adopted out of solidarity with the poor who choose to join with the oppressor.
So, unchained, how do people respond when you confront them on their “pro-life” positions?
Cause what I get is- fetal life is innocent life. Arabs are all terrorists. It is OK to kill Arab children because they will grow up to be terrorists, and American children won’t.
Religious people like this are pig=headed and not responsive to moral conundrums. They truly believe that God is on America’s side and that killing is not murder. (That’s their interpretation of the commandant, thou shalt not kill. There’s a difference between murder and killing.)
You can’t reach them with talk of right and wrong, because they believe that Jesus is their personal savior and is intervening with God to get them into heaven.
greenerthanthou,
I think the polls are up to 70% that do not support the war.
As you know, when Cheney was confronted with this figure…he said, quote: “So?”
The neocons and war profiteers do not care what we think.
Until the vast majority hits the streets in protest…and I do mean vast majority…and writes hundreds of letters to their Congressman…refusing to vote for them if this horrible conflict isn’t ended….they will go on with business as usual.
It isn’t a magic bullet…but “We the People” better speak out while we can.
greenerthanthou
When confronted with those questions….
Each person has to make the fetus decisions for themselves…I myself am pulled both directions on the question. I won’t elect an official based on that question.
What good does it do to guarantee being born if you are going to live in poverty, die in war, live under tyranny? That is personal moral question for those who must choose…and those who perform the act.
As to whose side God is on….only God knows that. I don’t know of a single individual who has actually talked to God on a face to face basis…people should be more humble than arrogant….the arrogant always think God is on their side.
I refer you to the false prophet post above….are they listening to a false prophet? I feel it very dangerous, religiously speaking, to decide what God thinks and whose side he is on. What an assumption.
People are responsible for living right and honestly…they should not be determining who is evil and who is not unless the actions are expressing such…
We have invaded, occupied, killed and injured, destroyed a country….I am not of the mind this is a righeous and good act….
My argument is always, it is all right to kill millions, but you are concerned with only the unborn? The Christian heart of compassionate and loving…not murderous to multitudes.
Unchained….
“Pro-life? You call this Pro-life?”
Wow! What a speech, delivered with passion! Excellent points and I couldn’t agree more.
I’d like to continue the conversation, but it is way - way - past my bedtime.
Remember, always ‘follow the gourd’.
greenerthanthou….
You know what? There’s no shame in manual labor. Give me an honest, competent, trades person who actually knows how to MAKE things, anytime over some pencil pushing, keyboard punching bean counter.
Show them the photos of the babies born to mothers who were exposed to depleted uranium…and ask them about the rights of the unborn….
Thank you greenerthanthou…
I actually wrote that be published somewhere…chuckles…I am a light-weight published writer.
“Cause what I get is- fetal life is innocent life. Arabs are all terrorists. It is OK to kill Arab children because they will grow up to be terrorists, and American children won’t.”
To this, I say, they are playing God making the assumption that someone will grow up to be a terrorist. Bush put the Academies of Architects and Engineers on the “terrorist list” when they spoke out about 9/11…hmmm….they are not Arabs. Me thinks anyone who disagrees with the current trend and scare tactics believes all Arabs are terrorists.
If the Iraqi were all terrorists, why did we fund Sadam at one time? Why was Bin Laden funded by the US at one time? Whoever the government wants to beat up on at the moment, is the terrorist….The US thinks nothing of funding dictators and radical leaders if they will go along with our program….usually they get tired of our interference and bullying…then they are terrorists.
“and American children won’t”
Bush must have been dropped on his head as child…look what he grew up to do….ahem…