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TechnoratiWinter Soldiers Hit the Streets
SEATTLE - In a clear change of strategy to energise public anti-war sentiment, Iraq veterans led a determined demonstration of hundreds through the streets of downtown Seattle last Saturday, following regional Winter Soldier hearings at the Seattle Town Hall.
A larger Winter Soldier event occurred at the National Labour College in Silver Spring, Maryland from Mar. 13 to Mar. 16 earlier this year. But the strategy for those hearings appeared to be based on keeping the event from being directly affiliated with any demonstrations or anti-war activities in an attempt to reach a broader audience. Those hearings were closed to the public, and no demonstrations or other overtly public actions were tied to the event.
This tactic was apparently meant to draw in more national mainstream media coverage of the event, which, with few exceptions, did not materialise.
Chanan Suarez Diaz, the Seattle Chapter president of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW), which organised last weekend's event, had told IPS that his chapter, along with others in the northwest region, intended to make a major effort to draw the public into both the testimonials and taking action afterwards.
The Seattle regional Winter Soldier event was open to the public.
A late April poll conducted by CNN/Opinion Research Corp. found that nearly three-quarters (68 percent) of respondents opposed the Iraq war. The strategy of the regional IVAW groups is clearly meant to capitalise on the growing opposition to the occupation of Iraq among the U.S. public.
Christopher Diggins, a psychotherapist who attended the demonstration, reflected the feelings of many -- that this strategy is important.
"This tactic is better because you have to get the community involved," Diggins told IPS. "You have to have community awareness and support."
"I want to show my solidarity for vets who are against the war, because it is the only way this war is going to stop," he added. "It's hard to have the war if nobody is going to fight."
Diggins founded the Soldiers Project Northwest in Washington State (www.soldiersproject.org). The project is a group of therapists that volunteer to work one hour per week each with soldiers and their families who need assistance.
Saturday's event found veterans leaving their testimony to lead a crowd directly onto the streets to begin a demonstration. Protestors chanting "U.S. out of the Middle East, No Justice, No Peace," and carrying signs such as "You Can't Be All You Can Be If You're Dead!" stopped traffic for nearly an hour.
"I'm here to support the war resisters," Theresa Mosqueda, a Seattle resident who works on health policy advocacy for children and marched behind members of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW), told IPS, "They are the core part of ending this war. This is an illegal and immoral war, and the resisters have the power to stop it."
At least one Iraq war veteran joined IVAW as a result of attending the hearings last weekend.
Several of the vets urged onlookers to join the march, and many did as the demonstration passed by Seattle's bustling Pike Place Market.
Nick Spring, a student from Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington, was one of the marchers. "I came down today because it's a great way to be informed by the vets, support GI resistance, and try to end the war," Spring told IPS.
The regional winter soldier hearings were a smaller event, and there was no national mainstream media coverage. However, there was heavy local and alternative media coverage. At least one of the major Seattle television stations covered the testimonials, as well as the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the largest paper in the region.
The group Just Foreign Policy estimates that over 1.2 million Iraqis have died since the U.S.-led invasion began in March 2003. The Opinion Business Research group in Britain estimates the same number.
According to the U.S. Department of Defence, at least 4,086 U.S. soldiers have died in Iraq.
Many of the demonstrators were vets themselves who had just given testimony about their time in Iraq. They included Josh Simpson, Sergio Kochergin, Seth Manzel, Mateo Rebecchi, Jan Critchfield, Doug Connor, and many others.
Children numbered among the demonstrators as well. Nine-year-old Wes Cunningham, accompanied by his father, was asked by IPS why he was in attendance.
"It's a cool march," he said. "And I think it's bad to kill other human beings."
IVAW now boasts over 1,200 members, a 50 percent increase since the March Winter Soldier hearings in Maryland. The fastest growing segment of their membership is active-duty soldiers.
© 2008 Inter Press Service
21 Comments so far
Show AllGoat: Absolutely.
Bakunin: Please stop referring to these usurping criminals as 'rulers'. It creates a false image for these murderous thieves.
Buffetted by the wild weather we have been experiencing
and the demands of daily life, people are nonetheless aware that things are offkilter...I see evidence of change--SUVs bearing "sale" signs, fleeting conversations about how much trouble we are in, and outright fatalism about the country's chances no matter who is elected. Our local homeless shelter is full to bursting, the denizens look like
the rest of us. It is worrying to contemplate what will happen to our elderly, sick and already-poor when the coming collapse happens. Hopefully, these peace vets, who are young and strong, can help lead us to organize and help each other. They have "street cred" like no one else.
workreno, good point, and I like the link. I think everyone is getting drunk on the Obama euphoria or hissing at Hillary on the other threads. Distractions, distractions. I agree with civil behavior's comment above, the deception runs deep.
its good to see this. its great to see iraq veterans speaking out and demonstrating. dahr you are a great journalist and your reporting will continue to break through our crappy corporate media bs about the war.
the iraq veterans and everyone supporting them in the streets will end this criminal war. i hope there will be protests like this in texas. ending this damn war needs to be tied to a fundamental change in the usa and stopping the continuing evironmental destruction for oil. my email is matthew_loughran@hotmail.com if people in texas would like to be a part of ending this shitty war
Time better spent:
http://www.strike-the-root.com/
This Blog sucks.
These men are the true heroes.
Love ya Seattle!
It is sad to see only 12 posts here after seeing so many on much,much less important threads.
The MIC figured out how to conduct WAR without a draft (for now) .Don't draft the low life peasants , just OFF SHORE their fucking jobs and they'll come a runnin.
As a former Marine I support the IVAW whole heartedly .
Once a Marine ? Once mislead....
In terms of soldiers healing from the effects of war, it doesn't seem to happen much around this Cumberland, MD area. They just come home and join the VFW or the American Legion and sit there getting drunk. Or they join the local Vietnam Veterans of America chapter and sit THERE getting drunk. Or they just sit home watching TV and getting drunk.
But the REAL local "patriots" are the Republican business owners and bankers and local officials and MDs and lawyers and judges and the newspaper publisher and his managing editor. Now THESE people are TRUE patriots!
The local mayor was showing some visiting moneyed interests around downtown once. I walked up and briefly joined their little circle wearing my Veterans For Peace tee-shirt. The mayor's face literally looked like it was melting.
It is time that we stop fooling our selves. Dahr. Especially you who have been the model of honesty in journalism should stop continuing the misconception that there have been hearings or that any testimony has been given. A hearing is called before a body with jurisdiction to investigate, render judgment, pronounce sentence or have the authority for some action. Witnesses or experts are subpoenaed, sworn in and testify under the penalty of perjury.
Citizens can demand a hearing, which we ought to be doing, but are not doing because everyone thinks there have been hearings. dlnelson7, part of why media & congressmen don't cover this is because what has occurred is just another form of demonstration. These "MOCK" hearings they consider "a human interest story or political theater" and not "hard news" like a Senate or Congressional hearing. When we claim that they are "testifiers" and that there are hearings, like the Out Of Iraq Caucus "INFORMAL" forum, we allow congress to look like they are doing something when they are not & look like political Don Quixote's thrashing at windmills.
It also obscures that there have actually been real hearings before the whistleblowers committee that have received no attention. This was on military retaliation on those who speak up. They could be testifying on the fraud hearings, maybe they have. How can we expect to attain a goal if we don't know where we are going or even do the basics like use terms accurately?
My guess is that we need a hearing on the conduct of a politicized military that has loosely interpreted the Rules of Engagement to justify political ends, and that this testimony ought to be heard before the Armed Services Committee in both the Senate & the House. The same is true of Waste & Fraud. Finally, there are the illegal activities of the Private Contractors that are criminal that we need to find witnesses for & demand justice.
Let's get it straight, people are dying. Dahr, please stop this myth, there have been no Winter Soldier hearings and no one has testified on the conduct of the war yet, at least not at the events that you mentioned. Tie is to mass action- great- why not have the mock hearing lead to real ones? Public announcements are good, IVAW doing this is important, but they are town crier functions at best. Let's demand real hearings!
We have no clue how deep the deception goes in this government.
The names and faces we do recognize are there in the sunshine because we the people continue to believe things are not as bad at their level yet.
We put a vehicle on Mars but cannot get a vehicle here to run on anything else but gas. We need that oil right?
Basically no one wants to admit the extent we are chumped daily by the men in the sunshine.
If so there would have been a revolution in the streets long ago. The fact that I can write this in the sunshine proves that they know they have a subdued populace.
One guy once in awhile that raises a ruckus only gives the criminals more voice to exclaim how freedoms are still in evidence. Heck all they did was manhandle him a little and he didn't get thrown in Gitmo or anything now did he? See! That means facism doesn't exist.
Keep digging folks. You have no idea how deep this hole is.
It would be great if there could be a way to spread the word of what has, and is, actually occurring in Iraq to every city and town in America! When enough people know the truth, things will happen to see that's it's stopped! Most average citizens can't be bothered to read the news or search for the truth - they have to be spoon-fed to get their attention!
I have so much respect for IVAW. I hope you plan on having a Winter Soldier Hearing here in Phoenix, home of John McCain, who didn't even bother to show up in the senate the day the GI Bill was up for a vote. Please come to Phoenix and tell John McCain how you feel.
I read these discouraged and demoralized comments about it won't happen until the beast is at the door. In fact, there are a lot of folks out there who qualify for action in the streets.
We need to somehow mobilize citizens with more experience in these matters. Many of them are still "out on strike", and many more have opted in for the small comforts of ordinary life. There need be no further differentiation between them beyond that observation.
It isn't something which will spring life-sized from Zeus' head upon the proper incantation. We need to blog about it for awhile, and maybe CD can add it to their daily retinue of subjects. After it has been cussed and discussed for awhile, it will resuscitate into something which will require a theater and dialog, but it isn't just the pipe dream of a mere geezer. We can do it. Any support? Tell CD you want a rallying link.
In an article in Foreign Affairs not too long ago, a few military brass along with Colin Powell, wrote that they were of the legal and practical opinion that there was no level of command at which an order could be determined to be legal or illegal. Part of their rationale was that there were too many subtle and secret nuances that no one but the CIC could know about.
A guest lecturer at the Naval Academy had to ask three middies if their oath of office was to the President or to defend the Constitution before he got a right answer. Upon further inquiry, he found that a shockingly high % thought it was to the President.
These, and other tidbits are big trouble, and speak to the problems connected with the undocumented and unaccountable activities of the combat contractors in the middle-east and elsewhere. These are major head aches for anyone who stayed awake in civics class and later swore the same oath to protect the principles upon which our nation was founded and for which so many have sacrificed their lives.
Thank you for your service to your country.
That is truely one of the most beautiful photographs I have seen in a long time! There is a soldier HEALING!
Too many Americans are naive, lack curiosity, and are passive in the face of the barrage of outrages of the Bush years. We don't need another draft to activate large numbers of people. The problem is that the conditioning process created by our corporate fascist rulers has worked all too well: over the past few decades that process has succeeded in keeping the majority in a state of mental thrall, and the rulers know that as long as the majority is thus immobilized they can tolerate us dissidents communicating among ourselves and demonstrating occasionally. The rulers will not reinstitute the draft or initiate any other policy change that they know might reignite mass protest of the 60's sort. They learned that in the 60's and 70's. So we are faced with a situation in which, as long as the majority is kept distracted and immobilized, the rulers will be able to perpetrate their despicable policies at home and abroad. By the way, they plan to stay in Iraq essentially forever. Why else would they have constructed the largest embassy on the planet and 14 permanent military bases?
as always Dahr thank you for all of your work, the testimonies given at Winter Soldier in Maryland can be listened to at www.warcomeshome.org all 3 days & then some..onward!
I listened to their testimony on Democracy Now then copied some of the transcripts and sent them to major newspapers and asked why they weren't covering it. I also sent it to senators. It didn't do any good except perhaps one person opening the email knew. when I listened to the testimony I couldn't stop crying BUT, if the soldiers had to go through it, if the Iraqis suffered as much as they did at our soldiers' hands, then all of them deserved to have their stories heard.
Not only have these veterans been through the trauma of illegal war, but now they are standing up and speaking out. They deserve all our support...they have mine. Way to go!!
It will take hundreds of thousands marching in Washington DC like in the 70's, to stop the MIC merchants of death from waging their wars for profit.
And that will only happen if this war touches many more of us. 30 years ago it was because there was a draft, and the young HAD to register and many were called to go serve. These protests, though I fully support and have participated in, won't stop the war mongers. Only MASSIVE civil disobedience - and yes, some violence thrown in, will get the attention of the fat, disconnected, lobbiest addicted legislators.