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TechnoratiSoldiers Who Just Say No
KAUAI, Hawaii -
Six months into Barack Obama's presidency, the U.S. public's display of antiwar sentiment has faded to barely a whisper.
Despite Obama's vow to withdraw all combat forces from Iraq before
September 2011, he plans to leave up to 50,000 troops in "training and
advisory" roles. Meanwhile, nearly 130,000 troops remain in that
country and more than 50,000 U.S. soldiers occupy Afghanistan, with up
to an additional 18,000 approved for deployment this year.
So where is the resistance?
In
independent journalist Dahr Jamail's "The Will to Resist: Soldiers who
refuse to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan" (Haymarket Books), Jamail
profiles what may ultimately prove to be the United States' most
effective anti-war movement: the soldiers themselves.
During the
early years of the Iraq war, Jamail traveled to Iraq alone and reported
as an unembedded freelance journalist. Over four visits, Jamail
documented the war's effects on Iraqi civilians in "Beyond the Green
Zone" (2007).
Although he is a fierce critic of the wars in
Iraq and Afghanistan, and of the U.S. mainstream media which he says
served as a "cheerleader" for war, Jamail admits he was raised to
admire the military. However, after covering the war from Iraq between
2003 and 2005, Jamail was enraged by what he calls "the heedless and
deliberate devastation [he] saw [the U.S. military] wreak upon the
people of Iraq."
Back in the U.S., traveling the country
speaking out against the war, Jamail met scores of soldiers who had
served in Iraq and Afghanistan and found that he shared with them a
"familiar anguish" which drove him to further explore their motivations
as soldiers. In doing so he opens the door to a growing subculture of
internal dissent that is increasingly bubbling up and spilling over the
edge of an otherwise ultra-disciplined, highly-controlled military
society.
"The soldiers I spoke with while working on this book
are some of the most ardent anti-war activists I have ever met," Jamail
told IPS. "Having experienced the war firsthand, this should not come
as a surprise."
In "The Will to Resist", Jamail profiles
individual acts of resistance that he envisions as the possible seeds
of a broader anti-war movement. The book is filled with stories of
soldiers who refuse missions deemed "suicidal", go AWOL, flee abroad,
refuse to carry a loaded weapon, even arranging to be shot in the leg -
and those who in a final act of desperation commit suicide.
Soldiers
who refuse to deploy or follow orders risk court-martial, prison time,
dishonourable discharge and loss of veteran's medical benefits, yet an
increasing number of active duty soldiers and veterans are willing to
do so.
Rather than accept a mission almost certain to bring
death, some troops simply refuse to follow orders. Jamail describes
soldiers in Iraq on "search and avoid" missions who grew adept at
giving the appearance of going out on patrol when, in fact, they were
lying low, catching up on sleep and trying to avoid being killed.
Jamail
quotes one Marine who served in Iraq and Afghanistan as saying,
"Dissent starts as simple as saying 'this is bullshit. Why am I risking
my life?'"
Soldiers tell Jamail that incidents of refusing
orders are unremarkable and "pretty widespread," to which he responds,
"It is also understandable why the military does not want more soldiers
or the public to know about them."
"Army Specialist Victor
Agosto, who served a year in Iraq, has recently publicly refused orders
to deploy to Afghanistan," Jamail told IPS, "and the Army, due to the
threat of more soldiers and the broader public learning of this, backed
away from giving Agosto the harshest court-martial possible, to one of
the lightest."
Jamail also dedicates two chapters to soldiers
who stand up to systemic misogyny and homophobia in the military.
Extensive interviews with female soldiers detail a pervasive culture of
institutionalised "command rape," harassment, abuse and assault which,
in a number of high-profile cases (and many more unknown) end in
ostracism, coercion, demotion, suicide and murder.
Citing
studies from professional medical journals that offer a grim assessment
of sexual intimidation and abuse within the U.S. military, Jamail
writes, "According to the group Rape, Abuse, and Incest National
Network, one in six women in the United States will be a victim of
sexual assault in her lifetime. In the military, at least two in five
will. In either case, at least 60 percent of the cases go unreported."
As
Jamail recounts horrific cases of violence toward women in the
military, he notes the irony of frequent claims that the wars in Iraq
and Afghanistan are "liberating" women of those Muslim countries.
Like
female soldiers, gay and lesbian service men and women are targeted for
harassment and abuse. Jamail meets soldiers who, under the 'Don't Ask,
Don't Tell' policy, must conceal their true identity, falsely posing as
straight while battling internal conflicts about their own roles in the
military.
In the blunt language of the soldiers, Jamail
describes the military experience as a process of dehumanisation. "The
primary objective appeared to be to mistreat and dehumanise your guys
[fellow soldiers]," one Marine says. "I could not do it, not to my men
and not to those people. I like the Iraqis, I like the Afghanis. Why
were we treating them like shit?...That is when I really started
questioning what the hell was going on."
For many soldiers
however, the pain of war is simply too much to bear and so they choose
their own final discharge: suicide. In an emotionally exhausting
chapter, Jamail cites statistics from the Army Suicide Event Report
which states active duty military suicides have risen to their highest
rates since the Army started tracking self-inflicted deaths in 1980,
and the numbers are growing.
Documenting the phenomenon of
"suicide by cop," Jamail quotes from a Post Traumatic Distress Syndrome
(PTSD)-wracked veteran's pre-"suicide" internet article in which he
wrote, "…We come home from war trying to put our lives back together
but some cannot stand the memories and decide that death is better. We
kill ourselves because we are so haunted by seeing children killed and
whole families wiped out."
Contemplating the long-term
implications of the more than 1.8 million military personnel who have
served in Iraq and Afghanistan, Jamail points out that the United
States, for many years to come, will be faced with caring for tens of
thousands of veterans whose lives are permanently marred by grave
physical and traumatic brain injuries, psychological scars, PTSD, and a
host of associated problems ranging from divorce and substance abuse to
domestic violence, homelessness and run-ins with the law.
Other
soldiers manage to cope somehow and, perhaps in a sense, recover.
Following their discharge, some veterans profiled by Jamail seek to
make peace with themselves by educating others about the realities they
experienced in war.
The most successful and constructive of
military efforts to resist war are made by those who turn their
experiences into teaching tools and therapeutic exercises like music,
video, theater, painting, books, blogs, photographic and art
exhibitions, performance art and even making paper out of old military
uniforms.
In a chapter titled 'Cyber Resistance,' Jamail
contends the Internet "is probably the first time that we have
available to us an inexpensive and extremely inclusive means to
communicate and thereby advocate sustained resistance to unjust
military action, at an international scale without losing any gestation
time."
Websites like YouTube, Facebook, Flickr, Twitter,
Blogspot and countless alternative news sources have given soldiers and
veterans both a voice and the means to connect with those Jamail calls
"fence-sitters, members of the silent majority and well-intentioned but
resource-less individuals to participate in the promise of a historical
transformation."
"While we don't have an organised GI resistance
movement today that is anywhere close to that which helped end the
Vietnam war," Jamail said, "the seeds for one are there, and they are
continuing to sprout amidst a soil that is becoming all the more
fertile by the escalation of troops in Afghanistan, the lack of
withdrawal in Iraq, and an increasingly over-stretched military."
30 Comments so far
Show AllI truly don't get these soldiers that say no. Is that supposed to be heroic, moral, fashionable or what? Don't take me wrong, I'm 100% against war, these ones, the past ones and the ones we haven't picked yet but I truly don't get this new trend. Why become a soldier if they're gonna refuse to deploy? This is not Viet Nam, folks. People have a choice these days and when they voluntarily join the military, they are agreeing to go to war. I know that things are tough and that, sadly for many, this is the only option for a semi-decent education but, come on! anybody who has a half an ounce of brain and looks at the warmongering history of the US, which is longer & dirtier than a laundry list, has to realize that this country is involved in several military debacles per decade on average. What are the chances of any young person joining the US military and not seeing combat, particularly these days, when the country is waging 3 parallel wars with more lined up?
I can't feel sorry for them and I also can't hail them as heros. They're where they are because it was them who put themselves in that situation. I can't have any pity.
As one who entered the Marines at the age of 18 from a very poor family, I think I can speak to the concerns of those who just don't "get" why someone would enlist and then resist. When you're young and poor your education is far from complete. You may actually believe that your country needs you to save your fellow citizens from some dire threat many miles over the horizon. And, why wouldn't you? The media outlets around here just love to report that Private X "served his country" or "died for freedom" somewhere "over there." Old men from the "good war" still show up at veteran's parades, strutting as best they are able in their old uniforms, wearing the medals that still somehow give their life meaning. Even the parents of some of these young people prepare them to serve without question or complaint. Let's not forget how Bush used the word "crusade" when he pounded the war drums. Not everyone thought he was indiscreet in his choice of words.
Sometimes, we wake up though, don't we? Sometimes life just smacks us upside the head and says, "Pay attention. This is your life, for God's sake." Maybe the wake-up call is the bloodied body of a child, or the sight of a horribly disfigured and disabled buddy, or maybe atrocities witnessed or committed.
In my case, it was a wise and compassionate Master Sergeant in the Marines who woke me up. It was 1960, I was in Okinawa. The "floating batallion" was floating around the seas, looking for the trouble that would soon escalate into the Vietnam War. The sergeant dropped in to see how I was doing on radio watch. During a long conversation we discussed war, politics, service and other things. He ended by dissuading me from the pursuit of a career in the Marines. He said something about the political uses of war, how the Marines were often the first in, the hardest hit. Then he said something about how it was "my life" and I shouldn't be so quick to throw it away.
I don't usually pay much attention to the presidential inauguration hoopla. This year was kind of different, though. I did have some hope that things would change, that maybe we could finally be free of imperial dreams and get down to the business of doing what is good and right for all of our citizens, not just the privileged few. Alas, I read the inauguration speech of President Obama. In it he paid lip service to hope and change. As is usual in the Fourth of July speeches of so many politicians, he also praised those who served the country in war. He even, you will notice, rehabilitated the Vietnam War by remembering Khe Sanh and Normandy in the same breath. I don't know about you, but it doesn't make any difference to me if the American emperor struts about like some self-conscious Napoleon or if he strides with all the confidence of a competent athlete. He is still an emperor--and the empire still wears no clothes.
We can't begin to solve the problems we face until we dismantle the American Empire. The men and women in uniform who stand up and speak out against it are on the front lines of dissent. They are my heroes. The rest of us can protest and go home. The Congress can neglect its authority and responsibility, give a blank check to the imperial president, and go collect campaign contributions from the military-industrial complex.
As the old anti-war song put it, "When will we ever learn?" The Russians learned the final lessons of empire in Afghanistan; before them it was the English. Is it our turn? Not if we get out into the streets again, not if we are willing to sacrifice as these brave young military dissenters have.
In my lifetime, I have seen a parade of presidents who had never served in war send others into harm's way. Can someone tell me, please, where is the democracy--or the decency--in that?
The odds a military recruiter tells potential recruits "the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth" are about the same as general doing the same with the US public: none whatsoever. These kids have been conned for years by "patriotic" myths.
Hell no! We won't go!
Evan though most recruits do not know it when they enlist, they have been hired to kill in OUR names and most will someday regret the killing of fellow humans. Wars will ultimately bankrupt and destroy America.
"Six months into Barack Obama's presidency, the U.S. public's display of antiwar sentiment has faded to barely a whisper. "
Easy to forget when the MSM doesn't show the dead and dying children, women and men with parts blown away and blood everywhere. We only get to watch that on cable when they seem to deserve it.
Abortion Support
,,,with months still to go till the new year and 141 suicides since January,,,speaks for itself.
IT'S GREAT THING TO DO THIS .....
Abortion Support
After reading all these comments, I see that the main reason these wars continue is because the U.S.A. has nothing left to sell except arms and our involvement in never ending war as long as our politicians are swayed by corporate and the wealthy during campaigniong for office. As long as the wealthy and the corporates run our elections, our politicians will subscribe to corporate dictates. Besides, since the U.S.A. has outsourced millions of jobs to other countries (especially China) as manufacturing vacated the U.S.A.--there are very few jobs for our soldiers to come home to.
The solution is to begin buildng public support for as many Progressive candidates in all offices---head of govt. down to the county level of govt. (may need a 3rd. party--especially for 2012)or get BIG MONEY out of politics.
Obama having put into place the same people as Clinton and Bush had--didn't bring any change!
Poet
The point of my comment was that those in the military today should begin to express their dissatisfaction with their organization. It could mean, as I indicated, doing what the film Sir! No Sir! showed, and that was depicting a soldier who had written the words ARMY SUCKS on his helmet to wearing peace signs instead of their dog tags. Again, the idea is that today's generation seems to be so passive in their acceptance of their lot that they have been given by the military that it is way past the point that the majority of them start to do SOMETHING to express their displeasure in occupying two countries that have never threatened anyone in these United States.
I also do not think that the excuse that those in the military today are enlistees rather than draftees does not carry all that much weight considering that even enlistees should be able to recognize that they are being used by their government. As I also mentioned, the bulk of the GI rebellion that took place during the Vietnam War was composed of those who volunteered for that fiasco. That being the case, there is no substantial reason why the enlistees of today cannot also finally say NO to the military and the government's desire to wage war and destruction upon innocent civilians.
The idea of enlistees in the military expressing dissatisfaction with their organization leadership (ultimately the President who is commander-in-chief and the Secretary of Defense who is his appointee as chief adminstrator)makes about as much sense as some junior mafia hood criticizing the Don who is his Godfather. If you do it, you will suffer the consequences.
The three things any teen-aged kid should always know prior to enlisting in the military are:
1. You will be trained to kill people and destroy things--or support those who actually do it.
2. You will be compelled to do whatever your superior tells you to do. Should you fail to do so you will be at risk of summary execution (in a combat situation) or court-martial, incarceration, and life-long stigmatization by the rest of society.
3. Your enlistment or combat assignment is subject to indefinate extension with the same potential penalties for desertion.
(For any women who are toying with the idea of snlistment)
4. You will be subject to being "hit on" by either hetero or homosexual predators and your sexual partners will not be of your own choosing.
These are the dirty little secrets conveniently overlooked by recruiters as they seek to "sell" impressionable youth on the idea of a military career. When everyone understands that the US military is a mercinary organization and a very well-organized crime family, fewer people will have any illusions about what a "military career" means.
Poet
I detest both of the wars of aggression going on in the Middle East (and anywhere else that the jack boot of America is pinning down the necks of otherwise defenseless peoples).
That being said, the idea of a soldier wearing a helmet that says "Make Peace Not war" is as ridiculous as a prostitute wearing an "I pledge sexual abstinance till I get married" ring.
How dumb or naieve does someone have to be to profess outrage and shock at the idea of killing and destruction as well as other attrocities that their enlistments require of them?
Add to that the fact that not one of them was compelled to join the military and (though I do not agree with the idea of a mercinary military such as the US has today) it is not too hard to understand why the "powers that be" prosecute these guys to the full extent that they can.
This is partly the fault of the military for selling the idea of enlistment as away to get money for college or other vocational training.
It is also partly the fault of the schools who go overboard with everything from sex to drivers-ed but allow these lying parasites known as military recruiters to proselyte among their youth without any warning of disclaimer as to the true nature of what someone who contemplates a military career can expect.
Finally, it is mostly the fault of disinterested or distracted parents who allow their adolescent children to be exposed to such a potentially lethal experience as mercinary military enlistment in the armed forces of an imperialist power.
Poet
I understand what you are saying, but I still consider them to be people who have made a heroic decision and one worthy of our support.
I totally agree with your assessment, but what this society needs is a more realistic education of its youth about the nature of a mercinary military under the direction of an amoral imperialist government.
Poet
winning ticket, as always the power of disinformation. How do we get moe people to tune into CD, Democracy Now, ZNet, Counterpunch, etc? By emailing or printing out the articles.
On the radio: President Obama just said of Afghanistan:
"A war of necessity, not choice-- necessary to protect
Americans against terrorism."
DEBATE IT!!!!!!!
And find a worthy opponent-- someone of the intellectual stature of Howard Zinn or Norm Chomsky or Gore Vidal.
Mr. President, sir, if you were in law school and your faculty superior were John Houseman, and you made such a cockamamie statement (okay, pull the word "cockamamie" and substitute "provocative"), you would immediately find yourself in a pitched debate.
I guess when you're president, and you know most Americans couldn't afford or have the benefit of a liberal arts education, that they'll be good little sheeple and not challenge any statement no matter how ridiculous.
Why in the world should we believe you-- that what you're doing in Afghanistan is protecting us? It's threatening us, that's what! Do you have special information, is that it?
Stuff that's too hush-hush for us to know? All you have to do is intimate such a thing, and you have your way with the sheeple. Because, although they're sheeple, they have nightmares same as fully developed human beings. If you presented actual arguments and the evidence you would be less effective and you know it.
Why did these people volunteer for the military in the first place?
It so tragic that notwithstanding the world-wide recognition that the Iraq war was based on erroneous information and that the purpose of invading Afghanistan is no longer the driving force, the wars continue on while the US loses billions every month as well as the lives of US soldiers and local civilians. The military-industrial complex must be so powerful today that it can overcome common sense and the will of the people. Haven't we learned anything from Viet Nam? Or are we just such a stupid population?
The hope is that those in the military today can draw inspiration from these words:
"There's a cross for you to bear
Things to go through if you're going anywhere"
"For the things you know are right
It's the truth that the truth makes them so uptight"
"They will try to make you crawl
And they know what you're saying makes sense at all"
"Don't you know that you are free"
Well at least in your mind if you want to be"
Stand- Sly and the Family Stone
Thinkers may be distracted right now. There aren't as many posts here in this thread as under the health care headings, for instance.
And even apologists for the Obama administration use his "full plate" as an excuse for any area in which the president is weak.
I don't want to be too negative here since there is much about President Obama to admire. The war in Afpaklia, however, is in first place as personal weakness by a million miles.
Why? Because human beings are being killed every day, and for what reason? The only basis for American involvement in Afghanistan at this particular moment is hysteria that started with 9/11 among Americans who were emotionally weak starting
with President Bush and his appointees.
Even an Army man I debated the other day admitted that the French dealing with Algerian terrorists or the English dealing with Irish terrorists have been more mature and able to take horrible things in stride than us Americans, who yes, he
agreed, need to do some growing up.
Thank you
"What if they gave a war and nobody came?" (subject to multiple interpretations)
Yes, the Winter Soldiers are the best-- in these two wars, in the Vietnam War and even in the American Revolution. In that war they didn't object to the war's rationale but they didn't compromise by going home when the weather turned cold either. A lack of compromise is what holds these heroes together throughout American history.
Contrast them with Vietnam veterans FOR the Iraq and Afpak wars. Those guys just like anything that's violent. Like so many softies in our American society.
It takes no gumption at all to be an American sheeple, and I don't see why we should lionize those who volunteered into the Military when our wars made no sense at all, thus putting themselves and their families in harm's way.
Of course the current Winter Soldiers volunteered, too-- it's a volunteer Army-- but they came to their senses. They overcame their original mental and emotional shortcomings. Heroes and heroines indeed.
I am genuinely proud of soldiers who say "NO"
"And the soldiers likewise demanded of him saying, And what shall we do? And then he said unto them,
Do violence to no man"
Luke 3:14
"While we don't have an organised GI resistance movement today that is anywhere close to that which helped end the Vietnam war, the seeds for one are there....."
When I was drafted into the US Army in 1968, I was active in the American Servicemens' Union, and later in Vets for Peace. Several years after the fall of Saigon, Congress quietly made it a felony for active duty soldiers to take part in the types of antiwar political activity that the ASU and the GI coffee houses prominently featured.
Now of course we have an all-volunteer force. No draft, no existential need for the cannon fodder to ever wrestle with the big moral dilemma that conscription created and forced the middle and upper classes to confront, one way or the other. Now, it's just a job you sign up for, a job with risks and benefits. A deal's a deal, even when Uncle Sam later tears up all the recruiters' promises.
One simple way for the seeds to sprout would be through federal legislation. Congress should simply declare that, absent a formal declaration of war, no active duty member of the US military is obligated to obey an order to deploy from stateside duty into a combat zone overseas. Tack it on as an amendment to the next DOD appropriations bill, and then let the troops vote with their feet. What could be more fair?
Bill from Saginaw
Bill, I like your simple and effective suggestion. We have drifted so far from "only Congress has the power to declare war" and concepts like the National Guard belonging at home in case of emergencies. However, I doubt your amendment will fly, because the same corporations profiting from endless war own Congress as much as they own the President.
As for several folks wondering why anyone enlists, or saying it is the parents' fault for allowing their children to be preyed on by recruiters: ever heard of advertising? How many messages do you think a low-income 17 year old has seen by the time he shakes the first recruiter's hand? How else do you think he will ever get to travel, drive a Hummer, or even have health insurance?
I, too, think the change will come from the grassroots foot soldiers. Woycek anyone?
Bill
All these years later there are many times that I still find it difficult to believe that there is no more military draft and that no males between the ages of 18 and 24 today will receive the same letter that you and I received which began with that famous dreaded word: Greetings.
David Cortright surprisingly pointed out in his classic work Soldiers in Revolt: GI Resistance During the Vietnam War that the majority of soldiers who participated in that rebellion were not, as one would have expected, draftees but rather enlistees. One has to wonder how long it will be, if at all, that the enlistees of today will finally reach the epiphany that so many of their predecessors did those many years ago which is that the soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq are being used just as much as those poor bastards were some forty odd years ago.
It is way past the point that those in the military today recognize that they have been used as cannon fodder by their uncaring government. One longs to see soldiers wear armbands or begin to emulate the opening shot in the powerful documentary in Sir! No Sir! [which chronicled the GI movement that took place at or near military both at home and abroad during the Vietnam War] of the soldier who had written on his helmet: ARMY SUCKS [Or a sailor or a marine or an airman writing the same thing].
These enlistees today should also acknowledge the veracity of what former Green Beret Master Sergeant Donald Duncan said in that film:
"I was doing it right but I wasn't doing right."
The best way to halt a war and an occupation is to have it happen from within.
Ahhhh yes the DEMOCRATS will save us...
Republicans were thought to be the problem.
Democrats were thought to be the answer.
Time to form a NEW GOVERNMENT.
"Six months into Barack Obama's presidency, the U.S. public's display of antiwar sentiment has faded to barely a whisper. "
Easy to forget when the MSM doesn't show the dead and dying children, women and men with parts blown away and blood everywhere. We only get to watch that on cable when they seem to deserve it.