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Winter Soldier: Eye Witness Accounts of the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
Two years ago, public revulsion against the Bush Administration's unnecessary and disastrous attack and occupation of Iraq resulted in the Democratic Party taking control of the https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=110t
Sep 24, 2008
Two years ago, public revulsion against the Bush Administration's unnecessary and disastrous attack and occupation of Iraq resulted in the Democratic Party taking control of the U.S. Congress. But Nancy Pelosi and the new political leadership backed down before President Bush
and refused to withhold funding for the war, while rhetorically
denouncing it and thus playing to anti-war voters. The liberal lobby
group MoveOn
spent tens of millions of dollars on anti-war advertisements and
door-to-door canvassing events as part of its partisan campaign to
blame the war on the Republicans, while letting Democrats off the hook for giving Bush all the money he wanted to continue the occupation into next year.
Today, as the 2008 election approaches, worry over Iraq has slipped
down the public's list of concerns while more immediate economic issues
and the spectacular collapse of the Wall Street investment banks take
center stage. However, one anti-war organization has proven especially
tenacious, independent and committed to immediately bringing home
troops from Iraq and making good to the Iraqi people, while taking care
of the soldiers who fought the war. That organization is the Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) composed of about a thousand soldiers who have recently served or are still serving in the U.S. military.
IVAW has provided the courageous and true leadership that partisan
lobbies like MoveOn lack, opposing the war-funding politicians of both
parties. When the Democrats nominated Barack Obama in Denver, IVAW was there in the streets demanding a meeting with Obama's people to press for an immediate end to the occupation. During the Republican Convention, as John McCain was talking from the stage in St. Paul he was confronted by a lone soldier, IVAW's Adam Kokesh,
calling from the balcony and waving a sign of protest against the war.
TV cameras briefly broadcast Kokesh's protest, but quickly pulled away
from the young soldier in the black IVAW tee shirt calling out to
McCain.
Last March the IVAW spent its own money and time to organize an historic event, the Winter Soldier
hearings held outside Washington DC, where soldiers testified to the
atrocities and war crimes they witnessed or personally committed while
in Iraq and Afghanistan. The emotionally moving and carefully vetted
truth telling lasted for days. Thanks to Aaron Glantz, Aimee Allison and others at Berkeley radio station KPFA, the IVAW testimony was broadcast live and is today available free online for anyone to hear.
To its disgrace, most of the mainstream corporate media ignored the hearings.
The hard facts of the Iraq war, the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis
killed, the millions driven from their homes, the thousands of American
dead and tens of thousands wounded, are simply not deemed appropriate
and newsworthy by American news media. Indeed, the U.S. media has
pushed Iraq to the back pages and off the TV tube.
Not to be deterred, the IVAW continues to organize local and regional Winter Soldier hearings. I will be speaking at one hearing in Madison,
Wisconsin, this Saturday, September 27, addressing the propaganda role
of the U.S. media as a cheerleader for war. Available at the
conference, hot off the printing presses, will be a new book that is
the official account of IVAW's brutally honest and deeply moving
testimonies. Winter Soldier, Iraq and Afghanistan was written by the Iraq Veterans Against the War and independent author and journalist Aaron Glantz.
This book reflects the IVAW belief often expressed by executive director Kelly Dougherty
that "the only way this war is going to end is if the American people
truly understand what we have done in their name." It's filled with gut
wrenching personal stories and histories from the women and men who
fought the war and still fight in the occupations. A collection of
testimonies, the book is itself one single testimony to the powerful
truths of soldiers facing up to a war millions would rather ignore and
that the corporate media and political establishment does not want to
honestly discuss. This is a very important book, one that every
American should read and share. America owes an unpayable debt to its
soldiers, especially its anti-war soldiers in the Iraq Veterans Against
the War who do not back down to political gamesmanship from either
political party.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
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© 2023 Center for Media and Democracy
John Stauber
John Stauber founded the non-profit, non-partisan Center for Media & Democracy and its newsmagazine PR Watch in 1993 in Madison, Wisconsin. Prior to his retirement from CMD in 2009, Stauber co-authored six books for them including the 2003 New York Times bestseller "Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush's War on Iraq." He continues now as an independent investigative writer, public speaker and democracy advocate whose leadership on controversial public issues began in high school when he organized to end the U.S. war in Vietnam and for the first Earth Day. He has begun or worked with many non-profit public interest groups.
Two years ago, public revulsion against the Bush Administration's unnecessary and disastrous attack and occupation of Iraq resulted in the Democratic Party taking control of the U.S. Congress. But Nancy Pelosi and the new political leadership backed down before President Bush
and refused to withhold funding for the war, while rhetorically
denouncing it and thus playing to anti-war voters. The liberal lobby
group MoveOn
spent tens of millions of dollars on anti-war advertisements and
door-to-door canvassing events as part of its partisan campaign to
blame the war on the Republicans, while letting Democrats off the hook for giving Bush all the money he wanted to continue the occupation into next year.
Today, as the 2008 election approaches, worry over Iraq has slipped
down the public's list of concerns while more immediate economic issues
and the spectacular collapse of the Wall Street investment banks take
center stage. However, one anti-war organization has proven especially
tenacious, independent and committed to immediately bringing home
troops from Iraq and making good to the Iraqi people, while taking care
of the soldiers who fought the war. That organization is the Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) composed of about a thousand soldiers who have recently served or are still serving in the U.S. military.
IVAW has provided the courageous and true leadership that partisan
lobbies like MoveOn lack, opposing the war-funding politicians of both
parties. When the Democrats nominated Barack Obama in Denver, IVAW was there in the streets demanding a meeting with Obama's people to press for an immediate end to the occupation. During the Republican Convention, as John McCain was talking from the stage in St. Paul he was confronted by a lone soldier, IVAW's Adam Kokesh,
calling from the balcony and waving a sign of protest against the war.
TV cameras briefly broadcast Kokesh's protest, but quickly pulled away
from the young soldier in the black IVAW tee shirt calling out to
McCain.
Last March the IVAW spent its own money and time to organize an historic event, the Winter Soldier
hearings held outside Washington DC, where soldiers testified to the
atrocities and war crimes they witnessed or personally committed while
in Iraq and Afghanistan. The emotionally moving and carefully vetted
truth telling lasted for days. Thanks to Aaron Glantz, Aimee Allison and others at Berkeley radio station KPFA, the IVAW testimony was broadcast live and is today available free online for anyone to hear.
To its disgrace, most of the mainstream corporate media ignored the hearings.
The hard facts of the Iraq war, the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis
killed, the millions driven from their homes, the thousands of American
dead and tens of thousands wounded, are simply not deemed appropriate
and newsworthy by American news media. Indeed, the U.S. media has
pushed Iraq to the back pages and off the TV tube.
Not to be deterred, the IVAW continues to organize local and regional Winter Soldier hearings. I will be speaking at one hearing in Madison,
Wisconsin, this Saturday, September 27, addressing the propaganda role
of the U.S. media as a cheerleader for war. Available at the
conference, hot off the printing presses, will be a new book that is
the official account of IVAW's brutally honest and deeply moving
testimonies. Winter Soldier, Iraq and Afghanistan was written by the Iraq Veterans Against the War and independent author and journalist Aaron Glantz.
This book reflects the IVAW belief often expressed by executive director Kelly Dougherty
that "the only way this war is going to end is if the American people
truly understand what we have done in their name." It's filled with gut
wrenching personal stories and histories from the women and men who
fought the war and still fight in the occupations. A collection of
testimonies, the book is itself one single testimony to the powerful
truths of soldiers facing up to a war millions would rather ignore and
that the corporate media and political establishment does not want to
honestly discuss. This is a very important book, one that every
American should read and share. America owes an unpayable debt to its
soldiers, especially its anti-war soldiers in the Iraq Veterans Against
the War who do not back down to political gamesmanship from either
political party.
John Stauber
John Stauber founded the non-profit, non-partisan Center for Media & Democracy and its newsmagazine PR Watch in 1993 in Madison, Wisconsin. Prior to his retirement from CMD in 2009, Stauber co-authored six books for them including the 2003 New York Times bestseller "Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush's War on Iraq." He continues now as an independent investigative writer, public speaker and democracy advocate whose leadership on controversial public issues began in high school when he organized to end the U.S. war in Vietnam and for the first Earth Day. He has begun or worked with many non-profit public interest groups.
Two years ago, public revulsion against the Bush Administration's unnecessary and disastrous attack and occupation of Iraq resulted in the Democratic Party taking control of the U.S. Congress. But Nancy Pelosi and the new political leadership backed down before President Bush
and refused to withhold funding for the war, while rhetorically
denouncing it and thus playing to anti-war voters. The liberal lobby
group MoveOn
spent tens of millions of dollars on anti-war advertisements and
door-to-door canvassing events as part of its partisan campaign to
blame the war on the Republicans, while letting Democrats off the hook for giving Bush all the money he wanted to continue the occupation into next year.
Today, as the 2008 election approaches, worry over Iraq has slipped
down the public's list of concerns while more immediate economic issues
and the spectacular collapse of the Wall Street investment banks take
center stage. However, one anti-war organization has proven especially
tenacious, independent and committed to immediately bringing home
troops from Iraq and making good to the Iraqi people, while taking care
of the soldiers who fought the war. That organization is the Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) composed of about a thousand soldiers who have recently served or are still serving in the U.S. military.
IVAW has provided the courageous and true leadership that partisan
lobbies like MoveOn lack, opposing the war-funding politicians of both
parties. When the Democrats nominated Barack Obama in Denver, IVAW was there in the streets demanding a meeting with Obama's people to press for an immediate end to the occupation. During the Republican Convention, as John McCain was talking from the stage in St. Paul he was confronted by a lone soldier, IVAW's Adam Kokesh,
calling from the balcony and waving a sign of protest against the war.
TV cameras briefly broadcast Kokesh's protest, but quickly pulled away
from the young soldier in the black IVAW tee shirt calling out to
McCain.
Last March the IVAW spent its own money and time to organize an historic event, the Winter Soldier
hearings held outside Washington DC, where soldiers testified to the
atrocities and war crimes they witnessed or personally committed while
in Iraq and Afghanistan. The emotionally moving and carefully vetted
truth telling lasted for days. Thanks to Aaron Glantz, Aimee Allison and others at Berkeley radio station KPFA, the IVAW testimony was broadcast live and is today available free online for anyone to hear.
To its disgrace, most of the mainstream corporate media ignored the hearings.
The hard facts of the Iraq war, the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis
killed, the millions driven from their homes, the thousands of American
dead and tens of thousands wounded, are simply not deemed appropriate
and newsworthy by American news media. Indeed, the U.S. media has
pushed Iraq to the back pages and off the TV tube.
Not to be deterred, the IVAW continues to organize local and regional Winter Soldier hearings. I will be speaking at one hearing in Madison,
Wisconsin, this Saturday, September 27, addressing the propaganda role
of the U.S. media as a cheerleader for war. Available at the
conference, hot off the printing presses, will be a new book that is
the official account of IVAW's brutally honest and deeply moving
testimonies. Winter Soldier, Iraq and Afghanistan was written by the Iraq Veterans Against the War and independent author and journalist Aaron Glantz.
This book reflects the IVAW belief often expressed by executive director Kelly Dougherty
that "the only way this war is going to end is if the American people
truly understand what we have done in their name." It's filled with gut
wrenching personal stories and histories from the women and men who
fought the war and still fight in the occupations. A collection of
testimonies, the book is itself one single testimony to the powerful
truths of soldiers facing up to a war millions would rather ignore and
that the corporate media and political establishment does not want to
honestly discuss. This is a very important book, one that every
American should read and share. America owes an unpayable debt to its
soldiers, especially its anti-war soldiers in the Iraq Veterans Against
the War who do not back down to political gamesmanship from either
political party.
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