The War as They Saw It

An excellent and timely letter was written by seven army veterans recently returning from a 15 month deployment in Iraq. Their position leans on their experiences as well as the historical context of the situation in hopes to clarify the unreasonable and as they describe “surreal,” insistence that things are getting better in Iraq. The letter was published in The New York Times on August 20th.


http://www.alternet.org/asoldierspeaks/60290/

(original article published by The NY Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/19/opinion/19jayamaha.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

The opening paragraph frankly states:

“To believe that Americans, with an occupying force that long ago outlived its reluctant welcome, can win over a recalcitrant local population and win this counterinsurgency is far-fetched.”

One of the many reality check offered throughout the letter:

“The ability of, say, American observers to safely walk down the streets of formerly violent towns is not a resounding indicator of security. What matters is the experience of the local citizenry and the future of our counterinsurgency. When we take this view, we see that a vast majority of Iraqis feel increasingly insecure and view us as an occupation force that has failed to produce normalcy after four years and is increasingly unlikely to do so as we continue to arm each warring side.”

One of the concluding points to take away from the letter:

“In the end, we need to recognize that our presence may have released Iraqis from the grip of a tyrant, but that it has also robbed them of their self-respect. They will soon realize that the best way to regain dignity is to call us what we are - an army of occupation - and force our withdrawal.”

With so much blame being laid on the Iraqi government, this letter offers clues as to why there is so little “progress.” These active duty veterans have stepped outside the Washington talking point blaming the Iraqi government and have found that the US occupation force contributes to and guarantees this lack of progress. For some time now Senator Levin has charged that the Iraqi government is responsible for the lack of progress and he has now called for Prime Minister al Maliki’s resignation.


http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070821/POLITICS/708210356/1022

However, it seems clear that there are other more responsible individuals that deserve blame for the destruction and chaos which has become synonymous with Iraq. Yet blame offers no solutions and in the end our occupation of Iraq is just as disastrous no matter who is pinned with responsibility. The only true solution, the only way for Iraq to begin its recovery, is for our immediate and orderly withdrawal.

Posted at Friday, August 24, 2007
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Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Cost of the Iraq War to Michigan's Priorities

Lansing Community Members and Michigan Citizen Action Meet to:
Reveal Iraq War's Cost to Michigan,
Demand End to Upside-down Priorities,
End Shortchanging Michigan Communities

Invest in the citizens of Michigan instead of an open-ended war!

Lansing, MI – Lansing community members joined by Acorn, Michigan Citizen Action, and MoveOn will hold a press conference to release a new report that reveals the cost of the Iraq War to Michigan taxpayers. The report, titled "Getting U.S. Back on Track" also illustrates how modest new investments in neglected priorities such as health care and education in Michigan would amount to a fraction of what is spent every month on the war.

Community members will also ask Rep. Rogers to support a new direction in Iraq that protects our troops, respects and supports our veterans and sets the United States on a concrete path to end the war.

The National Priorities Project has also analyzed the cost of war to Michigan. Here is a link to their web site:

http://nationalpriorities.org/

Who: Family Members of Current Serving Military, Michigan Coalition of Americans Against Escalation in Iraq ; Michigan Citizen Action, Acorn, MoveOn Community Members

What: Release "Getting U.S. Back on Track"

When: Thursday, August 16 2007, 12:00 noon

Where: Rep. Rogers' District Office, 1327 East. Michigan Ave. Lansing, MI 48912

Posted at Wednesday, August 15, 2007
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Friday, August 10, 2007
Photographs and Pot Luck Dinner with Alan Pogue, August 13, 2007

Your Are Cordially Invited To

Witness For Justice:
A Photo Report by
Alan Pogue from the Texas Center for Documentary Photography

Renowned Photographer Brings Healing
Touch to Iraqi Injured, Palestinian Homeless &
Shows Photos of Latin American Prisoners

Alan Pogue's photograph of a young woman, Asara of Basra, was widely seen at the beginning of the Iraq war.

6 pm Monday, August 13, 2007

Pot Luck Organic Vegetarian Dinner
Unitarian Universalist Church, Main Floor
855 Grove Street, East Lansing, Michigan

Sponsored By
Greater Lansing Network Against War & Injustice
INTERNATIONAL SERVICE SOCIETY
A Humanitarian Service of Vaishnava Center for Enlightenment

Posted at Friday, August 10, 2007
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Monday, August 06, 2007
Opening Up the Secrets of War

Opening up the Secrets of War
Speech given at the Rededication of the Peace Pole
at Lansing Community College,
Lansing Michigan, August 5, 2007
by
Becky Payne

In my lifetime, our country has opened many secrets up to the light of day. Homosexuality - AIDS - discrimination. This nation is talking - is healing - from the hurt that silence and shame have brought to these subjects.

There is still one topic about which there is a great silence, and that is war. We talk much more about the heroics of war than the damages. We don't show the coffins coming home. We don't talk about people getting rich off of war while children suffer without food and water. We don't show pictures of the houses we bomb. We don't talk about the rapes, the mutilations, the savagery.

And we don't show the emotional costs that war wreaks on those we send to fight. We pretend that a parade and a flag will make it all right. We pretend that we are doing right by the innocents involved and that a purple heart will make up for the devastation that we cause to the soldiers.

We are here today to honor Ben Miller, a young man who couldn't bear what war did to him. It is an outrage what we do to the kids whom we send to fight:

Thirty percent of veterans of this war suffer from Post-traumatic Stress - that's the number that have come forth so far - there will be more.

One third of the homeless men in this country are veterans - so wounded inside they can't even maintain a shelter over their heads.

War devastates those it touches and the wounds don't heal. Yet we allow recruiters to roam the hallways of our high schools urging kids to sign up. Be a hero. Serve your country. We should be out there standing in front of anyone who would tear up our kids this way.

What makes the grass grow green?
Blood makes the grass grow green.

This chant is used at basic training.

This is the beginning of the dehumanizing that the military must do to turn eighteen year olds from giggly kids to killers for a cause. They yell at them and curse them to help them harden up inside for what they are about to do. Hardening them up.

And we think we are a civilized people? We laugh and smirk at peace activists chanting and marching? Why do we let this go on?

My dad was in W.W.II - the "good war" - the "romantic war". He was never the same. He had shock treatments, anti-depressants. He spent years in and out of VA hospitals. But nothing could get that horror out of his mind.

I tried to figure him out - why he yelled, why he drank so much... why he cried. I wanted to love him, but he wasn't really there.

Later, I fell in love with a Vietnam veteran. He would fly into rages and threaten to kill the meter reader. Our kids grew up saying, "Oh, there goes Dad again..."

It is unnatural to kill people. It is unnatural to drive tanks over houses and drop bombs on cities. You can't harden kids up for this. It is unnatural to give control of your morals to someone else who will order you to kill. The ones who suffer when they come home?... They are the ones with a conscience. The sad thing is that they are so alone in their pain. And we leave them in it - we don't know what to do, we don't think it's our problem. We pull down our flag-decorated blinders, while these kids try to fit in with horrible memories running through their heads.

The pain that Ben and the other veterans thought was theirs alone belongs on our shoulders. This is society's problem.

If we all had to live with our share of the horror that lives in our soldiers' hearts- we might find other ways to solve national problems.

Instead of scoffing at peace people marching with their signs and drums, we should scoff at the idea of sending kids to shoot each other to resolve national issues. Isn't that the most ridiculous idea?

When we are brave enough to look - really look - at the absurdities of it, civilization will learn to avoid war.

Society must change. We who understand that must be strong enough to stand up to the derision of those who don't yet see it.

We here today can do our part. We live in this mighty country - we have freedom, food, education - we have a voice. It is us who must act.

Let us think and educate and talk and work for non-violent solutions.

War can only exist in shadow. Let us pour light on the subject. Let us remember the tragedy of Ben and the others like him and use that as a catalyst to start acting. We have the knowledge and the power. We can each do our part.

Thank you.

==================================

Note from Margaret N:

The August 6, 2007 Lansing State Journal carried a story on a memorial gathering for Ben Miller - where Becky Payne spoke Sunday afternoon, August 5th - and on the re-dedication of a Peace Pole at Lansing Community College. Here is a link to their story and photos:

http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007708060333

Posted at Monday, August 06, 2007
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