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Soldiers Join Sheehan in Protesting the War on Iraq
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Kathy Stone, W A M M
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Cindy Sheehan’s August vigil in Crawford, Texas, gave inspiration to millions and a boost to the antiwar movement. Like thousands of other citizens from around the country I followed Cindy to Crawford.
I was more than a little surprised at the numbers of active duty soldiers and veterans who were among the nearly 2,000 present that weekend. There were WWII, Korean, Vietnam, and Iraq war veterans. I also met a young soldier turned conscientious objector.
But I shouldn’t have been surprised. Veterans For Peace had invited Sheehan to speak at its national convention. It was there, on August 5, that she announced she was going to Crawford the very next day. VFP members arrived with her, they helped prepare for the mass turnout, and they continued to support her throughout the vigil, the bus tours through 28 states, and the September 24 mass mobilization in Washington, DC.
Marine Lt Cpl Jeff Key was in Crawford for Casey Sheehan, as a fellow soldier who had served in Iraq. “I’m here knowing that could be my mom. And I love my mama,” he said in his Alabama accent. “I would want my buddies to be here and help her say what she wanted to say.”
Key, 40, presents a picture-perfect image of a Marine – tall, handsome, strong. He became a familiar face to those following the Camp Casey vigil because he played taps every evening at dusk at the foot of a field of white crosses.
Currently a reservist assigned to Camp Pendleton, he served at the Iranian border for nine months in 2003. His journal entries, compiled in book form and titled The Blood of Profits, are soon to be published by a major publishing house. “The Blood of Profits” alludes to Revelation scriptures about Babylon, which he described as both a “troubling and beautiful place. I was in anguish and in bliss at the same time. It was the most spiritual time of my life.”
Eddie Boyd of Baltimore, Maryland, served in the military from 1974 to 1987. An African-American who grew up in Miami’s depressed Liberty City, he said he used to be a staunch advocate of the military. But now he believes America is engaged in an economic draft, drawing disadvantaged youth to serve in the military because they have no other options. Of his ten best friends from Liberty City, eight are dead because of crime-related activities.
Boyd despises recruiters’ methods for luring young recruits. He’s witnessed recruiters hosting events for prospects that sell boot camp “like it’s a summer camp.” Brightly colored hummers blare party music, and recruiters promise free gifts for those that attend.
Nicholas Przybyla, also 23, is a Navy veteran who served in the Persian Gulf from 2001-2002 as part of an amphibious landing force. Przybyla shot video during the March 2005 military protest at Fort Bragg attended by 5,000 members of the military and supporters. His video of the Ft. Bragg rally is called “Operation: Veteran Freedom.” He interviewed many veterans and soldiers who are currently serving. The interviews describe their experiences with freely dispensed antidepressants by the military, the effects of depleted uranium on both Iraqis and soldiers, and other realities not reported in the corporate media.
Eric May, “Captain May,”a Houstonian who might be compared with Che Guevara in a cowboy hat, was on the scene to support Cindy and protect the protestors. A former military intelligence officer, May has for the past couple of years headed an Internet activist group called “Ghost Troop,” whose mission is fighting propaganda and misinformation issued by the Bush Administration and propagated by the corporate media. Prior experience as a high school teacher of classic languages along with his insider’s military experience make May an engaging speaker. He mesmerized listeners with his account of the April 2003 Battle of Baghdad and its cover-up, while the engineered “rescue” of Pvt. Jessica Lynch was played out on television.
Stephen Funk, 23, San Francisco, enlisted immediately after 9/11 in an act of patriotism. But following boot camp he learned from soldiers returning from Iraq of the awful impact on the Iraqi citizens and the rampant mismanagement of the military. Funk realized Bush was seeking an elective war against a people who were not our enemy. He decided to seek concientious objector status. The decision resulted in charges of being AWOL, and he spent five months in prison in 2003 before being given a “bad conduct” discharge. He also racked up a $10,000 legal bill, which antiwar groups stepped in to help cover while he gave interviews to Mother Jones and other media and spoke at antiwar rallies.
“Bush was wrong to say the war was worth it,” says Funk. “No one needed to die in Iraq. The focus should have been on Osama bin Laden.”
Like Cindy Sheehan and other mothers of fallen soldiers, our military members have the moral authority to speak out about Iraq, and they are using it in increasing numbers. Had our current leaders served and experienced loss, they might not have chosen to go to war so easily. |
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WORD UP
Ye shall know the truth, and
the truth shall make you mad.
—Aldous Huxley
The pioneers of a warless world are the youth that refuse military service.
—Albert Einstein.
Pentagon Study
Pentagon: Muslim Society Does Not Seek To Be Liberated By U.S.
A U.S. Defense Department study has determined that Muslims in the Middle East do not yearn for freedom.
A Pentagon advisory board has released a report that asserted that Muslims in dictatorial regimes do not seek freedom as those in countries that had been dominated by the Soviet Union after World War II. The board said that unlike those who lived in East Bloc states, Muslims do not see the United States as their liberator.
"There is no yearning-to-be-liberated-by-the-U.S. groundswell among Muslim societies -- except to be liberated perhaps from what they see as apostate tyrannies that the U.S. so determinedly promotes and defends," the Pentagon board said in a report.
The 102-page report by the Defense Science Board reviewed U.S. information policy toward the Arab and Muslim world as part of an effort to stem the tide of anti-Americanism. The board concluded that Washington has failed to adequately explain its diplomatic and military policy to Muslims around the world
Middle East Newsline (MENL) 09/17/05
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© 2005 Women Against Military Madness. All rights reserved.
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Complete November 2005 Index - click here
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