Active-Duty
US Troops Voice Opposition To The Iraq War
By Joanne Laurier
26 October 2006
World
Socialist Web
More than 100 serving members
of the US military have to date sent “Appeals for Redress”
to members of Congress, urging “the prompt withdrawal of all American
military forces and bases from Iraq.”
Under the Military Whistle-Blower
Protection Act, active-duty military, National Guard and reservists
are allowed to file and send a protected communication to a member of
Congress on any subject without reprisal.
The action represents the
first time that serving military personnel are petitioning Congress
to end the Iraq war. The organizations sponsoring the effort are Iraq
Veterans Against the War, Military Families Speak Out and Veterans for
Peace.
Until a few days ago, some
65 servicemen and servicewomen had sent appeals to Congress. The number
of petitioners has now reached nearly 350, with more than 125 of them
on active duty.
Under military regulations,
service members can speak out only while off duty and out of uniform,
making clear that they are not speaking for the military. In addition,
they cannot say anything disrespectful about their commanders or the
president.
Two active-duty servicemen
have taken the risky step of publicly representing the campaign: Jonathan
Hutto, a Navy seaman stationed in Norfolk, Virginia, and Liam Madden,
a Marine Corps sergeant in Quantico, Virginia. Madden spent six months
in Iraq.
Hutto and Madden, as well
as a female member of the military who remained anonymous, spoke at
a media teleconference yesterday.
Hutto told the media that
he had come up with the idea for the appeals drive in January 2006.
While deployed in a ship off the coast of Iraq he read a copy of David
Cortright’s Soldiers in Revolt: GI Resistance During the Vietnam
War.
The GI movement, explained
Hutto, was comprised of “active-duty, sailors, marines and soldiers
in the military during the Vietnam War who advocated and fought to end
that war and bring the troops home.... By 1971, over 250,000 of these
active-duty service people” had petitioned their political leaders.
Today’s appeal, said
the sailor, states “that the Iraq war should come to an end and
that we should end the occupation and bring the troops home.”
He believes that the resources being spent on the war should be redirected
to solving the economic and social problems at home.
Madden, 22, added: “I
oppose the war in Iraq and I feel it is my duty not as a Marine but
as an informed citizen to tell other service members that there’s
a powerful tool available to them.... The real grievances are: why are
we in Iraq if the weapons of mass destruction are not found, if the
links to Al Qaeda are not substantiated?
“If democracy is our
goal, I believe we’re going about it all wrong and the occupation
is perpetuating more violence. I think it’s the biggest destabilizing
thing we can do in the Middle East. Furthermore, it’s costing
way too many Iraqi civilian and service members’ lives.... The
only people who benefit in my eyes—visibly see the benefit—are
corporations, such as Halliburton....
“If people want to
support the troops, then they should support our coming home.”
Commenting on the tremendous
stress faced by military families over multiple redeployments, Madden
asserted, “The real deal is that it’s an economic situation.
People are staying [in the military] despite the hardship of getting
deployed over and over and over again because it’s what’s
best for their families and until there’s another viable source
of income, they’re going to stay in the military.” He stated
that fundamental to the appeal is that “people are getting harmed
and lives are getting severely damaged because of this war.”
The servicewoman explained
that “the reason I am calling anonymously is because of fear of
reprisal for my involvement even though it is legal. Anyone who’s
been involved in the military does know that there are informal means
of punitive actions that circumvent the legal system, which are often
used in different means to intimidate soldiers.”
Having recently returned
from a year in Iraq, she described some of her experiences. “I’ve
seen friends injured and I’ve been affected by the deaths within
my brigade and unit.” Being in the crossfire of a civil war, she
said, further added to the frustration that soldiers felt from risking
their lives on a daily basis without really understanding the reason
for the risk or possessing the ability to “question what’s
going on in the [political and military] upper echelons.”
All three spoke about the
pervasive opposition to the war within the ranks of the military. “I
don’t think the American public realizes just how many soldiers
and service members in general really do have reservations about the
actions going on over there,” said the servicewoman. “Obviously
fear is one of the main reasons that people are not stepping forward,
but that does not preclude them from having these feelings. I start
seeing momentum going forward and more and more soldiers coming out....
“Military service people
are not supposed to organize groups so this [campaign] is just word
of mouth. We’re not talking about mass phone calls or mass mailings.
It’s one person talking to another—the snowball effect.”
Hutto revealed that of the
20 sailors he approached, all but one gave their support. This despite
the fact that, as Madden asserted, “You’re told from the
day you come into [the military] that you don’t have any rights.
That the Constitution that you’re defending does not apply to
you. It’s a culture [which stresses] that you don’t get
engaged in the process, that you’re there to receive orders and
get those orders done, that you don’t get engaged and don’t
raise any views at all.”
He ended by stating that
“what we’re doing is untraditional, unorthodox and unprecedented.”
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