Hidden
Wars: US Troops In Germany
By Heather Wokusch
11 June, 2007
Countercurrents.org
"The point now is how do we work together to achieve important
goals. And one such goal is a democracy in Germany." - George
W. Bush, May 2006
There's
an unexpected front in the Bush administration's "war on terror"
- Germany. And the roughly 68,000 US troops stationed across the country
often find themselves in the center of controversy over US foreign policy.
Take Agustín Aguayo,
a Mexican-American conscientious objector (CO) formerly based in Bavaria.
Aguayo unsuccessfully applied for CO status before deploying in 2004,
and citing non-violence, even refused to carry a loaded weapon during
his year as a combat medic in Iraq.
In late 2005, Aguayo appealed
to a US Federal court on grounds that his CO status had been wrongfully
denied, and after his bid was rejected, fled Germany rather than redeploy
to Iraq in September 2006. Before surrendering to military authorities
in California less than a month later, Aguayo held a press conference
stating, "I have come to believe that it is wrong to destroy life,
that it is wrong to use war, that it is immoral, and I can no longer
go down that path."
Aguayo was promptly sent
back to Germany and thrown in the brig. His case became something of
a national cause célèbre, with prominent German newspapers
reporting his eventual court martial and conviction for desertion.
Other US troops in Germany
seeking early discharge have been luckier, and many can thank the Bammental-based
Military Counseling Network (MCN). In fact, all seven of the conscientious
objector applicants the MCN supported through the application process
in 2006 ended up receiving Honorable discharges.
One was former US Army Specialist
Kyle D. Huwer, who served for one and a half years before, as he puts
it, "I finally came to my senses and realized that what I was doing
was wrong."
Another was former US Army
Private Clifton F. Hicks, who served from the summer of 2003 to late
2005. Hicks says, "I joined to defend the people of the United
States, and when I found our Army was not doing that, and that I was
in fact being used to further the goals of evil men, I began to question
my involvement in such an organization."
For some troops in Germany,
going AWOL (absent without leave) seems the only option, such as "John,"
who took a stateside leave earlier this year and never returned.
Even John's family does not
know where he is now, and it could be for the best. His parents are
avid Bush-supporters; his uncle works for a weapons manufacturer and
his stepfather, for an oil company.
The only person John has
fleeting contact with is his girlfriend, "Sarah," doing her
best to cope with his absence. Sarah had lived in Germany with John
and is frustrated with life back in the US: "Watching the news
here really makes me angry, people are so detached from reality. They
increase the troop deployments from 12 to 15 months, and no one besides
the military families recognizes it. They are sending back national
guard people for multiple deployments, no one recognizes it. You hardly
hear anything about what that puts on the families, emotionally and
financially. I'm deeply mad and sad about that at the same time."
Initially gung-ho about enlisting,
John said second thoughts arose when he was repairing a phone hookup
in Baghdad and spotted "Abu Ghraib" on a faulty fiberoptic
cable. He felt part of something wrong: "I didn't directly have
blood on my hands, but I was part of it."
John granted an exclusive
interview for this article, and spoke about becoming disenchanted with
the military. Of his year in Baghdad: "It was not what I was expecting
at all. There are people in Iraq making HUGE sums of money profiting
over poorly supervised and ill-run government contracts. When you hear
about the cost of the war in Iraq, it's this kind of thing that's doing
it, not the body armor, having to pay the soldiers a couple of meager
extra bucks, or armoring the humvees. It's paying KBR $90 for every
time I turn in my laundry while
paying poor Pakistani and Filipino workers who work long hours with
no days off for years at a time (and handling thousands of bags of laundry)
$15 a day."
John's unit returned to Germany
in mid-2006, but he says, "We were treated like dirt still, and
being late in the morning was a serious thing because they were afraid
of people killing themselves overnight."
After a few months out of
Iraq, John felt "a tantalizing taste of freedom and what life should
be like, not what life in the army is." Rather than deploying to
Afghanistan later this year, he approached the Military Counseling Network
and decided to go AWOL.
While MCN counsels US troops
on a range of early discharge possibilities, case manager Tim Huber
says that conscientious objection and hardship are currently the most
prevalent choices: "These two discharges reflect an expansive array
of problems with the military, including problems with the morality
of the current war in Iraq, family issues, a dismissive attitude on
the military's part towards post-traumatic stress disorder, and a general
fed-upedness towards rotational deployments with no end in sight."
Huber and MCN Director Michael
J. Sharp face a daunting workload. Since the beginning of this year,
they have handled roughly ten new soldier cases every month - a 30%
increase over the numbers averaged in 2006.
Of course, the majority of
US troops in Germany are not seeking early discharge. The military has
become a way of life, and that can present challenges when they eventually
return home and look for civilian work.
That's where Sudie Nolan-Cassimatis
comes in, a vibrant woman who teaches job-application skills to retiring
service members. As part of the Department of Labor's Transition Assistance
Program, Nolan-Cassimatis travels across Germany to different military
bases each week, coaching classes of 10-50 on the finer points of entering
the US job market. Basics such as writing résumés and
answering interview questions are covered in the course, but as Nolan-Cassimatis
observes, "these things seem very straightforward to those of us
who have never
been in uniform, but don't seem at all straightforward to folks who
have spent their careers in the military."
She's clearly dedicated to
her work: "Mostly, I am amazed and touched each week at the stories
I hear from soldiers. Many of them have been deployed twice or more,
even the soldiers who are only 22 years old, and they have a resilient
spirit. They've given up multiple years of their lives. Many of them
have kids that they've been away from for years at a time. I think it's
only fair that they get a shot at a job on the outside."
Nolan-Cassimatis knows firsthand
about having a loved one serving in a war zone. Her husband Dimitri
is currently in Baghdad working as a Squadron Surgeon.
Before deploying, Dimitri
Cassimatis was a cardiologist at the sprawling Landstuhl Regional Medical
Center (LRMC) in southwestern Germany. It is the largest American hospital
outside of the US and the first stop for medical and psychiatric evacuees
out of Iraq and Afghanistan.
C-17 cargo planes drop off
the wounded day and night, and LRMC's staff of 2,200 can handle 1000
beds in an emergency. A typical day at LRMC sees nine new acute cases.
On a recent visit to the
facility, the Iraq war's toll on US troops was brutally evident. A 23-year-old
soldier, physically shattered and facing blindness, was among many battling
for life in the Intensive Care Unit. Couldn't even see the newly-earned
purple heart pinned to his pillow.
In the next ward, a fresh-faced
young woman whose neck had been crushed during a bad fall. A 19-year-old
nearby contemplating life with just one leg. Relentless stories of IED
(improvised explosive device) attacks and sniper assaults; youth putting
a brave face on lives torn apart and innocence lost.
The wounded at LRMC may be
under the radar for most Germans, but debate continues over whether
the US military presence there ultimately perpetuates the Bush administration's
wars.
Just last week, a group of
Iraq veterans and German peace activists demonstrated outside Katterbach
Army Airfield in Bavaria, trying to convince active-duty soldiers preparing
for a 15-month deployment to reconsider. As Adam Kokesh, a 25-year-old
member of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) told the Berliner Zeitung
newspaper, "There is no military solution for Iraq. An army can
only destroy." Kokesh and other US veterans were also trying to
raise awareness about the struggle of those in the Bavarian town of
Ansbach working to resist the expansion of a US military base there.
Advocates point out that
Americans have lived peacefully in the country for decades, supporting
the economy, contributing to communities and befriending locals.
But as Lori Hurlebaus of
Courage to Resist notes, "Even if the German military was not involved
in the invasion of Iraq, there is a military conducting a war of aggression
from German soil."
Action ideas:
1. Read more about Agustín
Aguayo's case (www.aguayodefense.org)and
check out the site's great links. Aguayo returned to California in May
for a whirlwind speaking tour; invite him to speak in your city via
the site.
2. Learn more about war resisters
at Courage to Resist (www.couragetoresist.org).
3. Read more about early
discharge possibilities at the Military Counseling Network (www.getting-out.de).
4. Check out Iraq Veterans
Against the War (www.ivaw.org)
founded in 2004 "to give a voice to the large number of active
duty service people and veterans who are against this war, but are under
various pressures to remain silent." Adam Kokesh and another IVAW
member, Liam Madden, are being pressured by the Marines for their antiwar
activities. Learn more and take action at the IVAW site.
5. Visit Veterans for Commonsense
(www.veteransforcommonsense.org),
which aims "to raise the unique and powerful voices of veterans
so that our military, veterans, freedom, and national security are protected
and enhanced, for ourselves and for future generations."
A linked version of each
article is available at www.heatherwokusch.com
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