"ICH" — – Get ready for the horrible, honest reality of the American occupations of Irak a Afganistan like you haven’t heard it before. For four days, from March 13 through March 16, hundreds of Spojené štáty veterans of the two wars will descend on Washington and testify in the "Winter Soldier" hearings about what they really did while they were serving their country in Irak. And their experiences aren’t pretty.
The event is inspired by the Winter Solider tribunal held in 1971 by Vietnam War vets, including John Kerry. The name comes from a quote from Thomas Paine, the revolutionary who rallied George Washington’s troops at Valley Forge, saying: "These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman."
Paine was trying to keep Washington‘s army from deserting in the face of a bitter winter and mounting defeats at the hands of the British. Members of Irak Veterans Against the War say the same type of courage is needed to confront the evils unleashed by the Spojené štáty occupations of Irak a Afganistan.
Atmosféra bez zákona
"The problem that we face in Irak is that policymakers in leadership have set a precedent of lawlessness where we don’t abide by the rule of law, we don’t respect international treaties, argued former U.S. Army Sergeant Logan Laituri, who served a tour in Irak from 2004 to 2005 before being discharged as a conscientious objector. "So when that atmosphere exists it lends itself to criminal activity."
Laituri explained that precedent of lawlessness makes itself felt in the rules of engagement handed down by commanders to soldiers on the front lines. When he was stationed in Samarra, for example, he said one of his fellow soldiers shot an unarmed man while he walked down the street.
"Problém je v tom, že ten vojak nespáchal zločin, ako by ste to mohli nazvať, pretože pravidlá nasadenia boli veľmi jasné, že nikto nemal chodiť po ulici," povedal Laituri. "Ale mám s tým problém. Nemôžete povedať rodine, aby nechala všetko, čo vie, aby ste mohli vybombardovať sračky z ich domu alebo ich mesta. Takže aj keď má určite ochranu podľa zákona, nemyslím si, že to oprávňuje tento typ násilia." Nielen čísla
Aaron Hughes, a former member of the Illinois National Guard who spent a year running convoys in Irak, is getting involved too. "We’re trying to create a space for veterans to speak out and change the rhetoric around the war," he said. "There are human beings on both sides. There are not just numbers. That’s what missing in our culture."
Hughes grew up in a basement apartment in chicago and joined the National Guard when he saw how successfully it provided relief during heavy flooding on the Rieka Mississippi.
But after being sent to Irak, he came to see the military in a different way. An art student at the Univerzita of Illinois at the time he was called up, Hughes went back over the photos he took while deployed in Irak and altered them in an "attempt to interpret the posture assumed as a soldier/tourist in the surreal space of Irak." Hughes’ work was been shown at the národné Vietnam Veterány Múzeum umenia in chicago.
"Myslím si, že je to nesprávne, keď sa na to pozriem spätne," povedal. "Ako to nemôžete vnímať ako krok od vašej ľudskosti? Automaticky vás začnú izolovať. Povedia vám, že vaša priateľka alebo váš manžel tam nebude. Povedia vám, aby ste neverili nikomu okrem armády a naozaj začnú podporovať to ako váš jediný vzťah v živote." Rovnako aj kriminálne vojny
The veterans also want to stress the similarities between the wars in Irak a Afganistan.
"The exact same units that are getting the exact same training and the exact same orders are getting sent to both Irak a Afganistan," explained Perry O’Brien, a former U.S. Army Medic who became a conscientious objector after his tour in Afganistan. "What we’re seeing is a lot of similarities between practices in both countries and both are equally criminal."
O'Brien bol dokonca svedkom zneužívania mŕtvych tiel počas svojho turné. "Keď pacient zomrel, cez PA systém sme počuli oznam z kliniky, ktorý povedal: "Kto sa chce naučiť robiť hrudnú trubicu?" alebo 'Kto chce vedieť, ako vyzerá ľudské srdce?',“ povedal. "Namiesto náležitého ošetrenia mŕtveho by sa telo stalo mŕtvolou pre lekársku prax bez súhlasu obete."
Prvý zimný vojak
When the first Winter Soldier hearings were held 37 years ago in 1971, the Spojené štáty had reached a point in the war that was very similar to what’s going on today. Public opinion had moved decidedly against the war. Coalition partners like Austrália a Nový Zéland were withdrawing their troops. The Pentagon Papers had just been released showing a long list of official deception from Washington. And yet, the war continued with President Richard Nixon pushing ahead with an expansion of Spojené štáty intervention in Southeast Asia, which included the invasion of Kambodža.
Vietnam Veterans Against the War were determined to play a role in changing that. They gathered in Detroit to explain what they had really done when they were deployed overseas serving their countries. They showed, through their first-person testimony that atrocities like the My Lai massacre were not isolated exceptions.
Among those in attendance was 27-year-old Navy Lieutenant John Kerry, who had served on a Swift Boat in Vietnam. Three months after the hearings, Kerry took his case to Congress and spoke before a jammed Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing. Television cameras lined the walls, and veterans packed the seats.
Vtedy a teraz: Kerry a Mejia
"Many very highly decorated veterans testified to war crimes committed in Juhovýchodná Ázia," Kerry told the committee, describing the events of the Winter Soldier gathering. "It is impossible to describe to you exactly what did happen in Detroit – the emotions in the room, and the feelings of the men who were reliving their experiences in Vietnam. They relived the absolute horror of what this country, in a sense, made them do."
In one of the most famous antiwar speeches of the era, Kerry concluded: "Someone has to die so that President Nixon won’t be – and these are his words – ‘the first president to lose a war’. We are asking Americans to think about that, because how do you ask a man to be the last man to die in Vietnam? How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?"
Členovia Irak Veterans Against the War intend to play a similarly historic role.
"We have given a blanket invitation to Congress," said Camilo Mejia, the Chair of the Board of Irak Veterans Against the War. "We hope the Congress will give these hearings the same attention they did during the Vietnam era."
But action from politicians is only one possible outcome. Mejia says IVAW also hopes Winter Soldier will increase the size and strength of GI Resistance against the wars in Irak a Afganistan.
"This event is going to empower soldiers to follow their conscience whatever that means for them," said Mejia, who deserted the military after five months in Irak. "The kinds of things we’re talking about are non-partisan. They’re non-political. They have to do with human being trapped in this atrocity producing situation."
Bod zlomu
Mnohí pozorovatelia sa domnievajú, že armáda je už blízko bodu zlomu. Minulý týždeň najvyšší predstavitelia armády povedali výboru pre ozbrojené sily Senátu, že je pod vážnym tlakom a musia čo najskôr skrátiť dĺžku bojových túr. Generál George Casey, náčelník generálneho štábu armády, povedal: "Kumulatívne účinky posledných šesť a viac rokov vo vojne vyviedli našu armádu do nerovnováhy."
Casey told the Senate Armed Services Committee Tuesday that cutting the time soldiers spend in combat is an integral part of reducing the stress on the force. Last year, Senate Republicans and President George W. Bush sabotaged Democratic attempts to ensure troops as much rest time at home as they spent on their most recent tour overseas. Cycling troops through three or four tours in Irak a Afganistan has been the only way Bush has been able to maintain a force of over 140,000 US vojakov v Irak.
Pre väčšinu Američanov „táto vojna bola štatistika, bola to rétorika,“ povedal Hughes, bývalý člen Národnej gardy štátu Illinois. "Ale pre amerických vojakov, ktorí tam slúžili, je to osobné a pre Iračanov, ktorí tam žijú, je to osobné. Preto je naše svedectvo dôležité."
Streamovanie videa a zvuku
Prezentované budú aj video a fotografické dôkazy a svedectvo Winter Soldier a panely budú vysielané naživo na celoštátnej rozhlasovej stanici Pacifica Radio a satelitnej televíznej stanici Free Speech TV Channel 9415. Streamované video na ivaw.org, ako aj zvuk na KPFA.org a warcomeshome.org umožní ľuďom naladiť sa na celom svete.
Stránka War Comes Home, ktorú upravujem a je spojená s rádiovou stanicou San Francisco Pacifica KPFA, bude obsahovať aj životopisy, fotografie a videá rečníkov. Online zvukové klipy svedectiev budú zverejnené v priebehu vypočutia.
Space at the národné Práca koľaj in Silver Spring, Marylandsa Washington, DC suburb where the hearings will occur, is limited. Antiwar activists are not being encouraged to show up, but are instead being asked to have listening or viewing parties in their own communities.
Independent journalist Aaron Glantz, a Foreign Policy In Focus contributor, has reported extensively from Irak v celom Spojené štáty occupation. He is author of How Amerika stratený Irak (Penguin). He will co-host the Pacifica radio broadcast of the Winter Soldier hearings, along with veteran Aimee Allison and both of them will blog from the hearing at www.warcomeshome.org , kde budú môcť poslucháči zanechať svoje pripomienky.
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