"ICH" — – Get ready for the horrible, honest reality of the American occupations of Irakh kwaye Afghanistani like you haven’t heard it before. For four days, from March 13 through March 16, hundreds of US 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 Irakh. 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 Intaba yeFig, 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 Irakh Veterans Against the War say the same type of courage is needed to confront the evils unleashed by the US occupations of Irakh kwaye Afghanistani .
Umoya ongenamthetho
"The problem that we face in Irakh 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 Irakh 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 ISamarra, for example, he said one of his fellow soldiers shot an unarmed man while he walked down the street.
“Ingxaki kukuba elo joni lalingalenzi tyala njengoko unokulibiza ngokuba imithetho yothethathethwano ibicace gca ukuba akukho mntu ebefanele ukuhamba esitratweni,” uthethe watsho uLaituri. "Kodwa ndinengxaki ngaloo nto. Awungekhe uxelele usapho ukuba lushiye yonke into oluyaziyo ukuze uqhushumbise ikaka ngaphandle kwendlu yabo okanye isixeko sabo. Ke ngelixa ngokuqinisekileyo enokhuseleko phantsi komthetho, andicingi. oko kugunyazisa olo hlobo lobundlobongela." Hayi nje Amanani
Aaron Hughes, a former member of the Illinois National Guard who spent a year running convoys in Irakh, 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 UMlambo iMississippi.
But after being sent to Irakh, he came to see the military in a different way. An art student at the KwiYunivesithi of Illinois at the time he was called up, Hughes went back over the photos he took while deployed in Irakh and altered them in an "attempt to interpret the posture assumed as a soldier/tourist in the surreal space of Irakh." Hughes’ work was been shown at the KaZwelonke Vietnam Oomkhosi Art Museum in Chicago.
“Ndicinga ukuba ayilunganga, xa ndijonge emva kuyo,” watsho. "Ungathini ukuba ungayiboni njengenyathelo elikude nobuntu bakho? Baqala ukukwahlula ngokuzenzekelayo. Bakuxelela intombi yakho okanye umyeni wakho akayi kubakho. Bakuxelela ukuba ungathembi mntu ngaphandle komkhosi kwaye baqala ngokwenene. ukukhuthaza oko njengobudlelwane bakho kuphela ebomini." Ngokulinganayo iiMfazwe zoLwaphulo-mthetho
The veterans also want to stress the similarities between the wars in Irakh kwaye Afghanistani .
"The exact same units that are getting the exact same training and the exact same orders are getting sent to both Irakh kwaye Afghanistani ," explained Perry O’Brien, a former U.S. Army Medic who became a conscientious objector after his tour in Afghanistani . "What we’re seeing is a lot of similarities between practices in both countries and both are equally criminal."
U-O'Brien wade wabona ukuxhatshazwa kwezidumbu ngexesha lokhenketho lwakhe. "Xa isigulane safa, siya kuva malunga nenkqubo ye-PA isibhengezo ngekliniki esithi 'Ngubani ofuna ukufunda ukwenza ityhubhu yesifuba?' okanye 'Ngubani na ofuna ukwazi ukuba injani intliziyo yomntu?,'” watsho. "Endaweni yokunika unyango olufanelekileyo lwabafileyo, umzimba uya kuba yinto yonyango ngaphandle kwemvume evela kwixhoba."
Ijoni lokuqala laseBusika
When the first Winter Soldier hearings were held 37 years ago in 1971, the eunited States 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 Ostreliya kwaye Nyu Zilend 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 US intervention in Southeast Asia, which included the invasion of Khambodiya.
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.
Ngoku kwaye ngoku: uKerry noMejia
"Many very highly decorated veterans testified to war crimes committed in mpuma Asia," 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?"
Amalungu Irakh 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 Irakh 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 Irakh kwaye Afghanistani .
"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 Irakh. "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."
indawo yokwaphuka
Ababukeli abaninzi bakholelwa ukuba uMkhosi sele usondele kwindawo yawo yokuqhekeka. Kwiveki ephelileyo, amagosa aphezulu omkhosi axelele iKomiti yeeNkonzo zeSenethi ukuba iphantsi koxinzelelo kwaye kufuneka inciphise ubude bokhenketho lokulwa ngokukhawuleza. UGen. George Casey, umphathi we-Army of Staff uthe, "Imiphumo eyongezelelekileyo yeminyaka emithandathu kunye neyokugqibela emfazweni ishiye uMkhosi wethu ngaphandle kokulinganisela."
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 Irakh kwaye Afghanistani has been the only way Bush has been able to maintain a force of over 140,000 US amajoni ngaphakathi Irakh.
Kuninzi lwabantu baseMelika, "le mfazwe ibiziizibalo, ibiyi-rhetoric," utshilo uHughes, owayesakuba lilungu le-Illinois National Guard. "Kodwa kumajoni aseMelika asebenze apho yinto yobuqu, kwaye kubantu baseIraq abahlala apho, yinto yobuqu. Yiyo loo nto ubungqina bethu bubalulekile."
Ukusasaza ividiyo kunye neAudio
Ubungqina bevidiyo kunye neefoto buya kuboniswa, kwaye ubungqina beJoni laseBusika kunye neepaneli ziya kusasazwa ngqo kwi-Pacifica Radio kunye nesiteshi sikamabonakude sesathelayithi Intetho yasimahla yeTV Channel 9415. Ukusasaza ividiyo ivaw.org, kunye nesandi kwi-KPFA.org kunye intle.okanye iyakwenza ukuba abantu babukele kwihlabathi liphela.
Indawo yeMfazwe ibuyela eKhaya, endiyihlelayo kwaye inyanyaniswe nesikhululo sikanomathotholo saseSan Francisco Pacifica i-KPFA, iya kuba ne-bios, iifoto, kunye neevidiyo zezithethi. Iikliphu zeaudio ezikwi-Intanethi zobungqina ziya kuthunyelwa njengoko kuqhubeka ukuva.
Space at the KaZwelonke laboratory ikholeji in Silver Silver, Maryland, i 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 Irakh kuyo yonke US occupation. He is author of How America ezilahlekileyo Irakh (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.okanye , apho abaphulaphuli baya kukwazi ukushiya amagqabaza abo.
I-ZNetwork ixhaswa ngemali kuphela ngesisa sabafundi bayo.
Nikela