[Needtoknow] Fwd: Winter Soldiers challenge us to become Winter Citizens

[gary hicks]

gary hicks <gooberthink06 at yahoo.com> wrote: Date: Mon, 31 Mar 2008 22:48:32 -0700 (PDT)
From: gary hicks <gooberthink06 at yahoo.com>
Subject: Winter Soldiers challenge us to become Winter Citizens
To: gary hicks <gooberthink06 at yahoo.com>

    if ( self != top ) {   top.location.href = self.location.href;  }    if ( self != top  ) {   while( navigator.userAgent.toLowerCase().indexOf("khtml")                                 Print - Close Window                   Winter Soldiers Challenge Us to Become Winter  Citizens
 By Joseph Gainza
 In December of 1776 the prospects of the rebelling American colonies looked grim. George Washington and his dwindling army where in full retreat against the advancing superior British forces. Many in Washington’s Continental army were deserting or leaving when their brief enlistments were up. It looked as if, just five months after declaring their independence, the 13 states would remain colonies of the British Empire. It was then, on December 19, that Thomas Paine published the first of a series of pamphlets entitled the American Crisis. His opening lines still have the power to stir the imagination:
 These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now  deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.
 Paine’s words were read by General Washington to his troops before they  went on to capture a Hessian mercenary force at Trenton on Christmas night. 
 Inspired by Paine’s call to defend their country, and following the example of Vietnam War vets 37 years earlier, veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan occupations came together under the banner of Winter Soldier, to serve their country in one of its darkest hours, mired in a criminal and immoral war. 
 For three days, March 13-16, 2008, the campus of the George Meany National Labor College in Silver Spring, Maryland hosted over 200 of these veterans and hundreds of their allies, including veterans of earlier U.S. wars. We were there to hear and support the vets as they narrated their eyewitness accounts of the occupations, as they described their sense of betrayal and shame, and the transformations, personal and political, which still occupy them.
 The event was organized by Iraq Veterans Against the War to “reclaim the soul of our country.” The announcement of their  Winter Soldier testimonies echoes Thomas Paine’s patriotic call: 
 Once again, we are fighting for the soul of our country. We will demonstrate our patriotism by speaking out with honor and integrity instead of blindly following failed policy. Winter Soldier is a difficult but essential service to our country.
 Over the course of the three days several panels of vets described what they did and what they witnessed which made them first question and then oppose the occupations. They talked about being sent to Iraq with the message that they were freeing the Iraqi people from a brutal dictator and that they would be received as liberators with flowers and candy. They talked about the pride they felt in being part of such a humanitarian effort. 
 When it became obvious that the Iraqis, while grateful for the overthrow of Saddham Hussein, wanted the troops to leave, the initial euphoria turned into resentment, anger and fear. It was then that  the rules of engagement began to change. The rules, which spell out prohibited and appropriate behavior toward civilian populations during an occupation, shifted as Iraqi resistance to the occupation intensified. U.S. military commanders changed the rules of engagement so often that the troops in many cases had no recourse but to do whatever they felt necessary to keep themselves and their buddies alive. Often their behavior violated their best instincts and values. 
 The vets testified to either engaging in or witnessing house raids terrorizing families, random killings of people who were no threat to the troops; brutal beatings and torture of men detained on suspicion, and massive destruction in civilian areas which became free-fire zones.
 Both soldiers and Marines testified that, with the unstated approval of their superior officers, they began to carry “droppers,” weapons which could be placed near the body of an Iraqi, who they either  intentionally or mistakenly killed, to indicate that the victim was a “terrorist.” 
 Many of the testifiers assured us that what they described is repeated over and over again, thousands, perhaps millions of times throughout Iraq and Afghanistan as the occupations fail, the killing and dying continue and fear and anger grind away at the humanity of the troops and the people they occupy.
 Without exception the vets refuse to blame their “brothers and sisters” in uniform placed in such overwhelmingly difficult and dangerous circumstances but rather those leaders who unnecessarily and criminally put them there. 
 This feeling of betrayal by their civilian leaders and their commanding officers came also from not having the proper equipment to fight a war of choice where there had been plenty of time to plan for supplying them with the material they needed. The vets testified to having to cobble together armor for their vehicles, of having to  purchase, or have family members purchase, their own body armor. They talked about being ordered to drive at high speeds through inhabited areas without regard for children and other civilians on the streets, about being ordered to bury food rather than distribute it to Iraqis obviously in need. 
 These young men and women who went to Iraq with high ideals of liberation and service to the Iraqi people described how their very humanity was diminished by the realities of military occupation and a U.S. government agenda which they say is the opposite of liberation. They did not mention it but could have that the Declaration of Independence lists as one of the “Injuries and Usurpations” which the British King perpetrated against the colonies was military occupation and impunity. 
 The vets related how up to Sept. 11, 2001 the U.S. military had an admirable program of combating racism in its ranks, but after that date some commanders began to refer to Arabs  and Moslems as “towel heads,” “rag heads” and “sand n

” This modeling of racist language and attitudes permeated the ranks of the infantry and soon, for many of the troops, Iraqis and Afghanis became less than human and were treated accordingly. As one soldier said “the slippery slope [of racism] starts at the top and goes down.”
 One after another the vets described coming home to a nation which seemed indifferent to the sacrifices they had made and the horrors they had experienced and, in some instances, perpetrated. Several talked about how hard it is to return to civilian life where everybody seems to carry on as if the wars and occupations did not exist and where few, if any people understand or are interested in what the vets have gone through. Several of them commented wryly that supporting the troops means more than placing a magnet on your car. They told about the inadequacy of medical treatment they receive by VA hospitals short on resources and  overwhelmed by the numbers of troops returning with severe physical and emotional damage. The parents of former Marine Jeff Lacey described in heart wrenching detail how their son came home a shattered young man, calling himself a murderer and, despite the good intentions of VA staff, fell through the cracks in the system and hung himself with a
 water hose in the basement of his parents’ house.
 At times the audience listening to these testimonies sat in stone silence, or you could hear expressions of disbelief and sorrow, or sometimes quiet weeping. After each testimony we would rise to our feet and applaud, thanking them for their honesty and bravery, for facing and telling the truth.
 There is no doubt in my mind that these men and women are heroes who love their country. Many are proud to have served in the military even as they now realize that the war they were sent to, and the policies which led to it are criminally wrong and immoral. They have  done the excruciatingly hard work of facing themselves and seeking the truth about their experience and behavior. As one testifier, a Vermont resident said “I am no longer the monster I once was.”
 The questions arise: what are we, citizens who support the men and women in uniform, to make of these testimonies? As the people who pay the taxes for, and in whose name the U.S. government prosecutes war, what is our responsibility when hearing what happens in war, especially wars of choice? Now that we know that the reasons given for invading Iraq were lies, how must we respond?
 I think the young men and women who testified at Winter Soldier provide us with at least a partial answer. Just as they had to come to grips with what they did in Iraq and returned to try and save the soul of our country in one of its darkest hours, we citizens must come to grips with our own complicity in policies and behavior of the leaders of our democratic republic; we must  become Winter Citizens.
 Barak Obama, has called this nation to at last face up to our history and lingering heritage of slavery and racism. We who love this country must also face up to the reality of its role and behavior in the world. We must learn that Iraq and Afghanistan are not “mistakes” of the Bush Administration but rather part of an over arching policy framework which precedes by decades the current presidency, including both Democratic and Republican administrations. 
 Individually and as a nation we must expand and deepen our historical memory, the lack of which enables duplicitous national and military leaders to time and again take our country into unnecessary and unjust wars and invasions (against Mexico, Spain, Vietnam, and Panama to name a few beside Iraq). We must learn our history and face up to the reality that our nation, especially our national leaders, has often betrayed our highest ideals and values. 
 If we love our  country we must resolve to never again naively accept government propaganda which plays on our fears and too easily prescribes military violence to address complex international issues. We must endeavor to critically examine statements from national leaders which divide the world into good and evil. Rather we must keep in mind the words of the Archbishop of Milan, Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini who said that the line between good and evil runs down the center of every human being.
 As Winter Citizens we must recognize that our nation and national policies serve the wealthiest of citizens while the rest of us struggle to hold onto our ever shrinking piece of the pie of democracy. This loss of our political voice has resulted in the greatest transfer of material wealth in our history to the wealthiest 10%, taken from the rest of us. We must understand that our “free market” is only free for the owners of the mechanisms of the market (financial institutions are bailed  out with our tax dollars while millions of us may lose our homes and struggle to keep afloat). Worse, this imbalance of political power sends the sons and daughters of the poor and middle classes off to wars which benefit the wealthy owners of our largest corporations.
 To inspire us as we work to regain our power as citizens and to make real our firm belief that all people are created equal; we must first remember the great history of this country. While our Constitution names “We the People” as forming our union, those who wrote and adopted the document were white, male landowners; everyone else was excluded. The best history of this nation has been the non-violent struggle and immense effort of ordinary men and women to make more inclusive what is meant by “the People.” The term was forcefully expanded over the decades to include landless men, African Americans, women, and all people of color. Enormous efforts are still being made to consolidate those gains  and to include in our national embrace people with disabilities, and people with differing sexual orientations and genders.
 This history, unfinished as it is, is a reminder that as a nation we can change and grow toward our best ideals and values. We can see that we are one people who, across the political spectrum, share such values as fairness, kindness, generosity, compassion, responsibility, caring for others, equality, integrity, honesty and freedom.
 The word “democracy” is derived from two Greek words: demos, meaning “the people” and kratia, meaning “power, rule;” “democracy” means we the people rule. For me the final lesson of Winter Soldier is that as individuals and as a people we can reclaim our power and save the soul of our country.
                   
               

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