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VVAW Kentuckiana Commemorates Sixth Anniversary of the Iraq War

By Harold Trainer

Certain dates are etched in our memories: December 7th, 1941, Pearl Harbor; September 11th, 2001, attack on the Twin Towers; March 19th, 2003, the date the United States invaded Iraq in an illegal and immoral war. A war declared because Iraq supposedly had weapons of mass destruction. There were none. Since then we've learned that the Bush-Cheney administration was determined to declare war on Iraq no matter what the cost or reason. So much for the United States being greeted as liberators, cheap oil paying for the war, and the war lasting only weeks rather than years. Instead, six years later 4500 plus brave military have died, thousands more have been seriously wounded and one fifth of the Iraqi population dead or displaced and the cost is in the trillions. All borrowed. A debt that is being passed on to our grandchildren. We were lied to. March 19th is a shameful blot on our country's history. Let us never forget this date.

Harold Trainer

Since March 2003, members of the Kentuckiana Chapter of Vietnam Veterans Against the War and Louisville Peace Action Community have consistently opposed the war and occupation. We have written letters to the editor, communicated with Congress and the President. We marched through the streets of Louisville and in Washington DC. We painted countless anti-war signs and banners. We placed hundreds of pairs of boots on the courthouse steps and strung clotheslines of t-shirts and displayed thousands of white flags to symbolize the unspeakable loss of thousands of American and Iraqi lives.

Congress failed to correct this situation and in fact aided and abetted the president by consistently and enthusiastically supporting and funding the war. Protests and objections were drowned out by the accusations of being unpatriotic and inciting our nation with the fear of terrorism. Clearly, the beating of the war drum of fear and terror minimized dissent. And, in order to ensure there was a minimum of dissent for this unjust war, the President and Congress made this a war where only our military and families suffered the effects. The great majority of Americans were never affected by this difficult war. There were no sacrifices, no tax increase or draft. They were isolated from the grief and pain by a President who wanted to minimize the criticism of a nation motivated by his mantra of we have everything to fear including fear itself.

Now again on March 19th 2009, the Sixth Anniversary of the Iraq War, close to a hundred members of Vietnam Veterans Against the War and Louisville Peace Action Community gathered at the Jefferson County Courthouse and displayed banners, signs and symbols of this tragic war. Members spoke, including famed activist Fr. Bourgeois, founder of School of Americas Watch. Symbolic music played. The press covered the event and interviewed veterans and non veterans regarding the war and why they were here. There was radio and television coverage of this event.

Speakers addressed attendees and spoke of the war being a huge mistake if not an outright lie. A VVAW representative spoke and said that there were no valid reasons for the war and when this became known Bush changed the reasons. There were no WMD, links to Al Qaeda, or an imminent threat. The President and senior military leaders executed the war poorly resulting in the deaths of thousands of our troops. The government cannot even properly care for the many wounded veterans from the war. We are outflanked in Afghanistan while the Taliban threat increases. We are trapped there. Osama is still free. A trillion plus dollars, borrowed, and military lives have been spent. Afghanistan was neglected and the Taliban threat grew so we are now surrounded in a country financed by drugs. A mountainous country the size of Texas with 39 million people next to one of the most populous and dangerous countries in the world, Pakistan.

Our brave military men and women give our country a blank check. The government and American people must ensure that the check is not cashed for a war which is a mistake. If you want to thank a veteran, ensure they are not put in harm's way for no reason or a lie like they have been in Iraq.

Withdraw from Iraq, leave Afghanistan and demilitarize our country so that other instruments of national power are used to achieve our national objectives rather than war.

War is not the answer.

Harold Trainer is a retired USAF Major who lives in Prospect, Kentucky. He is an adjunct instructor of business at Kentucky Community and Technical College in Louisville. Johanna Camenisch, Judy Munro Leighton and Kate Cunningham of the Louisville Peace Action Community contributed to this article.

Members of Kentuckiana VVAW.