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Iraq Veterans Against the War Take Action

By Hannah Frisch

So you are standing in Union Station in Washington, DC waiting for your commuter train at 8am one weekend back in March, and you see thirteen soldiers in full desert camouflage uniforms with military packs on their backs. They aren't acting like soldiers on leave, they're acting like they think they're in Iraq. They're in some kind of formation and they are barking out orders to each other about danger area and watching the doors. They close in on a small group of young people and form a circle around them. Four of the soldiers form a perimeter around the young people and face outwards in different directions. The rest of the soldiers yell at everyone in the group of young people to lie face down on the ground. There's yelling and screaming and pandemonium. The soldiers separate two of the group from the others. "Get down on your fucking knees." "If you move again I will shoot you in the head." They "zip tie" the two with plastic handcuffs behind their backs and put bags on their heads. They leave them on their knees by a planter and form up and march off.

After the "soldiers" left, someone called the cops. The "civilians" had trained for the operation along with the Iraq Veterans Against the War members, who played the soldiers. By the time the cops arrived, the IVAW members had left Union Station, which is private property. IVAW activist Charlie Anderson said, "The cop just looks at me and gives me the peace sign and moves off."

Union Station was the first stop of Operation First Casualty (the first casualty of war being truth), which was designed to show people in the US what it really means to occupy a country. Next stops were CNN, Fox News, the Capitol Building, the White House, a press conference, the Washington Monument, and finally Arlington National Cemetery.

The White House was scary because they knew there were snipers on the roof. At the Washington Monument, their action was so close to a line of tourists that it felt awkward not to say something. Charlie was trying to figure out what to say, when new IVAW member Ryan Lockwood, of the Chicago area, standing next to the kneeling, zip-tied civilian, spoke up spontaneously and told the tourists, "This happens every day in your name. I know because I did it."

The final stop was Arlington National Cemetery for a small memorial service that ended with a hand salute to the traditional memorial of an upturned rifle, with a helmet, dog tags, and boots. Then each of the IVAW members removed their camouflage uniform shirts and left them in front of the memorial, to symbolize their change from soldier back into civilian. It was hard for all of us to go back into that role, Anderson said. "We don't like being violent and aggressive and abusive. Every one of us had some degree of PTSD as a result of the action."

Geoff Millard, President of the DC-IVAW Chapter, led the planning of Operation First Casualty. He described how intensively they trained for it and said that they had underestimated how mentally stressing it would be on the participants.

He was inspired by Vietnam Veterans Against the War's 1970 Operation RAW, a guerrilla theater "search and destroy" mission, clearing the road from Morristown, NJ to Valley Forge, PA. It was also designed to show ordinary citizens what was actually happening in the war. Because Operation RAW was held away from a major city, it got little publicity. That aspect IVAW did not want to repeat, and they got excellent coverage in the Washington Post on TV, and on You-Tube.

"VVAW took years to form," Millard said. "We took only five months after the Iraq War started because we have the luxury of looking back to VVAW and learning from their successes and failures. If it weren't for VVAW, there could be no IVAW." Millard expressed appreciation for the mentoring of VVAW leaders such as Dave Cline, Bill Perry, Barry Romo and Jan Barry. "VVAW is not an abstract influence. They personally showed us the ropes and talked to us about the late nights when your are trying to get through while still tripping about the war."

Millard pointed proudly to IVAW's growth—now up to 16 chapters around the country. He sees IVAW as structured but decentralized. Chapters can act independently of the National Office. The DC chapter initiated Operation First Casualty.

IVAW went to Camp Casey over Easter. There also were Operation First Casualty Actions in Philadelphia in April and in New York in May.

IVAW now has volunteer regional coordinators and has held regional strategy sessions around the country. Millard also talked about the importance of talking to active duty personnel and of having IVAW be a safe place for veterans who are people of color or women or openly gay.

A group of members have formed IVAW Deployed. They fixed up a bus and toured the US over the winter, traveling from a Baltimore school to Ft. Benning for the School of the Americas demonstration, then New Orleans for reconstruction work. The were in Washington State outside Ft. Lewis to support Lt. Watada when his court marshal was held in February. They put on the "Uprise Tour" through the rust belt with talks at colleges, little clubs and bookstores. The had hip-hop, punk and folk rock, making a particular point of talking to youth. Toby Hartbarger, a participant in the Tour said the music brought in a lot of people. "When they get the lyrics they pick up on what's going on. It was fun, but it was real." They spoke to classes about their experience in Iraq, about the poverty draft, about the reality of what you'll get from the military, and the lies recruiters tell you. At one inner city school, several kids came up to them after presentations to say they would rethink plans to join the military.

Aaron Hughes, coordinator of the new Chicago IVAW Chapter and co-coordinator of the Midwest Region talked to me immediately after a weekend-long strategy session held by 20 IVAW members from all over the Midwest. They worked on coming up with a strategy to focus pointedly on actions to end the war and bring the troops home. "Instead of participating in events with a broader focus, IVAW will be more effective if our actions are directed to one specific goal."

"IVAW is changing from being a group that follows other groups, for example, joining peace movement marches, to a group that leads and asks others to follow, to help, and to strengthen our actions. The focus will be less on speaking engagements and more on tactical actions that are informative to the public and a way to recruit new members. The new actions will not necessarily duplicate Operation First Casualty, but will reflect local discussions and ideas."

Ryan Lockwood and Aaron Hughes at Chicao anti-war march, Jan 20, 2007