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A Journey to a GI and Veterans Bill of Rights

By Aaron Hughes

In January...
In the mountains...
In Albuquerque, New Mexico...
In the breaking dawn...
In a snow storm...
In the aftermath of a three day National Strategy Retreat, that brought together chapter leaders from all over the nation, Jason Hurd (Southeast Field Organizer) and I set out on a journey across the US.

Aaron Hughes at Warrior Writers event

Our first stop was to be Memphis, Tennessee 1,007 miles east on I-40. With over twelve hours to go we dived into a discussion of organizing and movement building. Talking about our jailed brother Marc Hall, the internal politics of IVAW, the need to establish and develop more leaders and get a campaign going, large politics and the history of organizing. On and on till silence, or a fit of singing to the radio.

The day dropped into night and Oklahoma passed away into Arkansas. We started to ring people in Memphis looking for a place to rest our heads. We were exhausted from the ride and the night was already old but we had been told we could find our IVAW brother Lelyn at a local Juke Joint.

Rolling in across the Mississippi, past old train cars, rusting bridges, and abandoned factories, into the home of Graceland, blues, and the Civil Rights Movement. It was 30 minutes past midnight but the night had just begun with Lelyn and a seedy old bar where everyone danced and put back forties.

Night turned to day...

We woke and were given a tour of the old delta blues city. The tour concluded at the Civil Rights Memorial Museum and the place of Martin Luther King's assassination. It haunted both Jason and I. It was like looking at what could have been. It was realizing that these movements do come through the little struggles, the little wins and little changes. It was a reminder that there are not just things to fight against but things to fight for.

It was all rushed...

We were determined to make it to Atlanta that night to see the Atlanta IVAW Chapter. Atlanta was 383 miles away through the landscape of the Civil Rights Movement. It was 383 miles of a haunting...

A haunting of what could have been
A haunting of our tortured history
A haunting of hope
A haunting of what could be
We listened to Martin Luther King's Beyond Vietnam speech.

The discussion returned to Marc Hall's situation and the military's violation of his rights, the use of Stop Loss and the restriction of his freedom of speech then on to a larger discussion of the military's continued violation of GIs and Veterans rights; recruitment fraud, the lack of medical care for veterans, the continuation of a failed foreign policy and the use of Depleted Uranium.

Jason turned to me and asked why don't we write a GI and Veteran Bill of Rights and at that moment, in the heart of the landscape of the Civil Rights Movement, with the haunting of what could have been, it was clear that if we wanted to end these endless occupations and prevent it from happening again we needed to start fighting for our rights as GIs and Veterans.

A Working Document for GI and Veteran Rights

For the last three months, the IVAW Field Organizing Team and IVAW members have been discussing a potential campaign to pass a new GI and Veteran Bill of Rights that protects the human rights of America's military community. This campaign would also seek to have service-members' rights made law and explicitly noted in the Veteran Administration Policy and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Legislative efforts have been articulated in the past as "bills of rights"-e.g. the Montgomery GI Bill-however they have amounted only to education reform or healthcare reform instead of an explicit statement of rights to include our right to refuse service in illegal or immoral war.

Iraq Veterans Against the War proclaims this declaration of a new GI and Veteran Bill of Rights as a common standard of achievement for all service members of the United States, to the end that every service member and every organ of the military keep this declaration constantly in mind, and shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms, and by progressive measures, national and international, secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among military members and citizens of these United States.

GI and Veteran Bill of Rights

Whereas individuals who volunteer to join the US Military are US citizens and residents, who possess inalienable rights before, during and after their service,

Whereas, at times, the United States military has harmed the honor and reputation of the United States by violating the rights of its own service members, enemy combatants, and non-combatants,

Whereas treating a soldier with contempt for his or her human rights encourages him or her to violate the human rights of others,

Whereas service members who exercise their right of free speech and/or report violations of human rights are met with retaliation,

Whereas the US Constitution assigns the power to declare war to Congress,

Now, therefore, the government of the United States enacts into law the following GI and Veteran Bill of Rights.

Article 1.
All Service Members and Veterans are equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of fellowship/camaraderie.

Article 2.
All Service Members and Veterans are entitled to the rights reserved in the Constitution of the United States and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and expected to uphold these rights.

Article 3.
All Service Members and Veterans are entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind. Furthermore, all members of the US Armed Services are to be treated without discrimination and without distinction such as race, color, sex, sexuality, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.

Article 4.
Service Members are entitled to and obligated to refuse to serve in combat if they are asked to participate in a war that is carried on without a Congressional Declaration of War.

Article 5.
All Service Members are entitled to a clearly defined mission with clear objectives and with a clearly defined relationship to the Constitution of the United States, which all service members have sworn to uphold.

Article 6.
All Service Members have the right to Conscientious Objection at any time if they so declare, based on moral, religious, ethical or political reasons. A soldier may declare Conscientious Objection at anytime with regard to any specific conflict or order with out retaliation.

Article 7.
All service members are entitled to and have a responsibility to refuse orders that will result in collateral damage, the death or wounding of civilians.

Article 8.
All Service Members are entitled to and have a responsibility to refuse orders to use weapons that have been declared inhumane by the UN - including cluster bombs, white phosphorus, nuclear weapons, chemical and biological weapons and land mines

Article 9.
No Service Member shall have to sacrifice for others people's profit. Therefore, all Department of Defense contracts shall be with not for profit organizations, including weapons manufacturers, and organizations that provide personnel to support the US military.

Article 10.
No Service Member or Veterans shall be exposed to hazardous, chemical or radioactive materials such as Depleted Uranium or Agent Orange. All service members or veterans are entitled to a full disclosure of any possible exposure, treated with the most effective known methods and are paid reparations for all health damages.

Article 11.
All Service Members and Veterans, regardless of discharge, shall receive full medical benefits at any facility that they see fit. This includes psychological counseling and testing to any hazardous, chemical or radioactive materials.

Article 12.
All Service Members and Veterans are entitled to education and a decent job when they return/leave the service regardless of time served and branch. If they do not find a job, they are entitled to receive unemployment compensation.

Article 13.
All prospective Service Members have the right not to be recruited until the age of legal consent. No advertisement of any kind shall be directed at youth under the age of 18. This is in accordance with the Charter of the Fundamental Rights of the Child.

Article 14.
All Service Members are entitled to a legal contract that reflects these rights.

Article 15.
All Service Members are entitled to and required to receive a thorough education on the US Constitution, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Geneva Convention, GI and Veteran Bill of Rights, and the relationship between these treaties and their mission.

Aaron Hughes is the IVAW Field Organizing Team Leader.

Banners at Arlington West in the Park on the Bay next to the USS Midway Aircraft Carrier, San Diego