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IVAW Holds First National Meetings at Fort Bragg

By Ward Reilly

David Cline, Mike Hoffman and Bill Perry

The weekend of March 19–20, 2005, could become known as the "beginning of the end" of the disaster in Iraq, as history was made with the national launching of three powerful groups opposed to the war: Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW), Gold Star Families for Peace (GSFP), and Military Families Speak Out (MFSO). As always, VVAW was well-represented on this historic occasion of activism, as part of hundreds of Vietnam vets in the group of 4,800 that marched on Fort Bragg in solidarity with all vets and military families.

Counter-demonstrators numbered a pitiful seventy, and the best they could come up with was one giant billboard that said "Code Pink Kills Our Troops." How pathetic is the pro-war side? All they could come up with was to focus on a women's peace and justice group like Code Pink—to counter the actual troops that have been there to fight and die and who are now returning and telling the truth, and the families of those killed in action. We are in better shape than I had hoped, if that is all the support the pro-war people can find in the most military town of all, Fayetteville, Georgia, the home of no less than four military installations.

For the record, we had supporters there from as far away as Hawaii, California, Louisiana, and New Jersey.

VVAW national contacts Hannah Frisch, Bill Perry, Dave Cline, and me were also present at the Sunday morning press conference and meeting, which opened with a strong, funny, and inspirational speech by Cline, who was honored with the opportunity to open the first national meeting for IVAW. Cline is also the president of Veterans for Peace (VFP).

IVAW meeting in Fayetteville

Also marching on Saturday were VVAW members Tom Baxter and Patrick "P-Mac" McCann, and the family of Dave Curry, and many others that I just don't know. I saw at least fifty VVAW pins in the crowd. Vietnam vet Ralph Baldwin's band started the Saturday meet-up with some of his bands songs, including "1984," which surely must be what year it is. Hannah Frisch, Jan Curry and myself carried one of several VVAW banners, as did Bill Perry and his wife. Patrick McCann took a turn at cadence, as did Dave Cline during the one-mile march.

Any pro-war person would be a fool to question the truth spoken by those in these groups. "Gold Star families," of course, are families that have had a member of their family killed in action, and it is incredibly brave of them to join the antiwar movement so strongly, speaking out about the fact that they were lied to in order that their children could be sent to war in Iraq. No one has given more than they have, or speaks louder than they do.

I was honored to be one of only a few non-Iraq vets who were allowed to sit through the series of teach-ins and organizational meetings of IVAW. Debbie Clark, a VFP member from Atlanta, was also in the meetings.

I had met cofounder Mike Hoffman at the SOAW demonstrations at Fort Benning last November, and we had dinner and a beer together. I bought some of his IVAW pins to help out with his expenses, and he returned the favor by allowing me to sit with them at the meetings. The meetings were quite historic in themselves, and I felt right at home with these great young veterans.

I was fortunate again to meet almost every one of the founders of IVAW, men and women who are extremely bright and very angry about the lies that were used to send them to a needless war, by a horrible bunch of liars that couldn't care less how war affects those who do the dirty work. I understand their numbers are growing as fast as the troops are starting to flow back into the country, and they, like the GSFP, can give credible leadership to the stop-the-war movement, just as VVAW did beginning in 1967.

The list of speakers was long, and notable speakers included IVAW cofounders Kelley Dougherty, Mike Hoffman and Jimmy Massey; Cindy Sheehan of GSFP; Lou Plummer, vet and MFSO cofounder; Medea Benjamin of Global Exchange and Code Pink; Stan Goff, Special Forces master sergeant for twenty years, who tore down the house with his fiery speech; VFP executive director Michael McPhearson; Dennis Kyne, an outspoken Desert Storm veteran, depleted uranium victim, and scholar; Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey, who has a bill on the floor to end the occupation in Iraq; and Michael Berg, the father of Nick Berg, the US contractor who was beheaded on video in Iraq.

And now begins the push to get the word to the media, and to get these groups in front of Congress, so they can tell the truth about what is happening in Iraq. That might force Congress to quit funding this war crime.

Coffins lined up at the March 19, 2004 Fayetteville demonstration