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Winter Soldier: Iraq & Afghanistan . . . The Bravest of the Brave

By Ward Reilly

If you had an opportunity to sit back and be a certified "war hero" for the rest of your life, would you EVER do anything to endanger that opportunity? These women and men have put it all on the line. They are Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW). If you could be silent, and be a hero, or face the loss of your freedom by speaking out, what would you do? These women and men have spoken. IVAW, heroes to the bone. The bravest of the brave!

How lucky are we, I ask myself, that we have IVAW, and their hard-working staff?

IVAW members are the eyes that saw Fallujah, and the terrified looks on the faces of the Iraqi & Afghani children. They are the ears that heard the explosions of the IED's, or the cries of mothers-in-anguish, as their innocent child was dragged away in the night. They are the arms that cradled the injured. They are the noses that smelled the death, and the putrefied food sent to them in the field by Halliburton.

Antonia Juhasz testifies at the Corporate Pillaging and Military Contractors panel

They have seen, touched, and tasted Iraq and Afghanistan. They have lost their innocence for me, and for us all. And they could have come home in silence. How lucky am I, or are we all, that they chose to speak out? They have ZERO motive to lie.

It's taken me almost two weeks to attempt to write about Winter Soldier: Iraq & Afghanistan, and I am still stunned and exhausted. How can mere words describe such agony, beauty, and bravery, mixed into one giant nerve-wracking (and healing) experience?

To say it has been an honor to be a part of WSIA is an understatement.

I knew that the WSIA would be a success. I knew how important it would be historically, because I have "been here" before, when I was a GI Resister in the infantry from 1971 to 1974, the last time a GI Resistance was necessary, and I payed dearly for my stand. It is extremely hard to resist inside the military. But we did, and Vietnam can now be used as the model for those that say "we will never leave Iraq." The same people said that about Vietnam, and today there isn't a single US soldier stationed in Vietnam, in spite of the plans to never leave there.

I could also tell it was going to be a success from the reaction of fear from the right-wing, as we were planning this event. The bloggers started calling words not yet spoken "all lies." You have to love words being condemned before they are even spoken. Bless those pro-war folks.

I knew that the WSIA was going to be a HUGE success the minute we officially started it off with the press conference at the National Press Club in D.C., on Thursday afternoon, the 13th of March, 2008. The room was packed with journalists and camera crews(100+), which is quite a bit different from most of the anti-war press conferences I've seen come and go since 2001. This room was full, and we on the Media Team knew that we had done our jobs well, right then and there, and we hadn't even started the testimonies.

During the five days I was at Silver Springs, media people, and guests-alike, asked me "what we hoped to get from this event," and all I could answer was that I personally hoped that it would be a healing experience for these veterans and troops, first and foremost. And to me, nothing feels better than to see these brave men and women smiling and happy, and to be amongst friends, even for just a little while. That's not easy to do if you have been an Occupation soldier, and seen what they've seen, and done what they've been forced to do. Make no mistake about it, war is a hate machine, one that will suck any-and-all in, by nature.

I also answered that I had "no idea" what these brave testifiers were going to tell us, except that I knew it would be one of the most historic events ever put together, in the attempt to end the Occupations, and to help get our troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan.

The pro-war folks are NEVER going to be able to say that 100% of the words spoken by IVAW during those five days was anything but documented truth. The process of certifying and qualifying those that were to testify was taken very seriously, to the point that the Committee that chose the speakers had to actually turn people down, people that they knew were telling the truth, but simply couldn't meet the rigid documentation qualifications. Also, we had the positives-and-negatives from the original WSI to use as a model, to help us make this one even better.

Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) and Veterans For Peace (VFP) once again filled me with pride. VVAW built a Security Team of 80 volunteer people, a team that was totally effective. They made a huge sacrifice, in pulling sometimes 12-hour shifts, rarely getting to enjoy the gathering. And the few times that someone actually tried to disrupt the event, which did happen at least twice, the Security team stifled them instantly, and removed them without hesitation, as trained to do. One disrupter was arrested.

I wont even ask how much money it cost VVAW, but it was a lot, and I can not think of a better example of we elder veterans, and our organization, TRULY supporting the next generation of veterans.

Diane Baker, a beautiful friend and a great activist (who has some some physical disabilities) who attended with MFSO, was assaulted by one of the pro-war people that was standing on the street corner in the front of the National Labor College. The "heroic-eagle" that assaulted her, put an air horn to Diane's ear as she was walking across the street for coffee, and blasted her from a couple of inches away. It hurt her badly, and brought (more) shame to the pro-war crowd, who ironically, and hilariously, were forced to get into a "free speech zone" set up by the local police. How is that for irony? And, as I told many at the event, "Eagles dont gather, rather, vultures do."

Because their "gathering" was a concern to many, I will report here that there were 34 pro-war people there, counted by Lobo, for me. So few, considering that they called nationally for their members to be there, for over 3 months. Their number truly does represent the portion of US citizens that still support the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. We had more than 1000 anti-war guests attend.

Like VVAW, VFP not only raised a lot of money in support, but their membership greatly helped fill the 700-seat venue to capacity, each and every day, and that was a great relief to (we) organizers on the Ally Team.IVAW had requested that no other anti-war actions take place in DC during the 4 days of WSIA, which meant that a very limited number of activists would be there in DC, so I was a little worried about how well we would fill our venue. No worries, as we actually had to turn people away that wanted to attend, but had not registered.

Again, VVAW and VFP stood tall, and we can all be so proud.

The panels themselves were priceless...shocking to many, and painful to all. In all my life, I have rarely witnessed anything as brave as the members of IVAW, and ALL the panelist's, as they testified, one after another.

As usual, and by policy, most of the national mainstream media was ordered not to cover this event. The Houston Chronicle, for example, actually dispatched a reporter, and, after filing her first(of 2) articles, her editor "spiked" her story, and ordered her home a day early, and to write a "more balanced" story featuring a pro-war slant. How shameful, the national "free press", to blacklist us.

BUT, the international and Indy media articles flooded the world. Journalists from 15 countries ran articles, including the BBC, and here at home, Amy Goodman of Democracy Now dedicated an entire week to Winter Soldier: Iraq & Afghanistan. Scores of other outlets did stories.

Get this, a Marine that was watching the event IN IRAQ, actually called and told us he and his buddies were watching, and wanted to know how his platoon could help us!

Our biggest media "coup" though, was in getting a feature story in the Stars & Stripes which goes to every GI, Marine, Sailor, and Airman in the world, and they were primarily who we were reaching out to. Likewise, the Army Times, Marines Times and other military outlets covered the event.

And to top it off, the Department of Defense actually issued a statement regarding the event, via a story in the Washington Post. Just the fact that they acknowledged the WSIA means that they monitored it, and that they are afraid of it.

Winter Soldier: Iraq & Afghanistan...Eyewitnesses to the Occupations was filmed by, among many others, David Zeigler, who made the film Sir!, No Sir!, which documented the Vietnam Era GI Resistance. He was retained, and given the task of doing our "official" documentary film, and in a few months, we can look forward to a full-length film on the event. His camera teams covered everything, including some of our team meetings as we organized WSIA. Also, a book is being done with full transcripts of the testifiers, which will be a used to show the truth about what is happening in Iraq and Afghanistan, what's happening to our troops, and to the innocent civilians of those countries. A copy will go to every university in the country.

To close, I will simply say that being at the Winter Soldier event was like being allowed to be a witness, or a juror, at the criminal trials of George Bush and Dick Cheney. The buck stops with them. THEY are the criminals, THEY are responsible for EVERY death and crime committed in these Occupations, and the Winter Soldier testimonies, provided by the bravest US citizens to ever live in our great-but-misguided nation, in the form of IVAW members, have have just supplied the evidence and PROOF of Bush and Cheney's crimes, to the entire world. Winter Soldier: Iraq & Afghanistan will ROCK the world.

"Bring 'Em On"... the War-Crimes Tribunals, that is.

IVAW members at Winter Soldier: Iraq & Afghanistan

Registration at Winter Soldier: Iraq & Afghanistan