[Sosfbay-discuss] Service members rally against the war in Iraq (Air Force Times)

[JamBoi]

http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2007/01/ntRally070115/
Service members rally against the war in Iraq

By William H. McMichael - Staff Writer
Posted : Tuesday Jan 16, 2007 16:30:11 EST
   
A small group of out-of-uniform active-duty service members, supported
by veterans and academics, gathered inside a Norfolk, Va., church on
Martin Luther King Jr. Day to hold a rally calling for the immediate
withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.

Speakers invoked King's message of nonviolent resistance, along with
his eventual opposition to the Vietnam War, as an example worth
following during a war many at the rally said echoes that controversial
conflict of an earlier generation - and is a war that should end now.

"It is time for U.S. troops to come home," said Marine Corps Sgt. Liam
Madden, speaking to a crowd of about 80 - not including reporters -
gathered in the sanctuary of the Unitarian-Universalist Church in
downtown Norfolk. He said active-duty troops have the right to speak
out, and he said his opposition to the war is not driven by politics.

"It's not political when people heed the call of their conscience,"
said Madden, 22, who is stationed at Quantico Marine Corps Base and who
served in Iraq with Okinawa's 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit as a
communications specialist. "Not one more of my brothers should die for
a lie. This is my generation's call to conscience." The remarks drew
cheers and a standing ovation.

"We're not anti-war," said Navy Mass Communications Specialist 3rd
Class Jonathan Hutto, 29, who enlisted in 2004 and is assigned to the
Norfolk-based carrier Theodore Roosevelt, which deployed to the Persian
Gulf in 2005-06. "We're not pacifists. We're anti-Iraq war."

The group's message, he said: "There is an organized, constructive
level of dissent with the ranks on this war."

Department of Defense directives allow active-duty service members to
speak their minds - short of disrespect for their commanders or the
president - or make a "protected communication" with members of
Congress as long as, generally, they're in the United States, out of
uniform and off duty.

Madden, Hutto and the other active-duty members who came to Monday's
rally are signatories to an online petition to Congress sponsored by
Appeal for Redress, a group for active-duty, Reserve and Guard
personnel started last fall by Hutto and Madden that calls for an end
to the war and the "prompt" withdrawal of all American military forces
and bases from Iraq.

Hutto said they've gathered about 1,000 signatures, mostly from
enlisted service members and nearly half from the Army, in ranks
ranging from E-1 to O-6.

Members of the group will present the petition to Congress on Tuesday
morning on the steps of the U.S. Capitol's Cannon House Office
Building. On hand to accept the petition, group members say, will be
Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, who opposes the Bush administration's
planned troop surge and favors cutting off funding for the war in an
effort to halt that surge.

"Dr. King would be proud," said Tom Palumbo of the local chapter of
Veterans for Peace.

Group members say they hope other members of Congress also get the
message.

"I want Congress tomorrow to realize that they are accountable to their
citizens," Madden said. "And their service members are on the front
line."

Matt Peters is one of those. A Navy electronics technician assigned to
the Norfolk-based carrier Enterprise, Peters, feeling the call to arms
following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, enlisted in November 2001. Then,
said the now-23-year-old, "There really was no talk of invading Iraq,"
he said. "We really went in a different direction than we're in today."

A 2003 Naval Academy graduate now in the Individual Ready Reserve used
tougher words. "This administration has betrayed our armed forces,"
said Lt. j.g. Fabian Bouthillette, 26. "I actually believe that the
conduct of this administration is more detrimental to the Constitution
than anything else. 
 This was begun on an immoral, illegal basis. And
we were lied to."

Peters said he continues to willingly serve despite his misgivings over
the war. "I signed up and said I'm going to do this," said Peters, who
along with his shipmates returned from duty off Iraq and elsewhere in
November and remains on tap to quickly redeploy if the carrier is
called upon. "But I don't believe in what we're doing over there. I
still do my job. Is it something that kind of hurts to do? Yes."

"Like any job, you make some compromises," said Navy Operations
Specialist 2nd Class Dave Rogers, 34, of the frigate Hawes, also based
in Norfolk.

While polls show that many favor pulling out of Iraq - and a Jan. 11
USA Today/Gallup Poll showed that 66 percent of respondents
"moderately" or "strongly" oppose sending more troops - many also
believe an immediate rather than gradual withdrawal would cause Iraq to
collapse in sectarian violence. Upheaval would certainly follow a
withdrawal, Madden and others said, but they said Iraq would right
itself more quickly without an American occupation.

During the Vietnam War, anti-war troops had no legal protection against
expressing their views and were forced to do so through underground
newspapers, said David Cortwright, one of the day's speakers.
Cortwright is a former soldier who served in Vietnam and wrote a book
about that era's military resistance, "Soldiers in Revolt."

But while the Internet has replaced those underground papers and
service members enjoy the limited protections of DoD directives,
Cortwright said, those "in uniform" who speak out must still endure
critics who would call them unpatriotic. Or, worse, cowards.

"It's not cowardice," Cortwright said. "It's an extraordinary
expression of conviction and courage."

None of the service members questioned said they'd received any
reprisals or negative feedback from their chains of command. "I've had
no one chastise me," Madden said. "Some feel awkward around me."

Added Hutto, "They understand that we're serious, and the threat of
reprisal isn't going to stop us."

Hutto said the reactions he gets from shipmates are twofold: "One, how
do I sign up? And two, I'm not so sure I can support Appeal for Redress
(http://www.appealforredress.org/), but I support whatever you're
doing."

Hutto said he is careful to separate his anti-war work with his
assigned Navy duties. "If someone comes up to me, I say, 'Give me your
number, I'll call you in the afternoon'," he said. "I tell people,
'When you're on duty, be on duty'."

___________________

JamBoi
Jammy The Sacred Cow Slayer

"Live humbly, laugh often and love unconditionally" (anon)
http://dailyJam.blogspot.com


 
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