A New Jersey veteran's hope for Iraq

This guest column by VFP Chapter 21 member Michael McPherson ran in the Newark Star-Ledger on January 16, 2011.

By Michael T. McPhearson
 
Twenty years ago this month, I sat in the vast wilderness of the Arabian desert as a captain in the 24th Mechanized Infantry Division, waiting to invade Iraq. That campaign — which was to expel Iraqi troops from Kuwait — began on Jan. 16, 1991.

I remember wondering how many of us would die, how many would return home scarred or broken. Would I ever see my wife and 5-year-old son again? I never imagined U.S. troops would still be fighting there — 11 years into the next century.

After I left the Army in 1992, I paid little attention to U.S. activities in Iraq, although I knew that our forces never ended military operations there. Containment was the policy.

Operation Southern Watch, begun in August 1992 to enforce a no fly-zone over southern Iraq, did not officially end until 2003. There were Operations Vigilant Warrior in 1994 and Desert Strike in 1996, which expanded the no fly-zone to parts of northern Iraq. There was Operation Desert Fox, a four-day bombing campaign launched on Dec. 16, 1998.

One summer day in 2001, I saw activists in New York City holding a sign reporting that half a million Iraqi children had died, due in part to U.S.-led economic sanctions. I began to feel some responsibility. Then, 9/11 happened and the drum beat for more war on Iraq began anew. By that time, the United States had been dropping bombs on Iraq for 10 years.

Today, when most Americans think of Iraq, the March 20, 2003, invasion is the date they remember. That is far from reality.

In December of that year, as part of a peace delegation of military families and veterans, I visited Baghdad. The city was bustling with people going about their lives, yet bombed-out buildings served as a backdrop and access to basics such as water and electricity was unpredictable. Sectarian violence had not yet exploded, but many people — especially women — feared for their safety.

The delegation met with an Iraqi human rights activist who, through an interpreter, shared the perspective of many Iraqis. The man, who appeared to be in his late 50s, told us that “… all the Iraqi suffering is because of the Americans.” He explained that Saddam Hussein’s Baath party cronies, who came to power via a 1968 coup, boasted back then of having U.S. help. He went on to remind us of the 1991 invasion and the following decade of misfortune under U.S.-led economic sanctions. He spoke of the March 2003 invasion and occupation mounted by the United States to remove the dictator it helped put into power. Our nation, he said, has meddled in his country’s affairs for more than 40 years. His feelings were reiterated by many other Iraqis I spoke with over the course of my visit.

Since then, I have returned to Iraq seeking peace, my 5-year-old son grew up and, like his father, served a tour waging war in Iraq. In 2009, the Obama administration declared the end of U.S. combat missions in Iraq, U.S. troop levels have been reduced to 50,000 and the United States has pledged to remove all troops by the end of this year.

We helped place Saddam Hussein into power and supported him, expecting him to act in our interest, and the Iraqi people have paid a high price for his removal. Today, unemployment in Iraq is estimated as high as 30 percent. Electricity continues to be sporadic and, in many parts of the country, clean water is not readily available. Birth defects in areas of heavy fighting, such as Fallujah, have increased due to the use of uranium munitions by U.S. forces. Sectarian violence, while low compared to 2004, continues to take lives and destroy families.

Forty years of meddling and 20 years of war are enough. We must not allow the Obama administration to drag its feet or back out of leaving Iraq.

Freedom is the ability to chart one’s own destiny, not have it decided by a power thousands of miles away. We owe it to the Iraqi people. They have suffered enough.

Michael T. McPhearson was a field artillery officer in the 24th Mechanized Infantry Division during Desert Shield/Desert Storm, also known as Gulf War I. A Newark resident, McPhearson is the co-convener of United for Peace and Justice, and former executive director of Veterans for Peace.

© 2011 NJ.com. All rights reserved.

Why I Work for Peace

Address by Joann Dalton in accepting a local organizer award at the Jersey City Peace Movement's recent Peace and Progress Honors Awards ceremony.

Thank you very much for this award. I am very honored. For those of you that don't know me, I am an associate member of Veterans for Peace chapter 21, a lifetime member of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, and also a member of New Jersey Peace Action. I am most active with Veterans for Peace, doing a lot of the behind the scenes work .Many times calling myself the administrative assistant to VFP's president who happens to be my husband.This can involve arranging trips to Washington DC, keeping his appointments straight, and also filling in for the secretary and/or treasurer  of the chapter when needed. I also participate in a weekly vigil in Teaneck, table at street fairs, and most recently attended a counter-recruitment call from a frantic mother about her son who wants to join the military. At times I also try to knock some sense into the right-wingers I work with.  Although mostly all I get from that is frustration.

I'd like to explain a little about my back ground and how I got here. As a child, I was raised in a family who had lost someone killed in  war. My mother's brother a co-pilot in the Air Force during WWII was shot down in the Pacific by the Japanese.Back then they flew in formation and the plane above him got hit and then fell on his plane. At the time I didn't understand my mother and grandmother. I thought it happened such a long time ago, why were they still upset?  I can honestly say that both my mother and grandmother never really got over my uncle's death.One reason being that my mother was pregnant with my sister about the same time my uncle was killed. In fact, they didn't tell my hospitalized mother until she came home with my sister because they were afraid she would lose the baby So every time my sister had a birthday, they were reminded of the awful news they received about the same time. My grandmother could have been a Gold Star Mother, but refused because she felt that would be celebrating my uncle's death.  Now I've come to realize how much his death has impacted my feelings as an adult. I know first hand how war and the resulting problems it causes can affect a family the rest of their lives. When the Iraq and Afghanistan wars started at first I got active because I didn't want my son or daughter going to war, but soon realized I didn't want anybody's son or daughter going to war. About the same time I  also figured out why my anti war feelings were so strong--because of my Uncle Steve who I never had the opportunity to meet.

Just to show how futile war is, I'd like to tell you one more story this one involving our son. In the spring of 2009,  as a student at Rutgers University , Brian studied abroad for a semester, in Kyoto, Japan at Ritsuimeiken University . While there he met Hero, a Japanese student studying at the same school. That summer, Hero came to visit the United States to try to improve his English. Part of his trip he stayed with my son in Brian's off campus housing. But during one of NJ's heat waves, Brian called and asked if he and Hero could come stay with us for the weekend and enjoy some air conditioning. So they spent some time with us. While taking some pictures of Hero and my son Brian, we realized ---just one generation ago they would have been expected to kill each other .Instead, here were two young men who had become good friends.

Once again,  Thank you and Let's keep our activism going strong.

Case Dismissed re Vets Arrested at White House Protest

Judge Dismisses Cases Against Military Veterans and Anti-war Activists Following December 16^th Washington, D.C. Arrests

 For more information, contact:  Ann Wilcox (202-441-3265)

Tarak Kauff (845-249-9489)

Washington, D.C. – January 4, 2011:  Anti-war military veterans and other activists celebrated a breakthrough victory today in DC Superior Court, when charges were dropped, following arrests in front of the White House, on December 16, 2010.  Over 131 people were arrested in a major veteran-led protest while participating in non-violent civil resistance in a driving snowstorm.  US Park Police charged all 131 protesters with “Failure to Obey a Lawful Order,” when they refused to move.  All remained fixed to the White House fence demanding an end to the continuing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and further US aggression in the region. 

Among those arrested were members of the leadership of the national organization Veterans for Peace , Pentagon Papers whistleblower Dr. Daniel Ellsberg; Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges; former senior CIA analyst Ray McGovern; and,  Dr. Margaret Flowers, advocate for single-payer health care. 

Forty-Two arrested opted to appear in court and go to trial with the first group appearing in DC Superior Court on January 4, 2011.  Prosecutors from the DC Attorney General’s office stated that the Government “declined to file charges due to missing or incomplete police paperwork.”  Presiding Magistrate Judge Richard Ringell confirmed that the cases were dropped and defendants were free to leave.

Those who participated in this action make this statement:

“This is clearly a victory for opposition to undeclared wars which are illegal under international law, have led to the destruction of societies in Iraq and Afghanistan, bled the US Treasury in a time of recession, and caused human rights violations against civilians and combatants.   Many of us will return to Washington, DC, to support an action on Tuesday, January  11, 2011 to protest the continued use of Guantanamo detention facility, including torture of detainees in violation of international law.”

The defendants  were represented by co-counsels Ann Wilcox, Esq. and Mark Goldstone, Esq.  Ms. Wilcox stated:  “clearly the Government and Police felt that these veterans and their supporters acted with the courage of their convictions, and did not wish to spend the time and funds necessary for a trial proceeding.  This is a major victory for the peace movement.” 

For more information visit www.stopthesewars.org or on facebook.

Wikileaks

Over the past few weeks, American politicians have been calling for the censor and prosecution of Wikileaks and its founder, Julian Assange. In fact, some people in our government have been calling for Assange to be prosecuted for treason which is ridiculous since he's not a U.S. citizen and because of that cannot be a traitor. Still others have branded Wikileaks a "terrorist" which is just as ridiculous since terrorism is the willful murder of innocent civilians or military actions against the same for political purposes. The only thing being murdered in the case of Wikileaks is the credibility of the U.S. and it's leaders, both Republicans and Democrats.

Another method being deployed against Wikileaks is to smear it's founder Julian Assange with  rape allegations. First, in Sweden having unprotected sex with a consenting adult female is considered rape. Such an allegation in the United States would be laughed out of court. Yet, this charge is being pursued by Sweden due to pressure from Washington and Stockholm's desire to please the U.S. Government. Washington's tactic is to smear the messenger and thereby taint the message which is nothing new.

Many of these leaked reports from Wikileaks are already well known throughout the world. Going back several months ago when Wikileaks released a video of an American helicopter gun ship murdering innocent civilians in Iraq, most of the people in the world, especially the Arab world knew about this event. The only people shielded from that news by a self censoring media were the Americans and that's the point. People around the world, from Latin America to Southeast Asia and on to the streets of Baghdad who have been on the receiving end of U.S. foreign policy already know many things hidden from the American people. That's what Washington is most afraid of, the American people learning what their government is up to, especially when that government is spending trillions of dollars to do so while at the same time it is asking the poor and middle classes to endure sacrifices and pain.

In closing, any government which continuously lies to its citizens and or has too many secrets is neither free nor democratic!

Kenneth Dalton
President
VFP 21, N.J. & VVAW

Vets for Peace Arrested at the White House

Daniel Ellsberg (in video above) joined with hundreds of Veterans For Peace members from across the nation to take a message of dissent to President Obama on December 16. 

Veterans of Iraq, Afghanistan, Gulf War I, Vietnam and other overseas military actions, accompanied by military families and other peace activists, chained themselves to the White House fence or otherwise refused police orders to leave. The civil disobedience, which led to 131 arrests, was done on  the day the latest official report about the military situation in Afghanistan was released. Two members of Veterans For Peace, Chapter 21 NJ, Jules Orkin and Stefan Neustadter, were among those arrested in protest of continuing the counter-productive and wasteful wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Those arrested also included Ellsberg, the former Marine officer who leaked the Pentagon papers, retired CIA analyst Ray McGovern, FBI whistleblower Colleen Rowley, and Pulitzer prize-winning war correspondent Chris Hedges, noted Examiner.com blogger Gregory Patin. "While small in numbers, this protest is significant because it was organized and led by veterans who have served their country," Patin wrote. "It is also significant that it was completely ignored by the mainstream media on a news day largely filled with sports news and holiday shopping reports."

But Veterans For Peace was determined to send a message directly to Obama by getting arrested in front of the White House while throwing piles of postcards signed by antiwar activists over the White House fence.

"We are dedicated to exposing the true costs of war and militarism," said Mike Ferner, national president of Veterans for Peace, as reported in The Huffington Post. "We've killed well over a million people. We've orphaned and displaced five times that number at least. And here in our own country, we've managed to throw millions of people of out work and out of their homes," Ferner said at a press conference. "There is a connection there. That connection is the true cost of war."

"Citing information available for every city and state in America on the Cost of War website," The Huffington Post report by Dan Froomkin added, "the former Navy hospital corpsman noted that his hometown of Toledo alone has sent almost a billion dollars into the war effort."

Crying Out Loud

Address by associate member Nancy Nygard of Teaneck at a peace rally on Sunday, August 29, by about 300 members and friends of Veterans For Peace and Military Families Speak Out that culminated VFP's annual convention in Portland, Maine.

Hi!

I am so glad to see everyone here.

I am a very proud member of Veterans For Peace. My husband and I joined VFP in 2005. At the same time we joined Military Families Speak Out.

Our son Joe had joined the army in 2003 and by 2005 was getting ready to deploy to Afghanistan. We were against the invasions of both Iraq and Afghanistan and knew we had to speak out, act out, rise up. Doing nothing was not an option.

In February of 2006 Joe was deployed to Afghanistan for a year. It was my first deployment also. I didn’t know what to do or what to think. Why was I crying all the time? Why was I so angry at all the other mom’s in the supermarket? Why did I have such hatred of the assholes with hummers?

MFSO helped me understand that it was ok to cry and that anger could be turned into action. They comforted me and held my hand and I knew I never had to say I’m sorry. They understood that I wanted to hear all the news but I didn’t want to hear all the news. They knew about the sleepless nights and I know they remembered holding their babies in their arms and never imagining having to let them go to war. They were and still are the sanity in my insanity that surely goes on for me and so many other military families.

My son Joe was stop lossed in September of 2006 until February 2007. His tour of duty was extended another 4 months. He spent 16 months in Afghanistan. During his deployment 71 soldiers from his brigade were either killed in action or died in accidents. 3rd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division carved out the northern most outposts in Afghanistan. Two years later the army would begin closing them down. Outposts where my son said “good soldiers died”.

In September of 2007 Joe received his honorable discharge and left the army after serving 4 years on a 3 year enlistment. Joe enrolled in college full time, had a great paying part time job, had a daughter and a son and the hope of change that was to come with a new president. Joe was proud of his service to his country and we are so proud of him.

Two years went by. Two years! In December of 2009 President Obama gave his surge on Afghanistan speech and the next day Fed-ex showed up at our door with orders for Joe to report for duty off the individual ready reserve for deployment of no more than 400 days…to Iraq!

Thoughtless people told me he’s lucky he’s in Iraq like they used to tell me he’s lucky he’s in Afghanistan.

As of this month our combat commitment in Iraq has ended. I guess the combat infantry battalion my son is assigned to is there on vacation as are the entire 3rd infantry division, 3000 man brigades from the 4th infantry division, Dave Cline’s old outfit the 25th infantry division, 2 combat aviation brigades and 2 national guard infantry brigades, all on vacation in sunny Iraq!

Standing guard over a stalled convoy, Joe writes, “after we dropped off our load at a little spot outside Tallil we pulled to the side in a friendly area and waited for the rest of our guys to catch up. We dismounted and smoked and joked for a little bit. That’s when the kids came up. I always liked talking to the local kids in Afghanistan. Their honesty and innocence about the only pure things in a shitty, shitty place. Here it is the same way. These poor children have known nothing but death and destruction in their young lives and even if after we leave, their country turns to peace, they will forever be scarred from the horrors they have seen. Life for them has always been about survival. Seeing little girls the age of my little daughter, running alongside our convoy, their clothes dirty and their feet bare, offering anything, even themselves for just a bottle of water breaks my heart. Back on the base, eating ice cream and pizza and buffalo wings, just makes the whole experience of war more disgusting. As these people starve to death, partly because of us, we eat like kings”.

To a certain extent our participation in MFSO and VFP has been a selfish act because we think that the American people, in spite of their yellow ribbons, don’t give a damn about American soldiers, but you do! I’ve found a community that not only believes in world peace but respects the courage and sacrifice of soldiers and their families. I’m so glad I’m not alone. Thank you Military Families Speak Out and Veterans For Peace!

POWER TO THE PEOPLE!!

Winding Down a Misbegotten War

By Jan Barry

As the last U.S. combat units rumbled out of Iraq under President Obama's August deadline, Time magazine's chief political columnist, Joe Klein, summed up the costly consequences of what he called "a war that should never have been fought." Blasting the Bush administration for blundering into "a neo-colonialist delusion" that caused hundreds of thousands of casualties and may still cost trillions of dollars for health care of a generation of war-mauled veterans, Klein then turned his ire, remarkably, on himself.

"As for myself, I deeply regret that once, on television in the days before the war, I foolishly--spontaneously--said that going ahead with the [March 2003] invasion might be the right thing to do," he wrote in a column titled "Never Again" in Time's August 16 issue. Although he subsequently wrote about the war with increasing skepticism, Klein added, "The issue then was as clear as it is now. It demanded a clarity that I failed to summon. The essential principle is immutable: we should never go to war unless we have been attacked or are under direct, immediate threat of attack. Never. And never again."

War veterans who protested the invasion and brutal occupation of Iraq will take little pride in having predicted the disastrous impact on Iraqi society and on U.S. troops that Klein describes, seven years into what he calls "a profound misadventure" with toxic effects. A Time news piece that follows Klein's column cites a Rand Corp. study and military reports that found that "more than 500,000 troops have returned home to the U.S. in the last decade with a mental illness," created by the relentless stress of repeated war tours mixed with an epidemic of traumatic brain injuries from roadside bombs and other explosions.

Veterans For Peace activists, who warned of such dangers to soldiers and civilians for years, contend that the draw-down of troops in Iraq is a misbegotten maneuver by the Obama administration to claim peace in Iraq while waging a wider war in Afghanistan and Pakistan, under the same misguided strategy of the previous administration of trying to police unruly corners of the world with highly destruction military actions.

"The lessons of this disastrous intervention should also be an impetus for Congress and the administration to end the war in Afghanistan," Veterans For Peace leaders said in a recent statement. "It’s time to focus on creating real security here at home and rebuilding America."

But Time magazine and its chief political writer are not ready to tackle that issue. Like most of the mainstream news media, they take their cues from the White House on how to stay within accepted parameters in discussing foreign policy. "Obama's announcement [of the end of combat operations in Iraq, in a speech to the Disabled American Veterans] was no celebration. It was a somber acknowledgement that amends will be made to those whose lives were shattered and that their courageous service in an unnecessary cause will be honored," Klein wrote.

"A national discussion about America's place in the world, and the military's excessive place in our foreign policy, would also be appropriate in the wake of this disaster," he added, "but I'm not holding my breath." So that means a debate on the implications of the war in Iraq and lessons to be drawn for the war policy in Afghanistan isn't about to happen, unless the public overrules the press and politicians and demands it.