In 1971 at age 19, I had a life-changing experience when I met dozens of Vietnam veterans who'd descended on my hometown of Detroit to testify at the "Winter Soldier" hearings organized by Vietnam Veterans Against the War. In anguished presentations, the Vets painstakingly described the horrors against Vietnamese they'd seen or taken part in. And the attitudes of racism and bloodlust that motored the war. Many vets blamed the lies in mainstream media for convincing them to go to Vietnam in the first place.
Virtually every soul in that Detroit hotel banquet hall wept openly at the heartfelt, bone-chilling revelations pouring out of the Vietnam vets struggling with bloody memories and post-traumatic stress. But no one outside that hall could see or hear the proceedings. No TV or radio networks covered the event.
This weekend at the National Labor College near Washington D.C., a new generation of vets convened by Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) presented powerful hearings – "Winter Soldier: Iraq & Afghanistan" – that were more extensive and perhaps even more emotional.
Thirty seven years later, I again found myself sobbing at testimony from solemn young Americans returned from needless war, grappling with shattered lives over brutalities against civilians and prisoners they'd witnessed or participated in.
But I was nowhere near D.C.
This time, I watched the dramatic testimony – often buttressed by photographic and video evidence -- live online at www.IVAW.org. This time, I caught hours of coverage on [http://www.freespeech.org Free Speech TV], the national satellite network that broadcast the panels of testimony and featured interviews with vets and their families in between panels. This time, I received regular video news feeds in my email inbox from [http://therealnews.com The Real News Network]. (The hearings were also televised on 20 public access channels from Fayetteville to Palo Alto, and in public gatherings from Florida to Alaska.)
On my car radio, I listened to the proceedings live on [http://www.pacifica.org/ the Pacifica network,] which broadcast the hearings to affiliates nationwide – along with call-ins and email from listeners, including Iraq vets and soldiers not as critical of the war.
The four days of vets' testimony revealed the struggle these young Americans are waging to regain their humanity and morality after having been transformed into callous war-fighters who largely dehumanized Iraqis as a people – not just "the enemy" or combatants. An objective observer hearing the testimony would have good reason to wonder if U.S. troops – given the often gratuitous and racist brutality, and the mistreatment of women, children and the elderly -- can ever be a solution in Iraq.
On panel after panel, the veterans offered heartfelt "apologies to the Iraqi people" for what our country has done to their country. I saw a vet rip up the commendation he'd received from Gen. David Petraeus, denouncing the general as a cheerleader who put his own ambitions above his duty to the troops and to the truth. Many vets called for rapid withdrawal from Iraq and criticized Democratic leaders for prolonging and funding the endless occupation.
Ex-Marine Jon Turner, who served two tours in Iraq, ripped his medals from his shirt and threw them on the ground, concluding: "I'm sorry for the hate and destruction I and others have inflicted upon innocent people… Until people hear what is going on, this is going to continue. I am no longer the monster that I once was."
Such powerful first-hand accounts – if heard by the American public – would threaten continued funding of the Iraq occupation. But national mainstream outlets in our country, unlike big foreign outlets, largely ignored this weekend's proceedings.
Not surprisingly, these Iraq veterans had little but scorn for U.S. corporate media whose journalistic failures helped sell the war five years ago, and whose sanitized coverage helps sell the troop "surge" today.
But thanks to the Internet and the growing capacity of independent TV, radio and web outlets, a significant minority of Americans had access to these proceedings. And the archived hearings are now available to anyone anytime with computer access.
In Detroit in 1971, I remember what happened when one of the rare mainstream camera crews showed up at Winter Soldier. . .and then abruptly packed up to leave in the middle of particularly gripping testimony. A roomful of Vietnam vets booed and jeered. It was the moment I became a media critic.
Winter Soldier II shows that it's not enough to criticize corporate media. Even more important is to take advantage of new technologies to keep building independent media.
www.jeffcohen.org
Jeff Cohen jeffcohen.org is the founder of the media watch group FAIR. For years he was an on-air pundit on CNN, Fox News and MSNBC-- as well as senior producer of MSNBC's primetime Donahue show, until it was terminated three weeks before the Iraq war. This is adapted from his new book, Cable News Confidential: My Misadventures in Corporate Media.
What is the underlying reason that main-stream media is not covering this news-worthy event?
In my opinion it shows clearly that main-stream media is choosing to maintain the war effort. Why? They are owned by big corporations and these owners are involved in a conspiracy with other big corporations who are using war for profit.
They (the media) learned the lesson from Vietnam that if the American public learns about the horror of war they will march on Washington to demand it end.
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Philip Pease (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 60 comments)
on Monday, March 17, 2008 at 10:30:42 AM
The media went out of their way NOT to cover this story
First we had the Reverend Jeramiah Wright crucified for excersizing his lawful freedom of Speech.
Now the press ells me that Obams has a SLIM lead on Clinton though the totals look pretty much the same or more than they were before this week end.
Then we were dragged through Eliot Spitzer's sheets and between Kristin Dupre's legs. This was a little tricky because the news had to leave out that the banks squealed on Spitzer to stop people from taking their money out of the already battered banks.
Monday on top of Winter Soldier non story the market is crashing again and the cover up gets scarier.
This is no joke.
MSNBC or CNN had a breaking news story:
A HIKER LOST ON GOAT MOUNTAIN!
OMG!
In Russia the news used rush in with a story that pineapples were for sale in the market. This got people to rush to a controlled area and away from their radios.
We haven't fallen to that level yet but maybe it s because not one in power has thought of it!
siriusss
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siriusss (4 articles, 3 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 69 comments)
on Monday, March 17, 2008 at 12:48:05 PM
In 1971 I was a newly arrived US Marine deserter in Canada. I never heard of the VVAW winter soldier event until about 10 or so days ago, when I went to the IVAW website. I spent as much time as I could on Fri., Sat., and Sun. listening to these remarkable individuals testify to the deeds of themselves and others in the illegal, immoral occupation of Iraq, at Guantanamo and Afghanistan. I cried like a baby as old wounds were exposed and my heart went out to these outstanding but deeply damaged young soldiers and marines. Your road to healing will be long and hard, may you all feel the love to stay the course. You are so needed to bring about the end to this madness.
I guess it means another generation, a large part of which will carry damaging emotional and physical scars far into their future. The sooner the healing can begin, the better.
To say nothing of the healing required to the US image in the rest of the world. Does the term "ugly american" ring a bell?
To say nothing of the healing required in Iraq, Afghanistan etc.
I feel such a sense of defeat to see my former country once again exposed for it's naked imperialist aggression, once again exploiting the false patriotism and idealism of it's youth, still willing to sacrifice the very lives of it's own citizens to maintain the domination of the elite.
I wish for all those responsible (and they know who they are, and maybe we do too) to suffer on themselves the cumulative misery their cowardly actions have visited on others. That I would consider justice.
I wish you folks of the USA, and I have family there, all the best in your struggle to salvage your country. It is important to us in Canada as well.
And I apologize for failing to take action when it would have mattered most, and instead escaping to Canada. It was an act of self interest, and it humbles me to hear those brave patriots, those "winter soldiers" face their country and tell the truth. I hope their words reach far in the US.
Humbly, mickyg
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Micheal Gilfillan (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 5 comments)
on Tuesday, March 18, 2008 at 2:08:35 AM
MickyG, your apology, though for someone brave enough to desert it is not needed, is accepted. I was 21 in 1971 living in my birth country England and every time I heard that another brave soldier had deserted it gave me hope that the atrocity of Vietnam would end sooner.
Thank you for your bravery and your comment.
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sliphoch (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 10 comments)
on Tuesday, March 18, 2008 at 7:04:49 AM
I just wanted to thank you for posting this article that no one in major media wishes to report about. After all, why should they? It is only the greatest accounting of the truth concerning this illegally and immorally contrived war. It is the only true shedding of light on this current human tragedy, inspired and enacted by the "sunshine patriots" who currently reside in the White House. I reiterate, why should the brave men and women who have served or are still serving in Iraq and Afghanistan be listened to? They are only the folks on the ground, the real eyewitnesses to this war and this neocon inspired crime against humanity! This is the biggest news of the century and the major media are playing a consistent role in suppressing it.
I listened to the testimony on Pacifica Radio(Democracy Now) for the past few days and will listen again tomorrow, the 5th anniversary of this terror. Like you I too weeped and like you I am praying that many more will listen, watch, read and weep. Now is the time for many of us to grow up and realize this war is not a war for freedom, justice or democracy by rather a tool that oppresses these ideologies.
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Michael Shaw (6 articles, 1 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 249 comments)
on Tuesday, March 18, 2008 at 3:56:55 PM
