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March 13, 2008 at 20:27:55
Support the Truth, Not the Troops by Malcolm Shore (Posted by Kevin Gosztola) Page 1 of 3 page(s) |
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Here’s a story about Robin Long, a young American whose father, aunts and uncles, and cousins are all military veterans. When Bush, Cheney, Rice, Powell and the gang told him they needed to invade Iraq in order to destroy weapons of mass destruction and prevent further al-Qaeda attacks, it seemed to him only natural to answer their call; Long joined up in June of 2003. “I felt great about it,” Long would tell a radio interviewer years later. “I was finally doing something with my life. I was serving my country.” But when Long began his basic training, he was shocked by what he saw and heard. Officers sang cadences about blood, death and destruction, and referred to the Iraqi people over and over again as “ragheads.” When Long raised objections to using these slurs, his superiors encouraged other soldiers to ostracize him. Eventually, he was sent to Fort Knox, Kentucky, and soon began hearing reports from soldiers coming back from Iraq on temporary leave. These soldiers proudly displayed photos of civilians they had run over with a truck, showed him pictures of the head of the first person they killed, and told war stories of watching human beings explode. And then, one day, Long was given orders to report to Iraq on his 21st birthday. By that point, his opposition to the war had mounted steadily, but he knew there would be some steep consequences if he followed through on that opposition. “If I don’t go,” Long remembered thinking in that same interview with Courage to Resist, “my family’s going to disown me. I’m probably going to get a dishonorable discharge and have a hard time even getting a job at McDonald’s.” Still, when the time came for Long to leave for Fort Carson, Colorado (where he was to briefly train before going to Iraq), he knew refusal was the only moral option. Long fled to Canada in June of 2005, where he has lived ever since. But now, the Canadian government is trying to deport Long, and if they are successful, he faces jail time and potentially a long separation from his Canadian-born son. The Courage to Resist interviewer asked Long if he had any regrets about his decision.
“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Long said. “I made the best decision, I know that. And regardless of what hardships I go through, I could have easily put a family or someone else in that country into way more hardship.”
(Hear Robin Long’s interview here: www.couragetoresist.org)
Is this the first time you are hearing the story of Robin Long? If so, why do you suppose that is?
“Support the troops, not the war.” By now, this phrase has been repeated so often inside the anti-war movement that it is the stuff of cliché. There are many reasons this slogan is misguided, and worse. One of the most immediately obvious of these reasons is that this position—regardless of the intent of the person advocating it—ultimately takes the suffering of the Iraqi and Afghani people out of the equation. A recent article in Revolution newspaper —“The Battle of Berkeley: This War Must Stop”—captured this point very well: “How can you ‘deeply respect and support the men and women in our armed forces?’ the article asked, “and at the same time support the Iraqi or Afghani people they are killing? This makes about as much sense as saying you ‘support the rapist and not the rape.’”
But there is another related, yet often-overlooked fundamental problem with the “support the troops” argument: the motto utterly discounts the many troops who do not support the war. Depending on who is articulating the refrain, it either inadvertently ignores or deliberately masks the reality that while all U.S. soldiers are brainwashed at the beginning of their service, they don’t all stay that way. Robin Long is not alone. Rather, he is part of a buried legacy of men and women who came face-to-face with the unspeakable atrocities the American government asked them to carry out, and said: “NO FUCKING WAY.”
The film “Winter Soldier” chronicles a January 1971 gathering in Detroit of more than 100 Vietnam Veterans whose conscience demanded not only that they personally refuse to commit war crimes, but that they expose these crimes to the world to in order to bring them to a halt. Yet, like Robin Long, when these soldiers first entered the military, they did so because they believed in their country strongly enough to die for it. “I was the average middle-class American,” said the last soldier pictured in the film. “It was just the thing to do.”
“I wanted to go into the service,” explained another, earlier in the film, “because I really believed the war was right and I think one of the main things was I wanted to see for myself if I was really a man or not.”
But then, much like Robin Long, these and many other soldiers were confronted quickly and brutally with the truth of their mission, and with the gap between that truth and the lies they had been told going into their service: Young women raped in front of their entire villages. Soldiers trading decapitated ears of Vietnamese civilians for beers from their commanding officers. Prisoners thrown out of helicopters to their deaths. Entire villages burned to the ground.
The film ends with the words of a soldier who describes reaching a threshold past which participation or complicity in these horrors was simply no longer an option. “All of the sudden I realized, ‘No, there is no justification, man’” he says. “What I have done is wrong. I have to face it, I have to admit what I’ve done is wrong, and now I have to try and tell other people before they make the same mistakes I made.”
Fast-forward more than thirty years, to horrific wars in Afghanistan and Iraq based on utterly-transparent bullshit the subservient major media nonetheless refused to look through. U.S. soldiers who enter the military steadfastly believing in the good of their country and the evil of the enemy again are given a quick dose of reality, which compels them to speak out and to resist. In July of 2007, the Nation published “Iraq Vets Bear Witness"
an article by Chris Hedges and Laila al-Arian in which more than fifty Iraq veterans spoke about witnessing and executing routine slaughter of Iraqi men, women, and children; and about terrorizing the people they were supposedly liberating through home raids. In the article, Sergeant John Bruns described a typical raid.
“You go up the stairs. You grab the man of the house. You rip him out of bed in front of his wife,” Bruhns said. “ You put him up against the wall. You have junior-level troops, PFCs [privates first class], specialists will run into the other rooms and grab the family, and you'll group them all together. Then you go into a room and you tear the room to shreds and you make sure there's no weapons or anything that they can use to attack us.”
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Watch Winter Soldier
Support G.I. Resistance. Go to IVAW.org now. by Kevin Gosztola (302 articles, 146 quicklinks, 81 diaries, 1082 comments [77 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Friday, Mar 14, 2008 at 11:38:59 AM  (0+)
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agree
I don't like the " Support the troops " signs. This implies you're supporting war. I keep thinking of the phrase from the 60's, " What if they waged a war & nobody showed up ? " Need to think peace not war, Maybe a Dept. of Peace rather than the Pentagon & military industrial complex. Need to go to malls & teach peace to counter the mil recruiters who brainwash teens to sign up. by vin agamenone (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 20 comments) on Friday, Mar 14, 2008 at 1:37:48 PM (0+)
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thoughts of the father
http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/diarypage.php?did=474 I wrote that in January 2005. It has been a long time.. by Mark Sashine (72 articles, 19 quicklinks, 269 diaries, 4101 comments [131 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Friday, Mar 14, 2008 at 2:29:03 PM (0+)
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This is a wonderful article
that throws truth directly into the our faces. It’s that sort of truth that can only be opposed with character assassination. There is no logical argument against this truth because of the intrinsic and indisputable logic it, itself, holds. Kevin, Mr. Shore not only writes that he can not support the troops, but explains, in pretty effective detail, why he can not support the troops. You may receive responses similar to the arguments against the actions of the Berkeley City Council. “Oh, you called Berkeley ‘Bezerkeley’. Gee, you’re right, I’ve never quite looked at it that way.” Calling people names is the stuff of elementary school and that’s the level of thinking needed to debate in such a way. It’s also the undeniable sign that the opposition doesn’t have a logical argument proving why it’s impossible for the people pulling the trigger or dropping the bombs to stop doing so. This is truth, in all of its discomfort. The argument against this kind of truth is often used by parents of very young children – “because I said so.” That’s a parent speaking to a child too young to understand. The troops are not too young to understand. In fact, when one says, “I don’t support the war but I support the troops” they aren’t really supporting the troops. They are insulting the troops and the troops’ intelligence. Mr. Shore writes eloquently of this phenomenon. Utah Phillips, in his narrative “The Violence Within”, speaks just as eloquently about it. Thanks for sharing the truth, Kevin. Michael Bonanno by Michael Bonanno (119 articles, 19 quicklinks, 24 diaries, 152 comments) on Friday, Mar 14, 2008 at 6:11:19 PM (0+)
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We have a Merc Army
Our army as currently configured seems staffed in the main by those young people who have few other options. Our military system promises much to a recruit, even though that same system seems to do everything in its power to avoid fulfilling promises later. IE: Get wounded and discharged and not only do you not get any benefits, you will likely have to repay your signing bonus. America, ain't it beautiful? I feel strongly that if there was a draft and everyone's kid had to serve, this war would have already been concluded. I guess we should be pleased that soldiers are not collecting strings of ears this time, just cell phone photos of the dead and dying. Veteran '66-68 and yes, I was drafted. by Roger (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 465 comments [22 recommended, 1 rejected]) on Saturday, Mar 15, 2008 at 11:53:09 AM (0+)
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Boy, howdy!!
"I feel strongly that if there was a draft and everyone's kid had to serve, this war would have already been concluded." Roger, I don't know how old you are, but, if you remember the Vietnam years, you remember kids occupying the offices of college deans, college presidents and demonstrating on campuses by the thousands. Today, one doesn't have to look too far nor too wide to find conservative groups of young, college aged men and women. In my humble opinion, these young people have two legitimate choices. 1. In lieu of supporting the war from the comfort of a college campus, go to the nearest recruiting office and sign up so that they, too, can "fight for their country". 2. Speak out against the illegal war/occupation in droves, which will bring it to an end. Other than that, they are no more than hypocrites. Many neocons were so called liberals during their college years and protested the illegal war in Vietnam. They then got to the age where they knew that they were out of the woods in relation to jungle and desert wars are concerned and turned coat, cheering on the deaths of other peoples' loved ones. Today's young conservatives aren't having to wait until they're older to show their real colors, or color, yellow. Wanna turn a lot of young conservatives into young anti war activists? Reinstate conscription. It appears that most of the people who are protesting the illegal war/occupation of Iraq are the few anti war activists from the Vietnam era who still own their integrity. Michael Bonanno. by Michael Bonanno (119 articles, 19 quicklinks, 24 diaries, 152 comments) on Saturday, Mar 15, 2008 at 5:31:00 PM (0+)
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Reply: I'm engaging in a counter-recruitment action on March 20th
As part of a Day of Resistance We plan to disrupt the recruiters by not letting them pursue business as usual on March 20th. We plan to call attention to the need to get this recruitment center shut down. by Kevin Gosztola (302 articles, 146 quicklinks, 81 diaries, 1082 comments [77 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Saturday, Mar 15, 2008 at 6:05:09 PM (0+)
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Kevin
I don't know where this activity is going to take place, but I hope you fill us in. All I can say is bravo! Bravo for you and for those who are working with you. Can you imagine if this happened at every recruiting office throughout the country? How about if this happened at every recruiting office throughout the country at the very same time? Thank you again. Michael Bonanno by Michael Bonanno (119 articles, 19 quicklinks, 24 diaries, 152 comments) on Saturday, Mar 15, 2008 at 10:29:38 PM (0+)
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Reply: That's the goal
Show people these recruiting centers can be shut down. The people have the power. And if the politicians won't stop it, then the people will by preventing new recruits from joining. And preventing recruits from joining means pointing them towards better jobs for a better future where they do not become killing machines that come home with PTSD. by Kevin Gosztola (302 articles, 146 quicklinks, 81 diaries, 1082 comments [77 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Sunday, Mar 16, 2008 at 8:13:36 AM (0+)
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