[Marxism] FW: [snow-news] 10/24 IVAW

[David McDonald]

Thanks to Chris Pringer of Seattle for this post.

Subject: [snow-news] 10/24 IVAW (GNA)


Articles follow GNA (Google News Alert) Headers.
-Chris Pringer


-------- Original Message -------- Subject: Google Alert - "Iraq Veterans
Against the War"
Date: Tue, 24 Oct 2006 18:29:15 -0700 (PDT)
From: Google Alerts <googlealerts-noreply at google.com>
To: vet444peace at iinet.com



Google News Alert for: "Iraq Veterans Against the War"
Vt. soldier will ask Congress to end war
Bennington Banner - Bennington,VT,USA
... Madden said the antiwar groups Military Families Speak Out and Iraq
Veterans Against the War are coordinating members of Congress to support the
campaign. ...
Some active-duty troops voice their dissent from US policy in Iraq
San Jose Mercury News - CA, USA
... of active-duty service members is based in Norfolk, Va., and is
sponsored by several anti-war groups, including Iraq Veterans Against the
War, Veterans for ...
Grass-Roots Group of Troops Petitions Congress for Pullout From ...
Washington Post - United States
... 2,000 signatures and deliver the message to Congress in January, is
sponsored by antiwar activists including Iraq Veterans Against the War,
Veterans for Peace ...


 This once a day Google Alert is brought to you by Google.


Grass-Roots Group of Troops Petitions Congress for Pullout From Iraq
By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 25, 2006; Page A13
More than 100 U.S. service members have signed a rare appeal urging Congress
to support the "prompt withdrawal" of all American troops and bases from
Iraq, organizers said yesterday.
"Staying in Iraq will not work and is not worth the price. It is time for
U.S. troops to come home," reads the statement of a small grass-roots group
of active-duty military personnel and reservists that says it aims to give
U.S. military members a voice in Iraq war policy.
"As a patriotic American proud to serve the nation in uniform, I
respectfully urge my political leaders in Congress to support the prompt
withdrawal of American military forces and bases from Iraq," it reads. The
group, which aims to collect 2,000 signatures and deliver the message to
Congress in January, is sponsored by antiwar activists including Iraq
Veterans Against the War, Veterans for Peace and Military Families Speak
Out.
The unusual appeal -- the first of its kind in the Iraq war, organizers
say -- makes use of a legal protection afforded by the Military
Whistle-Blower Protection Act, which provides that members of the military,
acting in their capacity as citizens, can send a protected communication to
Congress without reprisal.
"Just because you put on the uniform of our country doesn't mean you've
given up your rights as a citizen," said J.E. McNeil, a lawyer for the group
and executive director for the Center on Conscience & War, a Washington
organization that protects the rights of conscientious objectors.
But the service members can exercise this right only while off duty and out
of uniform, and they must otherwise make clear they are not speaking for the
military. In addition, they cannot say anything disrespectful about their
commanders, including the president, McNeil said.
Navy Seaman Jonathan Hutto of Atlanta was the first service member to sign
the appeal.
"I hear discussions every day among my shipmates about the war in Iraq and
how it doesn't make any sense at this point," said Hutto, who is based in
Norfolk and served from September 2005 until March on a ship off Iraq's
coast. "There is no victory in sight, and war is still inevitable." He said
he opposes the war because of its human and economic tolls, adding that the
billions of dollars should be spent on jobs and education at home.
Marine Corps Sgt. Liam Madden, 22, served in Iraq's restive Anbar province
from September 2004 until February 2005 and found his opposition to the war
intensified after he returned to the United States. "I don't think any more
Iraqis or Americans should die because of the U.S. occupation," he said,
expressing disappointment that Iraqi elections in January 2005 did not lead
to a decline in violence.
"I think some things are worth fighting for, I just don't feel Iraq is one
of them," said Madden, of Bellows Falls, Vt. The Quantico-based Marine plans
to leave the service to attend college in January.
Madden said he and Hutton met and learned of the vehicle for expressing
their views to Congress when they attended a lecture at the YMCA in Norfolk
by David Cortright, the author of "Soldiers in Revolt: GI Resistance During
the Vietnam War."
Staff researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.

========================

Vt. soldier will ask Congress to end war
EVAN LEHMANN, Banner Washington Bureau
Article Launched:10/24/2006 03:08:39 AM EDT



Tuesday, October 24
WASHINGTON — An active duty Marine from Rockingham, Vt., who served in Iraq
is using a military whistleblower provision to ask Congress to end the Iraq
War.
Sgt. Liam Madden, 22, said he's joining dozens of active duty service
members in the orchestrated campaign to protest the administration's
rationale for the 2003 invasion and the ongoing occupation.
"I don't appreciate the fabricated justification for war," said Madden, who
was based at the Haditha Dam in Iraq for seven months, ending in February
2005.
No benefit
"I think it has too much of a human cost, American lives as well as Iraqi,
for no benefit," he said in a telephone interview. "The war is being paid
for by American people and they're not seeing any benefit from it, and
neither are the Iraqi people. It doesn't make sense to me."
More than 60 troops will send a protected communication to their member of
Congress, as allowed under the Military Whistleblower Protection Act, Madden
said.
He is one of only two service members using the "appeal of redress" who
served in Iraq.
"I'm supposed to be free from reprisal," said Madden, who's stationed at the
Marine Corps



base in Quantico, Va. His commanding officers don't know how he feels about
the war, but that is all about to change, he acknowledged. Neither do most
of his fellow service members.
"The ones who agree with me, I think, are thankful someone is finally doing
it," he said. "The ones who disagree with me will not understand me. I'm
sure there will be some sort of ostracization."
"It's something I really care about. I don't know how to express it any
better," he said.
Madden said the antiwar groups Military Families Speak Out and Iraq Veterans
Against the War are coordinating members of Congress to support the
campaign.
U.S. Rep. Bernard Sanders, I-Vt., couldn't be reached Monday night.
The service members plan to publicly announce the campaign on Wednesday.
Madden said they hope to collect 2,000 appeals for redress and send them to
members of the newly convened 110th Congress on Jan. 15, 2007 — Martin
Luther King Day.
"So we can set the tone for the next Congress," he said.
There was no specific experience in Iraq that moved Madden to oppose the
war, he said. He disagrees with the president's policies, which could result
in his return to a war he is now challenging.
Though Madden believes his service will expire before his unit is redeployed
to Iraq, he and other Marines departing the corps remain eligible for
emergency deployment for four years.
"All I hope to achieve is the end of the occupation of Iraq," he said. "I
know that sounds like a lot."
=====================

Some active-duty troops voice their dissent from U.S. policy in Iraq
By Drew Brown
McClatchy Newspapers
(MCT)
WASHINGTON - Liam Madden opposed the war in Iraq even before he deployed
with his Marine unit in late 2004. But he came home convinced more than ever
that the war was wrong.
"The more informed I got, the more I opposed the war," said Madden, 22, a
Marine Corps sergeant in Quantico, Va. "The more people who died there, the
longer we stayed there, the more I opposed the war. The more I know, the
easier it is to support withdrawal."
Madden is one of about 118 members of the U.S. military who plan to petition
Congress asking that U.S. forces be withdrawn from Iraq and brought home,
said attorney J.E. McNeil. McNeil is advising the grassroots group of
active-duty service members, who organized the petition drive through a Web
site (www.appealforredress.org).
In a rare display of public dissent, Madden and another serviceman plan to
go public Wednesday with their disapproval. Members of the military are more
limited than civilians are in how they can express dissent.
Although a number of troops, including at least one officer, have been
brought up on charges for refusing to serve in Iraq, and dozens more have
deserted, this is the first time that serving members of the U.S. military
have publicly petitioned Congress to end the war. The action comes less than
two weeks before the Nov. 7 elections, in which the Iraq war is a major
issue.
President Bush says he plans no major changes in strategy, and top U.S.
officials in Baghdad said Tuesday that they are sticking to plans to hand
over most security responsibilities to the Iraqi government over the next 12
to 18 months.
Organizers are planning to deliver the petitions to Congress by the Martin
Luther King Jr. holiday in January.
"The long-term goal is to end the occupation of Iraq," Madden said. "The
short-term goal is to spread the word that service members who feel like we
do have a tool to have their voice heard, and it's their duty as a citizen
of a democratic society to participate in democracy."
The message that Madden and other troops are sending to their congressional
representatives is brief and to the point.
"As a patriotic American proud to serve the nation in uniform, I
respectfully urge my political leaders in Congress to support the prompt
withdrawal of all American military forces and bases from Iraq," it says.
"Staying in Iraq will not work and is not worth the price. It is time for
U.S. troops to come home."
The grassroots movement of active-duty service members is based in Norfolk,
Va., and is sponsored by several anti-war groups, including Iraq Veterans
Against the War, Veterans for Peace, and Military Families Speak Out.
Service members can submit their appeals online, giving their names, duty
status and service branches.
McNeil, the attorney, said troops who speak out against the war are
exercising their First Amendment right to free speech.
Under military regulations, troops are free to speak their minds as long as
they're not on duty, not in uniform and aren't saying anything that's
disrespectful to their chain of command or the president, she said.
"They've got to be clear that they are speaking for themselves and not the
military," said McNeil, the executive director of the Center on Conscience
and War, based in Washington. The organization was formed by Quakers and
other church groups in 1940 to protect the rights of conscientious
objectors.
The Military Whistleblower Protection Act of 1995 allows servicemen and
women to communicate grievances directly to Congress without the threat of
penalty or reprisal.
Eugene Fidell, a Washington attorney and president of the National Institute
for Military Justice, said the service members are within their rights to
speak out against the war to members of Congress. However, he said they must
be careful about what they say in public and the circumstances under which
they say it.
Eric A. Seitz, a Honolulu attorney who has handled military cases for more
than 40 years, said: "The kinds of resistance and opposition and outrage
that military people are now beginning to express has been simmering for
quite a while. But it's about to just burst out in huge waves."
Seitz is representing Lt. Ehren Watada, an Army lieutenant at Fort Lewis,
Wash., who's being prosecuted for refusing to serve in Iraq.
If dissent continues to build, more soldiers might refuse to fight, Seitz
said.
Pentagon officials might "think they can continue to prosecute a war, but
when the troops stop fighting, that's it, they're out of luck," he said.
---
© 2006, McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.