On May 1, 2008, the International Longshore & Warehouse Union of San Francisco resolved to halt work for 8 hours and shut down ports along the west coast in protest against the U.S. occupation of Iraq. The General Union of Port Workers in Iraq also resolved to halt work for one hour in order to demonstrate opposition to the continued occupation of their country. Under a Saddam Hussein-era law, one of the few that was not altered by U.S. ambassador and Coalition Provisional Authority head Paul Bremer, it remains illegal for public sector workers to unionize in Iraq. Iraqi union workers are frequently threatened with harassment and violence by Iraqi government forces and several major union leaders have been assassinated in recent years.

To: Members of the International Longshore & Warehouse Union, San Francisco, Members of the Port Workers Union of Iraq
From: Iraq Veterans Against the War

Iraq Veterans Against the War stands in solidarity with you against the illegitimate and immoral U.S. occupation of Iraq. Our respect for the principles upon which this nation was founded compels us to speak out against our government’s policies in Iraq and demand that our brothers and sisters in arms be immediately withdrawn. There can be no peace or security for Iraq or for the United States until the Iraqi people are allowed to determine their own destiny, free of foreign interference in their internal affairs. There can be no true democracy in Iraq or in America unless the inherent right of workers to freely assemble is protected. Throughout history, the right of men and women to determine their own destiny has been secured only through struggle. As Americans who have not forgotten our history, we stand proudly with you.

In Solidarity,
Kelly Dougherty
Executive Director
Iraq Veterans Against the War

The Christian Science Monitor's interviewed IVAW members at Winter Soldier for an audio slideshow. Vincent Emanuele, a former Marine who served in Iraq from 2004 to 2005, commented on why he testified:

"This is not about being unpatriotic. I think this is about being as patriotic as you can possibly be. Being honest and saying, 'Hey, listen, our government has been doing some bad things in a Middle Eastern country,' and that's ok to admit that. Because if we don't admit that, and don't learn from that, we're going to continue down this very same path."

View the full slideshow

Bent on retribution, Tomas Young joined the U.S. Army two days after 9/11. When he learned he was being shipped to Iraq instead of Afghanistan, he says he felt hoodwinked and sought meds "to quiet the angry voices in my head."

Instead, he found solace in other angry voices, specifically the rebel yells of Public Enemy, Bad Religion and Dilated Peoples. The protest music did more than soothe the disappointment of heading to what he believes was the wrong battlefield. It also helped Young cope when he was shot and paralyzed.

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by Justin Cliburn
The news of the 4,000th US death in Iraq did not come to me in any dramatic fashion like the news of 9/11, the capture of Saddam Hussein, or the date of my first deployment to Iraq had. Instead, I simply logged into my e-mail and saw it staring at me in the subject line of my most recent unread message. I was not surprised. I was not shocked. I was simply saddened to see the toll hit yet another milestone while our elected leaders in Congress await a new administration to bounce their withdrawal plans off of and the general public continues their tradition of apathy. I was saddened that it took a clean-cut, round number like 4,000 for the United States to snap out of its daze and pay attention once again to the human toll this war has wrought. Was the 4,000th death really any more tragic than the 3,999th? If 3,999 represents an arbitrary figure but 4,000 represents a milestone worthy of front-page mention, what does that say about America’s attention span?

Dozens of members of IVAW participated in a 25-mile march in Philadelphia from March 1-2, starting at the Constitution Center and ending at Valley Forge. In spirit, Valley Forge is the first Winter Soldier event. "230 years ago, a group of soldiers gathered at Valley Forge to stand up against oppression on behalf of their people. And we aim to do the same here today," said Steve Mortillo, president of the Philadelphia chapter of IVAW and former Calvary Scout in Iraq.

Read the Philadelphia Daily News' coverage of the Valley Forge March

The Sunday Times Magazine, March 1, 2008 The veterans are not against the military and seek not to indict it – instead they seek to shine a light on the bigger picture: that the Abu Ghraib prison regime and the Haditha massacre of innocent Iraqis are not isolated incidents perpetrated by “bad seeds” as the military suggests, but evidence of an endemic problem. They will say they were tasked to do terrible things and point the finger up the chain of command, which ignores, diminishes or covers up routine abuse and atrocities.

Some see it as their responsibility to speak out – like Jason Washburn, a US marine who did three tours in Iraq; Logan Laituri, a US Army forward observer in Iraq; and Perry O’Brien, an army medic deployed to Afghanistan in 2003. They believe that, as veterans, they are the most credible sources of information. They say they were put in immoral and often illegal positions. They will speak about what they saw, and what they were asked to do.

Read the article from the London Sunday Times