The Future of GI Resistance
Phil Aliff is on the IVAW board of directors. He was a 10th Mountain Division soldier from 2004 until 2008. Phil sends a message to his fellow active duty members: WE are the ones who can end war. There is a new anti-war movement in the United States and we have to make sure that all GIs feel welcome and a part of it.
Jeff Engelhart was in the 1st Infantry Division and served in Baquba, Iraq. He has been a member of the GI resistance for several years now and remembers how lonely it was in the early days of the Iraq-era GI resistance. Jeff read whatever he could to research why we were in Iraq and why US foreign policy is what it is. Jeff created the blog "Fight to Survive" in Iraq, writing about his experiences and what he thought was wrong. He was told to cease and desist, but did not. Back home, he joined Iraq Veterans Against the War and has found it to be the best therapy he could find.
Garett Reppenhagen served with Jeff Engelhart in Iraq and co-authored the blog "Fight to Survive". Garett points out that through their entire GI resistance process, they stayed within the boundaries of UCMJ and were granted honorable discharges. Garett was the first active-duty member of IVAW. Seventy-five percent of the veterans of this war are still in the military; they are career soldiers. That is what makes anti-war organizing difficult in the military. Yes, they oppose the war, but they also want to remain in the military.
The military’s family atmosphere, the safe environment of a military base for raising children, the school benefits, the health care, and the bonuses all make GIs reluctant to risk their position. But Garett says soldiers can use their First Amendment rights to speak out without getting in trouble, and IVAW stands ready to help them learn how. IVAW is asking soldiers and veterans to join a fight to make America better, says Garett.
Army veteran Ronn Cantu had just finished a four-year contract on September 11, 2001. Feeling he had missed a real chance to serve his country, he reenlisted in 2003, anxious to go to war. As he waited impatiently to be shipped out he feared he had again missed his chance when Bush declared "mission accomplished" in May 2003--and once again when Saddam Hussein was captured in December of that year. But finally serving in Iraq (2004-05 and 2006-08), Ronn became increasingly skeptical and frustrated, realizing that the U.S. was there under false pretenses and "the only thing we were fighting for was to live one more day." Between tours he became active with IFAW. When a reporter phoned him in Iraq, his commanding officer at first forbade him to talk to the media, but soon rescinded that order, admitting "it is in fact your right." Ronn wants his active duty brothers and sisters to know that they do have a First Amendment right to dissent and still serve honorably.
Iraq veteran Camilo Mejia (chair of the IVAW board of directors) describes the long history of resistance in the military and salutes those who continue to speak out about their experience. “We live today in times of universal deceit,” he says, “but throughout the past four days, we have witnessed firsthand accounts that challenge that universal deceit… We have become a dangerous group of people, not because of our military training, but because we have dared to challenge the official story.”
|
