Authentic Resistance – Northwest Winter Soldier Portland
October 20, 2008
By Kim Alphandary
[Thanks, Kim]
These were my thoughts about the recent “Winter Soldier” project, which is modeled after a tool developed during the rise of the Vietnam protests of the 60s/ 70s. When will this stuff die? My heart feels heavy when I step on the Wayback-machine, the latest being the ‘Recreate 68′ slogan used for protests held at the DNC 2008 in Denver, Colorado.
Contrary to my preconceptions, Winter Soldier is a beyond profound movement. This is where the resistance resides, an invisible undercurrent of humans of all kinds infecting this society with slow intensity. The first Neo-Winter-Soldier event took place in Silver Spring, Maryland, March 13 to March 16, 2008, timed to highlight the 5th anniversary of the 2003 invasion.
REPORT-BACK
Northwest Winter Soldier Portland, 18th of October. Some 200/300 people showed up, many elderly, a definite lack in youth presence. First panel – on stage – there we saw youth.
Amongst the shattered humans on the first panel of nine men, as different from one another as can be imagined was a display of the beauty of humanity right there. Each brought their story, their confessions, their way of talking, seeing, feeling – straight shooters. Nothing but being there, in the flesh, can enable a person to grasp the enormity of the all-encompassing spectacle of war (our wars). Radio, television, any intermediary form is an obstruction to the process of learning with something like this.
Background, all but one fellow on the panel was seventeen or eighteen years of age when they joined the services. Below, I provide a few bits, from just a few people.
INTELLIGENCE
One fellow worked for “intelligence”. The method of gathering intelligence entailed being out in the streets, gotta be gathered through humans. They’d find a few informers, get genuinely vague information about how someone in some family was suspicious somehow, then pay the fellow large chucks of cash, and repeat the process over and over. They would then raid people’s houses in the middle of the night. Tear women and men apart, destroy the house, find a lone AK-47, if they were lucky, haul away the bad men (men of the house), women begging for mercy, children crying. Ziplock them, throw them here there and everywhere, hood them, take them to the Balad Interrogation Center.
Then the interrogation, they were of course all guilty, according to senior officers. In fact, instead of body-counts like Vietnam, their reward system is based on the arrest-count. They all had interpreters, and the invisible hand of their Iraqi counter parts to actualize the very worst of the torture. This fellow was encouraged to make the interrogation unpleasant. He came to feel great success if he was able to make the man / person / human-being break down and cry. In fact, many would become so desperate that they would throw themselves against the walls in an attempt to kill themselves.
GUANTANAMO
One fellow with the National Guard was assigned to serve a year in Guantanamo. As he describes it, it is a kind of prison inside of a prison for the jailers themselves. Hours and hours of time, just time ticking by with nothing to do but seek to develop the skill of indifference. The worst for him were the cells; he couldn’t even look into them they were so horrible, puke green with a psychedelic level of high voltage lighting and a tiny small little looking glass where the inmate can watch the jailers strolling by. No torture necessary, the conditions, the years, never brought before a court, never accused of anything, a kind of promise that they will never, ever, leave this hell. He did witness worse than this, and eventually suffered a total nervous breakdown.
THOSE AT HOME
The second panel consisted of persons affected indirectly by this war. A mother who once had a beautiful son, macho, six foot five. Who on his second tour did kill people, people that he cannot extricate from his soul. In fact the mother read us letters that she had written to the dead and surviving members of the people he killed. She had to move her daughters out of the house because it was too unstable for them, the son drank and drank, was arrested for this that and the other thing, eventually he accidentally drove himself off a cliff and is now learning to speak again.
Sara Rich spoke, we know her story [Oregonians, whom this story was written, are aware of Sara’s daughter Suzanne Swift and the sexual harassment she suffered while on tour in Iraq.] To this day entails many struggles.
An Arab American mother who now has a daughter, who was ripped from her children and sent to war, then dealt with so incompetently that she will most likely need to have her leg amputated, but that is all taking too much time, too little evaluation, punctuated by long intervals of bureaucratic nothingness. She lives in absolute pain, all the time, and battles her desire for flight into the heavens, in search of relief from her suffering.
NO MORE VICTIMS
This panel was suddenly interrupted by the appearance of an Iraqi man, with translator. The fellow wove a kind of blow-by-blow account of the tragedy of his two-year-old son and wife. The trip to the hospital, the boy’s intestines etc; the gravity of the wounds and length of time the doctors spent saving his sons life. A long explanation as to why his son was so important to him — imagine explaining such a thing to anyone! Mustafa. He was told that the only way his son would survive is if he where magically able to get to Europe or the United States for treatment. This father went everywhere, other hospitals, Iraqi government organizations, the US embassy, and somehow stumbled across No More Victims, an organization that was able to arrange for Mustafa’s treatment in the U.S. It was moving to see his very beautiful three-year-old son in his arms. This Iraqi man has concerns about his wife, about the Iraqi people, about all the Iraqi people that have not been as lucky as him.
END OF STORIES
Believe me, this is just a small bit. These people modeled what courage and resistance looks like. They need support. Troops return and enter the abyss of non-acceptance, endless bureaucracy, little health care, and nightmares that will be with them for the rest of their lives. These few have found a place where they can work to make change. They’ve detailed their training of ill-equipped people working for Kellogg Brown and Root, who will be paid 75,000 a year to replace them. The war for control of the oil fields, the awareness that what was done in Iraq is being brought home as methods for controlling things in this country — and the possibilities for more war in Afghanistan, even Pakistan and Iran. This is where the absolute irrefutably greatest of crimes are being committed. We need to get involved. This is it. It is almost too simple, too easy.
Timothy R. Anderson:
It will not be mentioned by the two major political parties’ presidential candidates, but……….
The Iraq War is currently costing at least ten billion dollars per month. According to triple w dot icasualties dot org , the number of Iraqi security force servicemembers and Iraqi civilians who have died since January 1, 2008 is at least 2, 600 ; the number of homeless Iraqi civilians is more than one million.
Regrettably, some persons in the United States Of America do NOT concern themselves with the ongoing death , destruction, and
inhumanity that occurs EVERY DAY in Iraq.
Timothy R. Anderson
22 October 2008, 11:29 amStan Moore:
While I applaud the attention given to Iraqi pain and suffering along with cruel realizations of American soldiers once they realize they are pawns in a larger game, I have to also feel very concerned that this focus is typical of a flawed Left that lacks vision and is very slow on the learning curve.
I did not need recent Winter Soldier testimonies in order to understand what American soldiers have been doing in Iraq This has been obvious for years.
What is hard for me to understand is what did those military recruits think being a soldier was about? Did they think the Army is the same as the Peace Corps? Does basic training give soldiers a hint as to the purpose of military service?
More importantly, why is the Left still completely silent with regard to the ramifications of the atrocities in Iraq as a precursor of what the American people should expect as capitalism falters in its late stages?
It is very clear to me that all wars are essentially resource wars and not fights to promote freedom and democracy, no matter what the politicians say. It is clear to me that as our civilization and capitalism enter the final stages of exploitation, the elite capitalists turn their attention to cannibalistic exploitation of the final available resource — the affluent middle class, especially in the U.S. That is what the current financial maneuverings are all about.
U.S military operations in Iraq have for months and years been about population control, self-security, and using these to control the wealth of that country. Fallujah will prove to be a training ground for the way the U.S. military eventually manages Detroit and Portland. The ability to surveil, to interrogate for the purpose of identifying potential and real threats, and the ability to use fear and coercion to prevent resistance are being perfected in urban settings in Iraq for use at home in the foreseeable future.
This is the point that is subtly alluded to in some Left discussions, but only obliquely.
Who is asking Obama to repudiate these tactics? Who is demanding that the privacy rights and other constitutional rights of freedom from search and seizure, right to presumption of innocence until proven guilty by a jury of one’s peers and other constitutional rights are treated as more important that “victory over terror”. Why aren’t more Left Wingers challenging Obama’s perceptions of what terrorism is and how it can be defeated?
Weeping for the loss of innocence of winter soldiers is sort of heart warming, but it puts us in the past and fails to deal with the predictable future.
Somehow the Left needs vision and there are some who see it and speak out. I applaud Daniel Ellsberg, for instance. I applaud Howard Zinn. Too many are playing partisan politics and not even bothering to openly hold their nose while supporting the Obama fantasy and the goal of a Democratic super majority in the Legislative Branch, as if the Democrats are an opposition party against the excercise of power in the present paradigm. Amy Goodman, for example, has long ago sold out and has traded Left Wing celebrity status for honest speaking of truth to power on the Left face of the status quo.
At the rate we are going, we will see more winter soldiers and more victims and no victory over the horrors they typify.
Stan Moore
22 October 2008, 5:15 pmSan Geronimo, CA
Waldow:
Mr. Moore,
Your critism is well written, and the gatekeepers like Ms. Goodman certainly need to be dethroned. However, considering how little we are shown of Iraq in conventional media, events like Winter Soilder serve an important purpose to remind people–perhaps less focused than you–of the War.
There are always plenty of liberal phonies at events like that. When you go camping, apply DEET or accept a few minor bites. Maybe some kid will see Winter Soilder and avoid the Army. Maybe some guilty liberal will send a dollar or two that end up giving medical care to Iraqis. These are crumbs of course, but we need reformists to save what few things they can, or else radicals won’t have squat left to work with.
It is fun to poke at their “hope”; I enjoy it myself. But when were’re feeling destructive, isn’t it better and braver to focus on somebody with real power? If you’re ever in Oregon, email me at shawn@imperviousconstruction.com and we’ll go heckle my Senator Smith, though your Pelosi would be far more satisfying (she is not a real reformist, she is more powerful, and both of them are probably child molestors).
What are some more effective actions you suggest for me to undertake, Mr. Moore? (Personal liberation like farming and getting out of debt are all I’ve come up with in 10 years I’ve called myself a “radical”).
MODERATOR: Accusatons of child molestation, especially in “jest,” are completely inappropriate and unacceptable here. Cease and desist.
23 October 2008, 10:38 amKim Sky:
Dear Stan Moore,
the idea here was to yes, applaud these people — more importantly identify a movement that is growing — that is real. a place to anchor oneself. You perhaps know what is going on — more and more people are learning — “normal” people. As an active human, I need to identify where to place my efforts. i just attended a talk held by the fourth international, most my acquaintances are anarchists. they do not know one another, everyone is isolated into bits and pieces. it seems pretty clear to me that there is going to be a huge shift in this society and if we’re going to prevent a populist uprising that is co-opted by the fascists (i.e. the National Socialist German Workers Party) — then we’ve got to get to work. one young anarchist who did attend the event told me that none of his friends wanted to come because they believe that soldiers are nothing, that they are stupid, that they deserve no solidarity.
Hey when did you wake up, when did i wake up? Waking up is where it begins.
23 October 2008, 10:40 amTimothy R. Anderson:
I don’t know of a better source than Dahr Jamail for information about what goes on in Iraq.
Timothy R. Anderson
23 October 2008, 1:02 pmStan Moore:
To Waldow and Kim and any others who may be interested in my brief comments –
I am not disparaging “Winter Soldiers” as of no value. Ceretainly their perspective is valid and useful. My point, though, is that if we want to change the world, we have to find a way to amass power in a proactive setting, not a reactive one. If our learning curve is several years behind the strategizing of the power elite, we will forever be reacting and protesting and disrupting, but not creating the replacement reality that we long for. (And it must be noted that one of the fundamental weaknesses of the Left is the typical absence of a true unifying set of values and/or goals and/or strategies to bring “change that we can believe in”.
I recently checked out some DVD’s from the public library on things that occurred in the U.S. during the Vietnam War era, including one on the Weather Underground, one on the Free Speech Movement in Berkeley, one on the “Summer of Love” in San Francisco, and probably one or more other such documentaries. The point that kept recurring was that “radicals” in that era were intelligent, active, committed people, but they simply could not sustain their activism, remain or get fully united, and overcome their own internal differences. I thought it was interesting to see old clips of Governor Ronald Reagan, who was not the least bit bothered by doubts, disorganization, or disagreement with his opponents. Reagan typified society in need of urgent reform, but which is radically opposed and intensely organized and motivated to resist reform.
As an example of proactive, strategic thinking, I recall reading a book a while back about a U.S. Air Force pilot who became a military strategist for the entire military complex. But his initial claim to fame was in training dogfights with other pilots throughout the U.S. military, whether they be Air Force, Navy, Marine, or other fighter pilots. This fellow had a standing bet that he could defeat the best pilots in the world within something like 40 seconds flat or he would pay a cash prize. He never once lost his bet, even going against the best fighter pilots in the best aircraft in the U.S. arsenal. His tactic had to do with getting within the decision making cycle of the opponent. He figured out how to preempt the decision making processes of his opponents extremely quickly, and he was able to defeat them in simulated combat within 40 seconds or so, time after time, after time. This concept had other strategic military (and nonmilitary) applications, and so long after this fellow retired as a pilot and became an Air Force Colonel he was a consultant on military strategy within the U.S. and foreign military services.
I think there is application in this in strategic thinking on how to change the world. But the problems are manyfold. We need motivated people in large numbers, organization, commitment, leverage, strategy, unity, clarity, and probably much more.
Unfortunately, these daunting requirements are probably impossible to generate, activate, and consumate effectively in a world where the powered elite systematically obsess, suppress, and repress people and movements that threaten their status.
I guess the good news in a sense is that this corrupt system is headed for collapse under its own weight. The question of importance will be what will emerge from the collapse. There could be an opportunity for a coalescing coalition of consciencious campaigners for the common cause, or there could be Karl Rove and Dick Morris and Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton organizing to rebuild the ruins of the repugnant, wretched rule of the rich and the ruthless.
One last thought related to yet another DVD I watched recently was about Che Guevara and the Cuban Revolution. When Che and Fidel Castro initiated a military revolution their numbers were just tiny, and they were opposing a well-financed, well-armed but corrupt government under Bautista. Bautista wanted Castro and Guevara killed and tried. Somehow the revolution succeeded, but not because of overwhelming popular support at first, not because of abundant resources or tactical surprise.
I think there is a lesson in that history.
23 October 2008, 10:09 pmJames M:
From my experience on the Vets’ Gulf March — having listened to and interviewed a great many veterans who were traumatized not only by attacks against them but also (and perhaps especially) by actions they committed under orders — I see the value of events like Winter Soldier. What’s being missed in this discussion, I think, is the healing power of Confession to the soldiers themselves … Confession being the first step in a sequence that continues with Repentance (acknowledging the wrong of what you did and vowing never to do it again) and Atonement (making amends for it through good actions in the world.) There’s a segment of my film about the March where Stan does some thinking aloud, about how if one soldier (in this case, a guy who ran over a small child with his convoy in Iraq) is saved through this kind of catharsis, then the entire overwhelming logistical, physical, and emotional effort of the March was worth it. Because that’s one less person who might take their own lives, or spread their pain and trauma to those around them.
That’s what you have to consider when you judge the efficacy of protest actions like these — that, whether or not they have an “change effect” on the rest of the world (which they certainly do, even if in a limited way,) they are at least beneficial to the participants themselves, in helping them to digest their pain & guilt and move forward in doing good.
That said, I have often felt sentiments similar to Stan Moore’s. I think that while there is great value in identifying the wrongs in the world, my sense is that many leftists behave as if this is all that’s needed to initiate change. They solve one part of the equation, and ignore the other part. A hard lesson I’ve had to learn is that a large portion of the people in this world can be confronted with the truth about horrors committed on their behalf, in the service of their non-negotiable lifestyle, and they will either a) flat-out refuse to give a shit or b) rationalize these horrors as “the way it is” or a necessary evil. Or the exaggerations of raving liberals or whatever. They can then sweep it out the backdoor of their consciousness.
I just don’t think appeals to conscience are by themselves always enough to end atrocities or redress injustices. Sometimes they are. And sometimes the only condition that creates change is when continuing on a certain path becomes too uncomfortable or untenable. The Civil Rights movement certainly knew and demonstrated this.
24 October 2008, 4:01 pmTom:
Excellent stuff Stan.
[Ahem... Kim wrote this. -Moderator]
The only tangible hope that I see to wake people up and open their eyes to the fraud represented by the political parties and the mainstream media is to expose the 9/11 fraud. The people who disbelieve the government and media on this fundamental issue of government/media/corporate complicity in a crime that was used for war and the stripping of rights is growing. In this instance, being slow and behind the curve will not necessarily be prevent ultimate success. Just as in the Vietnam and Iraq wars more and more people with knowledge of abuse of power ultimately come forward – so it may be with 9/11. Whereas such popular awareness and weariness of war brings an end to war — too late. If a critical mass of people is achieved or critical insider appears, such that the truth simply cannot be ignored — that could possibly catalyze change.
It’s my thinking anyway – and it’s what I educate people on. I go after financial fraud (civil actions) and I have a degree in physics. With enough time and going as slowly as necessary, I can usually turn intelligent people on this issue – though it ain’t easy.
24 October 2008, 6:05 pmKim Sky:
TWO ENTIRELY DIFFERENT THINGS.
FIRST. “Basically, if you’re not a utopianist, you’re a schmuck.” BY Jonothon Feldman (Indigenous Planning Times)
just finished reading some truly new visioning being done by David Graeber “Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology”
Url: http://www.prickly-paradigm.com/paradigm14.pdf
the above quote, i found in this on-line pamphlet. which is a fantastic analysis of the limits of our imaginations, or actually the gross limitations of our analysis of human history thus far. it’s profound.
and quoting David Graeber, “Since one cannot know a radically better world is not possible, are we not betraying everyone by insisting on continuing to justify, and reproduce, the mess we have today?”
leading into the SECOND. the point is a call to ACTION, get involved, join the “people”.
there are all different ways to get involved, help people avoid the military, give resisters shelter. become friends with these people. JOIN in the process of making change. perhaps by working with these folk, other forms of social structures will be invented? (of course there are a zillion causes out there and obviously this does not appeal to everyone.)
i guess i’m just wanting to push my desires into a HOP TO IT NOW!!! START CHANGING THE WORLD NOW — TODAY — YESTERDAY — THE TIME IS RIGHT — A MARVELOUS, FANTASTIC NEW WORLD IS ABOUT TO BE FORMED OUT OF THE ASHES OF CAPITALISMO
– well, maybe not ashes, but things are gonna get rough, and to me that’s a good thing.
thanx for listening, chao, kim
P.S. a short list:
support the GI Coffeehouse at Fort Lewis
http://www.girights.org
GI Rights Hotline
girightshotline.org
surrport US War Resisters in Canada
http://www.resisters.ca
defend all war resisters
http://www.couragetoresist.org
Iraq veterans against the war
http://www.ivaw.org
and plenty more !!!
24 October 2008, 9:36 pmWaldow:
Thanks to Stan Moore for the story illustrating the tactical idea of of Interrupting Decision Making Routines.
This is an important “how to do”, and what I am hoping to get from this thread in addition to good analysis like this is a specific example of a “what to do”. Maybe I am too greedy?
An example in three parts:
1. Although Obama seems to be anointed and backed by a majority of the Power Elites, it seems very possible that the Rouge Bush Clique might try to steal the election again .
2. Given massive popular support for Obama, and given the scent of Dow-crash-panic, then a stolen election results in rioting. This would do most damage to the neighborhoods of the poor, not the enclaves of the rich. This presents a bonus opportunity for a crackdown by the thieves and their enablers.
3. So, at this late date, how might we Interrupt The Decision Making Routine of potential rioters? We could make fliers ahead of time asking, “Why destroy our OWN neighborhoods over this?” I am skeptical old fashioned paper would work on a likely vengeful young male. A text message would get through better? How could one get a chain of such text messages going?
I am eager for criticisms and additions on this third item.
What are other specific scenarios with Interruptible Decision Making Routines? Our friends and family who’ve heard Doom Sermons for years are starting to ask, “OK, what do we do?” I want better answers for them (Not just book-ending pablum).
P.S.
To those who see doom as inevitable, I commiserate and wish you luck with the Rope-A-Dope Ploy. Stay in touch if you can.
25 October 2008, 3:17 amWaldow:
Thanks for the links Kim. I’m not good at digging this stuff up.
26 October 2008, 5:05 pmKevin:
Dear Mr. Stan Moore:
“What is hard for me to understand is what did those military recruits think being a soldier was about?”
When I joined the Army Infantry at the age of 17, I didn’t think about the possibility of stacking naked prisoners or shocking them with old field radio sets. I didn’t think it would be puppy dogs and sunshine, but I didn’t think I would be ordered to fire on every taxicab I saw. Sounds to me like you never served to begin with, and are doing an outstanding job of criticizing from the forward operating couch.
“It is very clear to me that all wars are essentially resource wars and not fights to promote freedom and democracy, no matter what the politicians say.”
It’s very clear to me as well, now that i’m 32. It’s also clear to me that you don’t remember what it was like to be 17.
“More importantly, why is the Left still completely silent with regard to the ramifications of the atrocities in Iraq as a precursor of what the American people should expect as capitalism falters in its late stages?”
They are silent because A) they don’t believe that could happen, i.e. naivety, or B) they’re afraid their friends will call them conspiracy theorists. Most on the left have never been exposed to these ideas, and are reluctant to accept the fact that there’s a class of humanity for which this is acceptable.
“I am not disparaging “Winter Soldiers” as of no value.”
No, you’re just disparaging the troops by asking what they thought they were getting into.
“This fellow had a standing bet that he could defeat the best pilots in the world within something like 40 seconds flat or he would pay a cash prize. He never once lost his bet..”
Any fighter pilot who claims to have beaten all comers within “40 seconds or so” must have a name?
“Unfortunately, these daunting requirements are probably impossible to generate, activate, and consumate effectively in a world where the powered elite systematically obsess, suppress, and repress people and movements that threaten their status.”
How does the elite obsess people and movements?
“There could be an opportunity for a coalescing coalition of consciencious campaigners for the common cause…the repugnant, wretched rule of the rich and the ruthless.”
Good god, did you just find out yesterday what aliteration means?
Although there are points in your posts I agree with, you annoyed me so much with your attitude and false intellectualism that I couldn’t restrain myself.
Oh, and DVDs doesn’t have an apostrophe.
8 November 2008, 3:36 amStan Moore:
Dear Kevin –
You were correct on at least one of your observations. I never served in the military and would have been a consciencious objector and even willing to accept prison time for not joining the military if that had been my only option. I graduated from high school in November of 1973 and the draft was a possibility at that time. That was my decision then and never for a split second would I have considered any form of military service because of my spiritual training and conscience.
One of the fascinating aspects of the ongoing situation is the question of what would a lot of the “Winter Soldiers” be saying and doing if the invasion of Iraq had been a cakewalk as the American government expected and as George Bush thought was the case when he strutted on the aircraft carrier deck and celebrated the end of major combat operations. At that point in time, most Americans of both parties saw the tumbling of the Saddam Hussein statue and thought the U.S. had done a great deed by removing a dictator and offering freedom and democracy to the Iraqi people. The war was viewed as a necessary evil and soldier’s mom’s like Cindy Sheehan were worried about their kids’ safety, but not necessarily challenging the morality of the war itself.
If Iraqis had accepted military defeat as national defeat, no insurgency had erupted, and the U.S. had been able to quickly install a puppet government, place several hundred thousand soldiers across the country to prevent and suppress the emergence of a rebellion, and oil revenues started pouring in to pay for the cost of the war, my view of the war would have been the same. But many of those who went on to become “Winter Soldiers” would have viewed their service as honorable and even necessary.
In other words, a lot of the belated moralizing from the Winter Soldiers was really a by-product of their own suffering and distress, which hardly matched the suffering they inflicted on the Iraqi population and which the two prior U.S. administrations had inflicted on Iraqis through sanctions and bombing for a decade before this invasion.
And the truth is that the U.S. has been intervening militarily in the economies of numerous nations around the world, killing people by the millions, and terroring resisters (insurgents) for a hundred years or more. Try reading the essay and writings by two time Congressional Medal of Honor Award winner USMC General Smedley Butler, author of “War is a Racket”. Smedley Butler was a career military man and a soldier’s soldier who finally realized that his military service was at its root a protection racket for U.S. imperialism and in the interest of U.S. corporations. And we are talking about interventions in Central America in the 1910′s and beyond. Or go read some of the analysis by former foreign affairs professional William Blum on the interventions by the U.S. government and military in scores and scores of nations around the world, including the actual suppression of democracy, as in many cases where the U.S. and its agents actually killed democratically elected national leaders in order to support tyrants and dictators who reflected the economic interests of the U.S. A perfect example was the overthrow and murder of Mossadeq of Iran in the 1950′s in order to install the tyranical Shah. Why? Because Mossadeq nationalized the petroleum industry, which was intolerable to the U.S. and British governments. They killed him, installed the Shah and his terrorizing secret police, and the results reverberate in the region till this very day.
I have never heard Stan Goff discuss his military activities in Central America, but I do know that American peace activists for years have protested the infamous “School of the Americas” at Fort Benning, Georgia, which trained national soldiers to thwart nationalist insurgencies of Central American peasants and left-wingers fighting for their right to subsistence lifestyles against the wishes of U.S. and international corporations. The techniques taught at the School of the Americas are no doubt similar to the ones being taught right now to the Iraqi police and the Iraqi military by U.S. soldiers.
So, yes, sometimes soldiers do reform. Soemtimes the harm they have caused haunts them and they become activists against war. But the problem is that harm has already been done and the scale of the reversal is usually far smaller than the scale of the harm.
Mankind is not going to make much headway, in my opinion, until people learn in massive numbers early in life that war is not the answer. People need to be taught the religious concept of beating those swords into plowshares and working for peace to prevent wars, not to stop them.
I am not bragging to say that I learned this very early on because of training from my mother. She died in 1967 when I was only 11 years old, but in those early years she taught me my basic morals and I never had or needed additional strengthening or teaching to know that war is nothing I want to be part of. And that meant that I was not going to be a soldier, even a medic or a cook or a participant in any way in the war machine.
I was also taught to be skeptical, to question authority, to think for myself, and to do my research and homework rather than to be dependent on the views of others.
It is interesting to see how Barack Obama now has the total attention of a large number of American and world youths. He has a “bully pulpit” that he could use to teach the young that war is a mistake and that wars are too expensive in lives and in treasure and when they are concluded, the same issues that precipitated them have to be resolved. Obama could use his position and the fervor of his supporters to argue in favor of conflict resolution without war. Or he could attack inside Pakistan, surge more forces into Afghanistan and nuke Iran.
I wander what Barack’s mother would advise him to do if she were alive. I think she would advise him to do what my mother would advise me to do in my life. (And I thought it was something else that Barack’s mother was named Stanley).
Stan(ley) R. Moore
8 November 2008, 11:20 pmPetaluma, CA
Kevin:
Dear Stanley,
“In other words, a lot of the belated moralizing from the Winter Soldiers was really a by-product of their own suffering and distress…”
I would counter that it was a byproduct of their lack of understanding. If the invasion had been a cakewalk, they would most likely not have seen the nature of the invasion for what it was, but due to the resistance, and the subsequent conduct of our military and paramilitary forces, they had that true nature shoved in their face. By calling it ‘belated moralizing’, you’re diminishing the courage and will it takes to overcome the prevailing winds and do what does not come naturally to military men and women, speak out in public against their (our) masters.
“And the truth is that the U.S. has been intervening militarily in the economies of numerous nations around the world, killing people by the millions, and terroring resisters (insurgents) for a hundred years or more. Try reading the essay and writings by two time Congressional Medal of Honor Award winner USMC General Smedley Butler, author of “War is a Racket”.”
I agree, and i’ve read WIAR. Also, Confessions of an Economic Hitman by John Perkins. I don’t mean to sound like a military sympathizer, I’ve come to realize that U.S. military intervention and conflict is always on the side of profit, regardless of the human price.
“It is interesting to see how Barack Obama now has the total attention of a large number of American and world youths. He has a “bully pulpit” that he could use to teach the young that war is a mistake and that wars are too expensive in lives and in treasure and when they are concluded, the same issues that precipitated them have to be resolved. Obama could use his position and the fervor of his supporters to argue in favor of conflict resolution without war. Or he could attack inside Pakistan, surge more forces into Afghanistan and nuke Iran.”
He could teach that war is a mistake, but in my opinion no presidential candidate in a capitalist country can be successful if he’s not on the side of corporate power structures, and those structures are not interested in ending conflict. The largest U.S. embassy in the world was not built in Iraq for no reason, and Obama is not going to get us out. I agree with you (I think) that he’s no more anti-war than Clinton or Bush Jr.
Thanks for your reasoned response, lack (mostly) of disparagement, and thoughtful recommendations. I like your second post a lot more than your first!
Kevin G. Gannon
13 November 2008, 11:37 pmPhoenix, AZ
Stan Moore:
response to Kevan G.
Dear Kevin –
I remember when John Kerry was a “Winter Soldier” and very vocal and morally outraged. What happened to him, I wonder.
The U.S. Government learned many lessons from Vietnam, including the absolute need for strict information control (censorship) in order to prevent the public from understanding the immorality of war due to its effect on EVERYONE it touches. That is one reason I find Smedley Butler’s exhaustive comments so fascinating. General Butler described what war does to the soldiers and leaves many with maimed bodies, others with haunted psyches (is there such a word) and traumatized lives forever. The “enemy” loses life and limb and property. The taxpayer is left with mountains of debt and the war profiteers are left with obscene wealth and greed to perpetuate the process.
The U.S. Government had to deal with conscription of military personnel in Vietnam, plus the relatively free access to the war zone by reporters who often provided color television reports of the macabre horrors of war. This taught the Bill Ayres and the Bernadette Dorhns of America what we were doing to the nation we claimed to be “protecting from communism”. The news clips of American coffins being loaded on planes like stacks of firewood and American soldiers with their guts hanging out and writhing in pain were bad for morale of the generation subject to conscription and their parents, cousins, grandparents, potential wives, etc.
So, the fact that Americans are generally ignorant of the realities of war and of the true costs of war is part of The Plan. It is deliberate and intended to preserve the status quo. People of other nations of the world without some of these news blockouts and censorship efforts have a much better view of the horrors of war and the populations are much more prone to reject war outright in favor of diplomacy.
(Interestingly, the American public and the American government has no such inhibition or distaste for gratuitous violence as entertainment, but there appears to be a psychological disconnect involved therein).
Winter Soldier meetings do a great job of making public (albeit in a very limited way) these horrible realities.
They allow for healing of those involved in a tangible way. They provide witness to history that the press is excluded from doing. There are good and even important aspects to the Winter Soldier meetings and documentation. But I have to believe that the overall effect on warmongering in today’s political environment can only be minimal.
Stan Moore
14 November 2008, 9:01 amPetaluma, CA
BLP:
Are there are other tactics that we were used by soldiers in the Vietnam war era that were used to pressure the chain of command in to ending the war? If there were other tactics, are the people in the militay today already aware of these tactics? Or, would it help for a site like this one to help disseminate this knowledge? Also since it seems possible, but by no means certian that the Iraq war may limp to a close in the next few years even if no one does anyting to hasten its end, does anyone in the military who thinks the war was a huge mistake, if there are any, have any illusions about America’s ruling junta learning anything productive from this war other than how to carry out aggression more cleverly next time around? Finally I think it seems highly appropriate for me to ask on this the day after Christmas, where the hell is Dexter when you really need him?
26 December 2008, 6:40 pmTimothy R. Anderson:
Things will be learned by persons such as Bremer, Wolfowitz, Rice, Blair, Cheney, Bush, and Clinton.
When they are learned is the key. When. This country, the United States Of America, for all its claims to the contrary, is ” led” by persons whose grasp on WHAT IS
HAPPENING RIGHT NOW is purposefully distorted.
Timothy R. Anderson
29 January 2010, 2:31 pm