Since the U.S. Global War on Terror was declared after September 11, 2001, a powerful generation of GIs and veterans has stepped out in opposition. Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) will be making history by holding Winter Soldier: Iraq & Afghanistan. This event is focused on testimony and documentation of the experiences of those involved on both sides of the wars and occupations in these countries. VVAWAI stands in solidarity with the brothers and sisters participating and call for people around the world to support and defend this courageous effort.

Breaking Through Censorship and Distortions

From the beginning, many different voices from around the world have been consistently and unceasingly trying to break through the censorship surrounding the U.S. wars on Iraq and Afghanistan and expose their true nature.

Among them are the relatively neutral observers and witnesses. These include un-embedded journalists, researchers, medical personnel, and many from around the world who are trying to help and are not closely tied to the occupation. Such observers have documented that since 2003 at least one million Iraqis have been killed and four million have been forced from their homes, half leaving Iraq. Journalists and human rights organizations continue to document the violence against the people of Afghanistan.

Then there are the Iraqi and Afghan people under occupation. From day one Iraqis have broadcast their opposition by fighting and resisting the U.S. occupation. The Iraqi people constantly speak out any way they can. Masses of Iraqi people have waged pitched battles against occupation, especially in 2004 in Fallujah and Najaf. The U.S.-NATO occupation of Afghanistan brought further destruction to a country already devastated by decades of war. It replaced the Taliban regime with the equally reactionary and openly corrupt warlords of the Northern Alliance. It is harder to gauge the opposition among the people in Afghanistan because the level of repression and violence is so bad that it is nearly impossible for most to speak out, especially women who are targeted victims of the occupiers and all powerful factions in and out of the regime.

What all these people have to say has been variously ignored, down played and distorted by official discourse and the mass media in the U.S. The ruling class very consciously summed up the role of public opinion at home in their defeat in Vietnam. This is why we have the ‘in-bedded’ journalists, the press censorship in Iraq and constant distortions that demonize one or another section of the Iraqi people or blame the difficulties on neighboring countries. Within this country, both the Iraqi and other voices are often accused of bias or just not seeing the big picture. When truths of U.S. crimes actually bust through the media matrix, they are dismissed as either mistakes or the acts of a few bad apples. However bad the situation is for the people, according to official sources, it is NEVER the system or the U.S. rulers who are at fault.

Support the Veterans who tell the Truth

As we approach the 5th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, veterans of the U.S. military will be gathering in Washington, DC, to add their collective voice to help dispel this illusion and contribute to the truth behind the nature of imperialist wars.

Why should you be down with this? Because we have a responsibility to support the truth about how the U.S. fights and specifically how they are waging war in Iraq and Afghanistan. And, because if millions in this country who already oppose these wars learn the un-spun and unvarnished truth, they will join in demanding an end to all this in ways which cannot be ignored by those in power.

Think about it, here are those who are within the war machine itself— behind the guns of the occupation— breaking with the code of silence and not only uncovering new truths and atrocities, but also validating others stories and experiences.

There will be veterans from many places and various times. They will have many perspectives and differing experiences. They will paint a more coherent picture of occupation and the policies that direct it. This will bring new perspective on what the Afghans, Iraqis and many other sources have been saying. These courageous veterans will be speaking of traumatic events that are not easy to talk about. These will surely not just be horror stories, but will speak to the attitude and training of the military in carrying out occupation, both towards the populations and towards the troops themselves. There will likely be moving stories of coming to grips with the humanity of those under occupation. If we listen, we will learn of the heartbreak of war, we will learn about the various ways Iraqis and Afghans deal with life under occupation. We should gain new insights into the resistance and opposition the U.S. is facing.

These Truths Can Help Stop These Wars

We can expect the U.S. government to try to distort and deny what these veterans are saying. But we, among thousands of other veterans, are here to back them up. We have truth and experience on our side. As anti-imperialist veterans, we already know a great deal about how U.S. wages war. This is the same government that invaded Iraq in violation of international law based on lies. The invasions and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan are guided by policies established long before September 11, 2001. These include strategic control of the world’s energy lifelines; the enforcement of the “Washington consensus” on the world economy; privatization, “free trade,” and the gutting of social services to remove any and all barriers to the expansion of U.S. and allied capital; and the goal of perpetual U.S. military supremacy. In Iraq they are building massive permanent bases and forcibly trying to take control of the oil industry. In Afghanistan they are fighting for a strategic foothold in Central Asia.

The many horrors already revealed about the current war are consistent with what we know about how the U.S. fights. What kind of social system fights wars this way on a constant and massive scale? A fundamentally unjust system that thrives on global plunder. It is an imperialist system with an imperialist way of war. We need to be fighting for something better.

We have great hopes in Winter Soldier: Iraq & Afghanistan, and the broader work of IVAW laying a basis to turn this whole thing around, taking opposition and resistance to these wars to a whole new level. There is powerful history on the people’s side. The movements that gave rise to the first Winter Soldier and in turn were strengthened by it, together with the powerful and righteous resistance of the Vietnamese people, led to the U.S. defeat in Vietnam. As anti-imperialist veterans, we look forward to the day when a similar fate looms over the U.S. in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“Those who do not remember the past are doomed to repeat it.”
—George Santayana