Iraq Veterans Against the War -- In The House!

A powerful and welcome development is the bursting onto the scene of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW)- representing the new generation of veterans who hate the ways the war machine has used them. IVAW came forward nationally at the Veterans for Peace convention in Boston this July and was a strong part of veterans actions at the RNC protests in New York.

The IVAW mission reads (from www.ivaw.net):

Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) is a group of veterans from Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. We are committed to saving lives and ending the violence in Iraq by an immediate withdrawal of all occupying forces. We also believe that the governments that sponsored these wars are indebted to the men and women that were forced to fight them and must give their Soldiers, Marines, Sailors and Airmen the benefits that are owed to them upon their return home.

We welcome all active duty, reservist, and recent veterans into our ranks. To join the IVAW please send email to join@ivaw.net

The group was founded by a dozen veterans after returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. This new generation of anti-war veterans face a situation more intense than by those returning from Vietnam 30+ years ago. With the reactionary and repressive political situation in the U.S. and the situation of the global economy, the prospects of economic hardship and worse are being held over the head of individual soldiers and veterans by the ruling class. IVAW co-founder Mike Hoffman told Workers World, "The other crisis is economic. About 40% of the people in my unit were married with families, and a lot of them came home to no jobs. They sent their pay home, to help their families, so they had no built up funds to see them through. They are in a real financial crisis." Todd Ensign, director of Citizen Soldier, told the NY Press, "The thinking is: 'This really sucks, but it's all I've got...' They want the GI Bill, they want their college loans repaid. It's not like in the late 60s, when you could walk down the street and get another job. The cost of refusing is very high."

In the same article, Ensign also speaks of the need for a support network to handle the potential groundswell of GI opposition to the empire's wars. On top of all this is the increasingly intense repression threatening protest and opposition, as especially seen at the Republican National Convention.

The potential is for IVAW to become the center of a mass movement of anti-war veterans and GIs, somewhat like the role Vietnam Veterans Against the War played during the Vietnam War. But we must not expect easy parallels or answers to already be there. Like the times of the Vietnam War there is a lot at stake here. This war is part of a larger war on the world by the sole superpower. The U.S. rulers have wild ambitions and they have no easy way to back down or retreat. By contrast, U.S. goals were more restricted in Vietnam and anti-U.S. forces around the world had a lot of freedom and initiative at that time. However, there is a basis for this whole situation to be dramatically turned around in all sorts of unforeseen ways. People have tremendous initiative in ways different than during the war on Vietnam, such as a growing capability to quickly connect and come together in protest across borders. This is a product in part of changes in the world economy and technology, but especially as a result of conscious struggle by many people and forces in response to these changes. VVAWAI pledges to do whatever we can to support GI and veteran opposition to this and all imperialist wars and to share our experience with the new generation of veterans and GIs.