Active-duty GIs speak out on Iraq war

Twenty-five active duty GIs reflected the growing opposition to the U.S. occupation of Iraq at a news conference Jan. 15 in Norfolk, Va., by publicly acknowledging that they had signed the “Appeal for Redress,” a statement offering a view of the Iraq occupation that differs from that of President George W. Bush. The appeal has been circulating since last October.

Active-duty GIs read their “Appeal” aloud in Norfolk, Jan. 15. WW photo: John Catalinotto

Organizers had chosen the date to connect their appeal with the legacy of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s struggle for justice and peace. Some 35 active-duty troops and reservists, including Iraq veterans and other veterans, and the day’s speakers filled the stage at the Unitarian Universalist Church. Banners around the walls of the church greeted the 100 people filling it, including one banner with the message: “Support the troops; listen to them.”

And those who came, along with Norfolk’s TV stations and some national and international media, listened. They heard, if they listened carefully, that a new movement of active-duty troops was starting to speak with its own voice. They heard that those in the civilian anti-war movement were pledging to support this new GI movement and to welcome it.

Some of the appeal’s drafters and early organizers spoke out at the meeting and clarified their position with a four-hour series of nonstop interviews with television and press media and documentary filmmakers. These active-duty troops included Navy Seamen Jonathan Hutto and Javier Capella, Petty Officer Dave Rogers and Marine Sergeant Liam Madden.

Hutto and Capella are stationed on the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt with a complement of more than 3,000 officers and enlisted sailors stationed in Norfolk. Hutto, who grew up in Atlanta under the strong influence of that city’s movement for civil rights, helped focus the conference on Martin Luther King and his opposition to the Vietnam War.

Madden, who is stationed at the Marine base in Quantico, Va., and has only a week of active duty left in his contract, spoke about the need to pay attention to King’s words more than one day a year. He read the Appeal for Redress, which the movement drafted in such a way that active-duty troops have the legal right to sign, protected by the Military Whistleblower Protection Act (DOD directive 7050.6).

The simple statement makes it clear that “staying in Iraq will not work and is not worth the price. It is time for U.S. troops to come home.” Madden added, “Not one more of my brothers should die for a lie. This is not politics. It is our generation’s call to conscience.”

Hutto said that among the 1,029 signatures that the group has verified, 35 are from troops in Iraq.

Among the main supporters were at least a dozen members of the Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW). This group had up to now concentrated on organizing returning veterans of the Iraq occupation and getting them involved in the anti-war movement. The IVAW now also uses the appeal to reach out to active-duty personnel.

Jabbar Magruder of IVAW, still active in the National Guard in California, said he would be joining Madden and others on Jan. 16 to meet with Dennis Kucinich and other representatives in Congress and present the signatures to them. Nancy Lessin of Military Families Speak Out and Michael McPherson of Veterans for Peace also had representatives supporting the new active-duty movement.

Phil Wilayto of the Virginian Anti-War Network (VAWN) spoke, along with Fabian Bouthillette of the Military Project in New York, which has been reaching out to National Guard troops at armories in the city.

“We must listen to the men and women” who are in the military and who are taking the courageous move of speaking out against the war, said David Cortwright, author of the book “Soldiers in Revolt.” A year earlier, Hutto had read this book about the GI movement during the Vietnam War, which inspired him to begin the Appeal for Redress.

Before the conference ended, Hutto pointed out that before King made his famous April 1967 anti-war speech from Riverside Church in New York, King himself had come to a realization: if he were going to advise non-violence as a tactic in the movement for civil rights, he would have to start by insisting that the U.S. government—“the greatest purveyor of violence”—desist from its warlike foreign policy.

Hutto then introduced three active-duty GIs who read portions of King’s April 1967 talk.

To see and sign the appeal, see www.appealforredress.org.

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