The anti-war movement is at a crossroads. Millions around the globe protested Bush's invasion of Iraq, accused the President of lying us into war, and demanded his impeachment. They were right, of course, but criticizing the President appears to be a lot less fashionable today, despite the fact the new face in the White House is out neoconning Bush.
The streets are no longer filled with protesters demanding that the troops come home, but there is a welcoming sign that opposition to empire is not in its last throes. The voice of peace is coming from the victims who carry the heaviest burden of the US Empire: the soldiers themselves.
Jon Letman at Antiwar.com examines this trend in his review of Dahr Jamail's The Will to Resist: Soldiers Who Refuse to Fight in Iraq and Afghanistan. Letman's review highlights the growing frustration of US soldiers:
"The soldiers I spoke with while working on this book are some of the most ardent antiwar activists I have ever met," Jamail told Inter Press Service. "Having experienced the war firsthand, this should not come as a surprise."
Jamail profiles individual acts of resistance that he envisions as the possible seeds of a broader antiwar movement. The book is filled with stories of soldiers who refuse missions deemed "suicidal," go AWOL, flee abroad, refuse to carry a loaded weapon, even arrange to be shot in the leg – and those who in a final act of desperation commit suicide.
Soldiers are beginning to resist being the implementers of the Pentagon's desert killing-fields, even though they risk court-martial, prison time, dishonorable discharge, and loss of medical benefits at home if they do so. Some may find a soldier refusing to do his "duty" as "cowardly;" yet when one looks at what these soldiers are exposing, it is hard to call them anything less than brave and honorable.
Jamail writes that not only are soldiers beginning to question the wisdom of the atrocities they are ordered to commit, they also expose their mistreatment at the hands of their masters. They detail misogyny, homophobia, assault, coercion, sexual intimidation and abuse, and the increasing dehumanization of Arabs.
Tragically, more and more soldiers, weighed by the stresses of their roles as cannon fodder, trigger-pullers, and coffin-stuffers, are resorting to suicide. There have even been times during the Iraq War where suicides outnumbered battlefield deaths.
Jamail's work also points out the embarrassingly inadequate treatment that soldiers receive when they come back to these shores wounded, damaged, and broken. The US government has virtually denied the very real existence of Gulf War Syndrome, and spends trillions on empire while veterans' hospitals are in shambles.
I saw signs of this trend among soldiers last year during Congressman Ron Paul's presidential bid. Paul, who was extremely vocal about his opposition to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, received more money and more support from veterans and active-duty military personnel than all of his opponents combined.
President Obama may not hear the voice of the peaceniks in the trenches, but his $200 million a day war games combined with the prospect of another Paul run in '12, means they might be coming home sooner than they thought.
Comments
No one wants war , but this was a mess created by Bin Ladin and his buddies. Bush did the right thing in going after them and Obama is too. The President is trying to make the best of a really messed up situation.
Awesome blog as always Robert. As much as I hate it when people argue about stuff on comments board, I have to say a couple things and hopefully I don't sound like a judgemental jerk. George I would really encourage you to back and read as many of Roberts blogs on the war in afghanistan. I think you might find that there is a little more to it then just looking for bin laden's cave. I hope you will then be able to understand why so many of us think that they should just STOP and bring the troops home. Frankly I think the U.S. would show a great deal of bravery and honor if we turned tail and got of there!
Oops, I left out a couple words there! I meant to say, Go back and read as many as possible. I also meant to say, turned tail and got out of there. Anyways I'm sure you got what I was saying. Sorry bout that!
P. S.Robert, It's all about horseshoes at the belly less horse!
Hyperbole does not a commentary make.
In your article you do not mention any survey that would corroborate your thesis about a growing number of US soldiers dissenting to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The book and review you cite only assert narrative and anecdote.
The article you reference about US soldier’s suicide outnumbering battlefield deaths says nothing of the sort, unless imprecision is your choice of exposition. The Bloomberg article you link to merely says suicides “may exceed combat deaths“. The article says “it's quite possible that the suicides and psychiatric mortality of this war could trump the combat deaths”. This kind of thinking is commonly derived from a method known as statistical progression. It is prescriptive, not descriptive, and therefore does not describe reality, so much as propose a supposition.
So mere anecdote and opinion, though useful as narrative, is not useful to ascertain a degree of truth.
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