NationStates Jolt Archive

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/3/17/winter_soldier_us_vets_active_duty

US veterans gathered in Maryland this past weekend to testify at Winter Soldier, an eyewitness indictment of atrocities committed by US troops during the ongoing occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Soldiers spoke of free-fire zones, the shootings and beatings of innocent civilians, racism at the highest levels of the military, sexual harassment and assault within the military, and the torturing of prisoners. While the corporate media ignored the story, we broadcast their voices.


Streaming video, audio, podcast feeds, and text transcripts of the event are available at the link above.

I know that the general rule is to provide some commentary, but I just wanted to post a link here because of the complete lack of coverage in the mainstream media. I have RSS news and podcast feeds going 24/7 on my own computer and haven't heard of this event anywhere but on Democracy Now! so I know that this lack of coverage is for real. Regardless of one's personal politics, the voices of returning veterans need to be heard.

So, I withhold my own comments for now. Watch, listen, and read above and by all means comment below if so moved.

You know, conservative statistics say that the majority of Iraqis support attacks against coalition forces, the majority of Iraqis support us leaving immediately, and the majority of Iraqis see us as the main contributors to the violence in Iraq. This gives us a view at the prevailing sentiment in Iraq. And I’d like to explain it to everyone this way, especially in the South, because it rings with some semblance of truth to people down there. If a foreign occupying force came here to the United States, and regardless of what they told us, whether they told us they were here to free us, to liberate us and to give us democracy, do you not think that every person that owns a shotgun would not come out of the hills and fight for their right to self-determination?



QFT.


And the conservatives who say that they wouldnt are lying.

Ooh, thanks for posting this! I had completely forgotten that it already happened. I'll have to bookmark this and check it out first thing tomorrow.

In February, I saw the documentary about the original Winter Soldier investigation from 1971 at the Berlin Film Festival. The son of one of the vets in the film was there and told us about the upcoming investigation on the current wars.
I can only recommend it to everybody. You can only get it on DVD, though, I think. As far as I know it's not available for free on the internet. The website is www.wintersoldierfilm.com.

I did one of my masters exams on Vietnam War trauma just last week and of course that included a comparison with the current situation - and oh my God is it bad.
I would almost bet on the psychological fallout from Iraq actually ending up worse than Vietnam. The American military needs literally every soldier they can get, so soldiers with acute combat reactions are not only hardly ever taken out of combat, they're also "treated" with anti-depressants (which is absolutely insane because not only are they not monitored for side-effects, those drugs also are not even made to deal with an acute stress situation).

And, the absolute kicker, they are actually sending soldiers that have already been diagnosed with PTSD by the military's own doctors back into combat.

It is absolutely and utterly insane.

It's another indication of the institutional failure that's plaguing the US military. It's very interesting to read and hear though.

When people ask "How can the soldiers do such bad acts?" it's only right to point at the military, it's environment of impunity and it's lack of ethics.

And the soldiers are the losers, they are the ones who have to live with what they've done and allowed to be done. If they manage to get home unharmed...