Iraq War Resisters to Get Boost from Veterans Group

Aaron Glantz
OneWorld US

Mon., Aug. 20, 2007

SAINT LOUIS, Aug 20 (OneWorld) - Members of a leading Iraq war veterans' organization voted this weekend to launch a campaign encouraging U.S. troops to refuse to fight.

U.S. Army medic Augustin Aguayo filed for conscientious objector status and refused a second tour of duty in Iraq. © aguayodefense.org

The decision was made at the group's annual membership meeting, held this weekend in Saint Louis, Missouri alongside the annual convention of the Veterans for Peace organization.

"Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) decided to make support of war resisters a major part of what we do," said Garrett Rappenhagen, a former U.S. Army sniper who served in Iraq from February 2004 to February 2005.

"There's a misconception that they're cowards," Rappenhagen said. "Most war resisters have already gone on a tour in Iraq. They've seen the war firsthand and have come to the conclusion that it's morally wrong. This is something we all should support. So to break that timidness of how we view war resisters in America, IVAW decided to embrace them."

To underscore that point, the veterans group elected Staff Sergeant Camilo Mejia chair of its board of directors. In the winter of 2003, Mejia was the first soldier to refuse to return to fight in Iraq after an initial tour in the war zone.

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Break Time Is Over: Building Nonviolent Resistance to the 2008 Iraq War Supplemental

By Jeff Leys Voices for Creative Nonviolence June 18, 2007

On August 6, Congress begins its month long recess. August 6 also marks the start of Year 62 After Hiroshima-when the U.S. initiated its nuclear first strike policy against the people of Hiroshima. And it marks Year 17 After Iraq Sanctions, when the brutal economic sanctions regime against Iraq was first imposed by the international community.

On August 6, the Occupation Project will launch a reinvigorated campaign of sustained nonviolent civil disobedience / civil resistance to end Iraq war funding. Office occupations-both legal and extralegal-will commence at the offices of Representatives and Senators who refuse to publicly pledge to vote against any additional funding of the Iraq war. Occupations will continue at least through the end of September. The Occupation Project will work in conjunction with campaigns organized by Declaration of Peace, National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance, CODEPINK, Veterans for Peace, Grassroots America for Us and others.

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Grassroots Peace Movement Decries Vote to Continue the Iraq War and Occupation

United for Peace and Justice, the nation's largest antiwar coalition, flooded Capitol Hill with phone calls calling on Congress to vote no on another $96 billion for the war in Iraq. "We know the switchboards have been jammed and Congress is hearing the message from voters loud and clear: Stop funding this war and bring the troops home. The problem is, most members of Congress are not listening to the people who elected them," said UFPJ National Coordinator Leslie Cagan.

UFPJ Legislative Coordinator Sue Udry commented on the feedback she has heard from those phone calls, "People have been dismayed to realize that Democrats and Republicans who have opposed the escalation of the number of troops in Iraq will still fund that escalation. Those who have decried the president's mismanagement of the war, are now willing to fund that mismanagement, with absolutely no accountability."

"The antiwar movement will not be silenced by this setback -- we will continue to organize and make our voices heard.

This Congress has the power to end the war and they must find the political will to accomplish what they were elected to do," said Judith Le Blanc, Co-Chair of UFPJ. The Congress now has set the framework for the next stage of struggle to end the war. UFPJ has called for its member groups to organize grassroots actions at congressional district offices, and even at the homes of those in Congress who have not stood firm in this round of Congressional wrangling. The antiwar movement will focus on local activities over the Memorial Day weekend, including peace contingents in parades, Iraq war veterans doing war reenactments in Manhattan, peace vigils and picnics.

UFPJ will hold a national assembly of its member groups in Chicago, June 22-24, to plan continued action and organizing against the war and occupation in Iraq.

Protester attempts necessity defense

By Margaret Friedenauer Staff Writer, Fairbanks Daily News-Miner

A judge Wednesday continued a case against a local man charged with trespassing in an act of civil disobedience protesting the Iraq war.

Rob Mulford will get a chance to argue in front of District Court Judge Raymond Funk that he should be able to present a “defense of necessity” in his arrest when he refused to leave Sen. Ted Stevens’ Fairbanks office Feb. 20. Mulford and others arrived at Stevens’ office during open hours to read names of U.S. troops and Iraqis that have died in Iraq. Most of the protesters left when asked by office staff at closing time. But Mulford continued reading names, refused to leave and was arrested for trespassing.

Mulford, as part of the group Veterans for Peace, was taking part in the Occupation Project at the time of his arrest. The project, active in 25 states, is a campaign of nonviolent civil disobedience aimed at ending the war. Read article

Are We Politicians or Citizens

By Howard Zinn TomPaine.com April 16, 2007

Howard Zinn is the author, most recently, of A Power Governments Cannot Suppress. This article was originally published in The Progressive.

As I write this, Congress is debating timetables for withdrawal from Iraq. In response to the Bush Administration’s “surge” of troops, and the Republicans’ refusal to limit our occupation, the Democrats are behaving with their customary timidity, proposing withdrawal, but only after a year, or eighteen months. And it seems they expect the anti-war movement to support them.

That was suggested in a recent message from MoveOn, which polled its members on the Democrat proposal, saying that progressives in Congress, “like many of us, don’t think the bill goes far enough, but see it as the first concrete step to ending the war.”

Ironically, and shockingly, the same bill appropriates $124 billion in more funds to carry the war. It’s as if, before the Civil War, abolitionists agreed to postpone the emancipation of the slaves for a year, or two years, or five years, and coupled this with an appropriation of funds to enforce the Fugitive Slave Act. Read article