Protesting the Iraq War: Veterans Need Our Support

The Iraq War protests were my first. I had started reading about the strife of the Vietnam War years some time earlier but still had a superficial understanding of the role of anti-war protestors. What was the point of protesting, and was it successful. This is something I started trying to untangle when Bush announced war operations would commence in Iraq. I knew then we were in for the long haul. With a close friend helping, we formed a campus group and brought Jonesboro, Arkansas it first protests in who knows how many decades. While we tapped into the younger and the older audience, we could never get them at the same time. The younger crowd seemed more apathetic, and the older crowd seemed so caring but also tired.

Of course, the question was practical and on everyone's lips; what do you hope to accomplish? To spread the word about why this is wrong? To register our personal moral objections? These answers seem to pat to me now, too trivial. After all, we weren't doing this for ourselves; we were trying to lessen the harm done to Iraqis and make the domestic situation more amenable to veterans speaking out against the war. We were determined that any veteran returning with bad things to say about this war would not be spit upon as happened with veterans of Vietnam.

And that last objective has so far been successful. Just do a google video search of Iraq Veterans Against the War and watch as these people who have been there tell you truly horrifying stories of what they saw, did, and were ordered to do. One soldier is now my favorite based on the work he is doing with AWOL soldiers. His name is Darrell Anderson, and he received the Purple Heart for having nearly died in one of Iraq's notorious car bombs. You can google video his name for a list of clips of him talking to audiences (at protests, where else), or you can just watch this one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSpa9Tx503U