Spirit in Action
Voices for Peace 2008 Opening - Military Families Speak Out & Wheels of Justice
[music] Let us sing this song for the healing of the world That we may hear as one With every voice, with every song We will move this world along And our lives will feel the echo of our healing [music] Welcome to Spirit in Action. My name is Mark helps me. Each week I'll be bringing you stories of people living lives Of fruitful service, of peace, community, compassion, Creative action, and progressive efforts. I'll be tracing the spiritual roots that support and nourish them in their service Hoping to inspire and encourage you to sink deep roots and produce sacred fruit in your own life. [music] Let us sing this song for the dreaming of the world That we may dream as one With every voice, with every song We will move this world along Voices for Peace 2008 was a rich assortment of activities held on September 14th in Eau Claire, Wisconsin A safe place to raise awareness about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan Their effects and solutions for ending these wars There were speakers, booths, workshops, music, crafts, food, and more There was a gigantic piece of fluttering around the park, supported by several people The event took place the same weekend as an air show So you'll hear the droning of jets overhead often during the presentations But as one participant announced, the voices for peace will not be silenced by the thunder of war machines It was a powerful assembly of folks with information, personal experience, with a deep zeal to strive toward peace We'll be listening in on the main stage today, the first hour or so Actually, the first presentation was a Native American drumming opening And we closed the day with the drum circle as well We'll start this session for the spoken opening circle of prayer Then go to a presentation by Steve Wagner of Military Families Speak Out Followed by presentations by two folks from the Wheels of Justice campaign Notably by Paul Melling, a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War Now, to the labyrinth at Phoenix Park Eau Claire for the start of the spoken part of our program Voices for Peace, 2008 Welcome everyone to Voices for Peace, 2008 Loud cheer [cheering] Really, thank you very much for coming out today It's really important to speak and listen to give peace a voice And you're doing that by being here today, so thank you very much We wanted to start out with a circle of prayer We'll start with David Huber from Plymouth, UCC Thank you, Mark Thank you for inviting me to be here and to help start us off with the visions of peace This is a wonderful and a good thing As Mark said, I'm David Huber, I'm a pastor at Plymouth United Church of Christ Certainly, my church tradition piece has been a big thing for a long time A big important mission and ministry of the church So let's have a few things to say to get us started Jesus, in his preaching, said once, wherever your treasure is There your heart will be Which is interesting, he didn't say wherever your heart is There your treasure will be But wherever your treasure is Your heart will be We become in a sense what we spend [music] And I imagine we spent a lot on that [laughter] Our hearts follow our spending Wherever we put our money, our hearts will follow Wherever we put our time, our hearts will follow We become what we spend And so also with peace If we want peace Then live peacefully Live peacefully in the now If we want peace, then offer peace to our neighbors Reorient ourselves to live in an economy of peace Using the currency of compassion and reconciliation And forgiveness Which are far more powerful than dollars and bullets and engines of destruction But the economy of peace can be an expensive economy Not in dollars, but in self Requires the high cost of vulnerability and of listening And of facing the truth that you, that you might be wrong That you might have done wrong It requires giving up the myth of scarcity and embracing the truth of abundance Requires the cost of no longer commodifying people Requires saying no to Pharaoh's demand to keep making bricks And to say no, those bricks have no value when they serve only you Requires disengaging from our dominant script of Technological therapeutic military consumerism Into a script of abundant generosity that no longer dehumanizes the other And no longer shames and no longer claims the self as inherently superior or inherently more valuable It might require giving up the things you want So that everyone can have what they need In an economy of peace, all people in all communities have equal value Not based on what they can produce But by the very fact that they exist, that they are And so I'm glad to see all of you here at a pro-peace gathering Which I think is a lot more difficult and a lot more helpful than just being anti-war Being anti is easy Being forced something takes action and stepping out and doing something To seek peace is to disengage from all that is not peaceful And peace is not weakness And peace is not easy Peace is a sign of strength, of inner strength of all involved in making that peace happen And releasing all the ego and memetic desire and prejudice And learned hatred and a willingness to swim in the ambiguity of no easy answers And no easy solutions, but to keep asking questions and to stay in dialogue So I'm glad that you are all here to be for peace Not just anti-war, but for peace And I pray that you find this afternoon to be a blessing And I pray that in your lives you are blessed to continue to live for peace To strive for peace and to be peaceful in all that you do. Thank you (Applause) Thank you for being here My name is Delos Eikenberry And I'm glad you're here, all of you We still have another week where there is more hours of sunlight than darkness And tomorrow is a full moon and so we've got plenty of light And with our eyes wide open And our hearts wide open and a lot of light I'm inviting you to have a dream that I've had for quite a while My dream is an unbroken human family on all of the earth Another part of my dream is that there be abundance for all people on earth And I invite you to have that dream If peace is our destination, then the journey begins in our heart So in addition to our eyes wide open, our hearts are open And seeing human dignity in all human beings And we do that when we no longer feel the need to judge other people Thank you (Applause) I can't help but remember that our closing song at the Liturgy today Was "Let There Be Peace Center" and "Let It Begin With Me" Yeah, my name is Father John Schultz, I am the pastor at St. James Catholic Church on the Clare's West Side And we're clearly here for Voices for Peace 2008, a safe environment, you've read all this But with this in mind, the awareness that we are here to learn, to listen, to share, as you said To dialogue And there are ethical considerations and moral considerations And religious considerations and political considerations And economic considerations and human considerations And the list can go on and on and on There are people here of many different religious backgrounds There's Lutherans, there's Catholics, the United Church of Christ Native American, Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, Jewish, people who say I don't have any belief in God at all And whoever I'm leaving out, many different backgrounds A prayer today, just to build on what Dave and Dennis have said For openness, to be able to really be open to truth, to be open to the other person To the heart of that person Whoever that person is, whatever that person stands for A person created by God And to listen, very interesting, the word "listen" in this derivation Really comes from the word "obey" in Latin They are very much connected But to really listen to the big picture To really listen to the other individual who's talking Talking with words or talking with facial expressions Or talking with body language or talking, however they're talking And rather than "what am I going to say next?" To really listen to the heart of that person To try to walk in that person's shoes That together we might, as the word was used before, to dialogue And be together I'm going to conclude with the prayer of St. Francis No, I'm not going to sing it Make me a channel of your peace Where there is hatred, let me bring love Where there is injury, your pardon, Lord, where there's doubt, truth, faith in you Make me a channel of your peace Where there is despair in life, let me bring hope Where there is darkness, only light Where there's sadness, ever, joy Well, Master, granted, I may never seek so much to be consoled As to console To be understood As to understand To be loved As to love With all my soul Make me a channel of your peace It is imparting that we are pardoned And giving of ourselves that we receive And in dying that we're born to eternal life Amen Not that we're done, we're just beginning But amen, hallelujah God bless Thank you for being here [applause] Welcome, thanks for coming fellow peacekeepers I'm really happy to see everybody here I just want to take a minute And invite you to stop over at the pavilion Write a letter to the Iraqis There's a peace table that you can do that It's a really cool thing Also, we've got lots of great information And again, thanks for coming out Right now, I want to take a moment and introduce Steve Wagner With Military Family Speakout [applause] That would be the tallest one here so far Thanks, Phil A few months ago, I received a phone call From a stranger He asked me if I'd speak here today for this event And I thought about it for about a minute And I said, yeah Well, that stranger was Phil And I'm proud to say that I started a new friendship on that day Phil is one of the founding members of The Voices for Peace Institute I didn't really have to think about this very long Because Phil had awakened me again He had awakened me to Some of my activism that I've taken part of in the past And I decided that Yes, I would be happy to come here And represent both the Voices for Peace And Military Family Speakout A couple of the organizations that I belong to The organizers of this event today We are a grassroots organization Non-partisan, educational With research dedicated towards peace I would like to share with you our mission The Voices for Peace Institute mission Is to raise awareness in our community and beyond Of the causes of war, the effects of war And ways to promote peace The Voices for Peace Institute is committed To promoting peace and collaboration With other organizations and individuals Today, we would like for all of you attending To listen, to learn, and to share Thank you for coming Thank you for all who came to participate Thank you to the vendors And the exhibitors It is our hope that today's event is Viewed as a success by this community So that we can continue But now I'd like to speak on behalf Of Military Family Speakout Military Family Speakout is an organization of people Who are opposed to the war in Iraq Who have relatives or loved ones Who are currently in the military Preparing to go to Iraq Either come back from Iraq But mostly family members and loved ones Those that actually are on the front lines I was a 53rd member to join And I just looked it up yesterday We currently have 4100 families That are active supporters of Military Family Speakout I joined MFSO That's just to save some time here I'm going to go by the acronym, okay? I joined MFSO because I had a personal stake in this war My oldest son, Nick Had joined the Army in January of 2001 It was about the same time when Mr. Bush was selected by our Supreme Court To lead our country When Nick came to tell me That he was thinking of joining the Army I thought it was a good plan I believed that service to our country Was a noble thing And it was proper for Nick to choose that I often remember that night When I met him for supper over here Downtown at Hooligans When he told me about that And I remember when I was on my way home I was second Yep, this is good My son is off to provide service to this country In the summer of 2002 As our current leadership began It's march to this war that we are still in I began to question exactly what was going on I realized that this administration had full intentions Of using our armed forces For something that was wrong As the rhetoric became stronger I began to question nearly all the components Of what was being called the Bush Doctrine Our preemptive strategy Why were we looking towards the invasion of Iraq I didn't understand It didn't make sense to me I often to refer to this time in my life As my first awakening I realized that I could no longer sit back And simply watch my country go down this foolish path I became obsessed With trying to become informed about the goals And objectives of our leadership The more I learned, the more I realized That I had to speak up I had to say no Not in my name Or as one politician put it so eloquently A couple of weeks ago over in Denver Enough And so, in my search for knowledge I discovered MFSO As people with family members and loved ones in the military We know that it is our loved ones Who are or have been or will be on the battle front It is our loved ones who are at risk Who have been injured Or who have died as a result of this war It is our loved ones who are returning frightened From their experiences Who are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder It is our loved ones who are paying the ultimate price For this unjust and illegal war Since its inception MFSO has stood for two major principles First, support our troops and bring our troops home now And secondly, take care of them when they come home One of the most tangible things I feel I can do is what I am doing today Speaking for those who are involved in this war that have no voice The thousands of soldiers who are fighting this war That see how futile this occupation is As soldiers, they risk jail or a dishonorable discharge If they speak truth to power My risk in speaking out is only to be scoffed at By shallow and uninformed self-appointed patriots Who feel their country can do no wrong I believe that war is one of the most barbaric things we as humans do I do not have a first-hand experience with war But I've talked with many who have The stories I've heard often make me cringe When speaking to others about this war in Iraq, it is no exception In September of 2005, just a few weeks after our governments failures With the Katrina disaster My wife and I marched with over 100,000 people to the White House We marched with other MFSO members And veterans for peace And Iraqi veterans against the war Recently, I attended the National Conference for the Veterans for Peace At this conference, I heard a story of this war that made me shudder A young woman veteran and member of the IVAW Margaret Stevens told this story It is not a pleasant story But I feel it is a story that must be told again and again And that's why I've chosen to tell this story today All of us must begin to understand what war does to us as humans So we realize that war must be our last option, not our first This story is about private first-class Lavina Johnson It is a story that may make you angry And it may make you shudder Lavina was stationed in Balad, Iraq A city of 100,000 people about 100 kilometers north of Baghdad Located in the infamous Sunni Triangle On July 19, 2005, just eight weeks after she arrived And eight days before her 20th birthday She died The officials of the army ruled that Lavina's death was due to a self-inflicted gunshot From her own M-16 rifle Lavina's father, Dr. John Johnson, found it hard to accept that his daughter had committed suicide From the day their daughter's body was returned to them, the parents had grave suspicions about the army's investigation In charge of communications facility, Lavina was able to call home every day In those calls, she gave no indications of emotional problems or being upset In a letter to her parents, Lavina's commanding officer, Captain David Woods, wrote Lavina was clearly happy and seemed in very good health, both physically and emotionally After seeing his daughter's body at the funeral home, Dr. Johnson knew something was wrong He requested for the official documents concerning the investigation into her death The army refused Dr. Johnson's request Finally, after two years and filing a Freedom of Information Act request He received those documents and photos concerning this investigation Here's what those photos and documents showed The photographs revealed that Lavina, a small woman, barely five-foot tall, and weighing less than 100 pounds Had been struck in the face with a blunt instrument, perhaps a weapon stock Her nose was broken and her teeth were knocked backwards One elbow was distended, the back of her clothes had debris on them Indicating she had been dragged from one location to another The photographs of her disrobe body showed bruises, scratch marks, teeth imprints On the upper part of her body The right side of her back, as well as her right hand, had been burned Apparently from flammable liquid poured on her and then lighted lit My wife wants me to correct that word, and I didn't The photographs of her genital area revealed massive bruisines and lacerations A corrosive liquid had been poured into her genital area Probably to destroy DNA evidence of a sexual assault Despite the bruises, scratches, teeth imprints, and burns on her body Lavina was found completely dressed in a burning tent There was a small blood trail from the outside of a contractor's tent The inside of the tent she was laid in She apparently had been dressed after the attack And her attacker placed her body into the tent and set the tent on fire This is horrendous After hearing this story that evening The voices for peace will drown out those voices for war After hearing that story that evening, there were so many unanswered questions Why did the army classify this death as a suicide? Who was the army covering up for? Why wasn't this story on the front page of the Eau Claire leader telegram? Why did I only hear this story just two weeks ago? And perhaps, perhaps the most important question Why aren't these questions being answered? Since becoming involved in MFSO, I've heard way too many stories like Lavina Johnson's The Department of Defense Statistics are alarming One in three women who join the U.S. military will be sexually assaulted or raped by men in the military The warnings to women should begin above the doors at our military recruiting centers As that is where some of these assaults occur The war and our civilian leadership of our military have weakened our country Many of our soldiers are on their third, fourth, fifth tours to this war A war that we were all told was going to be a cakewalk It seems every week I hear yet another story of how we have let those sacrificing the most down The suicide rate for our returning soldiers is the highest it's ever been A recent Pentagon report states that each day five American soldiers attempt to kill themselves This number does not include those soldiers that are no longer in the military No one knows what the actual numbers are when you consider all of the soldiers who've been deployed to Iraq Our VA hospitals are understaffed for the mounting needs for the mental health professionals to help our soldiers Often veterans go to these facilities for help only told to come back in six weeks That's when they can get their first appointment We should not be sitting on our hands and expecting things to get better soon We need to demand that our government follow through with helping those who have sacrificed The Department of Defense reports states that over 30,000 soldiers have been wounded in action The Department of Veterans Affairs states that over 120,000 veterans who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan And no longer in the military have been diagnosed with mental health problems Over half of these men and women that's 60,000 people have been diagnosed as suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder Many of these soldiers come home with severe injuries that they and their loved ones must endure for the rest of their lives As of this morning, 4,154 American soldiers have died in Iraq When is it we as Americans are going to stand up and say, "Enough!" I've chosen a path of being an activist in our community, our country, and our world To try and tell people how wrong this war is To try and convince people through my actions that we do not have to accept the lies that we've been told I believe we can stop this war Won't you please join me? Become involved Become informed Speak out Don't let the drums of war drown out the voices for peace and reason Join me and hundreds of people right here in the Chippewa Valley To demand from our leaders that they must support our troops by bringing them home Bring them home now and take care of them when they get back Thank you very much That was Steve Wagner, a member of Military Family Speakout That's www.mfso.org I'm Mark Helpsmeet of Northern Spirit Radio, and this program is Spirit in Action You can always listen to our programs from our online archives at northernspiritradio.org And please drop us a comment while you're there We'd love a chance to get to know you and hear what speaks to your condition And what you'd like to hear more of Again, that's northernspiritradio.org And you can subscribe to our programs via iTunes The spirit was strong at the event you're listening to Voices for Peace, 2008 held on September 14th This was an interfaith event With a variety of Christians There were Buddhists, Muslims, Jews, Quakers, Native Americans And there were non-religious folk too No one was shut out and many were sharing directly from their powerful centers A place that is the intersection of personal experience and insight And a vision of good for all of the wider community There were several different keynote speakers You just heard the first Steve Wagner And we'll go now to two representatives of the wheels of justice campaign Including Paul Melling Who served in the US military in Iraq But is now a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War Speaking of his personal experience and journey Back to Phoenix Park, Eau Claire, for the wheels of justice campaign Hello everyone, how are you doing out there? My name is Joshua, I'm from the wheels of justice bus As you can see it over there, that's our lovely bus We travel around the country giving an eyewitness testimony To the occupations in Iraq and then in Palestine So I'll play a quick song for you here And then I'm going to let you know a little bit about the bus's history And then we'll get into the presentation We have two speakers who have been on the ground in both Iraq and Palestine And are going to share their stories with you This is our first stop on the tour Except for yesterday, we went to Chippewa Falls for a vigil there And we had a great time, the people there treated us very well And one thing we were discussing there is kind of ironic How we have the Blue Angels here flying over us today Showing us our wonderful US military might and precision And then we thought we were kind of saying it might be a good thing If we're so confident in our smart bombs and we're so confident in our military prowess Then maybe we could have a live fire demonstration right here in Eau Claire And I thought people might be excited to see how great our bombs are And how precise they are We could maybe pick out an older part of town that's not used very much Or something like that and just see quite how accurate they really are You know, I mean, it's really quite sad, the madness and the lunacy What we would subject other people to, but we wouldn't subject ourselves to So with that, I'll play a song for you and then we'll get started with the presentation Well, it's times like now when silence is a betrayal And you have to close your eyes to pretend that you don't see That our morality and our position is so frail And we are out of touch, out of touch with reality Do you think that our crusade has solved anything, anything? Do you think that conquest makes people free? Within reality, our sisters and brothers are suffering desperately Imagine for one second if that were you or me It's times like now that require a fierce urgency If we are to change the destructive curse of the past We must speak out now with the courage to act boldly We must stand up strong and stand up fast Does our spirituality mean anything, anything? If we stand by and close our eyes When in reality, our sisters and brothers are suffering silently And we blame them when they take our bonds It's a betrayal of our humanity And it's a betrayal of our spirit's urality And it's a betrayal of our morality It's a betrayal Don't sleep now Don't sleep now Don't sleep now Don't sleep now Don't sleep now Don't sleep now Don't sleep now Don't sleep now A little bit of summary about the bus and its history And then we'll move right into our speakers Voices in the wilderness and the Middle Eastern Children's Alliance started The Wheels of Justice And before it was named that, it went on a tour called the Remembering Omron Tour And voices in the wilderness and the Middle East Children's Alliance Thought it was necessary to raise awareness to the great amount of suffering Of the Iraqi people during the sanctions period And the tour went to commemorate a young shepherd boy named Omron Who was killed from a bombing in the no fly zone before the current war So there was a lot going on there In fact the United Nations estimated that over 500,000 children died during the sanctions period As a direct result of those sanctions and bombings in the no fly zone So initially that's how the tour was kicked off Was commemorating the loss of Omron's life And then later the group went back and shared the story with his family About how they were raising awareness And it was a very powerful tour And it kind of sustained and it kind of grew And then for about two years afterwards They toured around the United States Visiting homes, schools and places of worship To educate people on the sanctions And then around September 11th After that happened, basically the idea was to revamp the tour Because they were seeing the increasing vilification of Muslims and Arabs And then kind of the build up to the Iraq war So they went on tour once again trying to put a stop to the Iraq war before it even happened Which as you know is unsuccessful As that was going on, they decided to combine the issues of Iraq and Palestine Just trying to look at the U.S. involvement in both situations You know, the U.S. Congress is estimating that we're spending about $10 billion a month On the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan And we're also spending about $5 billion a year that we give to Israel Which a lot of that is used for the occupation of Palestine Just trying to look at those two issues And our taxpayer money and our country's involvement in both of those places So connecting those issues for the tour is a central role in what we do And then also kind of the irony that, you know, as Betis Saddam who's saying he was A guy he was, he was in violation of seven U.N. resolutions Whereas Israel has been like in violation of like 60s So there's kind of a lot of contradictions there You know, why are we invading one place and not another if that really is the answer So on the current tour, the wheels of Justice Tour The bus has been to over 200 middle schools and high schools And over 1,200 colleges and universities We come to a lot of events and forums like this We go to vigils and anywhere we can take a chance to do outreach And another thing is we don't come to say that we're experts on the situation We just come as people like you who are trying to offer some non-violent solutions These situations are all very complicated And the speakers come to give their personal testimony of what they saw there And so our main goals are to give humanized pictures of Iraqis and Palestinians And I worked with refugees from Afghanistan for quite a while And it's very, very hard once you meet people face to face To kind of demonize them to put them off in the categories of the other That's one of the main things we try to do on the tour We also want to give an understanding of the role of U.S. policies in these wars and occupations And then to give our audiences resources for working towards justice And non-violent methods to challenge our current policies and practices So now let me introduce to you our first speaker We have Paul Melling, he's with Iraq Veterans Against the War He's 27 years old and in September of 2002 he enlisted in the Army And started training as a field artillery cannon crew member From February 2003 to January 2004 He was deployed to a small forward operating base outside of Kirkuk, Iraq He was honorably discharged from the Army in June of 2006 And he has been a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War ever since And he was most recently a participant in Witness Against War Which was a 450 mile walk from Chicago to St. Paul And I was on that walk too and I got to know Paul very well We traveled from Chicago to St. Paul doing community forums Trying to raise awareness about the continued occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan And that was put on by Voices for Creative Nonviolence Which is the same as Voices in the Wilderness Without further ado let's hear from our first speaker Paul Melling Hello, as I said I'm Paul Melling I'm usually from Melrose, Minnesota, it's not too far from here We are talking about occupation, that's kind of the Iraq and Palestine So I like to read something, from something I found I think it's important in this country to relate it He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns and destroyed the lives of our people He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries To complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny Already begun with the circumstances of cruelty and perfity Scarcely paroled in the most barbarious ages And totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation That's from the Declaration of Independence You know we try to say that this is a country of freedom and what we're built on But we're doing the exact same thing that happened to us so many years ago I was wondering about these jets, how many tax dollars and just jet fuel they're burning up I did join the army September of 2002, I dropped out of college, thought it was the right thing to do I bought into all of the propaganda, you know they hate us because we're free, that whole thing So I joined enlisted, took my oath, went to Fort Sill, Oklahoma for basic training In January of 2003, I went to Hawaii to hang out for about a year to train up And then after the invasion of Iraq, we started to realize that we were going to get deployed January of 2004, I was deployed to Iraq And we went to a small town called Hawija, just west of Kirkuk It was originally a stronghold of Saddam's Republican Guard When the United States came in and completely disbanded the army There were a whole bunch of Iraqi young guys that no longer had jobs So they didn't like us very much there I was an artilleryman, that's what I was trained for That was my primary mission there Just a few of the things that we did on that end We participated in harassment and interdiction fire, which doesn't sound very nice So the United States military and its wisdom changed the name to terrain denial fire They did that a couple times, changed the names of things just to make them sound nice But with the harassment and interdiction fire, we would just kind of shell whatever areas the bad guys might be using So whether it's people's fields or mountainsides or whatever Any opportunity to try to show a force, to show our superiority It wasn't a few rounds My commander was very proud in stating that we shot more artillery rounds than any other artillery battery And Operation Iraqi Freedom, it was thousands and thousands of rounds And in not a very big area, and it was every night sustained near towns keeping people up These people don't have power We did a lot of counter fire, the standard operating procedure on that Changed, we would take a lot of mortar and rocket fire and that whole But when we would go to shoot back, sometimes we wouldn't shoot back to try to be peaceful I guess they tried that for a little while, but they changed it to where for every one round that was shot at us We would shoot ten back And it got to be to where we were shooting so many rounds we had to have Extra artillery rounds airlifted into our base so that we could keep this up And it was just continuous, just pounding areas with artillery And we were supposed to be there to free the people, and all we did was blow up their land We fired on suspected insurgents, I know at least one time my gun There was a mission to fire on a suspected insurgent stronghold or a house But I don't know if there were any insurgents there, nobody really knows But when our four observers went out to check out afterwards, we found that we had Blown up a house, full of a family, women and children, all innocent And this happened on a regular basis, there's no regard for the innocent civilians I really felt like we're there to stop terrorists, but when we start killing innocent people We really just kind of became the terrorists I worked in the chow hall quite often, just because I was about the lowest ranking person there So I got the crap jobs, but at the end of the day we'd have all this extra food And instead of bringing it to the local population, we would load it all in a truck And bring it to a giant pit and burn it Every day this happened, no one ever gave us a reason why Several of us asked the chain of command, why can't we just dump it on the side of the road And let the kids pick it up, but that was bad because we were discouraged from handing out food Because it would attract the children to our convoy And I guess it's good because you don't want to run over the children, but handing out food I think is kind of necessary to win the hearts and minds And the hearts and minds thing is terms that are used quite often But from the day I got to Kuwait, I never once had heard that The only time they ever talked about hearts and minds was when they would go out and hand you a lot of cash And say, "You got to spend money, win the hearts and minds" So I guess we're just buying them off The only one other time we heard the term hearts and minds was In our training, I considered the dehumanization process They would train us in on who the Iraqis are And how basically they were less than human Two in the heart, one in the mind was the term that was often used Referring to using our M16, two in the heart, one in the mind This happened on a regular basis And from the day we got into Kuwait, all Iraqis were hodgy Which from what I've come to learn is a very honorable term in their part of the world But we've taken it and used it against them to be so they're less than human But I guess I did join the military, so we took the oath and at the time I was very much in favor You know, we got to fight the good fight and kill the bad guys And try to get our message across, you know, hopefully have peace in the end But I realized that that's not at all what we're doing The invasion and occupation of Iraq now is not doing anyone any good After spending a year there and coming back and thinking about it for several years I still don't know what our mission was Our commanding general would come through once in a while and say, "Yeah, you're doing a good job" You know, you're either defeating Saddam's party or defeating the insurgency or stopping the bath party Every time it was something different But it wasn't like, "This is your mission, this is what you're going to complete" When people talk about victory in Iraq, I don't know what that is When they say, "Well, we have to stay until we're victorious" And I always like to actually, "Well, what is your definition of victory?" Because I haven't heard one that That makes any sense from a soldier's perspective because you usually want to go to work for When you're fighting every day, you want to say, "Okay, well, if we can complete this, we can go home" But I always felt, and I think most of the other guys I was with, I always felt like We're just doing our time, like we went there for a year, we did our time, then we get to go home No matter what we did, no matter what we accomplished, it wouldn't make a difference in when we got to go home I also like to talk about the job description of a soldier in the United States Army When you enlist, you take a oath, support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America I always kind of try to carry a copy of it around with me, just so I have it And read it occasionally, and the oath isn't all bad I mean, I found there's a lot of good stuff in here, and I wish they would use it once in a while When a soldier goes over and participates in the invasion and occupation of another country, we're not in any way supporting and defending It's invading and occupying, and that's not what we took an oath to do After doing this walk and hanging out with peace groups more, at one point during the walk I finally come to the realization that yes, I'm a hippie and I can live with that But hanging out with these people and what they do, fighting for freedom of speech and trying to bring peace to the world They do more to make this country a better place and defend our rights than the entire United States military is doing right now I don't feel like I really change sides ever When I signed up, I thought, well, I can try to make the world a better place in my little way And I never really switched sides, I didn't really ever say, well, changed my mind, I always kind of wanted to do something good And I think I just kind of found the right place to do it Another question that's often asked is, well, what if we just pull out of Iraq? I mean, I can't say that I'm at all an expert on Iraq, I usually come and just tell my story and try to talk about it and discuss it But I've learned a few things about the situation and people saying, well, if we just pull out, they're gonna fall into chaos And okay, that probably would happen Nope, I don't think anybody's advocating for us to just up and leave and just be like, screw you guys There's truth and reconciliation committees through the UN There's so many other ways to resolve this, and the militias that were arming both sides It seems like this country's a horrible history of arming a bunch of people and then they come and, you know, bite us in the ass a couple years later That's exactly what we're doing all over again And if we do pull out, we have to do it responsibly I mean, I just think about what if China decides to call on all its debts and build bases in the United States and runs convoys? I think the people of this country would react very similarly to the way the Iraqi people have Self-determination is freedom, and that's kind of what we need to realize that we can't force freedom on people That's not freedom, and the term freedom is used so frequently and it's so overused I don't think anybody really has a concept of what it actually means anymore I talk about the Iraq vets against the war a little bit A group I found while I was still in a couple months after I got back from Iraq I was like, there's got to be some more people against this, so I met up with a few people and I've been gradually doing more and more with them But I attended the Winter Soldier in Washington, D.C. this past March, which was pretty amazing and there were other vets that talked about a lot of their things and sitting in that audience hearing these testimonies of just these horrible things and it was I sat there and listened and I couldn't help but say that happened every day, that was no big deal and I think so many guys look at the stuff that happened, it became such a common occurrence that you don't really think about as being bad, it's so ingrained in your brain and you're trained into it So it takes a lot to step back and take a look from the outside and we get groups like military families speak out, there were some people testifying there from the family's perspective and it's really great, it really gave me a lot of confidence coming up and speaking about it because I know I'm not the only one, there are a lot of vets out there that are having a very hard time with this and I think most guys don't understand what it's all about and if we actually look into the history of it all, I think there are better ways to solve our problems Another question is Iraq better off, I think Saddam was in a very nice man and I don't know exactly how many people he killed, but it was estimated around 300,000 and the lower estimates of us, the people we've killed is 100,000, but anywhere up to a million five million refugees, that's one-fifth of the population of Iraq She'd think if one-fifth of the United States, if we were invaded that's five million people, five million Iraqis are displaced from their homes If there are five million people displaced and you think it's a better place I'm sorry, people just want to go home There's really no way that's going to happen and the surge seems to be working That's what they'll tell you, violence levels may be down, but depends what news you're watching There's still bombings every day, American soldiers are still dying towns and parts of cities that were once very open and free are now segregated and have giant barricades running through them If you think it's better and you think the Iraqis are free, you need to look at the situation on the ground not just what you're hearing I think I'm going to turn it over again to Josh because he's going to introduce our speaker, Palestine which I need to learn a little bit more about Thank you for coming That was Paul Melling of the Wheels of Justice campaign Their website is justicewheels.org Paul is also a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War There's one more speaker representing the Wheels of Justice but you'll have to come back next week to hear from Henry Noor about his witness in Palestine, Israel Plus there will be more music and presentations from the Speak for Peace tour of the American Friends Service Committee including an Iraqi-born political commentator, Raya Girar and another veteran of the war in Iraq, Eugene Cherry The theme music for this program is Turning of the World performed by Sarah Thompson This spirit in action program is an effort of Northern Spirit Radio You can listen to our programs and find links and information about us and our guests on our website northernspiritradio.org Thank you for listening I am your host Mark Helpsmeet and I welcome your comments and stories of those leading lives of spiritual fruit May you find deep roots to support you and grow steadily toward the light This is spirit in action With every voice, with every song We will move this world along With every voice, with every song We will move this world along and our lives will feel the echo of our healing (upbeat music)