[Vision2020] US Troops Speak Against Iraq War

[Tom Hansen]

>From today's (October 26, 2006) Newport News Daily News (Hampton Roads,
Virginia) at:

http://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-62458sy0oct26,0,883693.story?coll=dp-widge
t-news

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U.S. troops speak against Iraq war

Service members use protection under whistle-blower laws to encourage
Congress to pull American forces out of Iraq.

BY STEPHANIE HEINATZ 
October 26, 2006 

More than 200 active-duty service members are publicly asking their
congressional representatives to end the occupation of Iraq and promptly
bring American troops home.

Their action marks the first time since the United States invaded Iraq in
2003 that men and women still in uniform have publicly and collectively
spoken out against operations there.

They are doing so under the Military Whistle-Blower Protection Act, which
says active duty, National Guard and Reserve forces can communicate with
their legislators without fear of reprisal.

In a conference call Wednesday with reporters, three of the troops involved
in the effort pointed out that they are doing this off-duty, out of uniform
and in no way as representatives of the military.

"While we do serve our country, we feel this occupation should come to an
end," said Jonathan Hutto, a Navy seaman stationed in Norfolk.

If sent to Iraq tomorrow, Hutto said, he wouldn't disobey an order.

"We're not pacifists. We are not conscientious objectors. We are not
encouraging anything illegal," Hutto said. They're just encouraging any
service member who feels the same way to go to www.appealforredress.org.

"The way the Web page is set up is the service member sends a letter
directly to their Congress member," said J.E. McNeil, an attorney advising
the effort and the executive director for the Washington-based Center on
Conscience & War, a group that helps protect the rights of conscientious
objectors.

The service members submit their name, rank, duty station and home ZIP code.
An electronic letter - stating that "staying in Iraq will not work and is
not worth the price" - is then sent to their representative.

"When men and women join the military and put on the uniform they don't give
up their rights as U.S. citizens," McNeil said. "Participating as fully as
possible in their government, that's what these men and women are doing."

The grass-roots effort began early this year with Hutto as one of the
organizers.

Hutto hasn't been reprimanded, but Navy public affairs officers did give him
guidance so that he didn't violate the U.S. Code of Military Justice, a
Pentagon official said.

"The idea ... originated when I was deployed off the coast of Iraq," Hutto
said of his deployment with the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier.

An old professor had sent him a copy of "Soldiers in Revolt," David
Cortright's book documenting the U.S. soldiers who opposed the Vietnam War.

"By 1971," Hutto said, "more than 250,000 of these active-duty service
people appealed to Congress" advocating an end to that war.

Hutto and Liam Madden, a Marine Corps sergeant from Vermont, then brought
Cortright to Norfolk to talk about the Vietnam-era G.I. movement.

"Why do I support this appeal for redress?" Madden said. "It's as simple as
I oppose the war in Iraq. I feel it is my duty, not as a Marine, but as an
informed citizen, to inform people there is a tool for them.

"The occupation is perpetuating more violence," Madden added. "It's costing
way too many human, Iraqi civilian and American service members' lives."

As of Wednesday morning, nearly 2,800 U.S. troops have been killed in Iraq,
with more than 20,000 wounded, according to the Defense Department.

Kathleen Duignan, executive director of the National Institute of Military
Justice, said uniformed service members can express their views on personal
time using personal resources.

Duignan, also an attorney, spent six years in the military as a judge
advocate general. Her institute is a Washington-based nonprofit that aims to
help the public better understand the intricacies of military justice.

"Everybody who wears the uniform is entitled to be equal members in the
political process," she said. "You just have to be careful when and how you
do it."

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Pro patria,

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho
SFC, US Army (Retired)

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"Dissent is the highest form of patriotism"

- Thomas Jefferson

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