Winter Soldier 2008

Bruce's efforts to find video evidence to supplement the total lack of media coverage of the ongoing war/occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan in a way seems to echo the current efforts of the group Iraq Veterans Against the War to bring the reality of these wars into the public eye. This weekend the group is giving current vets a chance to testify about their experiences and observations during their tours of duty in country. Although the hearings are not being televised by any major media outlet, they are being broadcast in many alternative media, including live streaming video right on your computer screen. Go here to find ways to watch and/or listen to these brave veterans tell their stories.

Truthout.org will be focusing on the Winter Soldier testimony in a four-part series over the coming weeks, and this morning they feature an essay from Alternet called Winter Solder: America Must Hear These Vets' Stories, by Penny Coleman. Penny was a young woman during the VN war, a young wife whose VN vet husband committed suicide after he returned stateside. Her thoughts as she watches the present-day Winter Soldier testimony are intensely moving. She begins by saying: If America listens to what they say, the war would be over tomorrow." She concludes with:

The message of Iraq Veterans Against the War came through clearly in every tortured testimony. This is an illegal war. It has cost us our peace of mind. The longer we are there, the more of us will be injured. Bring our troops home now.

You can read more about this event in this Salon article, which actually includes video of an airstrike in Baghdad that may have killed civilians. The first Winter Soldier hearings in 1971 eventually, months later, resulted in official hearings before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that brought the illegal nature of what our troops were doing in Viet Nam into the public eye. It is probably too much to hope for that that will happen now, but we can help make it happen by bringing massive public attention to what is happening today at the Labor College. Don't let these brave voices go unheard.

Technorati Tags: Iraq Afghanistan wars, Winter Soldier hearings,

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