Winter Soldier Audio Discs Available
Iraq Veterans Against the War held a series of hearings on the weekend of March 14 through 16, 2008 (the same weekend as Not One More! here in Libbey Park) called "Winter Soldier 2008", modeled after the Winter Soldier hearings in 1971 during the Vietnam War.
i have downloaded all of the testimony from these emotional and enlightening hearings, and will gladly burn you a 10-disc audio set for $10 (a single mp3 disc for $1). $5 will go to the Ojai Peace Coalition, and $5 will go toward the new IVAW Chapter in Ventura. email me to request a copy.
here's Infantrymen Clifton Hicks and Steven Casey giving testimony as part of the March 14th panel "Rules of Engagement, Part One": LISTEN. DOWNLOAD.
What’s Winter Soldier?
In 1776, Thomas Paine wrote: “These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier
and sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that
stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.”
The “winter soldier”, then, is one that embraces his or her service especially in times of crisis
and defends her or his country when it needs it most: in times that try peoples’ souls.
Winter Soldier is modeled on a similar event held by Vietnam Veterans 37 years ago. In 1971,
over 100 members of Vietnam Veterans Against the War gathered in Detroit to share their
stories with fellow citizens. Atrocities like the My Lai massacre had ignited popular opposition
to the war, but political and military leaders insisted that such crimes were isolated exceptions.
Among those in attendance was 27-year-old Navy Lieutenant John Kerry, who had served in
Vietnam. Three months after the hearings, in one of the most famous antiwar speeches of the
era, Kerry told the United States Congress: “Someone has to die so that President Nixon won’t
be - and these are his words - ‘the first president to lose a war’. We are asking Americans to
think about that, because how do you ask a man to be the last man to die in Vietnam? How do
you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?”
Members of Iraq Veterans Against the War can prove similarly historic – especially in
encouraging an increase in the amount of GI Resistance against the wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan.
“This event is going to empower soldiers to follow their conscience, whatever that means for
them,” says Camilo Mejia, the Chair of the Board of Iraq Veterans Against the War. “The kinds
of things we’re talking about are non-partisan. They’re non-political. They have to do with
humans being trapped in this atrocity-producing situation.”
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