A Report on an Iraq Vet Speaking Out, and Some Reasons to be Optimistic

- by Derek Seidman

Over eighty students showed up to hear Iraq war veteran Patrick Resta (Specialist E/4) speak at Brown University on Thursday, March 10th, and about thirty people heard him speak the following night at the Cathedral of St. John in Providence. Patrick returned from Iraq in November, 2004. He is a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) and has been speaking out against the war and occupation for a several months. As he said in a recent interview, "I will continue to speak out until the last soldier leaves Iraq."

In his talks, Patrick tried to give the attendees an idea of what he experienced in Iraq, to present the reality of the war and occupation that the US media refuses to show. He had a slide show with pictures he took from Iraq- pictures he originally never intended to show to anyone other than friends and family.

The audience was able to see some of the unexploded bombs that litter the country, and which the armed resistance against the occupation uses to attack US troops (the amount of bombs laying around the country is simply unbelievable). The first causality in Patrick's unit came from a roadside bomb, a few days after they entered Iraq from Kuwait. In one instance, Patrick and a few other soldiers found twelve missiles aimed at their chow hall, timed to go off an hour later when they would all be eating.

Patrick honed in on the utter neglect that the higher-ups in command had for the lives of soldiers. He showed us pictures of his unit getting ready to enter Iraq from Kuwait-only 10-15% of the unit's trucks had armor, and this was often limited to sand bags and plywood. Patrick, like many other soldiers, had to take out an $1800 loan to buy the personal armor that he needed. The (lack of) armor on his car door was so pitiful that he had to hang his (expired) bullet-proof vest on the door for added protection.

Patrick was a medic, and yet he was under order to not treat any Iraqis for any medical condition unless they were literally going to die. The excuses he was given for this order ranged from the US not having enough money to treat the Iraqis, to the rationale that the Iraqis had to learn how to take care of themselves. He pointed out the contradiction in occupying Iraq under the pretense of liberating its people, and yet refusing to treat them for sickness and injury. This was one of many things that especially infuriated Patrick-so much so that he would steal medicine to treat Iraqis, only to have the base pharmacy come under investigation afterwards for the missing medicine and materials.

This shouldn't surprise anyone. As Patrick told the audience, his unit was told by the commanding officer that "the Geneva conventions don't apply in Iraq." Patrick told me about a friend he has, a marine who is now a member of IVAW. When asked when he would stop speaking out against the war and occupation, the marine replied: "when I'm sitting in the dock under war crimes charges-and my commanding officer is sitting right next to me."

IVAW currently has several hundred members, and they expect to double in size in Fayetteville (right outside of Fort Bragg) on March 19th, when the largest antiwar demonstration since the Vietnam war of soldiers, vets, and military family members will take place. That Sunday, IVAW will be holding a conference where, among other things, they will be recording returning soldiers describing war crimes they witnessed the United States committing in Iraq. These tapes will then be sent out to the major media.

The only reason IVAW is not any bigger is because many soldiers still don't know about it. Thus, the group will be trying to raise funds in order to place ads in newspapers and magazines that soldiers read, and to spread the word in other ways. This is a movement that is sure to grow in these next months and years.

When Patrick Resta returned from Iraq, he didn't want to speak out about his experiences. He wanted to try to forget the whole thing and get back to a normal life. What changed his mind was a conversation he had with another soldier who was in IVAW. Patrick realized that the emotions and anger he was feeling were also felt by others who experienced the same thing, and this gave him some needed confidence to speak out.

What ultimately drives him, however, is the knowledge that there are still soldiers in Iraq going through the same shit he had to go through, getting injured, getting killed-for nothing except the narrow interests of America's political rulers. He told me that his wife, who is a member of Military Families Speak Out (MFSO), also wanted to try to forget about the war and occupation once he returned. However, her recognition that there were other wives like her all over the country, who were going through the same pain and anxiety she did while Patrick was in Iraq, couldn't allow her to not care.

As a result of his talks, the Providence Journal-the main newspaper read by Rhode Islanders- ran a front page story on Patrick Resta. Perhaps the most inspiring thing to come out of Patrick's visit, however, was that it motivated several Brown students to form a campus antiwar group to build the March 19th protest in Providence, do counter-recruitment in Providence, link up with community efforts against the war, and organize into action antiwar sentiment on campus.

This small incident should offer hope and inspiration to readers. People all over the country are extremely upset with the situation in Iraq, and with the general decay of American society. All it takes to mobilize this sentiment into action and organization is some initiative. In the near future, the situation at home and abroad is bound to create more dedicated antiwar activists. As the meetings, protests, and forums accumulate against the backdrop of a downward-spiraling crisis in Iraq and at home, an atmosphere will be created where soldiers, students, workers, and everyone else will feel more confident in speaking out, in DOING SOMETHING about the war, the occupation, and the increasingly Orwellian home front.

Speaking of being optimistic, the tireless Stan Goff recently wrote an article explaining his reasons for being optimistic in our struggle to end the current foreign policy madness. Like almost everything Stan writes, this is a must-read. I sign off with a long excerpt from the article below, and I urge readers to check out the entire article at:
www.counterpunch.org/goff03122005.html.

"One of the key vulnerabilities of the administration strategy is its over-reliance on the military. The military is not composed mostly of bureaucrats who are protecting their careers. It is composed mostly of enlisted people, who are often only a short step out of high school. They are often ignorant and confused, but then so are most of us. Many of them are also idealistic, and they believe the horse manure that has been shoveled at them, from 'Army of One' Madison Avenue recruiting pitches to the US military as protector of the weak in a caricatured world. "The reality of Iraq has been particularly hard on the most idealistic of these youngsters, and on some older troops as well.

"One of the interesting things about this struggle against the occupation of Iraq are all the comparisons being made to Vietnam, especially comparisons to the resistance that developed against the invasion and occupation of Vietnam from inside the military. There is resistance within the military against this war, too. But it is different in several ways.

"First of all, during Vietnam, the US public and the world did not get into motion against the war for several years. In fact, there was more public support for the Vietnam war when Nixon began the process of getting out than there is for the Iraq occupation now. Now half the US opposes the war, and there was an internationally networked and highly militant opposition to the war even before the occupation began in March 2003. So there is a general situation that lends itself more to doubt about the official excuses for the war. That public doubt affects the people who are in the US military.

"There is also the internet, where more dissident voices are available, including many well-crafted analyses that give the lie to administration bullshit. Soldiers are on the net.

"During Vietnam, much of the antiwar effort was concentrated in universities, and many of the activists who tried to connect with dissident GI's and to carry the message against the war to military service members were college students... which was difficult, because there was a good deal of social distance between working class military people and the often class-privileged college students. This time around, resistance developed early... inside military families.

"A soldier does not feel suspicious and stand-offish with his mom or his spouse or his sister like he might with some unknown college student. I mention women, because the core of the military families antiwar work -- while it certainly includes dads and brothers and such -- has been women. This is another departure from the experience of Vietnam.

"Finally, there was no Veterans for Peace or Korean Veterans Against the War already on the ground and organized when the aggression against Vietnam took off. But there is a very vital Vietnam Veterans network and a Veterans for Peace now, which constitute a set of voices that have special access to soldiers, and who have created communities prepared to support dissident soldiers in a variety of ways. "So the Bush strategy is vulnerable, and the institution upon which he has placed the burden of this strategy -- the military -- is vulnerable to our interventions.

"I am optimistic.

"There's plenty to be optimistic about. Since the resistance from within military communities started, military families groups and veterans groups have combined their efforts. Military Families Speak Out spawned Gold Star Families for Peace, an organization of families whose loved ones have been killed in the war. Veterans for Peace has midwifed Iraq Veterans Against the War. GI counsellors from legal and faith communities, including the GI Rights Hotline, the National Lawyers Guild Military Law Task Force, Quaker House, and Catholic Worker have developed personal and working relationships with each other, and have begun to network their efforts with antiwar military families in UK. We have linked up with September 11 victims' families in September 11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows. We have also integrated our work and collaborated with national organizations like United for Peace and Justice and International ANSWER. Press and activist organizations from all over the world seek out spokespersons from this network.

"In Iraq, there is a powerful and multiform resistance to the occupation that is proving to be very resilient. But that is only half the battle to stop the occupation and derail the imperial goal of an expanded and permanent US military presence in the region. In the United States and UK, we have a special responsibility, and that is to attack and destroy the credibility of the Bush-Blair enterprise and to mount an increasingly militant resistance at home until the political cost is so high, they must leave.

"I am optimistic. This is inevitable, because certain people have simply made up their minds not to stop until we win. But we have to continue to pull the weeds in the garden."