Stop the Next War Now (4 page)

My stepson Joe, a marine, was deployed with the Twenty-fourth Marine Expeditionary Unit in August 2002. He was headed for Kosovo. He told us he would be ending up in Iraq, and indeed he did. In September 2002, when the drumbeats for war were getting deafening, my husband, Charley Richardson, and I saw no good reason for the United States to be invading Iraq. We weren’t convinced that mystery weapons of mass destruction, supposedly hidden somewhere in Iraq, were imminent threats to the United States. We saw no links between Saddam Hussein and Al-Qaeda. We didn’t see how invading Iraq would address the terrible tragedy of 9/11 or solve the problem of terrorism. In fact, we believed that if the United States invaded Iraq, we were likely to see more, not less, terrorism.

We saw that all those who were saying, “We’ve got to go to war!” weren’t going anywhere. Nor were their loved ones. It was our loved ones who would be used as cannon fodder. We made our first poster in September 2002. It had Joe’s picture on it, and it said, “Our son is a Marine. Don’t send him to war for oil.”

At an antiwar demonstration in Washington, D.C., in October 2002, we met Jeffrey McKenzie, a father whose son would be deployed in January. The next month, Jeff’s family and ours formed an organization called Military Families Speak Out (www.mfso.org). We wanted to break the code of silence, to use our special need to speak out—and the special voice with which we speak—to prevent an invasion of Iraq.

Through word of mouth, and via the Internet, MFSO began to grow. We met with members of Congress. We wrote letters to George W. Bush and to editors of our local papers. We participated in vigils and antiwar marches.

We spoke at teachins at community centers, universities, union halls, and churches. A group of fifteen parents of soldiers and marines, my husband and I included, brought a lawsuit against President Bush and secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld, seeking to prevent an invasion of Iraq without a congressional declaration of war.

Despite our efforts and those of the global antiwar community, on the night of March 19, 2003, the “shock and awe” bombing of Iraq began. Within two weeks, MFSO had doubled its membership, and four hundred military families were fighting to end a war that we’d hoped would never happen. We spoke about low morale among the troops, about the lack of adequate equipment, about suicide attempts and psychological trauma. We called attention to the toll of this war, a toll the Bush administration was trying hard to hide. Families who had suffered the ultimate tragedy—the deaths of their loved ones—began joining our group; their powerful voices moved all who would listen.

In July 2003, from his well-guarded room in the White House, President Bush responded to a reporter’s question about the armed Iraqi resistance by saying, “Bring ‘em on!” Outraged by this statement, MFSO, together with Veterans for Peace, Vietnam Veterans Against the War, and several other groups, began a campaign of our own. While George Bush was saying, “Bring ‘em on,” we said, “Bring them home! now!” The Bring Them Home Now campaign (www.bringthemhomenow.org), launched at press conferences in Washington, D.C., and Fayetteville, North Carolina, reached out to troops in Iraq, to families and veterans, to politicians, and to peace activists across the United States and around the world. Our message created an important dialogue. While many Americans, including many who were against the war, cautioned that withdrawing U.S. troops would promote chaos in Iraq, we’ve maintained that chaos is now the order of the day in Iraq, chaos that the U.S. military occupation is perpetuating and worsening.

As their loved ones return from Iraq, more and more families must welcome back haggard, hollow-eyed strangers. Kevin and Joyce Lucey’s son Jeffrey served in the marine reserves in the battle of Nasariyah in the spring of 2003. He came home broken, but the full extent of the psychological damage didn’t really manifest itself until six months after he returned. Jeffrey spoke of being a killer, a murderer. He wore the dog tags of two unarmed Iraqi soldiers whose lives he took under orders from his command. He wore the tags to remember and honor them. He began drinking heavily and was briefly committed to a Veterans Administration hospital, but was released four days later. On June 22, 2004, this young marine went into the cellar of his parents’ home in western Massachusetts and hanged himself.

Our hearts cry out for Jeffrey and for all who were killed on the battlefield or in its cross fire—both our troops and the people of Iraq—and for the many more who will die in their souls because of what they saw or did in this war. By the end of 2004, two years after its founding, MFSO included almost two thousand military families. We are of African, Latino, Asian, Arab, American Indian, European descent. We are the parents, spouses, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins, fiancés, and partners of service members. We are families who opposed this war from the beginning and families who supported the invasion of Iraq, only to find out that it was a war based on lies. We are Democrats, Republicans, Independents, and people who never before voted.

Together we challenge the powers that be—the military, the Bush administration, and Congress—to face the same truths that we military families hear from loved ones on a daily basis, about the lack of protective equipment and the shortage of armored Humvees. We expose painful and personal stories of loved ones who have been diagnosed with severe post-traumatic stress disorder yet are declared “fit for duty” and redeployed to the front; of loved ones kept in Iraq despite severe physical or psychological problems. We expose the lack of care that many of our troops receive when they do come home. And we emphasize that all these failures are taking place within the biggest failure of all—the fact that our troops were taken into a war based on lies; an illegal, immoral wa; a war that should never have happened.

Never before have so many military families broken the code of silence and spoken out to support the troops and end a war. Together with Veterans for Peace, Vietnam Veterans Against the War, and the new Iraq Veterans Against the War, we say:

Not one more day!

Not one more dime!

Not one more life!

Not one more lie!

End the occupation!

Bring the troops home now!

And take care of them when they get here!

FROM CINDY TO GEORGE

Angered that her son, Casey Sheehan, was sent to fight and die in an unjust war for reasons that have proven to be lies, Cindy is speaking out about the Iraq invasion. Cindy has joined other moms and families who have lost loved ones in the conflict to tell Americans about the true costs of the war.They have started an organization called Gold Star Families for Peace (www.gsfp.org).

Dear George
,

You don’t mind if I call you George, do you? When you sent me this letter offering your condolences on the death of my son, Spc. Casey Austin Sheehan, you called me Cindy, so I naturally assume we are on a first-name basis
.

George, it has been seven months today since your reckless and wanton foreign policies killed my son in the illegal and unjust war on Iraq. Casey, my big boy, my hero, my best friend
.

Casey was always a good boy. He could play for hours by himself. He loved Nintendo, GI Joes, the World Wrestling Federation, baseball (especially the Dodgers), his church, and God. He joined the Cub Scouts when he was in the first grade, and he eventually earned the rank of Eagle Scout. He became an altar boy when he was eight, and he continued serving his church for the rest of his life. He never talked back to his dad or me. He rarely fought with his brother and sisters. He loved our animals and he loved little children
.

Everyone assumed Casey was going to be a priest because he was so faithful to God and to the church. He never missed Mass even when he went into the Army. If he was on post, he went to Mass. Casey was such a good Christian that after he died, his chapel on Fort Hood started a new Knights of Columbus Council, and the members voted unanimously to name it the Spc. Casey Austin Sheehan Council. They said that Casey embodied everything that they want to stand for: love of God, country, family, church, and service. We are honored that Casey’s name and what he stood for will always be remembered on Fort Hood
.

Back in 2000 when Casey was still alive, after you stole the election, I had the most ironic thought of my life: “Oh well, how much damage can he do in four years?” Now I know too well how much you have damaged my family, this country, and this world. The 2004 election has come and gone. But if you think I am going to allow you another four years to do even more damage, then you are truly mistaken. I will fight your lies and your agenda every step of the way. The only thing is, I’m not politically savvy, and I don’t have a Karl Rove to plan my strategy. But I do have a big mouth and a righteous cause, which still mean something in this country, I hope
.

During the presidential debates, you kept talking about “hard work.” You said you know how hard the war is because you watch it on TV and get the casualty reports every day. George, let me tell you what “hard work” really is. Hard work is seeing your oldest son, your brave and honorable man-child, go off to a war that had, and still has, no basis in reality. Hard work is worrying yourself gray and not being able to sleep because you don’t know whether your child is safe. Hard work is seeing your son’s murder on CNN one Sunday evening while you’re enjoying the last supper you’ll ever truly enjoy again. Hard work is having three military officers come to your house a few hours later to confirm the aforementioned murder of your son... your firstborn... your kind and gentle sweet baby. Hard work is burying your child forty-six days before his twenty-fifth birthday. Hard work is holding your other three children as they lower the body of their big “baba” into the ground. Hard work is not jumping in the grave with him and having the earth cover you both
.

But, George, do you know what the hardest work of all is? Trying to digest the fact that the leader of the country that your family has fought for and died for, for generations, lied to you and betrayed your dear boy’s sense of honor and exploited his courage and exploited his loyalty to his buddies. Hard work is having your country abandon you after it killed your son. Hard work is coming to the realization that your son had his future robbed from him and that you have had your son’s future and future grandchildren stolen from you. Hard work is knowing that there are so many people in this world that have prospered handsomely from your son’s death
.

George, I must confess that I and my family worked very hard to redefeat you this time, but you refuse to stay defeated. Well, we are watching you very carefully. We are going to do everything in our power to have you impeached for misleading the American people into a disastrous war and for misusing and abusing your power as commander in chief. We are going to scream until our last breath to bring the rest of our babies home from this quagmire of a war that you have gotten our country into: before too many more families learn the true meaning of hard work. It is going to be an uphill battle, knowing how Republican the Congress is. But thanks to you, we know the meaning of hard work and we’re not afraid of it
.

The fifty-six million citizens who voted against you and your agenda have given me a mandate to move forward with my agenda. Also, thanks to you and your careless domestic policies, I am unemployed, so this will be my full-time job. Helping to bring about your political downfall will be the most noble accomplishment of my life, and it will bring justice for my son and the hundreds of other brave Americans and tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis your lies have killed
.

Thank you for that, George. Have a nice day and God bless America. We surely need it
!
Cindy Sheehan

“Individuals have international duties which transcend the national

obligations of obedience.Therefore [individual citizens] have the duty to

violate domestic laws to prevent crimes against peace and humanity

from occurring.”

—Nuremberg War Crime Tribunal, 1950

A N

ATION

R

OCKED TO

S

LEEP

C

ARLY

S

HEEHAN

,

FOR HER BROTHER

C

ASEY

Carly Sheehan wrote this poem after her

brother Casey died in Iraq on April 4, 2004

.

Have you ever heard the sound of a mother screaming for her son?

The torrential rains of a mother’s weeping will never be done

They call him a hero, you should be glad that he’s one, but

Have you ever heard the sound of a mother screaming for her son?

Have you ever heard the sound of a father holding back his cries?

He must be brave because his boy died for another man’s lies

The only grief he allows himself are long, deep sighs

Have you ever heard the sound of a father holding back his cries?

Have you ever heard the sound of taps played at your brother’s grave?

They say that he died so that the flag will continue to wave

But I believe he died because they had oil to save

Have you ever heard the sound of taps played at your brother’s grave?

Have you ever heard the sound of a nation being rocked to sleep?

The leaders want to keep you numb so the pain won’t be so deep

But if we the people let them continue, another mother will weep

Have you ever heard the sound of a nation being rocked to sleep?

Veterans for Peace erects over 1,000 crosses every Sunday on the beaches of Southern California to honor our fallen U.S. military in a temporary “cemetery” called Arlington West.The documentary of the same name features interviews with soldiers coming from and going to Baghdad, military families, and veterans.