http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/11/02/mil_protest/There's something happening hereA new protest movement inside the military -- including active-duty soldiers back
from Iraq -- is calling on Congress to end the war immediately. By Mark Benjamin
Nov. 02, 2006 | An extraordinary full-page antiwar ad appeared in the Sunday edition of the New York Times on Nov. 9, 1969. In it, 1,366 active-duty U.S. service members signed a statement calling for an end to the war in Vietnam. The signatures represented a tiny minority of the 3.5 million troops serving on active duty then -- but behind
those signatures was a groundswell of dissent inside the military. With the Vietnam adventure sliding into an abyss, that dissent would become more apparent as an Army that included many conscripts faced ugly resistance from within: soldiers disobeying orders, deserting, using drugs, and even "fragging" their own officers with grenades.
Today, there are echoes of the Vietnam experience in the protracted Iraq war -- including a growing protest movement in the military. Its trappings are starkly different this time. Rather than insubordination and violence, it has formed around a form-letter campaign, presumably conducted within the bounds of military regulations
that restrict what soldiers are allowed to say. Last week, a group of current troops, with support from a handful of antiwar organizations, announced plans to petition Congress with a collection of "appeals for redress," which call for an immediate withdrawal from Iraq. They had 65 signatures from active-duty troops and reservists.
Since then, the effort has quietly swelled to nearly 500 troops, and continues to grow. Organizers, including 22-year-old Marine Sgt. Liam Madden, say they are currently working to validate the identities of several hundred more troops who have signed on, and will send the validated collection of letters to the soldiers' respective congressional representatives in January.
The group already includes 76 officers, four of whom are colonels. And while that number is also quite small in comparison to the 1.4 million troops now on active duty, some participants and observers expect it will continue to grow rapidly, exposing significant and expanding disillusionment with the war in Iraq among the rank and file.
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At a White House press briefing last week, press secretary Tony Snow dismissed the protest effort as tiny, and suggested the participants were not "proud" of their service. At that time, only 65 service members had signed on. "You get 65 guys who are, unfortunately -- no, not unfortunately -- 65 people who are going to be able to get more press than the hundreds of thousands who have come back and said they're proud of their service," Snow told reporters.
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David Segal, director of the Center for Research on Military Organization at the University of Maryland, said he thinks that disillusionment about Iraq is "latent but widespread" among troops. "I think they are expressing a sentiment that is really there," he said, referring to the small but growing group of protesters. "I think we could see a newly emerging soldiers' movement," Segal said. "I don't think it is there yet. But the germ is there."
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