As the Iraq war has dragged on, growing numbers of American servicemen and women and veterans have begun mobilizing against it. They have quickly become a vital part of the anti-war effort, invigorating the movement with their firsthand accounts of life on the ground. Many anti-war veterans are members of groups like Iraq Veterans Against the War, which was founded in 2004. Recently, three servicemen helped organize students at the Campus Progress Iraq Action Camp and joined them on Capitol Hill to help lobby congressional leaders. Campus Progress sat down with the vets to discuss their anti-war efforts.
Alex Cornell Du Houx joined the Marine Reserves after high school and is currently a senior at Bowdoin College. He recently returned from a deployment in Fallujah. Still an active member of the Marine Reserves, he has become outspoken against the war. Active on his campus and in his community, Du Houx also serves on the New Media Team for the College Democrats of America. Du Houx participated in the Iraq Action Camp.
“When you’re [in Iraq] you get first-hand experience and knowledge of what is happening. Unfortunately, I went from being able to protect the Iraqis in a meaningful manner to only protecting the guys next to me and myself. And as a result the Iraqi population doesn’t support us at all anymore. As a result the mission there—if there was one at the beginning—is not being accomplished.
When you’re in Iraq, everyone pretty much dislikes being there because the conditions are horrible. You live in a plywood shack with sandbags and one hot meal a day or so. The sentiment within the Marine Corps and my fellow Marines was quite a bit gung ho at first, but, as the deployment went on and we saw the reality of what was happening, it turned into frustration. We saw that lots of what we did didn’t advance our objectives, and it essentially became a daily fight to keep your buddies safe and yourself safe.”
Jared Hood, 24, Specialist in the Colorado Army National Guard, has served in Vilseck, Germany, and stateside in Hurricane Katrina relief and at a number of bases. A member of IVAW since January 2006, he founded the group’s Denver chapter in March 2007 and became its Mountain Regional Coordinator in April. Spec. Hood has two years remaining on his National Guard contract, but has submitted an application for an honorable discharge as a conscientious objector. Currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree in political science and public administration at Metro State College of Denver, Spec. Hood joined other students at the Iraq Action Camp earlier this month.
“We’re seeing the effects of the war on the military when we’re stationed stateside and over there. When they decided to occupy Iraq and use all their troops, spend all their resources on that, they had to take these positions and fill them with someone, so they’re filling them with civilian contracts. Not only in Iraq do we have corporate pillaging, but we have civilian contractors taking over so many military positions here at home. They’re doing a horrible job because they’re not in the military. They don’t know what it’s like to be a soldier and deal with all these pay problems. If it were a soldier doing the pay stub rather than a civilian they would know what it’s like to not get paid as a soldier and to not have your wife and children receive those benefits that you’re receiving.
You go through this confliction. You don’t want to betray your brothers in arms. You struggle with the line of speaking out against an illegal and immoral war and taking the risk of your close friends who protected you betraying you. You approach it from a careful position of truth. If anything you want to end it because you want to protect your brothers. You don’t want them to be exploited by our government and used for the wrong purpose. We’re supposed to be used as a tool to protect democracy, not as a tool to force a country to adopt a policy that they don’t want to adopt.
I think politicians on both sides of the party lines are holding our troops hostage, metaphorically, because they are using them for political things. You had Bush saying, ‘Well, if you don’t fund this war you’re not supporting our troops,’ and then you had Democrats sitting there thinking, ‘This will ruin us politically if we don’t.’ And it’s like, screw politics for a second, throw that shit out the window, and just be moral about it. Just be moral, you know?”
Sergeant Geoff Millard, 26, enlisted in the New York Army National Guard at the age of 17. After the attacks on the World Trade Center, Sgt. Millard was activated with the 42nd Infantry Division and helped with security at ground zero. In 2004 he was sent to Iraq, where he served for 13 months. Sgt. Millard has also served in Germany, Kuwait, and Qatar. He traveled with a peace delegation to meet with members of the Iraqi parliament about their 26-point peace plan, becoming the first (and only) Iraq war veteran to do so. In addition, he has met with Iraqi refugees in Jordan and Syria. Now president of the Washington, D.C. chapter of IVAW, Sgt. Millard was a featured speaker at the Iraq Action Camp and also spent time with the students during their Lobby Day.
“We’re a weapon of the democracy and we depend on our democracy to never send us in harm’s way unless it is in the defense of that democracy. The first line in the oath of enlistment is, ‘I swear that I will protect the Constitution of the United States from all enemies, foreign and domestic.’ That means protecting the Constitution, not protecting American interests, whether they’re oil interests or strategic interests. It’s protecting the Constitution that matters, and I think that people in this country have forgotten that. That’s a betrayal of our service members who have raised our hands and taken that oath.
The decisions I made deeply affected the Iraqi people. I went to Iraq knowing the war was wrong, and they were hurt by my going. That was my decision, and it was a bad decision, but because I did that I have a debt to pay. I meet with these Iraqi refugees and parliamentarians to hear the Iraqi story and to give them hope. These Iraqi refuges can know that all Americans don’t feel the way George Bush does and that I am sorry and I am going to make up for this if it takes my entire life.”
[Correction: This article originally stated that Jared Hood “spent a year serving in Iraq’s Anbar province from March 2003 to March 2004.” This was based on what a Campus Progress reporter understood Hood to have said in a phone interview. Hood has since said that he did not serve in Anbar, and has posted a comment below.]
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Comments
IVAW reminds me of VVAW – “Vietnam Veterans Against the War”
If CP is as non-partisan as you purport it to be I dare you to sit down with OIF/OEF Veterans at National Navy Medical Center and/or Walter Reed Army Medical Center to discuss their opinons of the Iraq War and post their remarks on your web-site.
— James P. Carter - Jun 25, 01:30 PM - #I actually go to Walter Reed often and speak with soldiers there. In fact some of the staff are members of IVAW.
It is hard for soldier who are injured to accept that they were injured in a war based on lies. Sometimes the last thread of sanity is that their injuries were part of a noble sacrifice. My friend Bobby was paralyzed from the waste down and it took him a long time to let the betrayal that he fought in a fraudulent war sink in. It is time we take control of our military and honor their service by using them in a just way that is representing the greater democracy of this nation, for the better interest of our country and when all peaceful solutions to the conflict are exhausted.If you fund the war, you kill the troops.
Let’s bring them home.
— Garett Reppenhagen - Jun 26, 04:22 AM - #Carter, as a 100% service-connected disabled Vietnam era veteran, how do you suppose it makes a veteran feel when they realize that their elected officials, many of whom dodged military service to their nation, actually lied and manipulated intel to start a war? There is nothing non-partisan about a missing limb(s), eyes, sanity… it is very personal. Let me share the following short poem by a brother Vietnam medic:
— Bruce Freeman - Jun 29, 03:42 PM - #“The nobility of the soldier willing to give a life for country and God
lies silent and still amidst the broken promises of leaders.
Send them not to futile sacrifice on shores so far from home.
But keep your word to all that serve that none shall die in vain.” ~ a poem by Rich Raitano, a brother Vietnam medic
if the war profiteers are simply responding to a need whose pretext they had nothing to do with, let them show their regret for the suffering by cycling ALL profits into helping the victims and their families.
or maybe chase bank doesn’t give a $h!+.
— evan - Jun 29, 05:10 PM - #I know Jared Hood. He has NEVER served a day in a combat zone in his insignificant military career. He continues to perpetuate this lie in an effort to feel like he actually “belongs” to the IVAW, but it only validates him as an oxygen thief. He’s sucking good air that productive lives and REAL soldiers could use. He isn’t an Iraq veteran, and represents more of a liar than anything else. Private Hood was not part of the mobilization and deployment of the 220th MP CO. He is a LIAR. Ask him for his mobilization orders. Ask him for his DD-214 from the AD period. He won’t have documented evidence. He is a LIAR of the biggest magnitude, and should face the consequences for his actions. He simply spent a very, very short period of annual training in Germany. He transferred to the 220th MP CO AFTER they returned from their Iraq tour. He was never mobilized nor deployed to anyplace in Iraq. Blue falcon liar hood – that’s what he should be called. He claims credit for that which he disgraces, and dishonors those who actually served by taking credit for what he hasn’t done – and where he’s never been. He was allowed to become president of the denver chapter of IVAW??? Do you REALLY know this liar? Do you Denver’ites really know this fake that you’re allowing to represent you? He was part of the 5025th GSU at Fort Carson when the 220th MP CO was in Iraq. If I were his commander, I’d discharge him into the IRR and would make sure he would be the first one on the list of deployment eligibles into the harshest combat zone I could find.
— Martinez - Jul 8, 06:21 PM - #Due to a miscommunication of which I was just notified of, the info on my Army service above is listed incorrectly. I assure you that campus Progress is a reliable source and this was not done intentionally. The statements I made in quotes were made at a speech and at no time have I ever alluded to serving amidst a combat environment. I would never make any illusions about my service record as i have nothing to prove nor hide. Those who have served with me and continue to consider me a close friend know I would never mean any disrespect. As for the individual who made the above statement, they have obviously spent the time to research me on Google and go to extended lengths to attempt to discredit me. If this individual has nothing better to do with there time than discredit a soldier who is speaking out, then what that means what I’m speaking out against must have an effect. My service in the Army, whether insignificant or impressive, gave me enough motivation and knowledge to speak out against the current policy in Iraq as well as it’s effect on the Military. My fellow soldiers in the Army, who actually took the time to get to know me, have come to love and respect me. Those who have not have continued to do everything they can to discredit me and refuse me the right for a leave of absence for a family death. I am not here to discredit those individuals, or hate them for their beliefs, so the real discredit is on this individual who dislikes me enough to waste time and energy making these attempts. A man/woman has every right to speak out against that which violates their convictions, it is in defense of this right that I put my money where my mouth was and joined the Army. The sad reality is that decision left me training for and fighting to protect private interests among a Military that takes pleasure in discrediting their own members and dehumanizing other humans.
— Jared Hood - Jul 13, 09:49 PM - #Due to a miscommunication of which I was just notified of, the info on my Army service above is listed incorrectly. I never served in Anbar province, although my closest friend served their in 2003-2004 and was killed in 2004. This may have been a misunderstanding on both parties. I assure you that campus Progress is a reliable source and this was not done intentionally. The statements I made in quotes were made at a speech and at no time have I ever alluded to serving amidst a combat environment. I would never make any illusions about my service record as i have nothing to prove nor hide. Those who have served with me and continue to consider me a close friend know I would never mean any disrespect. As for the individual who made the above statement, they have obviously spent the time to research me on Google and go to extended lengths to attempt to discredit me. If this individual has nothing better to do with there time than discredit a soldier who is speaking out, then what that means what I’m speaking out against must have an effect. My service in the Army, whether insignificant or impressive, gave me enough motivation and knowledge to speak out against the current policy in Iraq as well as it’s effect on the Military. My fellow soldiers in the Army, who actually took the time to get to know me, have come to love and respect me. Those who have not have continued to do everything they can to discredit me and refuse me the right for a leave of absence for a family death. I am not here to discredit those individuals, or hate them for their beliefs, so the real discredit is on this individual who dislikes me enough to waste time and energy making these attempts. A man/woman has every right to speak out against that which violates their convictions, it is in defense of this right that I put my money where my mouth was and joined the Army. The sad reality is that decision left me training for and fighting to protect private interests among a Military that takes pleasure in discrediting their own members and dehumanizing other humans.
— Jared Hood - Jul 13, 09:54 PM - #Geoffery Millard is a liar.
— SFC - Jul 19, 08:52 PM - #Jared – you’re a coward and a liar. You have never spent one day in Iraq. You are a hipocrite at the least and I have more respect for a dead rat…something to match someone of your charachter. You are a disgrace to the uniform, an embarrassment to the Army, and old osama might be your best friend. At your earliest convienence…kill yourself
— john - Sep 20, 10:03 PM - #hood, dont wear an “iraqi veteran” shirt you NEVER SERVED A DAY IN THE MIDDLE EAST
— A real veteran - Oct 28, 09:11 PM - #Hi, videos!
— Ivan - Feb 28, 10:59 PM - #<a href=http://ingramjadyn0913.tripod.com>free269</a>
Did anyone else notice that these idiots are NOT active duty…. when you put on a uniform EVERYDAY, these people you are fighting with are your family and it is about keeping each other alive, as a medic in the Army I have lost quite a few close friends and you know why….... because we are fighting to give you the freedom to wear those stupid shirts and speak out against things you dont really understand. When you make serving your country more then a hobbie and stop disrespecting those of us that actually give our lives in service to you keeping that freedom of speak, then maybe you wont look like such and idiot up there. By the way why would someone where a shirt that says he is a VET when he has stepped foot on Iraqi soil?
— ARMY MEDIC - Aug 6, 03:56 PM - #Did anyone else notice that these idiots are NOT active duty…. when you put on a uniform EVERYDAY, these people you are fighting with are your family and it is about keeping each other alive, as a medic in the Army I have lost quite a few close friends and you know why….... because we are fighting to give you the freedom to wear those stupid shirts and speak out against things you dont really understand. When you make serving your country more then a hobbie and stop disrespecting those of us that actually give our lives in service to you keeping that freedom of speech, then maybe you wont look like such and idiot up there. By the way why would someone where a shirt that says he is a VET when he hasnt stepped foot on Iraqi soil?
— ARMY MEDIC - Aug 6, 04:01 PM - #Jared – you finally admit you never served in a combat zone, and you say is was a “miscommunication”. You say you would never say this to avoid discrediting those who actually did. You say above it was your buddy who served, and that’s fine. Why then do you continue (as in some recent youtube videos) to lay claim to have served in Southern Iraq and conducted missions for the MP company (whatever it was) while you were there?? You continue to lie about your service. As for your “family member” death. Wasn’t this your (Ex now) brother-in-laws friend?? That is the only person even near a family tie to have died recently. How do you claim that the Army would not allow you “bereavement leave” to care for a deceased family member, when this wasn’t a family member that meets the criteria the Army has clearly defined? You can respond, but your lies will just continue to build and build. One on the other, and so on. You are such a disappointment to your parents, and I know they have suffered because of your rebellious actions.
— Martinez - Aug 21, 06:05 PM - #