Essay

The Appeal for Redress

By Douglas Lummis

America's invasion of Iraq has turned into an utter, complete, absolute, total catastrophe.

By complete, I mean a catastrophe for Iraq, a catastrophe for America, a catastrophe for the Sunni people, a catastrophe for the Shia people, a catastrophe for the world.

And it seems that the Bush administration is determined to carry this catastrophe to its extreme catastrophic conclusion. At the time of writing, the United States is starting to send another 20,000 troops into Iraq. This goes against the opinion of the American people, of the U.S. Congress, of the U.S. military leadership, and (of course) of the people of Iraq.

Things are going to get worse.

What can be done to stop this lunacy?

Most Americans are against this war, but not very passionately. The U.S. Congress is critical of the war, but vague about what to do. World opinion is against the war, but there is no powerful anti-war movement.

It may be that the most effective anti-war movement will come from within the U.S. military itself.

For most people, including anti-war activists, the Iraq war is rather abstract and vague. But for the soldiers it is intensely real. Many of them have come to understand that they are risking their lives for no good purpose.

Beginning last October, an anti-war petition campaign has been gaining support in the U.S. military. Called The Appeal for Redress, the petition reads as follows.

"As a patriotic American proud to serve the nation in uniform, I respectfully urge my political leaders in Congress to support the prompt withdrawal of all American military forces and bases from Iraq. Staying in Iraq will not work and is not worth the price. It is time for U.S. troops to come home."

To an anti-war activist this may sound pretty mild, and the "patriotic American" and "respectfully" may be hard to swallow. But for military people to sign even such a mild petition means risking their jobs, and possibly facing even worse dangers. Legally, U.S. military personnel have the right to sign, but who knows how they might be punished informally?

Despite this danger, almost 1,000 U.S. GIs had signed this petition as of December. In the military, that is a big event

It is also estimated that some 1,000 troops go AWOL (absent without leave) each month to avoid going to Iraq. And some 200 to 300 have fled to Canada.

The U.S. all-voluntary military is also having trouble recruiting new troops. More and more, they are relying on foreigners, who join because that way they can get U.S. citizenship. There is a debate within the U.S. military today about whether to set up recruiting offices in foreign countries. Military leaders worry about the "patriotism" of an army largely made up of foreigners.

In short, the U.S. military has been pretty much (as some of its own generals say) broken by this war. And now some of the troops are beginning to take action. If you are against this war, and live near a U.S. military base, one thing you could do is to inform GIs about this petition. The homepage is www.appealforredress.org/

Shukan ST: Jan. 26, 2007

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