It’s been suggested the March 17th rally and march here in Denver is about the veterans and the profiteering on the backs of the veteran by corporations such as Halliburton. I disagree even though I’m a combat veteran and I have met many incredible veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
While I’ve not been in on many of the meetings to plan the upcoming rally I speak about, I’d like to add a comment on its purpose besides the profiteering on the backs of the military men and women betrayed by Bush and regime.
The focus of this rally and march was also meant to make the connection of the costs of war to the costs to marginalized communities. Last year and this year VFP has had a slogan that “every bomb dropped on Iraq explodes along the Gulf Coast”. This was meant to express solidarity with the survivors of Katrina ignored by Bush’s regime immediately after the hurricane and still to this day, nearly two years later.
The intent of the march and rally was also to remember there remains a war against people of color, the poor and the oppressed in this nation and around the world.
The billions spent on war are billions not spent on improving the lives of the hungry, the homeless, the mentally ill, the addicted, the incarcerated and the children. It’s billions not spent on education, jobs, living wages, fair trade and the environment. It’s billions not spent on the welfare of black, Latino, Hispanic, Chicano, Asian and marginalized communities who continue to bear the yoke of police brutality, inadequate nutrition and housing and racist employers.
Despite my obvious bias toward veterans and military men and women victimized by the military-industrial complex, I think we can no longer perpetuate the idea this is only about the American troops. They are indeed victims but they aren’t even the primary victims if we look at the bigger picture. The idea of over 650, 000 Iraqi dead and the hundreds of years of oppression and imperialism by the Eurocentric governments of the U.S. and its allies can’t be ignored to only remember our troops. We only need look back at 3 million Vietnamese killed to recall an inglorious history of imperialism. We must recall the genocide of indigenous peoples we the people of this nation have taken part in.
I’m very much in support of remembering our dead and wounded troops of all wars but think it time to come out of the military mindset we’ve become slaves to and think of the damage and horror inflicted by the military in the name of “freedom and democracy”. As veterans and participants in illegal and immoral wars we bear responsibility to not only our “own” but to the innocent victims caught in the middle of senseless war and the warriors of these wars.
I think we should remember Smedley Butler’s wise and prophetic words in his piece “War is a Racket”. We can no longer say we have credibility as veterans of illegal wars. We can no longer wear our uniforms and medals as symbols of pride and honor. Instead it seems we must repudiate our wars and all the symbols of the carnage we took part in carrying out.
It seems the role of the veteran must be to take away the façade of the uniform, the medals and the valor and expose the brutality, the atrocity and inhumanity we were part of.
This may not sit well with those who want to continue waving flags of imperialism and militarism but I suggest the American veteran’s most patriotic act is the act of resistance against the madness we took part in carrying out. I think our patriotism is best shown in becoming role models for future generations in opposition to the cult of the warrior and the promises of glory in battles not worth fighting.
I’ve often expressed veterans deserve no special badge of credibility for being the thugs of the establishment. How can we expect to be honored for wars we know were immoral and illegal? Why should we want to be honored for such actions?
If I’m to be honored as a veteran I want to be honored as a veteran that came back and realized the insanity and inhumanity of my actions in war. I want to be known as a veteran that recognizes I was not the victim but the oppressor. I want to be known as a veteran that realizes I left the shores of my country to fight for the rights and freedoms many in my own country still wait to see. And now I want to be known as a man who wants to work to lift the cloud of racism, hatred and oppression that exists so overtly in my own nation.
I realize it may not be popular that the fourth year commemoration of this immoral war in Iraq should not be about the troops as much as it should be about the innocent victims. But I’m weary of trying to have it both ways. Expecting honor when there is no honor is a false pretense and only furthers the myth war is somehow glorious.
This year when I attend the commemoration of the war’s anniversary, I want to honor the dead child in a bunker in Vietnam. I want to honor the mother and child killed by a bomb dropped from an unseen bomber over Baghdad. I want to honor the survivors of Katrina who still wait for America to treat them as Americans. I want to honor the brothers and sisters too long oppressed by poverty and racism. I want to honor the many who could have had a better life if only those billions spent on war had been spent to better their lives.
I don't want honor or glory for the person I was carrying an M16 at age 18 in Vietnam. I don't want honor or glory for being a thug of the military industrial establisment to kill and maim innocent peoples either caught in harm's way or defending their own country.
Wm. Terry Leichner, RN
Combat vet/ human
Denver VVAW member
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