The Duty of the Winter Soldier

I probably won’t listen to much of the Winter Soldier Investigation of IVAW. I’ve heard many of the vets speak and know what they will say and I can only grieve once again at how terribly, terribly immoral we continue to be as a nation.

When regular German soldiers led POW’s into the showers of Dachau they committed a war crime. When they gunned down innocent civilians they were just doing their duty but they still were committing atrocities and war crimes.


When I fired a white phosphorous grenade from the tube of an M-79 grenade launcher I committed a war crime. When I destroyed civilian habitats to displace the villagers so they couldn’t possibly aid the VC, I was breaking the tenets of the Geneva Convention accords. The killing of a prisoner that couldn’t give us intel even after we had water-boarded her was an atrocity. None of us ever reported it. We were just doing our jobs.

And that is the problem. Soldiers and Marines can’t say they were just doing their job without admitting they took part in illegal activity. We can’t say we witnessed something and be without responsibility and guilt if we failed in attempting to stop it or report it.

We’ve allowed humans to become “gooks” which allowed us to look the other way, to just do our jobs and to take part in things we knew were wrong.


History will not absolve us. And try as we may, we can never forget these things as just being part of war. It becomes easy to kill humans if we never know their names or their stories.

WSI is about acknowledging the atrocity and criminal acts of war that become routine for the combat troops. Some say giving such testimony is heroic. Some will want it both ways…they were protecting the nation but they took part in these things.


No, we don’t protect our nation with such actions. We do irreparable harm. We aren’t heroes because we protected one another in battle but failed to protect the most vulnerable. The children and innocents deserved our protection but got our sophisticated means of death and agonizing wounding. Throwing candies to the kids while dropping cluster bombs won’t equate as a good will gesture.


Yes there were implied commands from our superiors on the conduct of carrying out our war. It’s really easy to blame command for creating the culture that allowed My Lai and other lesser slaughters and massacres. But at some point, we individuals knew what we did wasn’t right. We can’t hide behind “duty”.


True duty as humans and as patriots is exposing the immorality of the actions we were being asked to participate in. True duty is taking the stand in investigations such as Winter Soldier. The concept of Winter Soldier dates back to the words of Thomas Paine during revolutionary days of this nation. “These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. “.


George Washington’s army had many sunshine soldiers who left him when the cold weather of winter started. Only the dedicated patriot stayed with him during the harshest times of winter.


Today, America is facing the harshest of times as an illegal and immoral occupation drains the lifeblood of our nation. Trillions of dollars have been diverted from programs that could save the lives of newborns, pay the tuition of millions, provide treatment for the mentally ill, aid the elderly, send food to the hungry and rebuild nations that have been previously bombed by our bombers.


Today America is facing the harshest of times as we alienate nations around the world, as we create enemies when we could have established trust and alliance and as we allow ourselves to become terrorists in the dropping of cluster bombs, bunker busters and “smart” missiles.


Today this nation faces harsh times as our young men and women return with horrible wounds of the body and mind and are unable to get the care needed to heal. We face harsh times as we forget the hundreds of thousands dead and wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan that are innocent bystanders of our occupation. We face harsh times as we allow ourselves to redefine torture as an acceptable technique of interrogation. We face harsh times as we continue to irradiate the lands we occupy with depleted uranium used in our weapons.


It is the duty of the Winter Soldier to speak out against the policies of the government of the people that causes irreparable harm to our nation. It is the duty of the Winter Soldier to fight against immoral acts of leaders who are more intent on increasing power than improving the standing of our nation as a citizen in the world and a leader in the world.

I know this flies in the face of what many at Winter Soldier believe of this event. I’ve already heard commentary calling the testimony of troops as heroic. I’ve heard the resistance of active duty troops being called bravery. I agree with the latter but disagree with the first.


Taking part in illegal and immoral occupations and then returning to decry what we took part in isn’t heroic to me. I never felt heroic to tell the story of my time in war. I never felt heroic to talk about those days in 1968 with the Marines. What I saw and took part in disturbed me greatly as an eighteen and nineteen year old combat infantryman. The horrors of war compelled me to give testimony about what I witnessed.


I was as young as a Marine could be entering combat back in 1968. At eighteen, I may have been extremely naïve and overly indoctrinated by the Marine culture but even so, I knew the killing of children and innocent civilians either purposely inflicted or as collateral damage was immoral.


I went to war under the influence of propaganda disseminated by mainstream media and the American government’s PR network. I understood I was going war to prevent the spread of tyranny caused by Communist terrorists. I understood I was going to war in an attempt to establish democracy and freedom in a beleaguered nation. I was led to believe participation in my war would be honorable.


I quickly learned the honor I was looking for in Vietnam was missing. Brutal treatment of civilian populations, disrespect for the culture of the Vietnamese people and the violation of Geneva Convention regulations by firing indiscriminately into civilian population centers was in direct contradiction to what I defined as honorable.


The words gook and zip and the intentional dehumanization of the Vietnamese people told me I wasn’t fighting for their freedom or the establishment of democracy for them. The destruction of the villages and homes of Vietnamese was a clear example of our own tyranny. Refugee camps caused by the displacement of the villagers were testimony against our stated intentions. The impoverishment of previously independent farmers and villagers flew in the face of our stated intentions to aid the Vietnamese. Seeing the blatant prostitution and drug trade in formerly flourishing villages and small towns didn’t show me a story of success in our attempts to help these people.


Now, forty years later these same stories are happening again in Iraq and Afghanistan. Once again we have imposed our will with violence while saying we only intend the best for the people of those nations. Once again we have failed to remember history and have repeated our past mistakes.


Now forty years later we have failed the very ideals of democracy, freedom and justice by our actions of occupation in foreign nations. The Winter Soldier has the duty to speak out when they see our nation taking the wrong and immoral path.