IVAW

Several great news stories from the past few days have FOR connections. No less a media source than The New York Times finally gave the anti-war community its due this weekend, profiling several of FOR's key allies in the movement -- including United for Peace & Justice, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Military Families Speak Out, and CodePink -- in its almost-alliterative piece "American Antiwar Movement Plans an Autumn Campaign Against Policies on Afghanistan."

Bill Scheurer, coordinator of the Peace Garden Project and a national council member of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, had a great piece published this week on Truthout. His article, "Beyond the Yellow Ribbon: Hope for Returning Veterans," profiled the growing number of cases of the "invisible wounds" of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars -- such as post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury.

It's a special opportunity to meet two different anti-war world travelers on the same day, and I had such an opportunity at the Nyack headquarters of the Fellowship of Reconciliation last week when I was introduced to a young U.S. Army veteran who left Iraq as a conscientious objector as well as a British peace activist who has entered military bases on Ploughshares-like actions. They had come from -- and were heading in -- different directions, but we found a lot of common cause during our brief time together.

IVAW Denver march 8/27/08: Photo: Rocky Mountain NewsSeptember is just hours away. The new school year is just around the corner (or has already begun, for some), and the attention of the country is turned to the presidential race, during this brief weekend "respite" between the Democratic and Republican national conventions.

“I’ve been lied to.” “I feel crazy.” “I can’t do this anymore.”

As a counselor with the GI Rights Network, a group of activists that offers advice to soldiers who are seeking information about how to get out the military, these are the kinds of comments I often hear from people who call our hotline.

The stories these callers have to tell are always different but the theme is often the same: “I feel alone and I don’t have a place where my story will be heard.”

Five years into the military occupation of Iraq, it’s no secret that soldiers are coming home from tours of duty with devastating physical and emotional trauma from combat. Doctors and therapists can try to treat these wounds but it takes a larger movement to break the sense of isolation that many soldiers feel about their experiences.