From Danang to Tal Afar: Bring 'Em Home

Soldiers in Revolt By David Cortright Haymarket 2005 Of all the antiwar buttons I could wear, the only one I choose to pin on my coat or backpack is one that reads: "I Support the Iraq Veterans Against the War." Not only does this statement make clear my opposition to the war, it also serves to stifle most supporters of Washington's latest imperial exercise who like to pretend that those who oppose the war want to see the occupation troops dead. Actually, we just want them out of the combat zones–at least for starters. It's not that war veterans have more legitimate reasons to oppose a war than civilians, although their understanding of war is obviously much more personal. However, because they are veterans, they tend to get a hearing from individuals and groups that might otherwise dismiss antiwar sentiment out of hand. Two such audiences that come immediately to mind are other veterans and those men and women currently in the military. One other is the young people around the country currently preyed upon by those traders in human flesh we call recruiters. If one remembers the various campaigns of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) during the war in Vietnam and the effect those campaigns had on the conscience of US citizens, the importance of vets in the antiwar campaign becomes quite obvious. As for the importance of active duty soldiers, it can't be overstated. After all, if the soldiers refuse to fight, there can be no war. The recent republication of David Cortright's 1975 classic, Soldiers in Revolt, makes this fact abundantly clear. A history of US military resistance, a compilation of statistics from various studies done by and for the Department of Defense and its subsidiaries, and a stirring rendition of anecdotes detailing multiple actions by GIs, airmen, sailors and marines around the world during the US war on Vietnam, Soldiers in Revolt is required reading for antiwarriors no matter where they live or where they organize. Current campaigns like those of Cindy Sheehan and Military Families Speak Out are reaching out to those who have seen their sons and daughters go to war, and veterans' groups like the aforementioned Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW), VVAW and Vets for Peace are beginning to mobilize numbers of Iraq war vets, but the movement against the war among those serving is still in its infant stages. As Cortright's book makes clear, this segment of the movement needs to grow exponentially if it is to make a difference. Furthermore, once it does grow, it is likely to make–along with the counter-recruitment organizing–a greater difference than all of the rest of the movement. Soldiers in Revolt reads like a combination organizing manual, history text, and underground newspaper. Cortright lists the details of mutinies, revolts, congressional actions, and armed attacks on commanding officers. The telling is never dry, despite its occasional dry content, and the history is about more than just the Vietnam period–although it is primarily concerned with that time. This latter fact limits its relevance to today's time a little–after all, today's youth culture is different from the counterculture of the 1960s and 1970s–but the overriding and oppressive reality of military culture transcends this minor aspect. As a teenager who opposed the war in Vietnam while living on military bases in Germany, this book was like a blast from the past. I remember when it first came out in 1975. A Vietnam vet friend of mine named Steve who was attending the University of Maryland and worked out of the VVAW office near Ft. Meade lent me his copy and I read it in a weekend. The chapters titled "Armed Farces" and "Over There" listed at least two incidents in Germany, around which I had helped to organize support for the GIs charged in their wake. Cortright's descriptions of GIs' daily acts of resistance–things like not saluting, wearing peace buttons, refusing haircuts–all of this was part of the life I knew from hanging out with GIs in Europe; and all of it added to the breakdown in military discipline that was so important to the eventual failure of US imperial designs in Southeast Asia. Not all of it was necessarily political, but it all added up. If we are serious about getting the troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan, two things must happen: the military must fail in its recruitment efforts and the men and women currently serving must challenge the mission they have been assigned. If this doesn't occur, then the antiwar movement is likely to be a never ending series of marches and other actions that become just another sideshow. It's not that the civilian antiwar movement is irrelevant or unnecessary. Indeed, it is essential. All soldiers were civilians at one time, and most of them will be civilians again. It is the antiwar movement's job to insure that they all do. No, it's not that the civilian part of the antiwar movement is irrelevant, nor is it that the GI movement is able to stop the war on its own. As Cortright's book makes clear, one is the complement to the other. Currently, military recruitment is falling short of its needs. This has caused the military to continually lower its qualifications. Even that has failed to bring the numbers of recruits up to where the military feels secure in its objectives. Part of the cause for this is the growing success of the counter-recruitment efforts of groups like the Campus Antiwar Network (ww.campusantiwar.net) and the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors (ww.objector.org). As far as dissension in the ranks of those already enlisted, it seems to be growing, although it remains unorganized. Efforts like GI Special (www.militaryproject.org) and Traveling Soldier (www.traveling-soldier.org) provide soldier and civilian alike with an idea of individual GI's frustration and anger at their current lot, but local or national organizations that could channel this frustration into protest and resistance have yet to appear. If history has anything to tell us, such organizations will appear. Soldiers in Revolt makes this quite clear. Check it out. Now. Buy a copy and send it to a GI or Marine that you know.