15 Lessons from 15 Years of War

Preparing to give a talk to the Stop the War coalition in the UK, I’ve reflected on 15 years of war. I spent the first five years in the military and most of the time since then working to transform our militaristic society with Iraq Veterans Against the War. These are my reflections from the decade and a half Global War on Terror. 

2001: I joined the Army and through basic training I learned the violence of war is made possible in part by demonizing and dehumanizing the people on the other end of US military actions and by desensitizing warfighters to the human cost of war. 

2002: I saw that the Global War on Terror has many fronts. Drill Sergeants told us to prepare for war, I expected to deploy to Afghanistan. Instead I was deployed to Kuwait, and a year before the invasion of Iraq we were holding training exercises on the border in the same location we would cross in the invasion. Congress approved the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, solidifying the sense that we are in a constant state of danger and building the public fear necessary for war. 

2003: Invasion of Iraq, I learned about the romanticism of war, and the glorification of service. Before we deployed and as we waited to invade Iraq there were too few questions asked about why we were there and what the goal was. Most of us felt a sense of excitement about being part of our generation’s history. 

2004: Photos revealed torture at the Abu Ghraib prison. This showed me the ugliest face of war because US service members committed torture and other atrocities. This is the point where my consciousness shifted realizing how I was someone who participated in the system of oppression and wore the same uniform as the torturers. I knew it was wrong and I didn’t want to be a part of it. 

2005: I tried to get out of the Army after my 4 year contract. Instead I was stop-lossed (involuntarily extended) to redeploy to Iraq. I fulfilled my side of the contract but the military did not fulfill theirs. I learned that I was another number, another body, and that my autonomy, my rights, and my self-determination didn’t exist in the military structure. 

2006: My world changed drastically - I got out of the Army and started school and a new job. Transition from military to civilian life is extraordinarily challenging. It’s difficult to relate to people who care little about wars or the people impacted by them. 

2007: I learned of the existence of Iraq Veterans Against the War and the need for people with the same values to work together by joining a group or organization. 

2008: I drove 10 hours solo to attend my first national IVAW event, Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan. This four-day forum brought together veterans from across the country to testify about their experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan - and present video and photographic evidence. In addition, panels of scholars, veterans, journalists, and other specialists gave context to the testimony. I learned that the true lived experience of people in war is a powerful tool to stop war. 

2009: I learned during the first term of the Obama administration that no politician is going to create the world free of war. We must build, work for, and demand the changes we want to see. Our hope belongs with the people and our movements, we cannot rely on electoral politics alone. 

2010: Drawdown in Iraq and the surge in Afghanistan showed us that wars are far easier to start than they are to end. Developing Iraq Veterans Against the War’s first campaign, Operation Recovery, taught me the need for more than protest: our work must also have a logic and a strategy to be effective, like having an outside protest to create pressure and an inside path for the system to change when it succumbs to that pressure. 

2011: As many celebrated the killing of Osama bin Laden we were working to stop the deployment of traumatized troops at Fort Hood, TX. As we did outreach, held community meetings, and conducted interviews we learned that we must build healing communities as we do this work, we cannot ask people who are struggling to meet their basic needs to engage in political organizing without also helping them deal with how the war and military are impacting them. 

2012: When we were connected to the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq and the Federation of Workers Councils and Unions in Iraq we became critically aware of the mistake of talking about how the wars have impacted US veterans without also considering the greater impact on the people of Iraq, Afghanistan, and other places where US military operations are underway leading to the creation of the Right to Heal Coalition. 

2013: US troops were pulled out of Iraq and I learned that Presidents can claim “Mission Accomplished”; or that the war is over but they can’t undo the destabilization and the spread of violence brought on by war and continued injustice. The US has developed covert ways to continue war, that war becomes privatized. We’ve replaced soldiers with contractors doing the same missions. 

2014: As ISIS grew stronger and inflicted more violence I’ve learned that we must guard ourselves from being pulled to a position of supporting war. We must, especially in the US, find other ways to support people facing violence than sending weapons and military force. If we truly seek and end to the fighting we must focus on the preventative aspect - eliminating conditions of war - such as the destabilization of countries, poverty, and injustice. 

2015/2016: The movement to stop the wars must build with movements for racial, economic, and environmental justice. We must work together to push our society to be more just, sustainable, and peaceful. In this moment with the US election on the horizon we must stand together to combat hate, bigotry, and racism which provide a bedrock for war and imperialism. We can get stronger as a movement, we don’t have to be the righteous few if we learn, and share lessons along the way, if we build genuine relationships and build collective power, if we nurture our communities, our organizations, and our movements. We can start by being the change we want to see in our families and our neighborhoods by helping each other heal and grow. Together we can challenge those things that harm us and rob us of our humanity while building an alternative society that respects life and planet and meets people’s needs.