“Outreach to active duty troops will end the bloodshed for all"

Here we reprint with permission Elaine Brower's statement at the IVAW Organizing Conference in Savannah, Georgia on September 6, 2009. She is a member of , member of the Military Project and Military Families Speak Out.

I am a part of the so called “anti-war” movement, but am also a member of the Military Project. This dynamic puts me in a position to see the key importance, as well as differences, in how a march to specific military installations will be perceived and how it is truly necessary and LONG OVERDUE.

Those in the movement, who have marched endlessly on Saturdays in Washington, on the streets of cities around the country in the rain and snow to the deafening silence of not only millions of citizens but their government and corporate media, have all but given up. Not because they are tired, but because they don’t get it.

Almost 5 years ago, after I had attended so many demonstrations, I realized that the troops had to be thinking the same thing we were, the war was wrong, for so many reasons. But mostly because they were being killed and maimed for nothing but the pursuit of empire.

So I stood in front of every military base I could get to and talked to the troops, marines and soldiers alike. In March of 2005 I accompanied my son to 29 Palms Marine corps. training base when he was leaving for Fallujah.

After a picnic with 3,000 marines, I left the base, headed for the main intersection, and handed out flyers that denounced the war in Iraq. I had a huge banner that demanded Bush’s resignation and spent the entire afternoon standing there, meeting and greeting marines who were more than happy to take my flyers.

Members of the armed forces get it. They know the deal and fury is mounting, however slow it is, but the undercurrent of troops being miserable with the wars is there and starting to bubble up to the surface.

That’s why this type of action is so critical. Getting behind anti-war veterans, being loud and clear in our support of GI resistance, could possibly break open the crack in the façade of our military machine.

We need to get as many of these veterans up front as possible, with civilians behind them in full view. The national as well as international media has never seen anything like this. Those of us at this conference will build for it, create an excitement around it, call people to participate who have decided they are tired with marching in circles.

Something this visible and powerful will surely rattle the cages of those who think they are running the show.

As the sun shines on our actions, more and more people will get the idea that outreach to active duty troops will end the bloodshed for all.