The Center for Study of Working Class Life at the State University of New York at Stony Brook released its report "American Military Deaths in Afghanistan, and the Communities from Which These Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines Came," by Michael Zweig, Michael Porter, and Yuxiang Huang on the tenth anniversary of the start of the current war in Afghanistan.
The study presents a detailed picture of the men and women who have died in the war, and the communities which have lost them. It compares these findings with people and communities in the country as a whole. The report is based on a reading of obituaries and tribute pages for each of the 1,446 U.S. military personnel who died in Afghanistan from the start of the war in October 2001 to the end of 2010, and analysis of Census and other data for the communities from which they came. The report addresses the racial and gender composition of the dead, their education levels and reasons for joining the military, and their position in the class structure of the economy. The report also details the geographic origins of the dead and presents key economic data for their communities.
The findings challenge a number of widely held assumptions about the identity and motivation of Americans who have died in Afghanistan and the economic conditions in their home communities. Whatever one's views on the war, it is important to know who is dying from doing the work of it.
It is heart breaking when we lose someone who tried to change the world for the better, for all humanity. In his short time Anthony Wagner, World Can’t Wait activist and Iraq Veteran Against the War (served in Iraq March 2004-March 2005), tried to do just that. It is with profound sorrow that we of the Chicago World Can’t Wait chapter share that Anthony has died. He was truly another casualty of these murderous wars. And though our hearts ache at the loss of him, we can say with much joy and appreciation that Anthony touched not only our lives, but the lives of many youth who, because of him, did not and will not go and kill and die in U.S. wars and occupations.
Many of those preaching at American church services Sunday extolled as "heroes" the 30 American and 8 Afghan troops killed Saturday west of Kabul, when a helicopter on a night mission crashed, apparently after taking fire from Taliban forces. This week, the Fawning Corporate Media (FCM) can be expected to beat a steady drumbeat of "they shall not have died in vain."
But they did. I know it is a hard truth, but they did die in vain.
It's been over 10 years now that my son joined the U.S. Marine Corps. From birth, at least it felt that way, he wanted to be a marine. He wore G.I. Joe underwear, socks, and even carried the lunch box. At Halloween every year he was either a soldier or warrior of some sort. It was definitely harrowing for me, an anti-war activist from way back since 1969.
I had begged, pleaded and even promised him a new car for him not to join when he turned 18, but hence, he did. The recruiters showed up at our house the day after he had his high school diploma, and whisked him away to boot camp in Parris Island. I felt as if someone had ripped my arm out of its socket! When he graduated, the entire family went to watch as this young boy was supposedly turned into a "man." I ran up to him after all the military hoopla on the Parris Island field, and he didn't even look at me. He wouldn't hug or kiss me, told me that he was in his uniform and was not allowed to show emotion. Needless to say I was crushed.
Ethan McCord will be in southern California (Los Angeles and San Diego) June 9 - 11
Matthis Chiroux in Philadelphia, June 7.
James Brower, a Marine combat veteran of Afghanistan and Iraq, made his first appearance with the tour Monday at an NYC high school. Read the report/watch the videos.
We still have more requests from schools than we can fill! NEEDED: more veterans to speak about their experiences in the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan; funds for transportation, child care and materials. Every time they speak, students re-think their intention of signing up; grapple with the need to speak out against the wars; and go on to take this message to other students, friends, family members.
On Monday, May 23rd, a new addition to the “We Are Not Your Soldiers” campaign spoke to a classroom of students, and teachers. Former USMC Staff Sgt. and scout sniper, James Brower from Brooklyn, NY, decided it was time that he spoke up and reached out to high school students who are in the most jeopardy of joining the military. James completed three combat tours, one in Afghanistan from 2001 to 2002, and two in Iraq, 2005 to 2006; and, 2009 to 2010.
He said he joined the marines because he “wanted to fight.” All through school he was always in fights, and thought it was something he might like doing, especially as a marine. But after his second tour, he had doubts. By his third tour, he knew what we were doing in Iraq and Afghanistan were wrong. He describes it by saying “there are old men who send young men to war, and they make lots and lots of money. Iraq was fine. They had electricity, internet, homes, families, jobs, clean water, until we got there…and there were no weapons of mass destruction.”
In each class, some students walked into class “disruptive” but when the film came on they were silent, captivated by the horror they were watching. This engagement lasted through the discussion. The youth were very shocked about what they saw in the video, especially the fact that there were children there. They called it scary, disgusting, heartless, and it elicited nervous laughter. In the afternoon one girl got teary eyed and when her friends made fun she said, “don’t laugh at me for crying this shit is sad.” One male student made a very true statement about the video, saying, “This is not a good advertisement for the military.”
Matthis’ point of being less of a man for having joined the military really resonated with students, nodding at what he was saying about losing your humanity in doing these acts. They were moved by both the video and Matthis’ further testimony to these outrages being daily occurrences and his use of the word genocide. It affected them that their government was just killing people in a neighborhood and it changed how they viewed the war. They could see the impact and they, for the most part, definitely didn’t want to be a part of it.
Another student... took off the national guard shirt he was wearing and gave it to Matthis saying he no longer would wear it.
By Joe Urgo, Viet Nam Veteran
Matthis Chiroux, Iraq war resister and part of the “We Are Not Your Soldiers” tour, and I met with three groups of students at a Vermont High School.
The first group of students was only about 10 in number, the second and third had about 30 students in each. In the two largest groups, 1/3 of one and 1/2 in the other had family and friends in the military. This is important to understand because everything we say can be taken as a personal attack on their family members and make it difficult for them to see the politics and policies that make up these wars for empire and the responsibility to end them.
“We Are Not Your Soldiers!,” a project of World Can’t Wait, is educating youth about military recruitment through bringing Iraq war veterans to speak in high schools about the reality of going to war for this country.
“After the World Can’t Wait presentation, it was apparent that my students were affected. The next day one student showed me a poem he wrote about a young boy from the ghetto enlisting in the military and dying, another asked for a World Can’t Wait T-shirt, and yet another, who had wanted to join the military, handed me a recommendation form for a vocational school. Others are still lost forever to the military but the “We Are Not Your Soldiers” tour offered the education American youth really need and that more teachers need to be more conscious of.”
– Teacher from Paul Robeson High School
I am an 18-year-old intern at World Can’t Wait.I feel this cause is very current, very serious, and in dire need of support. Not only is the organization trying to save the lives of my peers, but it is trying to open our eyes, light the fire of rebellion in our young spirits and get us to act on changing this world we are about to inherit. The organization tries to reach students by visiting classrooms around the country and explaining the true nature of war through the example of personal experience—for instance, an Iraq war veteran named Ethan McCord who spoke at my school.
Sexual Assault in the US Military: Who will become the next statistic?
By Oskar Castro
The Service Women’s Action Network recently helped to file a class action suit on the behalf of a number of women and men who say they have been sexually victimized by their peers, or their commands in the military. Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and current Secretary of Defense Robert Gates are named as the defendants whose complicit inattentiveness enabled a culture of silence and injustice to prevail. While Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) has developed into a new buzz word as a result of the U.S. wars in the Middle East, Military Sexual Trauma (MST) is not something we often hear about and some argue that we don’t because the Pentagon does not want us to. This landmark class action suit is yet another attempt to break the silence.
"He's writing about how something changes in you in a combat situation, and it's hard to turn that off in a civilian situation"
Emma Kaplan writes: This is pretty interesting and also outrageous - it shows the complete disconnect between what the government has been doing in the Middle East for the past 9 years and then complete surprise at the fact that there are people like this coming onto college campuses.
"Killing becomes a drug, and it is really addictive. I had a really hard time with this problem when I returned to the United States, because turning this addiction off was impossible," Whittington wrote in the essay for his class at the Community College of Baltimore County in Catonsville, Md.
They don't get hungry. They are not afraid. They don't forget their orders. They don't care if the guy next to them has been shot. Will they do a better job than humans?
Yes. (They also don’t commit suicide, desert, suffer PTSD, become conscientious objectors, protest, talk to Rolling Stone or send embarrassing videos to Wikileaks!)
A word of caution, I grew up in Oakland, California, which sits across from San Francisco and next to Berkeley. The Bay Area is a microcosm of freethinking, of universal acceptance of all people; a cosmopolitan hub of enlightened thinking and a plethora of colors and cultures.
I feel privileged to have grown up in such an amazing place. However, as I have journeyed away from my home, I have realized that a lot of people do not think as I do. Their minds are closed and filled with hate and biases, even at the university level.
By Anthony Wagner
U.S. Army
Iraq Veteran Against the War
I know that these incidents happen more often than not. This is reality, not some video effigy edited to demonize soldiers. What you see in this video and the entire occupation is illegitimate.
Atrocities like this were commonplace in 2004-2005 when I was there with the First Cavalry Division, it's was common in 2007, and innocent casualties are still piling up. The continued Insurgency in Iraq is fed by these kinds of atrocities.
How old is old enough for students to be approached by military recruiters?High school? Junior high? Fourth grade? How about ten weeks into kindergarten?
Last week at the dinner table, my five-year-old son announced blithely, "Soldiers came to school today." He then added, "They only kill bad people. They don't kill good people."He made the announcement with the same levity he uses in recalling the plot line of Frog and Toad or a Nemo video.
“This is so cool! This is so cool!” a thirteen-year-old boy repeated as he squeezed rounds from a real M-16, picking off “enemy combatants” in a video game while perched atop a real Army Humvee. “I just came to the mall to skateboard but everyone said this was pretty cool. I just had to try it and it's great!”
The person reporting on this youthful enthusiasm was Pat Elder, who serves on the Steering Committee of the National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth. Elder also described young teenagers congratulating each other for “killing ragheads” and “wiping out hajis.”
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By Anthony Wagner
