Winter Soldier in Baltimore
By
BALTIMORE--Some 120 people turned out to hear the testimonies of soldiers and veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars on October 18 at Winter Soldier hearings in Baltimore.
A coalition of antiwar groups organized the event, modeled on Winter Soldier hearings organized by the Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) earlier this year just outside Washington, D.C.
The event's MC, an anonymous active-duty IVAW member, started the meeting with a short history of IVAW. IVAW members Bryan Casler and Trey Kindlinger then described the economic circumstances that caused both of them to enlist, as well as the systemic brutality they experienced in the Marines and the Navy.
Casler described his surprise as bullies and racists, who he was sure would be "weeded out" through the training process, were instead promoted to higher rank. "I turned against the military first," said Casler, describing how his disillusionment with the military led him to begin questioning the wars in Afghanistan and in Iraq.
Kindlinger also described the cutthroat competition and brainwashing that makes up a sailor's training, and how a recruit is broken down in such a way that "brings him to worship at the altar of the flag."
The panel also included Madeleine Mysko, a member of Vietnam Veterans Against War (VVAW) who served as an Army nurse at the Brooke Army Medical Center, and Alicia Lucksted, a Baltimore representative for the volunteer group Afghan Women's Fund.
Emiko Ortega, a member of Military Families Speak Out in Baltimore, described how recruiters go to any length to get young men like her son to sign up for the military. Her son, who battled depression in high school, has now been diagnosed with a psychological disorder by the military. Both Ortega and Mysko discussed how the armed forces avoid dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder.
The final panelist was Michael Schwartz, a professor of sociology at Stony Brook University and the author of War Without End: The Iraq War in Context. Schwartz described how Vice President Dick Cheney's Energy Commission became a committee to organize a war for oil against Iraq.
The panel was followed by a question and discussion period, and then an enthusiastic march down to the public schools administration building, where antiwar protesters were met with thumbs-up and horn honking from passersby. It was a good start to rekindling local antiwar efforts.
