Thanks, Josh, for your report. But what's with snipers on rooftops? I spent a lot of time in protests in the Sixties and early Seventies, and I've been beaten, gassed, and shot at, but I don't ever remember snipers on rooftops. This is seriously bad news. If I lived in Maryland, I'd be complaining to my representatives about overkill surrounding exercise of freedom of speech.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

I've been checking TV and the Internet all day to see some coverage of "Winter Soldier."

So far, only you and Amy Goodman have mentioned it.

My wife said that she saw an earlier piece on Alternet today, where the comments had been deleted.
When I looked for it the whole story was gone.
What gives?

Thanks Josh

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

n/t

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

also covered it. not sure who else. you can listen to it streaming at warcomeshome.org

Kucinich was there so he could enter everything into the Congressional Record.

i swear to god, the Democrats are going to lose my vote this election unless they stop bullshitting us about this war. and i say that because i don't see how they're going to stop bullshitting us unless we let them know that we know that they're bullshitting.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Sir
Where are they now? This is what Mr. Bush will say?
I agree there was no marriage between Saddam and Osama. I agree there was no WMD. I agree the green soldiers are right to state about Vietnam and now about Iraq, I agree I was wrong in many places. I agree I asked oil from Saudi Minster, but I sold them weapons. I agree the Middle East job is going to YO TONY and he receives little pay or no pay. However, that is his choice. I am not responsible for Tony Blaire’s moves now. There was a time when we er friend. He left me abruptly. I am stumped. Oh, had no idea, why. I also agree that I am the cause of the oil at 110 and gold at 1009 now. I agree to all you talk of. The economy is bad, I am bad. Sorry that was no meant to be er there it is just what you think. However, think in one positive manner. After 9/11, have not the public bought more televisions? Is that not the boost to the sellers? Tell me who sold the most windows and doors in your PC, I. George Bush after 9/11. Bill Gates only works for Microsoft I did all the sales. He is now a millionaire. I want to life many in Darfur, Nevada, Mexico, Tibet, Savannahs, Haiti, and Chad and after giving the mosquitoes nets I also promise the Tanzania will come up, I agree there is a graft, but that is their problem not mine. I donate and forget. That is what giving is. Be generous. Give in the name of God. In GOD WE TRUST, have we not that in the coin that moves, now, slowly okay but moves.
I thank you
Firozali A. Mulla MBA PhD
P.O.Box 6044
Dar-Es-Salaam
Tanzania
East Africa

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

I'm with the others who say, "Thanks, Josh!"...and where the hell is the media coverage? I haven't seen any yet.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Academic studies are necessary in the name of accuracy. But nothing takes the place of narrative to grab and embolden the heart.

Both the almost unthinkable stories of the winter soldiers and your reporting of it here is necessary to garner the energy to act.The sooner the better.

Thank you Winter Soldiers and Josh Holland.

The sterilty of academia while necessary will never replace the need for these human stories to be heard and recorded.

Dr. Rick Lippin
Southampton,Pa

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

I listened yesterday and I will continue to listen all weekend. While the amount of security outside the area of the hearings may be unsettling, the cause may or may not be those at the hearings. I have supported women's health clinics for many years and when there was that large of a security showing it was because of the religious right who resort to violence against women. I have only recently discovered that there is a growing number of the religious right who also thinks that any soldier who doesn't kill indiscriminately isn't worthy of being a soldier. And they think nothing of being verbally and sometimes physically abusive towards soldiers and veterans. I am deeply grateful to those who are speaking out and those who support them.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

We need more coverage like this article. Robert E. Lee (quote above) knew how terrible war was; most Americans today have no clue because the media refuses to show the terrible side of war. We keep hearing "the surge is working" as more Americans and even more Iraqis continue to die.

There's a powerful irony here. Americans love violent movies and gore, yet we refuse to acknowledge that the occupation is both violent and gory. We seem to be occupying a fantasy world of our own creation, and we're inflicting it on the Iraqi people as well as our own troops. I know my thinking is a little muddled here, but we're seeing Iraq as we want to see it, not as it is. And the "Winter Soldier" testimony forces us to see the disaster we've created in Iraq as it is, in all its gruesomeness, in all its tragedy. And once again most media outlets, and most Americans, turn away from what we don't want to see.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Thanks for the testimony. Worcester Peaceworks from Worcester, Massachusetts is planning to broadcast "Winter Soldiers" at Clark University as part of a coordinated effort New England United For Peace & Justice. I believe the widest dissemination of these testimonies should melt the hearts of sincere but misinformed and ardent occupation supporters.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

I wish that the media would cover these hearings. I wish that Americans would learn that, yes, war is really Hell. War is an infinite evil. It is the greatest evil ever committed in good people's names, even when wars aren't started based on lies. And this war was started based on a 1000 lies and nothing else. I don't think there is enough forgiveness in the entire universe to save America's soul.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

See: War stories echo an earlier winter: Former soldiers, Marines share their experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Sometimes those stories the Corporate Media would rather censor just seep through the cracks.

However, it is up to citizens to become politically engaged.

Blog like hell.

Disseminate information all around the Web.

Join political protests, clubs and parties. Call congresspeople whether they’re receptive or not to those issues which concern you.

Write national and local newspapers. Call radio talk shows.

Make a stink.

Organize Educate Agitate!

====

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

And shame on C-SPAN for not covering it.
Since Bushco is made up of Viet Nam era draft dodgers I am not surprised that so much has gone wrong with our occupation of Iraq.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Thank you Cong. Kucinich for caring & for standing up for our soldiers. He truly cares. Bushco could care less.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Yes, Josh, you are absolutely right to feel empathy for all who have killed and seen death for their country, and thank you for doing so. Your empathetic writing is your duty, and it is a duty well done as a human being as well as a chronicler of the nation's story.

This whole occupation is one long flashback for Vietnam Vets - a flashback to the rage at the injustice of what was done there and when we came home, and this is why many of us are standing up with our young brothers and sisters today. I am attaching part of an essay I wrote with a fellow VVAW member that was published last week in the Ventura County Star that may help people understand what is going on.

Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan - a call to duty for veterans to once again stand up for America

The veterans who are speaking out in Washington do not make excuses for their own actions, nor condemn the actions of any of their comrades. They simply tell the truth about what happens in war. But military and political leadership will move at once to silence and discredit them.

The counterattack from those whose decisions put the soldiers in harm’s way and then created the conditions in which abuse is inevitable is no surprise. Of course they will cover their own misdeeds. But the shrillest cries of betrayal, cowardice, lies and worse will come unexpectedly from a small but vocal group of other veterans – people with whom they served and who experienced the same things - whose pain and patriotism are being manipulated by those who profit from continued combat.

An older band of brothers knows a lot about this process because it has divided us from those who fought alongside us for the past 37 years. Vietnam Veterans Against the War still stand up for our comrades and for the truth despite the vitriolic attacks and blatant lies still coming from some of those who served with us - still vilified as “political” by those who equate patriotism with their own political activity in craven support of wrong wars.

The name “Winter Soldier” was adopted from the opening words of Thomas Paine’s first American Crisis pamphlet, published in the dark days of December, 1776:
“These are the times that try men's souls: The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.”

Winter Soldiers are called to serve again today, with bravery of a different sort, as a wrong war does violence to the Republic.
The veterans standing up today, like the Vietnam combat veterans who spoke out in 1971, are patriots fulfilling their duty to their country, to themselves and to their comrades-in-arms. It is they who truly honor our flag, our country and their fellow veterans by speaking out, for only when the truth about a war is known can a free people do their duty and redirect the actions of their government.

The message of the Winter Soldier Investigation is that wrong wars like Vietnam and the Occupation of Iraq divide us, pitting soldier against soldier, neighbor against neighbor and veteran against veteran, and inflicting wounds on the soul of the nation that fester for generations. The message of the Winter Soldier Investigation is that brave men and women like those being so cruelly used today will never fail their duty, so it is our duty as citizens to be sure that we fight only when we must and only for just cause.

Pray for the brave young people at Winter Soldier Iraq and Afghanistan who tell the truth. May the tears shed in the audience be the beginning of healing for a nation.

Steve Crandall and Jack Phillips
Vietnam Veterans Against the War
California Central Coast Chapter

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

The really sad thing is that our brave troops and Bush's war are taking a back seat to the sorry state of the economy during this election year. These issues need to be constantly addressed and fresh in voter's minds when they go to the polls in November.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

As a WWII widow, sister to another fallen WWII soldier and mother to two Vietnam veterans, I have found this war from its very first almost unbearably sad. I have spent hours and hours of my time signing petitions, writing letters, making calls and commenting on internet articles in protest of the terrible suffering unleashed on the world by this, the most malignant and preditory administration in the history of the United States.

I am war-weary having lived through so many American wars of aggression. And this is the worst of the very worst based as it was on nothing but pure unadulterated greed and a total lack of concern for the lives so callously sacrificed for immoral gains.

We should have learned something from the disastrous adventure in Vietnam, but apparently not. There are still people around who actually believe that war was winnable although nobody ever explains what wonderful thing it was that we might have won.

It is the worst, too, because of the sheer brutality toward and contempt for the Iraqi victims so grievously and senselessly wounded, deprived of the barest necessities of life, many of them driven from their homes to take refuge in squalid camps or to flee to another country.

It is the worst of the worst because so many of our own soldiers are coming home with bodies and minds horribly, irreparably damaged to say nothing of the mounting number of those who come home to their grieving families in flag-draped coffins--and for what?.

This war has also been made more difficult by the attitudes of those opposed to the war who felt so little compassion for the naive young people conned by unscrupulous recruiters into signing up for service, some of them barely out of high school. What a sad introduction to adulthood we've given them. We should beg for their forgiveness instead of mouthing platitudes about their bravery.

If there is any way the country could be forced to listen to these veterans' stories of the hell we have made of Iraq, it might at least stop the insane possibility of a US attack on another country for the resources we covet.

The more exposure these winter soldiers are given, the better our chances of bringing the cold-blooded Bush Administration to justice and to prevent another war.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

. . . Dead in Iraq at the hands of our corporate masters.

Like many others who've posted here, I have not seen or heard anything of the Winter Soldier conferance in the mainstream media. Like Izvestia and Pravda before in the bad old Soviet Union, we are fed only BushCo-approved propaganda, the truth that the Winter Soldiers tell be damned.

During Vietnam, the courageous action by the Winter Soldiers then helped to turn the tide and end that war – because the Fourth Estate then had the courage and independence to publish it. That courage and independence has of late been sold to the highest corporate bidder. So, with the only check and balance to a government out of control being neutered, what will eventually end this unholy Iraq occupation? Apparently, nothing less than the bankruptcy of the United States – a fate too horrible to contemplate, but a fate that grows ever closer thanks to Bush/Cheney's economic ineptitude and personally-profitable war-mongering. I am disgusted at what my government, OUR government, has become – and how, in our confusion and pop-culture distraction, allowed it to happen.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

doesn't support the troops - they never have. There are still shortages of even the most basic necessities in some places, such as body armor and fresh water and ammunition. Then, we all know how much they "support" the troops once they get back home! Not even the minimal health care, not nearly enough mental health care, no help with re-adjustment to civilian life, still implementing stop-loss to keep them in when their enlistments are up, no help finding jobs or job training, no help with housing, no support for families dealing with the difficulties of a returning soldier, and more and more deployments for the same people until the burnout factor is off the charts.

The list goes on and on.

If there is a hell, there's a special place in it for this entire administration. Even that wouldn't be enough punishment to satisfy me, though.

Thank you, Winter Soldiers... each and every one of you. And thanks, Joshua, for such good coverage for us.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

This is the first time I've ever commented on an article online, but I had to add my appreciation for this piece. I attended Winter Soldier, for which my son was one of the organizers, and this article captures better than any I've read what it was like to be there, including the part that it's impossible to convey.

(By the way, I was totally unaware on any snipers on the roof. The inner ring of security was provided by Vietnam veterans who came to support the next generation of activists. In the midst of the searing testimony, the atmosphere on campus was warm, welcoming, and focused on healing. We were all so proud to stand with these courageous young veterans.)

There is actually a lot of press out there - if you google "Winter Soldier: Iraq & Afghanistan" you will find 45 articles in the first link alone. There has been coverage by BBC, NPR, and most significantly, some military news sources, including the Stars & Stripes. One of the primary goals was to let soldiers know that there is support for them if they are questioning the war and their participation, so this is a great accomplishment.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

I watched "Winter Soldier" on Free Speech TV. Some of the conditions they described were absolutely horrifying. Basic human rights were violated on a daily basis. It's disgusting. I am not against the war. I am against the way the war is being fought. With no clear mission and no positive peer pressure, this war will not progress.
Even so, when I presented such arguments to a close friend of mine, he proceeded to say that the Iraqi people are at fault for not overthrowing the government themselves. Such close-mindedness is a dangerous thing.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

I cried as I watched this video. Those kids are so young and so scarred. The more things change, the more they remain the same. I also cried during the vietnam war when the winter soldiers testified then.
I have seen no other coverage besides yours. I made an additional donation to Alternet and I encourage others to do the same.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

If only our leaders in government and the MSM had a tenth of the courage of the winter soldiers, the atrocities in Iraq and Afghanistan would be over. But since I've seen zero coverage of the event on the news, I guess they are all just racist warmongering hatefilled barbarians and we shouldn't expect them to understand that what we've sent our soldiers to do in our name is against all of man and God's law.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

I attended winter soldier as an ally. I saw no snipers. Not to say they are trained in seeming inconspicuous, i saw no snipers because i searched the rooftops and no people with guns were standing on top of them. Also, your inflamatory use of ratio indicating a police to protester presence of 2:1 would do well with an explanation. Following the first afternoon the protesters were not visible to my eyes and I, again, was looking. So a ratio of 2:1, when the protesters numbered one or zero a majority of the weekend, does adequately represent the scenario.
Please do not resort to yellow journalism or exaggeration in an attempt to increase the sigificance of this event. The Winter Soldier testimonies have importance. It needs no increased militarization of the situation for your entertainment value.
Thank you, however, for spreading the word of this event...just keep it true.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]