Feb. 25, 2007
GIs Petition Congress To End Iraq War
More Than 1,000 Military Personnel Sign Petition Urging Withdrawal
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Play CBS Video Video Some Soldiers Oppose Iraq War A new opposition to the war in Iraq comes from some men and women in uniform. Hundreds of soldiers have publicly asked Congress to stop the war. Lara Logan has this "60 Minutes" report.
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Video Logan's Reporter's Notebook Over 1,000 active-duty and reserve members of the U.S. military are against the war in Iraq and have said so in an unusually public way.
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Video Soldiers Oppose Iraq War In Full: Lara Logan talks to a group of soldiers who are against the war in Iraq. Their dissent has been criticized, but they say that nobody has the right to question their patriotism.
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(AP / CBS)
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Interactive New Plan For Iraq Key elements of the plan, excerpts from the president's speech, reaction and more.
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Interactive American Heroes Profiles of U.S. soldiers who've died in Iraq, a look at the war's toll and pictures of mourning.
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Interactive Military 101 Basic training to learn all about America's fighting force.
Correspondent Lara Logan heard dissension in the ranks from a large group of service members who are fed up and have decided to go public. They’re not going AWOL, they're not disobeying orders or even refusing to fight in Iraq. But they are doing something unthinkable to many in uniform: bypassing the chain of command to denounce a war they’re in the middle of fighting.
"As a patriotic citizen who served two combat tours in Iraq, I just feel like this war, it's simply just not working out anymore, and soldiers are dying there everyday," says Specialist Kevin Torres.
Torres didn’t always feel that way—he enlisted in the Army right out of high school, after 9/11. He has twice served in Iraq, patrolling the mainly Kurdish north of the country, and carrying out combat patrols and goodwill missions.
"I joined because I just wanted to make a difference. I wanted to be a part of our generation's war," Torres says.
"You've been on two deployments and you didn't always feel this way. Was there a point at which, you know, something you experienced that made you think," Logan asks.
"Yeah. In January, we were doing routine presence patrol through the city of Hawija, and one of our trucks was hit by a roadside bomb, an IED, and it killed four of the soldiers out of the five that were in the truck. And during the recovery of the fallen soldiers all the debris outside of the truck. And we just had the truck was loaded with school supplies and soccer balls and crayons and notebooks and coloring books. We just wanna help. And it was just a really eye-opening and frustrating experience. Because we're still getting killed out there," he says.
It’s a sentiment echoed by all of the service members who are part of this protest.
60 Minutes gathered some of them in Washington, but they had to be off base, out of uniform and off duty to speak to Logan on camera.
They’ve all sent a petition, called “Appeal For Redress,” to their individual members of Congress, letting them know that “Staying in Iraq will not work” and it’s “time for U.S. troops to come home.”
"It's not about speaking out against the military or speaking out against the war. It's just, we're here four years down the line and there's not an end to it," Sgt. Evans, one of the dissenters, tells Logan.
"What are we trying to accomplish over there? I mean, what is what are we trying to do in Iraq?" another soldier, Sgt. Ronn Cantu asks.
What does he think?
"I don't even know anymore," he tells Logan.
"Well, what would you say to the people that say, 'Alright, it's clear that the war in Iraq is incredibly difficult and life is really tough both for Americans and for Iraqis, but pulling out's not the answer. It's only gonna get worse. There's gonna be all-out civil war,'" Logan asks.
"How does that become the default? Either someday, we have to leave. We can't stay in Iraq for the next thousand years," one soldier remarks.
Asked if there's a possibility that Iraq might be better off if American troops stay and finish the job, Cantu says, "But then our lives are hanging in the balance of a flip of a coin."
"That doesn't seem worth it to you? Those are not good odds?" Logan asks.
"Yes. I mean, we volunteered to make a difference, not just be part of an experiment," he replies.
Produced By Peter Klein
© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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See all 914 CommentsCarl Webb
Defend Iraq!
http://carlwebb.net
Playing chess in the dark could be construed as engineered by blind politicians, or by a non-unified political front. Securing neighborhoods and borders, block by block and mile by bloody mile is a difficult and painstaking task. The only dim hope is that the Arabs and Persians form a union to achieve stability, and agree to enforce their borders. I have no doubt we can aid Iraq in its containment, but the region must take care of business, and it looks doubtful they can look beyond their own cloaks.
If your answer to ANY of these if none, you better go enlist and volunteer for duty in Iraq before calling these soldiers "communist *******" and "cowardice son-of*** and ***."
I seriously doubt that 60 minutes or CNN will experience any jeopardy because you decided to stop watching! Your way of "thinking" is bias. Any editorial piece done about our troops in Iraq today must have some kind of built in bias because of the nature of this "war". This isn't WWII where everyone felt pretty much the same.
No one thinks war is pretty. We were duped into this mess... there is no "may have" about it. The bottom line as you put it is "we are in Iraq" the reason why is highly RELAVANT. That is where you and I part ways. If you want to demean the media start with the media that condones and supports the mess we are in they are the true warmongers
here not CNN and not 60 Minutes.
You mentioned that dissident's of the war should step out of their comfort zone? The fact is the more we go along with this fiasco .... the smaller and fragile our comfort zone becomes. Ever think of that? I didn't think so.
CNN publishes the number of dead and wounded every night .... FOX doesn't .... THINK MAN!
semper_fi183 said, "respect ..... i dont have to prove it to u i got my metals to prove that ty."
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Hate to break the news, but some medals are awarded for job performance, and some for simply being there, and not *** up. Medals are not Nobel prizes, though some undeniably represent courage.
What McDazz means is courage is found everywhere people do their best for their country, from whatever station in life they come. All these people deserve respect-- if not also medals.
Posted by alphaa10 at 12:27 AM : Feb 26, 2007
The things that will destroy America are prosperity-at-any-price, peace-at-any-price, safety-first instead of duty-first, the love of soft living, and the get-rich-quick theory of life. Theodore Roosevelt
Sign this Appeal.
This site is an Appeal For Redress in support of our mission in Iraq.
An Appeal For Redress is an authorized means for active duty military to submit a grievance to Congress. It can be signed by Active Duty, Reserve, or National Guard military personnel.
It is authorized by DoD Directive 1325.6 and DoD Directive 7050.6.
The wording of the Appeal for Redress is:
As an American currently serving my nation in uniform, I respectfully urge my political leaders in Congress to fully support our mission in Iraq and halt any calls for retreat. I also respectfully urge my political leaders to actively oppose media efforts which embolden my enemy while demoralizing American support at home. The War in Iraq is a necessary and just effort to bring freedom to the Middle East and protect America from further attack.
If you are active duty, reservist or national guard, please Sign this Appeal.
Most service members fully support the war in Iraq and feel calls to retreat by Congress and attacks by our media on our conduct and mission act to motivate our enemy while demoralizing our support at home, directly increasing the threat we face and resulting in greater American casualties. This Appeal for Redress provides a way in which individual service members can appeal to Congress to fully support us and actively oppose media attacks on our mission and our morale.
This Appeal will be delivered to members of Congress.
http://www.appealforcourage.org/
I recently retired and spent the majority of my career as a paralegal and I can only begin to imagine how difficult the decision to come forward must have been, and I pray that none of you will suffer fall-out for standing true to your convictions.
I have been opposed to the invasion of Iraq from the get-go...I understand and support Afghanistan, but Iraq does not, to this day, make any sense. I hope one day the "truth" behind this decision, the real reason, Bush invaded comes out.
I also want each and every one you to know I have been doing all I can to bring you home...home, where you belong. And if the people I elected into office does not stop the illegal invasion of Iraq...they be gone too.
I truly can't stand it...lives are being destroyed, and for what? Be safe and come home soon!
I recently retired and spent the majority of my career as a paralegal and I can only begin to imagine how difficult the decision to come forward must have been, and I pray that none of you will suffer fall-out for standing true to your convictions.
I have been opposed to the invasion of Iraq from the get-go...I understand and support Afghanistan, but Iraq does not, to this day, make any sense. I hope one day the "truth" behind this decision, the real reason, Bush invaded comes out.
I also want each and every one you to know I have been doing all I can to bring you home...home, where you belong.
Be safe and come home soon!
I recently retired and spent the majority of my career as a paralegal and I can only begin to imagine how difficult the decision to come forward must have been, and I pray that none of you will suffer fall-out for standing true to your convictions.
I have been opposed to the invasion of Iraq from the get-go...I understand and support Afghanistan, but Iraq does not, to this day, make any sense. I hope one day the "truth" behind this decision, the real reason, Bush invaded comes out.
I also want each and every one you to know I have been doing all I can to bring you home...home, where you belong. And if the people I elected into office does not stop the illegal invasion of Iraq...they be gone too.
I truly can't stand it...lives are being destroyed, and for what?
Be safe and come home soon!
Susanne
Just wanted to let you know that there are 2 Appeals for Redress out there. If you would like to link to the one lars008 spoke of copy and paste the following into your address bar and it will bring you there. http://www.appealforcourage.org
As far as the show in CBS they in my book are right u there with cnn who I no longer watch. If you are going to do a piece on the troops in Iraq do it without bias. I am at this point so disgusted with the media in this country. War is not pretty. I do understand that the reasons we went to Iraq MAY HAVE been false and I will repeat MAY HAVE but the truth is buried so deep in the media and politics that we as everyday American will never know what it is. The bottom line is we ARE in Iraq and why we got there is irrelevant at this point. All you who say we should leave are blind to the fact that if we do the deaths there will increase 100 fold and that blood will be on our hands nad they will want revenge. So step out of you comfort zone for 5 minutes and look at reality we can not walk away from a mess we created.
http://siadapp.dior.whs.mil/personnel/CASUALTY/Death_Rates1.pdf
Laura Logan, the CBS reporter, is a hero in my book for bringing out the gruesome details of this terrible civil war in Iraq. I would now like to see her employer, CBS, begin showing us the names, faces and ages of those killed daily in Iraq during the CBS Evening News in the same way the PBS News Hour does now. Once the viewers begin seeing the faces of the 18, 19 and 20 year old soldiers who die daily in Iraq their opinion of this bloody quagmire will change quickly.
As a vietnam veteran I salute every soldier who has been killed or injured or who has endured countless additional tours of duty in this useless illegal war for oil and Halliburton profiteering.
The moron-in-chief, Chimpy The DECIDER, (Wastey Pants) now plans to start a war with Iran. IT IS TIME FOR THE CONGRESS AND THE SENATE TO PUT AN END TO BUSH%u2019s WAR IN IRAQ AND HIS FUTURE WAR PLANS WITH IRAN!!
Now that CBS has represented this view of the Iraq war, it would only be fair to interview an equal number of soldiers that have not lost their will and continue to support our action. They should not be hard to find as I believe they are in the vast majority of the soldiers.
Will CBS do this? I highly doubt it.
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