The Few. The Proud. The Disillusioned.
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  1. #1

    Exclamation The Few. The Proud. The Disillusioned.

    THE FEW. THE PROUD. THE DISILLUSIONED.
    Conflict in Iraq: Some active duty troops, while proud to serve, are speaking out and signing a petition against the war

    Joe Garofoli, Chronicle Staff Writer

    Saturday, April 7, 2007

    Mike Ergo is a 23-year-old honorably discharged Marine who fought in Fallujah. A tattoo on the inside of his left forearm depicts the first insurgent he killed in Iraq. A tattoo on his right arm reads: "Born to Fight." He loves the Marines, is proud of what he and his colleagues did overseas and is on inactive ready reserve through July 2009.

    Yet a few weeks ago, the Walnut Creek native marched near the front of the anti-war demonstration that rolled through San Francisco. Yeah, he said, it felt odd to march among the 9/11 conspiracy theorists and socialists. Still, Ergo said he'd march again to underscore his opposition to U.S. foreign policy in Iraq and would try to bring more than the handful of Iraq War veterans who demonstrated with him last month.

    But Ergo knows that the number of soldiers who publicly oppose the war is likely to remain small for now. A chief reason: Unlike the men drafted into military service during the Vietnam War, those fighting in Iraq are volunteers and feel obligated to be patriotic defenders of post-9/11 soil.

    Yet a few signs of dissent are appearing in the military aside from conscientious objectors and newly realized pacificists. Last month, a career chief master sergeant in the Air Force wrote an opinion piece in the military newspaper Stars and Stripes opposing the war, and a busload of retired veterans and civilian activists toured military bases in the South, hoping to coax more support from active duty soldiers. Over the past month, more than 1,700 soldiers have signed an online Appeal for Redress -- www.appealforredress.org -- a legally sanctioned way for members of the military to oppose the war.

    A couple of underground publications like GI Special at www.militaryproject.org, have sprung up online, and supportive troops have clandestinely dropped hard copies inside military barracks.

    Last week, retired Marine Corps Lt. Col. Andrew Horne, who served in the Persian Gulf two years ago, rebutted President Bush's weekly radio address.

    Said Horne: "The commander-in-chief has failed to properly lead the troops, and previous Congresses didn't ask the tough questions or demand accountability. The result is the mess we are in today."

    These inside-the-fortress expressions of opposition are almost always prefaced with words of respect for the military, of their comrades' patriotic service to their country.

    This rhetorical approach is far different from the widespread protests and defiant sloganeering of the '60s and '70s. By the Vietnam War's end, more than 100 underground newspapers were published by anti-war soldiers, and thousands of soldiers had participated in peace demonstrations. Peaceniks established a network of off-base coffeehouses in military towns, giving GIs and peace activists a place to interact casually and foment more opposition to the war.

    While opinion polls today show that a majority of Americans oppose the war, "95 percent of Americans haven't been touched by the war. It's not that they don't care," said Air Force Chief Master Sgt. Jeff Slocum, who wrote the Stars and Stripes opinion column supporting the online petition against the war.

    But few uniformed opponents have surfaced. Iraq Veterans Against the War, an organization for uniformed opposition, gets only 10 new members a week. The 1,700-plus vets who signed the online petition are a fraction of the 1.5 million who have been deployed in the war on terrorism.

    "It would be a tremendous boost to have more active duty demonstrating," said Cherie Eichholz, a veteran and an organizer with Veterans for Peace, "because they have firsthand knowledge of what's going on over there on the ground, and they have a credibility with the public because of their service."

    Eichholz, who volunteered for the Army after the Sept. 11 attacks and was discharged after being injured in training, said some vets' peace groups are changing their strategy.

    Last month, she was part of a convoy of 25 activists and retired vets who toured military bases in the South as part of a trial effort to aggressively court uniformed opponents. They handed out 5,000 copies of the Appeal for Redress and got a few dozen returned in days. The document states: "As a patriotic American proud to serve the nation in uniform, I respectfully urge my political leaders in Congress to support the prompt withdrawal of all American military forces and bases from Iraq. Staying in Iraq will not work and is not worth the price." The numbers might seem minuscule, Eichholz said, but she is encouraged by the hundreds of off-duty conversations she has had with young soldiers -- so much so that her organization is planning four similar caravans to tour towns near U.S. militaryinstallations this summer.

    But the limited expression of anti-war support among the military "just shows that the overwhelming majority of guys are in favor of the mission in Iraq," said Navy Lt. Jason Nichols. An information technology specialist stationed in Iraq, Nichols is asking soldiers to sign an online petition called Appeal for Courage, www. appealforcourage.org, that supports the mission and opposes the Redress appeal. "Most of them (who oppose the war) can't answer the question: So what do we do now?"

    Speaking out can be costly, especially for career soldiers. Two weeks after he wrote the Stars and Stripes column, Slocum decided to retire in October, long before he had planned.

    "I got to thinking that I don't know if I can continue to wear two hats," said Slocum, 41, a veteran of 21 years in the service who is stationed near Fayetteville, N.C. He began opposing the war after disclosures that the United States went to war based on faulty intelligence. His peers told him to find a way to support the war. "That would be OK," he said, "if I didn't know what I already know."

    Ergo, the Marine, believes another factor is behind this reticence: Many returning soldiers are still too overwhelmed with the effects of post-traumatic stress syndrome, one of the war's signature wounds -- including him. Ergo was diagnosed with the condition shortly after leaving the service in 2005.

    For months after he returned home, a never-ending clip of the men he saw die and of those he killed reeled through his mind. He enrolled in Diablo Valley College, but within months he was missing class. He'd start driving to school, then turn around, afraid of the people he'd have to deal with there.

    "It was this impending sense of something big was about to happen," he said. "The feeling I'd got when we were about to go into combat. I was afraid of dealing with people who would say something against the war, or make me angry. I was afraid of flipping out and maybe hurting someone."

    He began regularly seeing a counselor last fall and began feeling better. At the same time, he began to read more about the government's reasons for invading Iraq. He started communicating with vets he found on a MySpace page for the Iraq Veterans Against the War.

    "It's hard enough to deal with the experiences that went on in Iraq, let alone to have opinions on it," Ergo said. "When people come back, they'd rather just move on and not remember all that stuff. And not try to live in the past.

    "And if you don't live by a vet center, you might just sit around, listen to music and drink. It can definitely be a downward spiral," he said.

    His opinion of the war changed shortly after November 2004, when he was involved in fierce house-to-house searches for insurgents in Fallujah. He would kick in doors and often see an insurgent shooting at him from close range. Iraqi women and children would walk down the street, and insurgents would maneuver among the citizens, using them as shields.

    The tension was emotionally exhausting.

    "You're spending your days driving around the highways looking for people who are hiding, and they blow you up from a mile away with a remote detonator," he said. "Or they shoot at you from a building and put their weapon down and walk through the streets. And if you kill someone, you could potentially turn that town against you whether it's justified or not."

    He came out publicly against the war after returning home.

    "I was turned off by the apathy of all the people in this area, Walnut Creek, and other upper-middle-class communities who thought things were going fine or are so removed from the war," he said. "Like the people I was going to school with (Diablo Valley College) were just worried about what's on "TRL," MTV's "Total Request Live" program.

    Ergo plans to talk about his experience in schools and to speak before other organizations. He is not a counter-recruiter; he urges people to "do their research" before they enlist. And he understands that many active duty soldiers won't speak out.

    "They don't want to be associated with a movement they see as entirely leftist or irrational or hippies from Berkeley or San Francisco," he said. "But once people see us on the news, maybe they'll say, 'Hey, that guy has a short haircut, he looks like he could still be in. He wears tucked-in shirts. He doesn't have long hair.' "

    Ergo doesn't have to look far to see his own wounds from the war. The man whose face flashes in his mind is tattooed on his left forearm. It reminds him how much he and other soldiers -- and Iraqis -- have sacrificed in this war.

    "I have to see it," Ergo said. "So I want everyone else to see it, too."

    E-mail Joe Garofoli at jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com.

    Ellie


  2. #2
    Treason No one cares what his opinion is! He signed up, now serve and shut-up!!!!!


  3. #3
    I care what his opinion is. He served and has a right to sound off.


  4. #4
    Marine Free Member 10thzodiac's Avatar
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  5. #5
    Hes one out dissenter of many who support the war.


  6. #6
    yellowwing
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    If this starts reflecting in the recruiting numbers then it is a problem.


  7. #7
    Marine Free Member 10thzodiac's Avatar
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    Thumbs up It is obvious to me

    "War is just a racket...I believe in adequate defense at the coastline and nothing else." ~ General Smedley Butler

    Seventy years ago a highly decorated Marine Corps general, disturbed by his participation in various military interventions, declared that WAR IS A RACKET and that we need a CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT to guarantee everlasting peace to our nation.


  8. #8
    Ergo earned the right to say what ever he wants to about what is going on in Iraq.


  9. #9
    Smedley Butler?? hahahahaha that punk couldnt and didnt hold a candle to our chesty..


  10. #10
    Marine Free Member rb1651's Avatar
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    Whether I agree with his stand or not, he has earned the right to express his opinion.


  11. #11
    He has more right to ***** than those who have not been there.


  12. #12
    Marine Free Member 10thzodiac's Avatar
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    Arrow Butler: "That young man [Puller] is irrepressible" !

    Quote Originally Posted by hrscowboy
    Smedley Butler?? hahahahaha that punk couldnt and didnt hold a candle to our chesty..

    Old breed? New breed? There’s not a damn bit of difference so long as it’s the Marine breed.

    —LtGen Lewis B. “Chesty” Puller


    GENERAL BUTLER AND CAPTAIN PULLER
    MARCH 1931








    A FEW GOOD MEN


    William Overgard

    St Martin's Press, 1988.

    Excerpt: "In March of 1931 Augusto Cesar Sandino, the man who gave the name Sandinistas to his army of rebels, kidnapped the American consu l's thirteen-year-old daughter in Bluefields, Nicaragua, on the Mosquito Coast. Curiously, he was in the company of Calton Wills, an American correspondent from *The Nation*. Probably at no other time in history was there such a gathering of real Am erican heros. General Smedley D. Butler--the nation's old hero, two-time winner of the Medal of Honor--was on a 'farewell tour' of the area and immediately began pursuit in a Packard automobile. With him was Lt K.L. Magnusson, the young Marine who had personally shot and killed Charlemagne Peralte, the Haitian *caco* bandit. To the west, Capt "Chesty" Puller, later famous for five Navy Crosses, was commanding the infamous Company M. Above, in the first use of Marine aircrat in combat, Lt C.F . Schilt was to win the Medal of Honor at Quilali. In the next desperate weeks their lives would converge as the big car pushed on. Driving was the consul, Richard Kelly of the well-known Boston family. Also on board was a German doctor, a sixteen- year-old Marine music boy and a *Miskito* Indian, Tomas. At Rama, a mining town on the Escondido River, there was a stiff fight with the retreating Sandinistas and they rescued Karen Sven, a Norwegian whor(e) who promptly fell in love with Magnusson. Never mind romance, earthquakes, and train chases, the rescue party would follow Sandino right into his legendary mountain stronghold, El Chipote. And on they went, a few good men...."


    EXCERPT: "At that moment there was a shout and they saw two cars approaching fast from the edge of the yards, dodging around the obstructions. One had a red light and siren going. 'Oh my God,' Sabar said. 'It's that damn *policia* back with a friend! Into the boxcars! Hurry!' and they climbed aboard even as the engineer pushed the throttle ahead, sending back a jet of steam. Wheels spun, caught, and the train moved ahead, the sixty-nine-inch drivers beginning to pump. Puller cranked the Buick around until it was parallel to the track and began pursuit, the Packard coming up fast behind him and to his right. They zigzagged around the upright block signals, missing poles by inches, veering shaply by sidetracked cars and sending passengers bouncing wildly as they hit the washboard edge of ties and closed on the train. In the back of the Packard, the general shouted over the roar of the engine and gravel rattling under the fenders, 'Music, give them a burst! We're going to run out of yard!' Standing and bracing himself against the windshield frame without glass, the music boy clacked back the loader on the submachine gun and pulled the trigger as Magnusson had taught him. The line of fire reached out past Puller's Buick, to beat out a pattern on the rear of the caboose . His aim had improved since the Rama drive and he took out the round, rear windows sending glass flying, tearing up the tongue-and-groove oak siding and whanging off metal parts. As the general predicted, they ran out of yard, coming up against a trestle abutm ent as the track passed on across a swamp. Brakes locked, they slid up to a dead end as the train gathered speed, accelerating on. The line of fire from the Thompson dropped off like a hose losing water pressure. In the next instant Puller had reversed, shouting through the window as the Buick whipped past, 'We'll make up a train and follow!' 'That young man [Puller] is irrepressible,' General Butler said, before he could catch himself."



  13. #13
    [quote=USMCmailman]Treason No one cares what his opinion is! He signed up, now serve and shut-up!!!!![/quot

    Yer outta line on this one mailman. I've talked to a few Marines who fought over there and they say we need to get the fuq out and these are all good Marines. This is a civil war and has been since Rumsfeld said it wasnt last yr when he's was still running the show. Like I've stated before, how come we arent over in No Korea,Iran, Syria,Venezuela and some of the other radical countries who harbor terrorist and dictators ?? Do you truely think this war is gonna stop terrorist from ever attacking us again, if so then your a Naive Marine. Do you truely believe we dont have terroist cells here in the US just waiting for the GOLDEN MOMENT to STRIKE again ???????

    MG


  14. #14
    jetdawgg
    Guest Free Member
    [quote=marinegreen]
    Quote Originally Posted by USMCmailman
    Treason No one cares what his opinion is! He signed up, now serve and shut-up!!!!![/quot

    Yer outta line on this one mailman. I've talked to a few Marines who fought over there and they say we need to get the fuq out and these are all good Marines. This is a civil war and has been since Rumsfeld said it wasnt last yr when he's was still running the show. Like I've stated before, how come we arent over in No Korea,Iran, Syria,Venezuela and some of the other radical countries who harbor terrorist and dictators ?? Do you truely think this war is gonna stop terrorist from ever attacking us again, if so then your a Naive Marine. Do you truely believe we dont have terroist cells here in the US just waiting for the GOLDEN MOMENT to STRIKE again ???????

    MG
    Thank you. What do people think, the only terrorists are in Iraq?


  15. #15
    Marine Free Member 10thzodiac's Avatar
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    Marinegreen & Jetdawgg, your children and grandchildren are lucky

    SF

    10thzodiac


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