A statement by the organization of active duty and veterans against the war, March Forward!
When the United States first began the war of aggression against the people of Iraq, Brandon Hocking was 16-years-old.
While
he was still in high school, then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld
told the world that the Iraq war would last “six days, six weeks. I
doubt six months.”
Little did Hocking know that eight years
later, on the anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, he would be killed in
a war that was still raging, and still far from over.
He was
killed after former Pres. Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” photo-op
announcing the end of the war. He was killed after Pres. Obama’s
championing of the “end of combat operations.” Despite being a
“non-combat” soldier, he was blown apart by an IED while on patrol. He
was due to return home in just 10 days.
The vast majority of
people in the United States now recognize that the Iraq war was based on
lies, and strongly oppose its continuation. Even top establishment
figureheads like Alan Greenspan admit that the war was about control of
Iraq’s oil, not about “spreading democracy” or “national defense.”
Yet, we are still being sent to die in Iraq, in this war based on lies.
The
people have overwhelmingly demanded that the occupation end. The
“reasons” for the war have long been exposed as blatant fabrications to
mask a war for corporate profits.
But we are still being sent
away from our families to occupy Iraq. We are left wondering: “Which one
of us will be the last to die for a lie?”
Not one more U.S.
soldier should lose his or her life in Iraq. But this government will
continue to send us there to die. Our lives can no longer be in their
hands.
Any GI who receives orders to deploy to Iraq has the
absolute right to refuse them—the right to refuse to be the last person
to die for a lie. The same goes for those given orders to Afghanistan,
yet another war for corporate profits. If we do not take our lives into
our own hands, we will continue to be sent to our deaths for ExxonMobil,
Chevron and Shell.
