Articles by this Author
Showdown '06
Washington Monthly Online
by Peter Laufer
October 3, 2006
At the risk of losing my stripes as a jaded and cynical journalist, I want to report that I felt renewed and inspired â?? even filled with real hope for our future as a nation â?? following an afternoon testifying on Capitol Hill about the human costs of the Iraq War.
Here's what happened. Representative Lynn Woolsey convened the third in a series of bipartisan hearings on the mounting costs of the U.S. military occupation of Iraq and the consequential lost opportunities the occupation causes. A parade of House members participated, and I was fortunate enough to be in the company of some impressive fellow witnesses, from former NSA director Lt. Gen William Odom to thirty-year CIA counterterrorism analyst Dr. Paul Pilllar. The straightforward testimony of Odom and Pillar was non-political and refreshing. From their two points of view they simply explained what a growing majority of Americans are realizing: the occupation is a failure and each day it continues only makes circumstances worse.
I was asked to recount some of the stories I've been collecting over the last year during my meetings across the U.S., up in Canada, and over in Germany with U.S. soldiers now opposed to the Iraq War â?? stories now collected in my new book, Mission Rejected. One soldier after another told me of being devastated by orders that put them in the position of disobeying, or of shooting what they feared were noncombatants. These soldier's stories are critical to hear. Their credibility cannot be impugned. They volunteered for the military. They've seen it from the inside.
I'll get to my renewed hope in a minute. But first, an example of one of these soldiers' experiences. I told the committee about Darrell Anderson. I met with him in Toronto. He deserted after fighting in Iraq rather than face another deployment there.
In addition to taking shrapnel from a roadside bomb - an injury that earned him a Purple Heart - Darrell told me he often found himself in firefights.
Darrel described a Baghdad street battle that scarred him - and scared him about himself. He was in an armored vehicle. Other soldiers were riding on the outside, when it came under attack from an enemy armed with rocket-propelled grenades. One of the soldiers riding outside was hit, and injured severely. Darrell told me the scene still returns to him in the nightmares he suffers every night. "I look at him and he is bleeding everywhere. He's spitting up blood." Someone had to take his place on the outside, Darrell realized. "Me, I'm gung-ho. I go up there. There're explosions. They tell us if you're under attack, you open fire on anybody in the streets. They say they're no longer innocent if they're there. I take my weapon and I find someone running. I point and I pull my trigger, but my weapon is still on safe."
By the time Darrell clicked it over to fire, he realized he was about to shoot a child who was running away from the violence, a child he was by then sure was not part of the battle. But what was most traumatic for him were his own emotions. "I'm angry. My buddy is dying. I just want to kill." He told me he realized then he had become a different man, changed by the pathology of war and the suffering of the innocents. "When I first got there, I was disgusted with my fellow soldiers. But now I'm just the same. I will kill innocent people because I'm not the person I was when I got there." The attack ebbed, and Darrell survived it, as did the running boy.
A timely example of how the war is tearing at the conscience of the troops came in an email I received the other day from a conflicted soldier. He is an army reservist, a counterintelligence agent who served in Afghanistan, where he was awarded two Bronze Star medals for his valor.
"My unit may be deploying to Iraq in January and I am contemplating not going," he wrote. "This is somewhat complicated by not being a conscientious objector, which limits my options." This reservist requested my assistance steering him toward sources that can provide him with credible information about the alternatives open to him and the ramifications of refusing orders.
More and more soldiers with the pedigree of my email correspondent are considering destroying careers and enduring prison time because they oppose the Iraq War. Imagine the courage it takes for a soldier - such as the reservist who requested a referral - to reject the mission, and instead respond to the calls of conscience and say no to the Iraq War.
In his September 11th speech a few weeks ago, President Bush again invoked the names of the soldiers dead in the Iraq War. He claimed again, as he has so many times before, that the war must go on so that their sacrifice is not wasted, and he noted that over a million and a half Americans have enlisted in the services since the attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon.
What do those volunteers think today? We could use a poll that asks them all. In the meantime, in Mission Rejected I've tallied the feelings of some of them.
Soldiers such as these - who have been on the ground in Iraq, awarded medals for their valor, seen and done things unimaginable to most of us - offer us some of the best news reports of this war. The stories from these soldiers can help us understand what is wrong in Iraq.
The midterm elections are critical for those of us opposed to Bush's war in Iraq. If Democratic candidates expect to win they must separate themselves from Bush's war and come up with specific, credible, and practical proposals for ending it and bringing the troops home. Woolsey's hearing was a valuable step in that direction.
Now for the promised renewal, inspiration, and hope. I felt buoyed leaving the hearing room. Problematic as the Congressional response has been since the Bush Administration launched the war, here were Members trying to stop the bleeding. Our beaten and bruised system of checks and balances keeps struggling. If we feed it with testimony and attention, it can recover. I'm not giving up on this homeland of ours. Our institutions can survive the current abuse it's suffering. I walked out of the Capitol and looked across the Mall, down toward the White House. Storm clouds were pierced with heaven-sent rays of bright sunshine. Really! Tourists were smiling for their cameras. Ah, normalcy! For a moment all felt right. We need to seize these moments, enjoy them, and work to multiply them.
Return to top
King Filthy Rat Bastard Speaks
Huffington Post
by Peter Laufer
September 13, 2006
In his fear-mongering September 11th speech, President Bush again invoked the names of the soldiers he sent to their deaths in his Iraq War. He claimed again, as he has so many times before, that the war must go on so that their sacrifice is not wasted.
The President noted, "Every one of our troops is a volunteer, and since the attacks of September the 11th, more than 1.6 million Americans have stepped forward to put on our nation's uniform.
In Iraq, Afghanistan, and other fronts in the war on terror, the men and women of our military are making great sacrifices to keep us safe. Some have suffered terrible injuries -- and nearly 3,000 have given their lives. America cherishes their memory. We pray for their families. And we will never back down from the work they have begun."
When he cited the volunteers, he neglected to mention those troops forced back into active duty from the Inactive Ready Reserve. He failed to acknowledge the so-called Stop Loss phenomenon that keeps troops fighting long past the exit date they were offered when they signed up for the service. And worst of all, he ignored the fact that many of those volunteers - along with so many American civilians and even members of Congress - back his war because they believed their Commander-in-Chief when he told them the U.S. needed to invade Iraq to save America.
What do those 1.6 million volunteers think today? We could use a poll that asks them all. In the meantime, I've tallied the feelings of some of them in my book Mission Rejected: U.S. Soldiers Who Say No to Iraq. President Bush should ask these soldiers to the White House and listen to what they have to say. While we wait for the invitations to be sent out, here are some examples.
Meet Joshua Key, combat hardened from his Iraq time, now a deserter in Canada seeking refugee status. He misses his family and he blames the Bush Administration. "I blame them because they made me do it. You can lie to the world; you can't lie to a person who's seen it. They made me have to do things that a man should never have to do, for the purpose of their gain - not the people's - their financial gain."
George W. Bush is culpable for crimes in Iraq, according to Joshua Key. "He'll pay for it one day. On the day he goes to prison, I'll go sit in prison with him. I say if he goes to prison - George Bush - I'll go sit in prison with him. Let's go. I'll face it for that music. But that ain't never going to happen." And Joshua Key laughs a bitter, bitter laugh.
Meet Abdul Henderson, sent into Iraq from Kuwait as the invasion started. Abdul Henderson says he does not oppose the military. "That's one thing a lot of people get mixed up. I'm protesting this war. I'm not really anti-war. Sometimes war is inevitable. I love the Marine Corps. To this day I love the Marine Corps." In fact he credits what he learned from the Marines for his resolve to oppose the Iraq War. "The Marine Corps gave me the strength and conviction to stand up for what I believe in. It changed my life forever."
He says it was Bush Administration politicians who drove him from the service as he watched them misuse the patriotism of his fellow Marines ready to die of America. "They basically lied to us. They told us something that they said was the absolute truth, that, 'We know where these weapons of mass destruction are. They got them. They're here, here, here, and here.' They showed us pictures. We got there and there was nothing," Again a laugh, a mixture of disgust and incredulity. "That place was in shambles."
Meet Steven Casey, still susceptible to recall from the Inactive Ready Reserve after his time fighting in Iraq. He says he'll never put his uniform back on. "You'll see me on the news. I won't be back. I'll be a statistic of a guy who doesn't show up." His voice is quiet as he says it again, "I'm not coming back." Steven Casey says he's going to college, an education he'll pay for with the money the Army guaranteed him when he enlisted. "I did get what I was promised," he says about his benefits package. "I got everything they said I was going to get," he says about the tuition money. "I got a hunk of money for school, and with that I got social anxiety and I got this cool skin rash that I'm never going to get rid of. I've got a social disorder. I yell at my wife. I don't think I won. There are a lot of things that came with this that are irreparable and I'm going to have the rest of my life." He talks about anger and anxiety. He wonders if he's suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, if he's facing a lifetime of prescription drugs and psychiatrists. "I wish I could make it all go away, to be honest with you. But I can't. I should have worked at McDonalds and found a way to pay for my tuition."
What a fantasy: A meeting at the White House with these brave soldiers telling their stories to George Bush. It would be a meeting that could be best summed up with the words of another Iraq War combat veteran, Clifton Hicks.
It's a war, says Clifton Hicks, fought for "filthy rich bastards too cowardly to do it themselves" who want more money, fought by "us, the masses of uneducated fools killing each other
Return to top
Rummy Scores in San Francisco
Huffington Post
by Peter Laufer
September 2, 2006
There must be some smug chortling going on at the Pentagon following a recent San Francisco Chronicle article. The propaganda machine there scored a nice coup in the heart of bluest Califronia. Maybe it takes the edge off the bad publicity the military is suffering in the wake of Army Specialist Mark Wilkerson's decision to turn himself in at Fort Hood after spending a year and half on the run from the Iraq War, AWOL.
Back to San Francisco in a moment, but first this acknowledgement of Specialist Wilkerson. For over a year I've been tracking and profiling soldiers opposed to the Iraq War for my book, Mission Rejected. A continuing question is: How many in the military oppose the war, how many reject war duty? So far, exact statistics are impossible to compile. But as Wilkerson said prior to turning himself in, the trends suggest a growing percentage. More and more soldiers who originally joined, whether out of an understandable sense of national duty or out of desperation for a job and health insurance, or something in between, are being politicized - radicalized - by the Bush Administration's failed Iraq policies. Those, such as Specialist Wilkerson, who publicly reject this illegal and immoral war, are doing their part to influence other soldiers to feel empowered to come forward if they too oppose the war. It is critical that we civilians who also oppose the war support their brave actions.
Now, back to San Francisco. I urge you to take a look at the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle from September 1st. Unfortunately you cannot see the front page reproduced on the paper's web site, so I'll describe it for those of you who are not in Northern California.
There is an extraordinarily poignant and dramatic photograph of a soldier leaving home dominating the front page, and its layout is extremely clever. When the paper sits in a sales box, all you see above the fold is the caption in upper case letters: A KISS FOR THE ROAD, and a fatigues-clad torso leaning out of a bus window. Spread out that front page and view the rest of the photo essay.
Above the shirt pocket on the fatigues are the words, "U.S. Marines." The soldier's head sports its military buzz cut, and he's protected by a pair of dark shades. Reaching up to him is that paragon of American womanhood: a statuesque blonde. Their lips are just touching. She's 17, says the caption, he's 19, and off for his training in the California desert before deployment to Iraq.
The image is glorious. Chronicle photographer Darryl Bush undoubtedly has a prizewinner here. But as used by the newspaper, it is also an obscene glorification of war, and the Iraq War in particular.
They can write all the anti-war editorials they want in the paper, run all the anti-war op-eds they can find. But when they splash that elongated quasi-pornographic image of a lithesome California beach blonde, barely clothed, giving herself up to G.I. Joe with "A Kiss for the Road," the newspaper sends a not-so-subtle message to the home front: war = glory = sex.
It is a seductive and nauseating image, and it screamed out of newsstands across San Francisco, while Mark Wilkerson was being processed at Fort Hood, and while bodies in flag-draped coffins are being shipped to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware from Iraq, a site where Chronicle photographer Darryl Bush is not allowed to practice such extraordinarily fine skills with a camera.
Return to top
You Wouldn't Catch Me Dead in Iraq
The Sunday Times UK
By Peter Laufer
August 27, 2006
Scores of American troops are deserting - even from the front line in Iraq. But where have they gone? And why isn't the US Army after them? Peter Laufer, author of Mission Rejected: U.S. Soldiers Who Say No to Iraq tracked down four of the deserters.
They are the US troops in Iraq to whom the American administration prefers not to draw attention. They are the deserters - those who have gone AWOL from their units and not returned, risking imprisonment and opprobrium.
When First Lieutenant Ehren Watada of the US Army, who faced a court martial in August, refused to go to Iraq on moral grounds, the newspapers in his home state of Hawaii were full of letters accusing him of "treason". He said he had concluded that the war is both morally wrong and a horrible breach of American law. His participation, he stated, would make him party to "war crimes". Watada is just one conscientious objector to a war that has polarised America, arguably more so than even the Vietnam war.
It is impossible to put a precise figure on the number of American troops who have left the army as a result of the US involvement in Iraq. The Pentagon says that a total of 40,000 troops have deserted their posts (not simply those serving in Iraq) since the year 2000. This includes many who went AWOL for family reasons. The Pentagon's spokesmen say that the overall number of deserters has actually gone down since operations began in Afghanistan and Iraq, but there is no doubt that a steady trickle of deserters who object to the Iraq war have made it over the border and are now living in Canada. There they seek asylum, often with the help of Canadian anti-war groups. One Toronto lawyer, Jeffry House, has represented at least 20 deserters from Iraq in the Canadian courts; he is himself a conscientious objector, having refused to fight in the Vietnam war - along with 50,000 others, at the peak of the conflict. He estimates that 200 troops have already gone underground in Canada since the war in Iraq began.
These conscientious objectors are a brave group - their decisions will result in long-term life changes. To be labelled a deserter is no small burden. If convicted of desertion, they run the risk of a prison sentence - with hard labour. To choose exile can mean lifelong separation from family and friends, as even the most trivial encounter with the police in America - say, over a traffic offence - could lead to jail.
Many of the deserters are not pacifists, against war per se, but they view the Iraq war as wrong. First Lt Watada, for instance, said he would face prison rather than serve in Iraq, though he was prepared to pack his bags for Afghanistan to fight in a war that he considered just. They don't want to face the military courts, which is why they have decided to flee to Canada. A generation ago, Canada welcomed Vietnam-war draft dodgers and deserters. Today, the political climate is different and the score or so of US deserters who are now north of the border are applying for refugee status. So far, the Canadian government is saying no, so cases rejected for refugee status are going to appeal in the federal courts.
But there is no guarantee that these exiles will ultimately find safe haven in Canada. If the federal courts rule against the soldiers and they then exhaust all further judicial possibilities, they may be deported back to the United States - and that may not be what the Americans want. Their presence in the US will in itself represent yet another public-relations headache for the Bush administration.
Read the rest of this article
Return to top
And Now they Send More
Huffington Post
by Peter Laufer
August 23, 2006
As I travel the country telling the stories of the soldiers I profile in my book Mission Rejected: U.S. Soldiers Who Say No to Iraq, one question recurs regularly from the audiences I speak with and it is a question that is all-but-impossible to answer: How many soldiers oppose the war in Iraq?
Today weâ??re closer to an educated guess.
We know that of the million soldiers who have cycled through the Afghanistan and Iraq war theaters, only a tiny fraction have made the bold and brave move to publicly reject the Iraq War and refuse to deploy or redeploy to the war. But from those who have come out publicly against the war, we hear stories of their compatriots in uniform who are quietly opposed to the Bush Administrationâ??s failed Iraq policy. These soldiers may be just waiting out their tours of duty, counting the days while trying to stay alive. Others may be considering damaging themselves slightly in order to be sent back to Germany or home for treatment. Still others are deciding to fail drug tests in order to force a discharge order before they face deployment. And of course some are doing the jobs they signed up for, but out of a sense of duty to the armed services and their colleagues-in-arms, not because they subscribe to perpetually changing war rationalizations coming out of the White House.
This week weâ??ve learned that the Marines sought and received approval to recall thousands of troops to active duty. Why? Because the service suffers a shortage of volunteers for Iraq duty. The Army has been engaged in forcing troops back to active duty since the invasion. Already some 14,000 Army troops have been shipped to Iraq under such orders. We can assume that plenty of them are not gung-ho about Bushâ??s war.
These recall affect soldiers in whatâ??s known as the Individual Ready Reserve, comprising troops who are not active duty service men and women but nonetheless have not fulfilled the entire eight-year commitment to possible active duty status that is obligatory when one joins the military. Under usual circumstances, when the armed services do not face shortfalls or a lack of volunteers for needed duties, soldiers serve four years of that commitment as active duty troops and then can elect to serve the remaining four in the Ready Reserve, a role that requires showing up for duty only one day a month â?? unless they are involuntarily recalled.
The fact that both the Marines and the Army are faced with dipping into the Ready Reserve to force soldiers back to Iraq is another indication that more and more soldiers are opposed to the war. What will be important to watch now is how many refuse this recall to active duty.
I know at least one who says heâ??ll refuse. I met him near his base in Heidelberg, Germany as he was about to go off active duty.
â??Iâ??m susceptible for the next five years to the Inactive Reserves.,â? he told me. â??These guys can call me up anytime. But I wonâ??t come back.â?
â??What will happen if they call you back?â? I asked.
â??Youâ??ll see me on the news. I wonâ??t be back. Iâ??ll be a statistic of a guy who doesnâ??t show up.â? His voice was quiet as he said again, â??Iâ??m not coming back.â? Steven Casey told me heâ??s going to college when he gets home, an education heâ??ll pay for with the money the Army guaranteed him when he enlisted. â??I did get what I was promised,â? he said about his benefits package. â??I got everything they said I was going to get,â? he said about the tuition money. â??I got a hunk of money for school, and with that I got social anxiety and I got this cool skin rash that Iâ??m never going to get rid of. Iâ??ve got a social disorder. I yell at my wife. I donâ??t think I won. There are a lot of things that came with this that are irreparable and Iâ??m going to have the rest of my life.â?
He said he feels as if his life has been on pause.
â??Iâ??m not giving up my school to go do this again â?? an unjustified war for these evil people. Iâ??ll go to jail. I donâ??t care. Iâ??m not going back. Jail is not something you want to have on your record, but neither is unjustified murder. I would rather go to jail and not kill anyone, than to go over there and have a chance to kill an innocent person again. Itâ??s not going to happen. Iâ??ll do anything not to go back. Thereâ??re many avenues, Iâ??ll think of one of them, one of them is going to work for me. Iâ??m not going back.â? His voice got louder and stronger. â??Iâ??m not going back to work for these people. Iâ??ve been to war. I was an eighteen-year-old kid who went to war. Iâ??m done.â?
Steven Casey and the other courageous soldiers rejecting this war need our loud and active support.
Return to top
Not Shooting our Heros: It's a Start
Huffington Post
by Peter Laufer
August 17, 2006
The U.S. government hasn't shot military deserters since World War II (progress), but are we yet ready to recognize Iraq War deserters as heroes fighting on the front lines for our nation's soul?
History often mocks contemporary actions, and it is incumbent for us to make careful choices as we react to the soldiers now rejecting duty in the Iraq War.
This last weekend I was at the Veterans for Peace convention in Seattle, a collection of soldiers from a variety of our nation's conflicts who now seek alternatives to war. I attended a picnic on the U.S.-Canadian border honoring those soldiers who have fled to Canada, deserting rather than fighting a war they are convinced is illegal and immoral. While in the Northwest I read from my book Mission Rejected to crowds up and down the Puget Sound who support the deserters and the other soldiers who are refusing Iraq duty.
Read the rest of this article
Return to top
Soldiers No One's Counting
Huffington Post
by Peter Laufer
August 11, 2006
U.S. soldiers refusing to fight in Iraq can now embrace new compatriots: Israeli soldiers refusing to fight in Lebanon. The news from Israel is that today's war is popular with most Israelis. That may be true, but there are some Israelis opposed to the war, and some Israeli soldiers rejecting the call to duty.
Amir Paster is a captain in the Iraeli Army Reserves, and a student at Tel Aviv University. He's serving a month in a military prison for his rejection of the mission, calling Israel's attacks in Lebanon contrary to the values he was brought up to believe because of the heavy civilian casualties. His is the first report of a soldier refusing to cross into Lebanon for the current Middle East war to fight what nevertheless continues to be a popular battle among Israelis.
The number of Israeli refuseniks is small, but not inconsequential. Anti-war soldier support groups say some 160 Israeli soldiers have gone to prison rather than to war since the current Intifada started.
Meanwhile here in the United States a CNN-commissioned poll suggests that 60 percent of Americans now oppose the war in Iraq.
Read the rest of this article
Return to top
Most. Disgusting. Thing. Ever.
Huffington Post
by Peter Laufer
August 9, 2006
Did you see the story being floated that the U.S. Army is considering outsourcing Fort Belvoir as a propaganda tool? According to the Washington Post, the idea is to build a military theme park at the suburban Virginia fort, which is located just across the Potomac from that other theme park, Washington, DC.
The Army apparently is rationalizing the theme park concept as a device to help pay the costs of the Army museum already planned for Ft. Belvoir. And they're entertaining proposals from a Florida developer who imagines a Disney-like approach to the opportunity. The Post quotes from the proposal, "You can command the latest M-1 tank, feel the rush of a paratrooper freefall, fly a Cobra Gunship or defend your B-17 as a waist gunner."
What a spectacular recruiting device a military theme park might seem to the Pentagon brass, especially at a time when the Army is facing serious problems meeting its quotas for new soldiers. And what neat diversion at a time when the number of Army and other U.S. military casualties in Afghanistan and Iraq is approaching the total killed during the September 11 attacks.
The Army as family entertainment!
Read the rest of this article
Return to top
Let the Soldiers Testify
Huffington Post
by Peter Laufer
August 4, 2008
â??Whatâ??s going on in Iraq?â? That was the belabored question members of the Senate Armed Forces Committee peppered the U.S. military leadership with the other day when they appeared, grudgingly, to testify about the disaster they are overseeing in Iraq.
The senators are asking the wrong soldiers. If the Committee really wants to know whatâ??s happening in Iraq, they should ask representatives of the million soldiers who have already served in Afghanistan and Iraq to come up to Capitol Hill and tell some war stories.
Did you hear the extraordinary pained silence when Senator McCain asked Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Peter Pace if he had a hint a year ago that the war would be going so wrong today? Finally General Pace acknowledged, â??No.â? He went on to testify that the â??enemyâ? cannot defeat the U.S. military in battle but that they believe they can wear us down as a nation. That wonâ??t happen, insisted the general, because U.S. soldiers are proud of what theyâ??re doing and are reenlisting in record numbers.
Read the rest of this article
Return to top
What If They Say No?
Huffington Post
by Peter Laufer
July 31, 2006
The intense Hezbollah-Israeli fighting these last days keeps the Iraq War off the front pages, despite the fact that, as Frank Rich points out in the New York Times, the ongoing daily Iraq casualty count far exceeds the death toll in Lebanon and Israel. Columnist Rich even quotes my new friend, Fox News commentator Bill Oâ??Reilly, to emphasize what he perceives as Americaâ??s fatigue with bad news from Iraq: â??It is depressing to pay attention to this war on terror,â? Oâ??Reilly told his July audience.
â??I mean, itâ??s summertime.â?
So the American troops in Iraq soldier on, more and more out of the limelight, their vulnerability and sacrifice growing. Growing too is the rebellion in the ranks that I document in my book Mission Rejected. A timely example of how the war is tearing at the conscience of the troops came in an email I received the other day from a conflicted soldier. He is an army reservist, a counterintelligence agent who served in Afghanistan, where he was awarded two Bronze Star medals for his valor.
Read the rest of this article
Return to top
Bill O'Reilly and Me
Huffington Post
by Peter Laufer July 28, 2006
What an unlikely pair. It was all on the up-and-up. A producer from the show called the publisher of my book Wetback Nation the other day (the paperback edition is coming out), and invited me to appear on his TV show. I spent a couple of days deciding whether to accept the invitation.
I sought advice from colleagues and friends, and I watched clips of the show, checking out O'Reilly's frequent use of guests as whipping boys for the soapbox that is his act. Is this something I wanted to subject myself to, and if so, why?
I learned a lot about our culture (and my friends and colleagues) in those few days I was contemplating the invitation. No one I asked suggested I turn down the offer to appear on the box. Everyone I asked was familiar with his show (it is the highest-rated of its ilk, some 2.5 million views nightly). And perhaps most interesting, this pack of ad hoc advisors I assembled â?? worldly, sophisticated, and usually blasé about celebrity â?? were quite taken by the idea of a face-off with Bill O'Reilly. "You've been asked to appear on the O'Reilly show?" Most of them initially responded with a taste of awe when I came to them for advice. TV is potent stuff, and when it is combined with a character such as O'Reilly, no matter how repugnant some say they find him, there is a magnetism about the medium that's all but irresistible.
My publisher wanted me to make the appearance. Understandable. There are 2.5 million potential book buyers out in the O'Reilly audience. If we get one percent of them to buy Wetback Nation, that certainly is worth five minutes in center ring.
Read the rest of this article
Return to top
The Citizenship Draft
Huffington Post
by Peter Laufer
July 26, 2006
President Bush showed up for a photo-op at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington the other day where he'd come to witness the naturalization ceremony for three U.S. soldiers wounded in Iraq. The three were injured in bomb explosions so their active duty status made them eligible for citizenship. The president looked on sanctimoniously as the wounded trio - two from Mexico, one from the Dominican Republic - became Americans.
Fair enough, and good for them. If they're going to work for the American military, they ought to enjoy the benefits of American citizenship.
Here's the history: After the September 11th attacks, President Bush signed an executive order creating a fast-track for citizenship for foreigners who joined the U.S. Armed Forces and served on active duty. Non citizens swell the military ranks these days by more than 33,000 troops and military recruiters actively seek foreigners for the services, trolling especially for Mexicans while giving away t-shirts emblazoned with the legend: "Yo Soy el Army" and showing off customized Hum-Vees. With the army struggling to meet recruitment quotas, citizenship is offered as an enticement - an enticement that can kick in if the soldier sees active duty.
Read the rest of this article
Return to top
Breaking News: "Deserter" Pushes the Envelope
Huffington Post
by Peter Laufer
July 24, 2006
I've got breaking news to report about a U.S. soldier who deserted to Canada rather than be redeployed to fight in Iraq. Darrell Anderson is his name, I first met him last year while researching my book about U.S. soldiers rejecting the mission in Iraq. And he's not just any soldier. This veteran of the gruesome street fighting in Iraq came home with a Purple Heart, awarded for his injuries in gruesome George Bush's war of choice.
I've written about Darrell here at Huffington Post before, and passed along his stories of the how the war is decimating Iraqi civilians.
Darrell has been engaged in a political battle up in Canada, trying to convince the government there to grant him refugee status. But when I spoke with him the other day he told me he's realized his fight is not with the Canadian government, but with the Bush Administration. So he had another life-changing epiphany; he's had second thoughts about his exile up north. Not that he's worried much about deportation: He married a Canadian woman since I saw him, a romantic decision that probably will guarantee him permanent residency.
Here's what's happened. Darrell has decided to return to the U.S. He expects to be arrested when he presents himself to authorities at the border.
Read the rest of this article
Return to top
Damage Behind the Damage
Huffington Post
Peter Laufer
July 24, 2006
The pictures of war damage in Lebanon are horrible, along with the rising number of civilian deaths, not just there but also in Israel and Gaza, as the latest fighting continues. But these latest Middle East battles are obscuring reports from Iraq on the increasing number of civilians killed there in the land of President Bush's Mission Accomplished. One hundred a day for the last month. One hundred. And that's just the official toll.
The tragedy of civilian deaths in Iraq is devastating. U.S. troops assigned to the kind of duty that leaves innocent civilians damaged and destroyed are also victims. The escalating number of troops returning from the was suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is proof.
When I was researching Mission Rejected, my book that profiles U.S. soldiers opposed to the Iraq War, one after another soldiers told me of being devastated by orders that put them in the position of obeying bad orders that forced them to shoot noncombatants.
Read the rest of this article
Return to top
Always Assume the Mic Is On
Huffington Post
Peter Laufer
July 18, 2006
Always assume the mic is on. That mantra is essential to survival as a broadcaster, and those of us who grew up in radio know it well. Classic is the perhaps apocryphal story of the radio personality Uncle Don who finished his popular children's program, thought the microphone was off, and said about his audience, "That ought to hold the little bastards."
So do you really think that President Bush was caught unaware at the G-8 summit when his comments about how to solve the new fighting in the Middle East and his preference for Diet Coke were recorded for the world to hear? How about a different scenario: He knew that microphone was on. Let's not be too quick to label the President and the Administration as always clumsy.
Read the rest of this article
Return to top
An American in Berlin (Still Thinking About Iraq)
Huffington Post
Peter Laufer
July 6, 2006
I was just in Berlin to accept a prize for Mission Rejected, my book about American soldiers who oppose the Bush Administration war on Iraq. The prize comes from the German Körber Foundation; I was one of many prize recipients who were recognized for projects that help people engaged in life transitions.
At the elaborate awards ceremony, the U.S. ambassador to Germany, William R. Timken, Jr., made one of the keynote addresses. Timken stood up in front a crowd of German intellectuals and launched into his self-serving speech in English. He didn't bother with a nicety such as a perfunctory, "Guten Tag." He didn't even bother saying, "Excuse me for speaking English, but I'm still working on my German." No. This political appointee just did a Bush -- he was almost reminiscent of the colonialists in a Forster novel, minus the charm.
Read the rest of this article
Return to top
Bush's Baghdad is no Budapest
Huffington Post
Peter Laufer
June 28, 2006
It's been fifty years since Hungarians took to the streets of Budapest in an attempt to overthrow the communist government. Moscow sent in tanks and troops and crushed the rebellion. Washington watched. It was the middle of the cold war and the two superpowers had already agreed on how they were going to carve up post-World War II Europe. Hungary went to the Red Army.
Hungarians then cleverly created goulash communism: a coming to terms temporarily with the realpolitik of Soviet domination in a manner that allowed for freedoms and productivity unheard of in the rest of the Soviet bloc. Fast forward to the crumbling of the Berlin Wall and remember that it was the Hungarians who opened the sieve to allow East Germans to move to western Europe in their clattering Trabbies - a decision that led directly to the opening of the Wall. After that the dominoes fell fast and Soviet troops finally went home from the Warsaw Pact nations, Hungary included.
Read the rest of this article
Return to top
Why Isn't the Media Talking About the Growing Resistance Within the Military to Bush Policy in Iraq?
Huffington Post
by Peter Laufer
June 23, 2006
Over and over when people ask me what I'm working on and I tell them about the collected stories of opposition, about the profiles in Mission Rejected, I hear comments like, "There are soldiers against the war? But it's a volunteer army..."
Civilians sometimes ask why these men and women join the military.
Not really. Too often we forget about the insidious and quiet though steady draft by default that comes from the endless ranks of the poor in the United States who are beguiled by the lure of a better life. Then there's stop loss. The true volunteers are not necessarily in lock step regarding policy. And more and more we see the result of this contention among the ranks: Soldiers are mustering out. They are joining groups like Veterans for Peace and Iraq Veterans against the War. They are filing for conscientious objector status. They are going AWOL. They are deserting to Canada.
Read the rest of this article
Return to top
Rot Runs Deep in Recruiting Soldiers for Iraq
Huffington Post
Peter Laufer
June 22, 2006
While researching Mission Rejected, I traveled all over the United States,Canada, and Germany talking with soldiers who refused to deploy (or redeploy) to Iraq, and I've met civilians who ask: Why did these men and women join the military if they don't want to fight? Didn't they realize that there's a war going on and the army is in the killing (and be killed) business?
The rot in our current government's policy runs deep. Army recruiters, desperate to meet their quotas of two enlistees a month, seduce their targets with promises. They guarantee money for college, school the new recruit won't have time to attend. They pledge that the potential soldier will get a good job in the service and won't see Iraq, let alone combat. They take their targets out for pizza and show off their fancy cars, implying that fine food and a cool ride comes with the uniform.
These targets of the recruiters -- our young people, our future -- are all too often under-educated and desperate for a paycheck. The lure of adventure is also appealing. They believe the recruiting sergeant. Why would he or she lie?
Read the rest of the article
Return to top
Soldiers Resisting Bush's War: A Growing Phenomenon
Huffington Post
by Peter Laufer
June 21, 2006
For the last year I've been traveling across the U.S. and making trips to Canada and Germany to meet with the growing number of soldiers who come to the difficult moral decision that they must disobey their commanding officers' orders to fight in Iraq. It's been inspirational to hear of their epiphanies and to witness their resolve. There are more and more soldiers who refuse to go in the first place, citing what they learned in basic training: It's their duty to disobey an illegal or immoral order. Soldiers and would-be soldiers are resisting this war, Bush's war--not the military. It's a growing phenomenon.
So here's the question that's been building these past months and weeks: Why hasn't the public embraced the growing number of U.S. soldiers who refuse duty in Iraq or those who come back from active duty in Iraq opposed to the war?
Read the rest of this article
Return to top
Print this page.
