'The US military is exhausted'

By Sarah Lazare

The call for over 30,000 more troops to be sent to Afghanistan is a
travesty for the people of that country who have already suffered
eight brutal years of occupation.

The US army is overstretched and exhausted, says peace campaigner
Sarah Lazare [AFP]

It is also a harsh blow to the US soldiers facing imminent deployment.

As Barack Obama, the US president, gears up for a further escalation
that will bring the total number of troops in Afghanistan to over
100,000, he faces a military force that has been exhausted and
overextended by fighting two wars.

Many from within the ranks are openly declaring that they have had
enough, allying with anti-war veterans and activists in calling for an
end to the US-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, with some active duty
soldiers publicly refusing to deploy.

This growing movement of military refusers is a voice of sanity in a
country slipping deeper into unending war.

The architects of this war would be well-advised to listen to the
concerns of the soldiers and veterans tasked with carrying out their
war policies on the ground.

"They shifted me from one war to the next" Eddie Falcon, Iraq and
Afghanistan veteran

Many of those being deployed have already faced multiple deployments
to combat zones: the 101st Airborne Division, which will be deployed
to Afghanistan in early 2010, faces its fifth combat tour since 2002.

"They are just going to start moving the soldiers who already served
in Iraq to Afghanistan, just like they shifted me from one war to the
next," said Eddie Falcon, a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War
(IVAW), who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Soldiers are going to start coming back with Post-Traumatic Stress
Disorder (PTSD), missing limbs, problems with alcohol, and
depression."

Many of these troops are still suffering the mental and physical
fallout from previous deployments.

Rates of PTSD and traumatic brain injury among troops deployed to Iraq
and Afghanistan have been disproportionately high, with a third of
returning troops reporting mental problems and 18.5 per cent of all
returning service members battling either PTSD or depression,
according to a study by the Rand Corporation.

Marine suicides doubled between 2006 and 2007, and army suicides are
at the highest rate since records were kept in 1980.

Resistance in the ranks

US army soldiers are refusing to serve at the highest rate since 1980,
with an 80 per cent increase in desertions since the invasion of Iraq
in 2003, according to the Associated Press.

These troops refuse deployment for a variety of reasons: some because
they ethically oppose the wars, some because they have had a negative
experience with the military, and some because they cannot
psychologically survive another deployment, having fallen victim to
what has been termed "Broken Joe" syndrome.

Over 150 GIs have publicly refused service and spoken out against the
wars, all risking prison and some serving long sentences, and an
estimated 250 US war resisters are currently taking refuge in Canada.

This resistance includes two Fort Hood, Texas, soldiers, Victor Agosto
and Travis Bishop, who publicly resisted deployment to Afghanistan
this year, facing prison sentences as a result, with Bishop still
currently detained.

"There is no way I will deploy to Afghanistan," wrote Agosto, upon
refusing his service last May. "The occupation is immoral and unjust."

The war in Afghanistan is losing support in the US [AFP]

Within the US military, GI resisters and anti-war veterans have
organised through broad networks of veteran and civilian alliances, as
well as through IVAW, comprised of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans.

This organisation, which is over 1,700 strong, with members across the
world, including active-duty members on military bases, is opposed to
the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and openly supports GI resistance.

"Iraq Veterans Against the War calls on Obama to end the war in
Afghanistan (and Iraq) by withdrawing troops immediately and
unconditionally," wrote Jose Vasquez, the executive director of IVAW,
in a December 2 open letter.

"It's not time for our brothers and sisters in arms to go to
Afghanistan. It's time for them to come home."

No clear progress

GI coffee houses have sprung up at several military bases around the
country. In the tradition of the GI coffee houses of the Vietnam war
era, these cafes provide a space where active duty troops can speak
freely and access resources about military refusal, PTSD, and veteran
and GI movements against the war.

"Here at Fort Lewis, we've lost 20 soldiers from the most recent round
of deployments," said Seth Menzel, an Iraq combat veteran and founding
organiser of Coffee Strong, a GI coffee house at the sprawling
Washington army base.

"We've seen resistance to deployment, mainly based on the fact that
soldiers have been deployed so many times they don't have the patience
to do it again."

As the occupation of Afghanistan passes its eighth year, with no clear
progress, goals that remain elusive, and a high civilian death count,
this war is coming to resemble the Iraq war that has been roundly
condemned by world and US public opinion.

The never-ending nature of this conflict belies the real project of
establishing US dominance in the Middle East and control of the
region's resources, at the expense of the Afghan civilians and US
soldiers being placed in harm's way.

The voices of refusal coming from within the US military send a
powerful message that soldiers will not be fodder for an unjust and
unnecessary war. By withdrawing their labour from a war that depends
on their consent, these soldiers have the power to help bring this war
to an end, as did their predecessors in the GI resistance movement
against the Vietnam war.

And the longer the war in Afghanistan drags on - the more lives that
are lost and destroyed - the more resistance we will see coming from
within the ranks.

Sarah Lazare is an anti-militarist and GI resistance organiser with
Dialogues Against Militarism and Courage to Resist. She is interested
in connecting struggles for justice at home with global movements
against war and empire.

The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not
necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.

Article Source : http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2009/12/200912883024475217.html
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