----
Note: On August 30, 1990, 22-year-old Marine Corporal Jeff
Paterson refused to board a military plane in Hawaii heading to
Saudi Arabia. He was the first active-duty military resister in the
U.S.-led attack on Iraq. The photo of Jeff sitting on the airstrip,
defying orders to go fight in the Gulf War, appeared on TV and in
newspapers around the world. Later Jeff edited the Anti-WARrior
newsletter of military resistance to the Gulf War. Jeff currently
resides in the San Francisco Bay Area and is a member of Vietnam
Veterans Against the War Anti-Imperialist
(http://www.oz.net/~vvawai). He can be reached through VVAW-AI,
or directly at emailjp@post.com.
-----
In August 1990 I was an active duty U.S. Marine Corps Corporal. I
was ordered to the Middle East -- the Gulf War was about to come.
Four years prior -- thinking I had nothing better to do with my life
-- I
had walked into the Salinas, California recruiting station and told
them to "put me where I was most needed."
"What am I going to do with my life?" has always been a huge
question for youth, and today, in the wake of the horror and tragedy
of September 11th, this question has increased importance for
millions of young people.
No one who has seen the images will ever forget. In a scene as
unreal as a Hollywood picture, a conflict reached into American
reality in an unthinkable way. Copy clerks to admin assistants,
restaurant workers to firefighters -- thousands of lives ripped away
from friends and family. Now the television shouts, "revenge,"
"infinite justice," and "something must be done!" Wave a red, white
and blue flag to ease the sorrow, to declare, "We're not going to take
it."
And, I might be like the youth who are going down to the recruiters
now, if I hadn't spent those four years in the Marine Corps. Most of
the time my unit trained to fight a war against peasants who dared
to
struggle against "American interests" in their homelands --
specifically Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala. I saw dire
poverty in the Philippines; U.S. government-sanctioned prostitution
rings to service the U.S. armed forces in South Korea; and unbridled
racism towards the peoples of Okinawa and Japan -- where the
standard response to a child waving a "peace sign" at us with his
fingers was "yeaa, ha ha, two bombs little gook."
I began to understand why billions of people around the world really
do hate the United States -- specifically its war machine, covert
"contra" wars, and the whole system of economic globalization that
replaces hope with 12-hour days locked in sweatshops producing
"Designed in the USA" exports.
Faced with this reality, I began the process of becoming un-
American -- meaning that the interests of the people of the world
began to weigh heavier than my self-interest.
When the U.S. launched the Gulf War, I realized that the world did
not need or want another U.S. troop. Although they did not look
much like me, I found I had more in common with the common
peoples of the Middle East than I did with those who were ordering
me to kill them. My Battalion Commander's reassurance that "if
anything goes wrong we'll nuke the rag heads until they all glow" was
not reassuring.
Up against that, I publicly stated I would not be a pawn in America's
power plays for profits, oil, and domination of the Middle East. I
pledged to resist, and I pledged that if I were dragged out into the
Saudi desert, I would refuse to fight. A few weeks later, I sat down
on the airstrip as hundreds of Marines -- many of whom I had lived
with for years -- filed past me and boarded the plane. I fought the
Gulf War from a military brig, and after worldwide anti-war protesters
helped spring me, we fought the war in the streets.
But back then we failed to stop the war. Since 1990 over 1.5 million
Iraqi people have died -- not mainly from the massive U.S. bombing
which continues from the sky, but from a decade of economic
sanctions. All the while the U.S. government has coldly declared that
these Iraqi deaths are "worth it" in order to achieve strategic regional
objectives. So today, as the U.S. government demands the world
mourn with us for our loss, we in turn are expected to ignore the
suffering that this nation produces.
Every time the U.S. war machine is kicked into high gear,
acknowledgements are made about past "mistakes": Gulf War
sickness, Agent Orange and napalm in Viet Nam, massacres of
refugees in Korea, U.S. troops used as nuclear exposure guinea
pigs after World War II, concentration camps for Japanese-
Americans during World War II. And always: "Trust us, this time it
will be different." But it never is.
One need not be a pacifist, a communist, a Quaker, or a humanist to
oppose this war. However, it certainly helps to be an internationalist
-- realizing that our collective future is bound up with the majority
of
humanity, and not with those who are taking this horrific opportunity
to threaten war. For those woman and men now in uniform, you
have a choice to make. Silence is what your "superiors" expect of
you, but the interests of humanity require more. Think. Speak out.
And if you make the choice to resist, there are hundreds of
thousands who will support you -- many of whom have already taken
to the streets to oppose this war.
Like his father before him, Bush Jr. has drawn a line in the sand:
"Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists." Simply put,
the rulers of the U.S. see much unfinished business for their "New
World Order." While we grieve, they announce that "the normal
rules no longer apply" (translation: now is the time to settle our
scores), and we have "a blank check to act, the nation is united"
(translation: dissent will be ignored, or suppressed as required).
Now
more than ever, the people of the world are not safe from the U.S.,
and the people in the U.S. are not safe from the U.S.
I will not wave the red, white and blue flag -- instead I'll wear a
green
ribbon in solidarity with immigrants and Arab Americans facing
increasing racist attacks. Stop the War. Support the troops who
refuse to fight.
Let's dedicate our lives to changing this situation.