Breaking Ranks: Troops Call for Iraq Withdrawal
By Charles E. Anderson
t r u t h o u t | Guest Contributor
Sunday 14 January 2007
Norfolk, Virginia - On Wednesday, January 10, President George W. Bush announced that he would be sending 21,500 more troops to Iraq as early as Monday. "The escalation of this war is very disappointing," said Mass Communications Specialist Third Class, Jonathan Hutto, 29, a sailor stationed aboard the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt. Ironically, as the additional troops begin arriving in Iraq Monday morning, Hutto and other active duty troops will hold a press conference at a church in Norfolk. On Tuesday morning, the group will travel to Washington to present the Appeal for Redress of Grievances from the US Congress to US Representative Dennis Kucinich.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ To date, over 1,000 active-duty members of the US military have signed it. While signers of the appeal span the ranks from private to rear admiral, the average signatory is a corporal or sergeant and has completed at least one tour of duty in Iraq +++++++++++++++++. Hutto says +++++ that he came to believe "there is no contradiction ... between serving out your duty and having a questioning attitude towards those orders [and] those directives that are given down from your chain of command, especially as it pertains to war, especially as it pertains to this current occupation, especially as it pertains to how resources are allocated in our society." +++++++++++
When asked what changed his mind about the Iraq War, Hutto replies that there is an assumption that service in Iraq is the primary reason young people join the military today. "That is not the case," he says, "That is not the overriding issue as to why men and women join the military today. The overriding issue is not raw patriotism, although I am not going to say that the people in the military are … unpatriotic, they are proud of [their] country. But the overriding issue is one of economics. It is one of sustainability. It's being in a society where there are not enough resources, where there is not a right to education and job security. For a lot of these young people in the military it is a way out." Hutto is not alone. As few as thirty-five percent of Americans support the war. It is not surprising that support for the war within the military is declining.
Troop opposition is growing !!
