Meet the Bring Them Home Now!
coordinating committee:
David Cline served in Vietnam in 1967 as a rifleman with the 25th
Infantry Division. He was awarded three Purple Hearts, a Bronze Star,
CIB and other medals. He is also disabled from the wounds he received.
He was an early member of Vietnam Veterans Against the War and is currently
a VVAW national coordinator. He is a former officer of Transport Workers
Union Local 1400 in New Jersey. David is the president of Veterans
For Peace, and president of the Jersey City Vietnam Veterans Memorial
Committee.
Stan Goff, of Raleigh, N.C., began his military career in the U.S.
Army in 1970 and retired as a Special Forces Master Sergeant in 1996.
He served in Ranger, Airborne and Special Forces counter-terrorist
units, in eight conflict areas. He has since become a respected commentator
on military matters and an outspoken critic of the U.S. occupation
of Iraq. He is the author of Hideous Dream and the forthcoming Full
Spectrum Disorder (both from Soft
Skull Press). Stan's son Jessie serves
in the U.S. Army and has just been deployed to Iraq.
Nancy Lessin and Charley Richardson are co-founders of Military Families
Speak Out, an organization of families opposed to the U.S. invasion
and now the occupation of Iraq, all of whom have loved ones in the
military. Their son Joe is a Marine who was deployed in August 2002,
and who returned from Iraq on Memorial Day 2003. Nancy and Charley
live in the Boston area and are both active in the labor movement.
Michael T. McPhearson, a native of Fayetteville, NC, was a field artillery
officer of the 24th Mechanized Infantry Division during Desert Shield/Desert
Storm. His military career includes 6 years of reserve service and
5 years active duty service. Now living in Bloomfield, N.J. and a member
of Veterans For Peace, Michael works as an activist and facilitator
to help bring about social and economic justice. He is the father of
an eighteen-year-old son who is planning to join the Army in September.
Dennis O'Neil is an associate member
of Veterans For Peace and a postal worker from NYC. During the US Postal
anthrax
crisis of 2001 (caused
by a biological weapon bred at a US Army facility), the machines he
works on were contaminated. A fellow union member, Thomas Morris, Jr.
of Washington, DC, died of anthrax after being assured by postal management
that there was no danger. Morris's last words were "I have a tendency
not to believe these people..." That sums up how Dennis feels
about the Bush administration.
Michael Uhl, PhD, served in Vietnam
as a 1st Lieutenant, leading a combat intelligence team with the 11th
Infantry Brigade, based in
Quang Ngai Province (I Corps). He became active in the anti-Vietnam
War movement in 1969, and testified about U.S. war crimes in Vietnam.
Michael is co-founder of Citizen Soldier, and now works as a professional
writer. With Tod Ensign, he wrote G.I. Guinea Pigs: How the Pentagon
Exposed Our Troops to Dangers More Deadly Than War, the first
national expose on Agent Orange. He is a charter member of Veterans
For Peace
(Chapter 001, Maine), and belongs to both the DAV and VFW as well.
The use of the address <www.bringthemhomenow.com> was generously granted
by Andrew Boyd, activist and graphic artist. His original site
contained many "Bring Them Home Now" bumperstickers, posters, and other
graphics.
To see it, and to order bumperstickers
and other items, click here.
PRESS RELEASE – August
11, 2003
Military
Families Gather in Crawford on August
23 to Tell George Bush "Bring Them Home Now!"
News Advisory:
(Crawford, Texas)– On August 23, 2003 military
families, veterans and other concerned citizens from the state will
converge on the Crawford Football Field from 4:00 PM until 8:00 PM
with one clear
message, “ Enough is enough, bring the troops home now!”.
Backed by the group Military Families Speak Out, protesters carrying
signs bearing pictures of their loved ones in the military want to
show George Bush the faces of the men and women he is putting in imminent
danger day after day. “George Bush said, “Bring ‘em
on!” but we say BRING THEM HOME!” said Nancy Lessin, co-founder
of Military Families Speak Out, one of the organizations launching ‘Bring
Them Home Now’.
“If fighting is truly over in Iraq, then our soldiers should be on their
way home, not being killed at the rate of one a day. Their presence in that region
is purely political and George Bush needs to be shown the families are not going
to sit back and accept our loved ones being killed anymore,” said
Joe Gordon, father-in-law of a reservist currently serving in Iraq.
On May 1, 2003 George Bush announced that major fighting is over in Iraq.
Since that day we have lost 55 soldiers to combat related injuries. On
average, we
are losing one American soldier a day. Over the weekend George Bush seemed “upbeat” about
the progress that is being made in the region, while four more soldiers
were being wounded in ambushes. For military families this is unacceptable.
For
anyone who claims to support our troops, this should be unacceptable.
“
I never want to talk with my kids about their dad in the past tense. I don’t
want to have to explain to my kids that their father died in a war that should
never have been fought. If I don’t fight to get him home, the chances of
that happening increase everyday. I can’t allow that to happen to my or
any family of an American soldier,” protest organizer Candance Robison
stated.
Until this point, many family members have hesitated to speak out for fear
of retribution on their soldiers and themselves. “It is time to speak out
because our troops are still dying and our government is still lying,” said
Robison. ”Morale is at an all time low and our heroes feel like they’ve
been forgotten,” Robison continued. “We are gathering in Crawford
to let them know we do care and to let George Bush know we will not stop
speaking out until every American soldier is brought home safely.”
###
On Wednesday
August 13th, Bring Them Home Now! launced our campaign with a nationally-televised
press conference. View
the video footage on C-SPAN.org, and read the press release
below:
. . . . . .
PRESS RELEASE – August 7, 2003
Military Families, Veterans Demand End to Occupation of Iraq,
Immediate Return of All U.S. Troops to Home Duty Stations
News Advisory:
Galvanized to action by George W. Bush's inane
and reckless "Bring
'em on" challenge to armed Iraqi's resisting occupation, Military
Families Speak Out, Veterans for Peace and other organizations
based in the military community will launch Bring Them Home Now,
a campaign aimed at ending the U.S. occupation of Iraq and returning
troops to their home bases, at press conferences on August 13 in
Washington, D.C; and on August 14 in Fayetteville, N.C.
 |
 |
U.S. military casualties from the occupation of Iraq have been
more than twice the number most Americans have been led to believe
because of an extraordinarily high number of accidents, suicides
and other non-combat deaths in the ranks that have gone largely
unreported in the media. The other underreported cost of the war
for US soldiers is the number of American wounded-827, officially,
since Operation Iraqi Freedom began. (Unofficial figures are in
the thousands.) About half have been injured since Bush's triumphant
claim on board the aircraft carrier USS Lincoln at the beginning
of May that major combat was over.
The mission of the Bring them Home Now campaign is
to unite the voices of military families, veterans, and GIs themselves
to demanding:
an end to the occupation of Iraq and other misguided military adventures
and an immediate return of all US troops to their home duty stations.
In Washington, D.C., and Fayetteville, N.C., Veterans and Military
Families will raise concerns about current conditions in Iraq that
their
loved ones and other troops are facing such as the lack of planning
and support troops are receiving, as well as questions about the
justifications used to send troops to Iraq in the first place.
WHO:
Military Families and Veterans (See list of speakers
below)
WHAT:
Press Conference to launch the Bring Them Home
Now Campaign
WHEN:
Wednesday August 13, 2003 10 a.m. ; & Thursday,
August 14, 2003 10:00am
WHERE:
8/13: National Press Club, West Room (529 14th Street
NW Washington, D.C.) ; 8/14: Quaker House 223 Hillside Ave. Fayetteville
NC 28301
Speakers Include:
Moderators: Nancy Lessin and Charley
Richardson, co-founders,
Military Families Speak Out, an organization of families opposed
to the U.S. invasion and now occupation of Iraq who all have loved
ones in the military. Their son Joe is a Marine who was deployed
in August 2002 and who returned from Iraq on Memorial Day 2003.
Susan Schuman, from Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts, is the mother
of Justin C. Schuman, a sergeant in the Massachusetts National
Guard. Justin was deployed to Iraq from Fort Bragg, North Carolina,
on March 29, 2003, and is stationed in Samarra, north of Baghdad.
Michael T. McPhearson, a native of Fayetteville, North Carolina
was a field artillery officer of the 24th Mechanized Infantry Division
during Desert Shield/Desert Storm. His military career includes
6 years of reserve service and 5 years active duty service. Now
living in Bloomfield, N.J. and a member of Veterans For Peace,
Michael works as an activist and facilitator to help bring about
social and economic justice. He is the father of an eighteen-year-old
son who is planning to join the Army in September.
Fernando Suarez del Solar, of Escondido, Calif., is the father
of Marine Lance Cpl Jesus Suarez, one of the first U.S. servicemen
killed in Iraq (March 27, 2003). Suarez is seeking the truth behind
why his son and others were sent to their deaths in Iraq.
Stan Goff, of Raleigh, N.C., began a military carrier in the U.S.
Army in 1970 and retired as a Special Forces Master Sergeant in
1996. He served in Ranger, Airborne and Special Forces counter-terrorist
units, in eight conflict areas. He has become an astute commentator
on military matters and an outspoken critic of the U.S. occupation
of Iraq. His son serves in the U.S. Army and has just been deployed
to Iraq.
Other military family members and veterans will be
present and available for questions.
###
|
