Hundreds of veterans returned from Iraq ready to fight the horror and injustice of the U.S. military industrial complex.By Derek Seidman ,
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This year marks the 20th anniversary of the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. It also marks 20 years since the birth of the massive global antiwar movement that opposed the war.
One of the most compelling wings of that movement involved the hundreds of U.S. veterans who protested the war and occupation. In late 2004, I met Patrick Resta, an army medic who served in Iraq and came home to join the newly formed Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW). Resta became a leader within the group and spent nearly two years of his life organizing tirelessly against the war. I recently reconnected with Resta to revisit his and IVAW’s story for Truthout.
Today is Veterans Day, a holiday that can feed into unquestioning worship of militarism. Instead, on this Veterans Day, two decades after the invasion, with war drums growing louder across the world, we can choose to remember those who spoke out about the horrors and injustices of the war on Iraq and dedicated themselves to ending the occupation.
