Active duty troops speak out

A number of people who have actually been there to fight the war in Iraq are speaking out against it. One of them is USMC Sgt. Liam Madden. "There is no benefit to the parties involved, including the American servicemembers, the Iraqi people, and the American people. This is a war for no benefit, in my eyes." he said in an interview on Countdown with Keith Olberman. He has been asked to fight it, so he should have a better grasp of what it takes to fight a war than a TANG pilot who went AWOL rather than submit to drug screening and Dick "5-Defferments" Cheney. (Administrations shouldn't start wars of choice, especially when those at the top are feckless draft dodgers themselves.)

I first heard Sgt. Madden speak up in an interview on The BBC Overnight. He is one of several active duty military members who have begun to send "protected communications" to congressmen and women, requesting that they take action to stop the war in Iraq.

Of course he has been dismissed by the administration as disgruntled. Troops who speak out and speak up are "going to be able to get more press than than the hundreds of thousands who have come back and said they are proud of their service." said Whitehouse mouthpiece Tony Snow. This just illustrates the chasm that has erupted between the administration who cooked this mess up and the troops being asked to fight it. A recent Zogby poll found that 72% of the troops in Iraq favor withdrawal from the conflict.

For the record, Sgt. Madden is proud of his military service, too. Pride in service and being opposed to an illegal war are not mutually exclusive. Indeed, it shows character and depth of intellect. He never claimed he wasn't proud of his service. To dismiss him and the other brave troops who have the temerity to speak up is yet another travesty to come out of this misbegotten, mismanaged, misdirected mistake.

For the record, military personnel can speak up under very specific guidelines. Military personnel can not protest or voice opposition while on base, nor can they wear their uniform while speaking out against US Military policy. Communications they have with members of congress are protected. They can participate in non-violent protests, but again, not in uniform.

As the death-toll spirals upward for both Iraqi's and US military personnel (it currently stands at 2804 confirmed deaths) and the election bears down on the head of the administration that cooked the whole scheme up, I look for more troops to begin voicing opposition to the war in Iraq.

I salute those who take that difficult step.