Fighting for Peace: Veterans and Military Families in the Anti–Iraq War Movement

Introduction: The Military Peace Movement

| 1 Introduction The Military Peace Movement In response to a 2011 survey, veterans and military families who considered themselves antiwar activists bemoaned the United States’ continuing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. They pointed to a divide between the military community and the civilian populace as a reason for the wars’ continuation. Larry Syverson, whose three sons served six deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, explained the wars’ impact on his family: Because of the stress generated by deployment, my wife had a difficult time working while our sons were deployed. As a result, before our youngest son’s second deployment to Iraq, she took early retirement. It is the only way she has been able to deal with multiple deployments. Our youngest son was recently divorced. It was a result of his recurring PTSD [posttraumatic stress disorder]. His wife would not accept the mental problems he was having. Twice he has been admitted to a psychiatric ward. It was after the second admission that they were divorced. As Syverson explained, both military servicemembers and their families were emotionally and psychologically devastated by the wars. Like Syverson, many in the military blamed the wars for marital, employment , and other social consequences. What separated Syverson from many in the military was, however, that he had long engaged in protest of the American-led Iraq War that began in 2003 and, later, of the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan. Syverson was quoted in dozens of media outlets, spoke at rallies, and marched in many of the major East Coast protests, but the action that gave him the most pride was his vigil in front of the Richmond, Virginia, federal courthouse, where he held signs that displayed pictures of his sons and messages such as “Iraqi Oil Isn’t Worth My Sons’ 2 | INTRODUCTION Blood.” He explained, “I protested over two hundred times. For many, including the newspaper, I was the face of the antiwar movement in Richmond. I felt—I hope—I influenced other Richmond residents’ views of the wars.” Syverson believed that people paid attention to his view of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan because he was a military parent. LikeSyverson, mostveteransand militaryfamiliesinthe anti– Iraq War movement intended to bring the war home to Americans, who were largely unaffected by these wars because the country had an all-volunteer force (AVF) that comprised less than one-half percent of the overall population. Activists believed this personalization helped turn the tide of public opinion in the United States against the Iraq War. Manyactivistspointtothesummer2005mediastormthatwasgenerated when many veterans and military families held a vigil outside President George W. Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Texas. For one month that summer, while the president vacationed, White House media FIGURE 2. Members of the military peace movement pose for a picture after five hundred of them marched from their national convention near the convention center to the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri, on August 19, 2007. Photograph by the author. INTRODUCTION | 3 correspondents were restless, and this protest, led by the mother of a nineteen-year-old soldier who died in Iraq, offered a counterpoint to coverage of the president’s policies.1 Newspapers across the United States and around the globe described the protest, even on their front pages, and the twenty-four-hour news networks made it a part of their daily news loops. The mother, Cindy Sheehan, demanded a meeting with President Bush so that she could ask him for “what noble cause” her son, Casey, died.2 She set up camp in a roadside ditch and, later, on donated rural property, where she and other activists waited for that meeting. The vigil supporting this request brought over ten thousand people throughout the month to the small rural town of Crawford . Most who came supported Sheehan and stayed multiple days, living in primitive camping conditions on the side of the road leading to the ranch.3 These people, many of whom were veterans and military families, developed a sophisticated system for not only feeding and sheltering each other but also working with the media and getting messages out to supporters across the country. Bumper stickers and T-shirts supporting the vigil cropped up in peace movement communities across the country, with sayings such as “What Noble Cause?” or “Texas Is Bush Cindy Country,” and the protest became known as Camp Casey in honor of Sheehan’s son. Although the media attention...