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

4. Managing and Deploying the Insider–Outsider Identity

| 157 4 Managing and Deploying the Insider–Outsider Identity During a series of events over Mother’s Day weekend in 2006, military peace movement organizations arranged public events, strategy seminars, and legislative meetings in conjunction with the American Friends Service Committee and September 11th Families for a Peaceful Tomorrow. The weekend of events was called Silence of the Dead,VoicesoftheLiving:AWitnesstoEndtheWarinIraq.OnSaturday May 13, veterans and military families led a silent march around the dirt path in the center of the National Mall in Washington, D.C., and to the U.S. Capitol. Iraq Veterans led the march, and Gold Star activists SueNiedererandSummerLipfordledthemilitaryfamilies’contingent. Activists embraced and some cried as they marched.1 Many of these peace activists carried signs that demonstrated their intimate connections to the wars. About one-third of the Gold Star families and most of the military families carried signs with pictures of their deployed, deceased, or soon-to-be-deployed loved onesinuniform . On one sign, Jack Amoureux placed a picture of his brother’s family next to the plea “don’t send my brother back!” written in uppercase black letters. Next to Jack was a woman from MFSO’s Georgia chapter who held two signs: one a black preprinted sign with large red letters that read, “Bring My Daughter Home!” and the other a handmade poster with a stop sign, an MFSO email address, and the words “Stop the Illegal Iraq War!” While these two family members fought for their servicemembers’ lives, Gold Star family members publicly displayed their mourning over their servicemembers’ deaths. With one hand, Carlos Arredondo pulled a wagon made to look like a coffin draped with the American flag while with his other he held a sign with a picture of Lance Corporal Alex Arredondo in his Marine dress uniform lying in his coffin after being killed in Iraq. Joyce Lucey, whose son killed himself as a result of his combat-induced mental 158 | MANAGING AND DEPLOYING THE INSIDER–OUTSIDER IDENTITY FIGURE 15. On May 13, 2006, members of Veterans for Peace, Military Families Speak Out, Gold Star Families for Peace/Speak Out, and Iraq Veterans Against the War hold a silent march on the National Mall as part of the series of events Silence of the Dead, Voices of the Living: A Witness to End the War in Iraq. Photographs by author. MANAGING AND DEPLOYING THE INSIDER–OUTSIDER IDENTITY | 159 illness, held a sign that in large, bold lettering read, “The Human Cost ofWar,”andthatinsmallerwritingread,“inlovingmemory ofCorporal Jeffrey Lucey,” with the dates of his life. Joyce’s sign included three large photographs of Jeff: one as a child holding a baseball bat, one in high school, and one in his Marine uniform. Another photo sign held by a Gold Star activist from South Carolina simply read, “We Mourn.” Using these signs, the activists highlighted the negative consequences 160 | MANAGING AND DEPLOYING THE INSIDER–OUTSIDER IDENTITY of war, which they claimed were experienced only by American military families, veterans, and Iraqis. During this Mother’s Day weekend, activists marched and spoke in strategically chosen clothing that they used to signal to outside observers , including government officials and the media, that this protest was not your average civilian peace protest. Dozens of Vietnam veterans wore components of their Army green uniforms; a handful of older men dressed in jackets from their military dress uniforms; and about twenty-five Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans wore their desert camouflage jackets. Most Gold Star parents dressed in T-shirts with photos of their dead servicemembers, usually in military uniforms and with some holding weaponry or sitting in military vehicles. The messages conveyed through this dress were not subtle. The back of one man’s shirt placed blame squarely on the government rather than the Iraqis for the deaths of American soldiers. It declared, “Bush Killed My Nephew.” Many more veterans and military families wore T-shirts, hats, or pins that declared their affiliation with a military peace movement organization, and they used words and symbols to proclaim their combined military and peace activist identities. The words on the front of the MFSO T-shirt, “Military Families Speak Out,” encircled a peace sign entwined with a yellow ribbon, and the back of the shirt read, “Support our Troops: Bring Them Home Now.” This movement catchphrase married support of the military to the work to end the wars. In this and many other acts, military...