Iraq Veterans Against the War held their Winter Soldier event in Seattle a few weeks ago. We spoke to a crowd of 800 people and heald a protest afterwards. Here are some videos of the event.

Here are some short clips
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zO4wGMrZW70
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBcrFmOQXG0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_dvXkXrKLE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TwAUVphKE0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bm-VEXkmLdA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GE73SQ1a3xc

Here are the full first and second hours
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0qd5XXklEI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fy-75TDRp7I

The third and fourth hours have not been posted yet

Still not convinced.

Looks like a convention full of liberal hippies who joined the military for the money, but didn't want to fight the moment we got in a war/unpopular war.

Oh really, what mos are you?

All the vets who spoke out had been there and done that. They were speaking about specific incidents. Furthermore they are all out of the military now, so I don't think that they were doing it to avoid going to combat. I know that I wasn't.

You sound like a POuGe.

No one hates more than ex-soldiers apparently....

Personally opinions will never really matter... it's the beauty behind democracy, everything just has to work out right in excel

Ive been an 11b my whole career and picked up my b4 before the last tour. (6 yrs total now) Im coming on my 4th deployment.

The stan was right, I even think Iraq at first, was right. But not letting soldier on the ground run things, has hurt and killed a lot of people and prolonged this conflict.

So im not a flag burning hippie whos ready to go all out againt the government, but right now I guess Im standing on the middle line.

After the next tour Im out for good, no matter what.

There is a reason Vietnam and Iraq have sparked such a huge anti-war movement. It didn't happen with Korean, it didn't happen with Afghanistan, Falklands, the Cold War, much of the wars NATO has had in Africa (except Somalia, which was just seems to bring out the worst in people).

The reason is that all of these wars were justified, at least as justified as wars get. Soldiers felt they were giving their lives for a reason. Compare troop morale in WW2 to Iraq. Soldiers were greeted as liberators, fucked beautiful bold chicks, and looted a shitload of gold from the Germans. In Iraq they are seen as murderers by both the Iraqis and the dumbass 13 year olds who populate myspace and therefore speak for America.

Troops don't want to go to war, the people don't want them going to war, and the average soldier isn't the kind of poster boy WW2 macho man that everyone knows and loves.

Put any soldier currently serving in Iraq in Afghanistan and see if they still complain.

Also, Iraq is a urban jungle, and while the terrain in Afghanistan isn't much better, at least there aren't skyscrapers which could hold a hundred snipers in a hundred different windows. It has a lot more psychological impact on the troops, hence, they want to get out.

Well the death toll in Iraq for the year is less even those taken during the invasion. And though i didn't totally believe in the war. Lets face it Sadaam was murdering hundreds of thousands of his own people. Torturing and rapping. Just look what they did to there fucking soccer team because they lost. But no one cared about that shit because celebrities didn't write a catch song about it.

Well the death toll in Iraq for the year is less even those taken during the invasion. And though i didn't totally believe in the war. Lets face it Sadaam was murdering hundreds of thousands of his own people. Torturing and rapping. Just look what they did to there fucking soccer team because they lost. But no one cared about that shit because celebrities didn't write a catch song about it.

This.

And when I look at sites like http://www.iraqbodycount.org/ they count the deaths of the suicide bomber(s) people he/they killed, and any unidentified bodies they find.

Glittering generalities...

Saddam was evil, that's absolutely true, but he never killed hundreds of thousands of his own people, that's idiotic, when he gassed the Kurds casualties were in the few thousands, his regime might have been responsible for the deaths of maybe tens of thousands of Iraqis, not hundreds of thousands.

As for the war with Iran, that the did in fact start, it could be argued that the US, France Britian and most of the Gulf countries are equally responsible for financing him and arming him, plus it's clear that he was just a proxy used to counter-balance Iranian influence in the region.

Let's face it, in 2003, Saddam's regime was not killing systematically its own people, true there might have been a few thousands political prisoners, but there are as many in Pakistani or Saudi jails, those however don't count because those countries are US-friendly.

I've met countless refugees here in the UK, they all agree that although saddam was a criminal, life was easier back then, as long as you kept your mouth shut about politics you could go on with your daily life.

Yes it was we found the mass graves each containing a few thousand bodies. Shit when he took power he executed half of the parliment for fun.

There was stories of marines digging in and digging right into one of those graves. Imagine digging a fighting hole and your e-tool hits a skull.

I just think it's another perfect example of America letting it's mouth write cheques it's body can't cash..... Again.