BY KAREN FLETCHER
MELBOURNE — "The second worst thing imaginable would be if our child died fighting in a just war — that we believed should be fought. The absolute worst thing would be if he died in a war that we believe is wrong", Nancy Lessin of US anti-war group Military Families Speak Out (MFSO) told meeting on October 31.
Lessin and her partner Charlie Richardson are visiting Australia speaking about MFSO, the organisation they founded in November 2002 when Richardson's son Joe, a US marine, was deployed to Iraq.
Their first action, as parents of a soldier on active duty, was to make a poster for an anti-war rally in their home town of Boston, Massachusetts in September 2002. They soon made contact with another set of parents who felt the same way about the US invasion of Iraq and together they decided to establish MFSO.
In November 2002, the fledgling organisation held a press conference announcing its formation. In preparation for the event, Lessin told the meeting, they bought an answering machine and "Charlie quickly created a little web site". Their humble infrastructure was completely overwhelmed by the hundreds of emails and phone calls of support they received following media coverage.
Today MFSO is made up of more than 1000 North American families who are opposed to the war in Iraq and who have relatives or loved ones in the military, and it is growing daily.
"Our first project was to try to stop the war", Lessin said. "We sued [US President] George Bush and [defence secretary] Donald Rumsfeld on the grounds that the invasion and the declaration of war was illegal. We participated in non-violent civil disobedience. We affiliated to United for Peace and Justice, one of the main anti-war coalitions in the States, and we worked to stop the war.
"Before the bombs began to fall we had 150 members. When the first bombing started, a few families dropped out because they didn't feel comfortable continuing to voice opposition to the war. Another thing that happened, though, was that another 200 families joined.
"We started to get information from our family members, about suicides, about Iraqi kids being killed, about the terrible conditions and bad food."
Lessin said that there was a frustrating lull in anti-war activity until August this year when Bush issued his infamous "Bring 'em on!" response to growing Iraqi resistance to the US occupation. MFSO joined with veterans groups to form the Bring Them Home Now coalition. Once again they were inundated with thousands of emails following a press conference.
Among the messages, for the first time, were emails from people whose loved ones had been killed in Iraq. They also began to hear, for the first time, from military wives and children who were living on military bases and in military communities. Some had been expelled from their military-run "support groups" for expressing their doubts about the invasion and occupation.
"That's also when we really began to hear from the troops on the ground in Iraq", said Lessin. "They're telling us they support what we are doing, that we are not anti-troops and that they want us to continue, to bring them home."
Richardson told the meeting that many recent emails from Iraq are from members of the National Guard, a branch of the military that is recruited on the basis that its soldiers will be deployed domestically, to handle national emergencies. Troop shortages have meant that National Guard members have been deployed to Iraq and, as the occupation turns into a quagmire, their tours of duty have been continually extended. Richardson said he had seen a photograph of a National Guard vehicle in Iraq draped with a banner that read: "One weekend a month my arse!"
Richardson said that MFSO had received some criticism for their intransigent commitment to bringing the troops home, now.
"Especially the 'now' part", he said, "because people are concerned about what will happen in Iraq if the US just pulls out. We are concerned about Iraq too, although there are some families who say, 'Who cares about Iraq. Just bring my family member home'. We don't agree with that. We think the US caused the problem, is not the solution and owes reparations."
Lessin added that MFSO does not see the replacement of the US occupation with the United Nations as a solution either. "The reality of that, today", she said, "is that our kids' white helmets will simply be replaced with blue ones".
On behalf of MFSO, Lessin and Richardson thanked Australian activists for the rowdy reception we gave Bush during his flying visit here on October 23. They also said they were very keen to hear from military families in Australia. They can be contacted via the MFSO website <http://www.mfso.org>.
From Green Left Weekly, November 12, 2003.
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