Winter Soldiers Take The Hill

Iraq Veterans Against The War are on the Hill right now before the Congressional Progressive Caucus, testifying about the horrors they experienced and witnessed as Winter Soldiers. When I first talked to IVAW in January, members were unsure if they’d ever get politicians to listen to their stories from Iraq and Afghanistan. There weren’t any politicians at March’s Winter Soldier testimony in Silver Spring. “This day is long overdue,” Rep. Barbara Lee observed.

IVAW self-consciously styles itself after Vietnam Veterans Against The War. In 1971, a 27-year old sailor named John Kerry eloquently denounced an earlier war before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?” Kerry famously challenged the country. Let’s see if anyone from today’s Winter Soldiers has a Kerry moment.