By: Shawn Gude – The Daily Iowan
Antiwar sentiments and military criticism flowed freely at a UI Antiwar Committee event with four military veterans on Wednesday night.
Iraq war veteran Andy Duffy summed up his feelings at the end of his speech, delivering a crowd-pleasing, antiwar statement.
“I want you guys to realize that this war isn’t just costing us money, it’s costing us lives, it’s costing men and women’s minds, and it’s costing the Iraqi people,” Duffy said to the crowd of around 50 in the IMU South Lounge. “I want to apologize to the Iraqi people for what we’ve done, and I hope that we can end this mess soon.”
Duffy, who worked as a medic in Iraq and served at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison, said his medical equipment was poor, the intelligence his unit got usually wasn’t reliable, and the Arabic and other training he received was lackluster.
“About the only training we got was to, if we searched somebody and we felt uncomfortable, strike his testicles,” he said at the event, which was part of the committee’s Peace Week.
And he also told the story of one sergeant who, after abusing a detainee at Abu Ghraib, said, “You can’t spell abuse without Abu.”
The other speakers had harsh words for the military as well, including Nathan Peld, a nuclear-electrician technician who slammed the Army’s poor working environment.
And Jason Munford, an Air Force veteran, told of the lengthy process of attempting to conscientiously object to being deployed to Iraq.
When he learned of the story of a young Iraqi girl being killed from machine gun fire from a Humvee after a commander had determined her as a possible threat, Munford had second thoughts about his ability to perform military duties.
The veteran then began pursuing the conscientious-objector process – which, he said, is extremely difficult, lengthy, and unfair.
Munford first went through several stages – interviews, a rebuttal of an assessment, another interview. He finally persuaded one official enough to get out of the service.
But the Air Force veteran made it clear that he was fortunate to obtain his discharge.
“An 18-year-old just out of high school, their chances of beating a Harvard law-school graduate in an exchange of rhetorical banter?” said Munford, referring to the individual who wrote the aforementioned assessment against him. “Not gonna happen. The process is so difficult.”
Tanya Austin, who worked in military intelligence from 2002 to 2004, focused on the veterans’ health-care problems.
Austin, who couldn’t speak about specific experiences in Iraq because of security issues, told the stories of being given “Ranger candy” – ibuprofen – for a blown-out knee, extended waits to get into the Veterans Administration health-care system, and understaffed, underfunded veterans’ hospitals.
“I wish this was an isolated case,” she said.
E-mail DI reporter Shawn Gude at:
shawn-gude@uiowa.edu
© Copyright 2008 Daily Iowan
