ANTI-WAR ACTIVIST ANN WRIGHT TRAVELS TO JORDAN SEEKING IRAQI PEACE – INTERVIEW
OpEdNews
Aug. 7, 2006
By Amanda Lang
Ann Wright is one of the high level diplomats who resigned in
disagreement with the Bush administration’s decision to invade Iraq,
its general foreign policy in the Middle East, lack of foreign policy
on North Korea, and the constant and consistent erosions of civil
liberties in the US. Retiring as a Colonel from the US Army after 29
years, Ann then spent 16 years in the US Diplomatic Corps. Since her
resignation March 19, 2003 the day before the US bombed Iraq, Ann has
worked tirelessly to bring an end to the US occupation. Most
recently, she traveled to Jordan to meet with members of the Iraq
parliament to discuss the Bush administration’s refusal to consider
the new Iraqi government’s 28 Point Plan.
AMANDA: I wanted to go over some things. I want to check out things
that I have seen on the internet just to make sure that I have it
right because there were some discrepancies. One said 26 years in the
army and one said 29.
ANN: Yes…It was so emotional trying to write that letter of
resignation that I miscounted. I was actually in the military 29
years and also 16 years in the Diplomatic Corp.
AMANDA: There were two other discrepancies. One record stated that at
the time of your resignation you were deputy chief of Mongolia and
another indicated that you were the Deputy Chief of Mission in
Afghanistan.
ANN: That’s right. That was previous to going to Mongolia. I was in
Afghanistan from December 2001 until April 2002 and then went to
Mongolia in the summer of 2002 and resigned from Mongolia March of
2003.
AMANDA: March 19, 2003, the day before the Necons struck Iraq.
ANN: Yeap.
AMANDA: Your activism has led to arrests?
ANN: Well the arrests are symbolic sorts of things. I have the right
to be arrested for freedom of speech and for if I am in an area where
I am not supposed to be, which is essentially what all those things
are. Either you are sitting down in front of the White House in an
area where you are not supposed to sit down or you’re interrupting a
session of Congress, either a congressional committee or session of
Congress and that is prohibited by their own rules. And we know that.
The reason why we do it is to call attention to the fact that the
people of the United States are displeased what the Congress is of
today and we risk arrests every time we do it and we know it, and
that’s why.
AMANDA: For the last 30 days, you have been established in front of
the White House. With your permission, I would like to talk in two
parts about what you have been doing. When we last spoke you
indicated that you were leaving tomorrow for Jordan. I would like to
talk a little bit about how that effort is going to take focus and
what you hope to accomplish there?
ANN: Sure, yeah. For the last 30 days we have had an encampment in
Lafayette Square which is right in front of the White House, just
across Pennsylvania from the White House. We had a permit for that,
which means that you could have more than 25 people join you. You
don’t need a permit if you have less than 25. But we have been there
since the 3rd of July, where we are there from 10 in the morning
until 7 in the evening. And we are there sitting to bear witness to
what the Bush administration is doing and we talk to them on the
public affair system, or the bull horn about three times a day,
usually at meal time when we tell them that we are on a 2, 5, 10, 29
of our fast, we are not eating or drinking, water mostly and a few
juices for some people and George Bush what are you and Laura having
for lunch or dinner? And are you thinking about the fruit as you eat
your dinner because we are thinking about them when we don’t eat.
Today is the 30th day, it has been very, very interesting, because
sitting right there in front of the White House are the people — the
tours came by, folks from the United States and the international
tours. And we talk with them about the war. I would say at least 95%
of the people that come to the White House say that this war needs to
end.
AMANDA: Really?
ANN: Yes
AMANDA: That many?
ANN: There are a lot of people that come and talk and say that I’m
still a Republican, and I think George Bush is doing okay on some
things, but I have come to the conclusion that this war is bad and
that we need to end it. We have a couple of folks, usually it will be
military or retired, military and we have plenty of active duty
military come by and say keep going — you are doing exactly right
thing, we need to protest this war. And then we have some military
that know that we should be there and we got to stay, we’ve started
this and we can’t stop, we have to keep going. So what the
overwhelming majority, I mean 95% of the people coming to the White
House are saying this war needs to end.
AMANDA: That’s interesting. Did you have an opportunity to speak to
any additional family that had family members currently in Iraq or
Afghanistan? Or that have had family members injured or killed?
ANN: Sure, yeah. In fact, since we’ve been here, there also has been
a group from the Military Families Speak Out — a group that have
family members that are serving in the military — the family member
and sometimes the service member too feels that the war should not be
going on. And they have their encampment up in Congress and they have
been – every single day – going to various congressional delegations.
As we have. We have been doing that while we have been fasting, and
also sitting in on virtually every committee hearing meeting that has
happened that concerns Iraq or the military commissions — so we have
been very, very busy. In fact Diane Wilson who is one of veterans,
ask her, she has done about 6 or 7 fasts, plus Skip Gregory who has
done almost 80 and Father Louie Vitolli who has done 15 or 20. All
have been concerned because normally when you do a fast you are not
really active you need to save your energies, save you strength.
Because you do loose weight and fluids and you are not getting
calories and nutrients at all. But we felt compelled, most of us, to
go to Congress because we are in the city and very few Americans do
go to the Congress, very few sit in on congressional hearings or go
visit the congressmen. And it is important that Congress see the face
of the Americans and hear whatever Americans are saying about their
policies.
AMANDA: How are you received when you go there? And do you try to
share some of the messages that you hear when you are talking to
these people, the families…to the 95% that you have encountered
that really are not for this war?
ANN: Sure, we portray that and the congressmen are getting the same
sort of statistics from the people that call in or write in. That is
where you are starting to see some good movement by members of
Congress because they are now starting to reflect at long last the
feeling of their constituents. Nobody is arguing about how we got
into this mess, but it is just obvious that it is not going the way
anybody thought it would or the way that the administration thought
it would. I certainly and those that have been in the Middle East
before, knoledgeable of foreign affairs…we knew exactly what was
going to happen. I predicted in my letter of resignation and it
wasn’t that I had any great insight, but that I had the same insight
of everybody else who has been in the Middle East… invading and
occupying an Arab Muslim country that has done nothing to the United
States was going to mean that there would be a Jihad against America.
Muslims from all over the world would pour into Iraq to help the
Iraqis fight invaders, the infidels. That is exactly what has
happened. Plus you have the added bonus, tragically, of the sectarian
violence of the Iraqis fighting, killing other Iraqis. It is such a
chaotic situation that America has precipitated by its poor choice of
invasion and occupation of Iraq.
AMANDA: From your 30 days encampment — as you fasted for the war in
Iraq — you’ve watched another explosive development in the Middle
East. You are going to Jordan, please speak to us if you will, about
what your hopes and plans are, who you want to meet, what you want to
do, and accomplish while you are there.
ANN: We are going to be meeting with five or seven Iraqi Armenian
parliamentary members. They are coming, some of them live, all of
their families I think live in Amman Jordan. They travel back and
forth from Baghdad to do their work with the parliament. They have
requested a meeting so they can explain the 28-Point Plan that was
agreed to several months ago by virtually all of the major Iraqi
fractions — plan that the Bush administration has kept quite quiet
and has quietly gutted. The Bush demanded the Iraqi government
withdraw four elements of that plan: one of them being a time table
for the withdraw of US troops, a second being compensation for those
that have been injured by this war. Another one is amnesty for
certain categories of fighters, not all fighters, but some. An
amnesty that reflects what happens with every other war theatrically
the US civil war. Lastly, it was to put on trial anyone who has
committed war crimes. You know those are four key points — ones that
the Bush administration just refused to allow the legitimate elective
government of Iraq to portray to the world. And right now the Bush
administration with Gonzales (the attorney general) has been
scrambling desperately to undercut the 1996 law that was passed that
said, " Yes, US citizens can be convicted of war crimes if they have
committed them." And of course there are clearly war crimes that have
happened with Iraq. The invasion and occupation of a country that did
nothing to us — a war of aggression is the ultimate war crime by
international standards. So, George Bush and all the cabinet members
in the administration are guilty of war crimes, as well as tragically
the military — some of the military who have committed atrocities
against the civilian population. So the Iraqis want to hold
responsible those who committed international war crimes. That is
something that the Bush administration demanded be eliminated from
their peace plan. So we are going there to get a better understanding
of all the aspects of this peace plan, and then, help the American
public know about the plan because most of Americans have never even
heard of it. They don’t realize that the Iraqis want this war ended.
They have a peace plan and yet the Bush administration wants the war
to .
AMANDA: Have you been able through any of your efforts to determine
exactly what it is that the Bush administration is trying to
accomplish in Iraq?
ANN: Well, I like all the rest of the American public has been
bombarded by the Bush administration’s of variety of excuses of why
we are in Iraq. I don’t believe democracy in the region was never the
goal, it just happened to be the fall back — the default of those
two. All of the Bush family has always worked with dictators in the
area and never held their nose to it. So, it is not that democracy is
a hallmark of the Bush family…and certainly not of the Necons. It
is just the last thing left after every other thing failed for them.
I think they definitely want to secure America not for Americans, but
for corporate America, and the cheap oil and they fully intended to
assure that their friends in the corporate world, and in fact they,
the Bush family, are the great beneficiaries — as well as Chaney –
of the increase of oil prices all over the world. Some of Americans
say, yeah but we need that oil. We need oil, but we also need to
develop alternative sources. And we also need guarantee that oil be
sold at reasonable prices and that the people, whose only resource is
oil get reasonable prices, and that the oil companies get reasonable
profits. But guarantee that the American public is not screwed by the
oil companies with the highest profit ratings ever in the history.
AMANDA: They are happy campers now, aren’t they?
ANN: Yeah.
AMANDA: What do you think about some of this other saber rattling
that is being done by the Bush administration with regards to Iran,
Venezuela, parts of South America, Cuba?
ANN: It is certainly dramatic saber rattling. It is as if the Bush
administration has gone oil crazy. Any place in the world — any
place speaks of America in realistic, honest terms — has the Bush
administration threatening them with oil. While I don’t condone
leaders of the world going around saying various nations should be
annihilated, George Bush has fallen into the same trap as they have.
He is a very reactionary person and war and military options are the
first things that come to his mind, rather than diplomacy — trying
to work through issues without starting wars that wreck havoc on the
civilian population. Wars that do nothing but increase the profit
margins of the defense in military industrial complex while they are
creating tons of more new weapons and ammunition, and weapons of war.
War is Iraq. War is a big business, and the cronies of the Bush
administration have gotten extremely rich from the Iraq war, the
Afghanistan war, from the potential of going to war in Iran. North
Korea is another place where saber rattling from the Bush
administration is always there. Fortunately the international
community forced the Bush administration to go into at least
multilateral talks with the North Koreans. Bush administration they
are gun tigers, gun slingers, they are ready to draw the pistol first
rather than talk things out.
AMANDA: It’s interesting… well it’s rather sad. The Bush
administration is not rallying many takers at the Middle East Lebanon
conflict.
ANN: That’s absolutely right. When it comes to Israel the Bush
administration is given a green light to Israel to go ahead and kill
as many Lebanese civilians as you want to. That is a war crime, that
is complicity. That is encouraging another nation to use the weapons
of war of the United States to commit war crimes. The Bush
administration has really, really — it is atrocious — it is
horrendous what the Bush administration is doing to encourage the
Israelis. The rest of the world — the few people that might have
said, oh well, I’ll go on the Iraq war path because we at least got
rid of Suddam Hussein — aren’t outraged on what’s going on here,
then there is very little else left in the world to be outraged
about.
AMANDA: In Washington, who is talking war crimes? I know that there
is the movement and Gonzales they say is somewhat worried that if the
Bush administration can not get the 1996 war crimes ruling
overturned, or legislation overturned, or somehow amended, that some
of them could be prosecuted. Are they more afraid of the indictment,
the legal process, and the potential information that will come out
than perhaps seeing the inside of the jail? Is there anyone, outside
protestors and the like in DC saying. "Hey, the Congress and the
Senate have been complicit in the commission of these war crimes?" It
has been known for sometime now that they were all deliberately.
ANN: The lily- livered Congress…they are scared of their own
shadow. The Republicans, well there a couple of Republicans that are
starting to stand up. There are certainly some very brave Democrats,
who is spite of what the leadership of the Democratic party wants
they stand up for truth, honesty and have a conscious. Everybody is
running scared right now because of the election. The Democrats,
rather than ceasing the bull by the horns and saying these are the
issues that are so important to America and knowing that this is what
America is talking about…and as a result they are going to do what
they did in 2004 and cede much of the electoral territory back to the
Republicans. And yet this is a time for courage. This is a time for
honesty. And this is a time for truth. I tell you what…if there is
a Republican that says we need to get of that war and that he/she
thinks that the war in Iraq is such an important issue and is key to
everything else in America, and will be able to do the same in the
future on domestic issues and as well as other international issues,
then I am willing to vote for a Republican that says I will stop this
war. Because without us getting a coalition in the Congress that will
stop the war, we are faced with unlimited leakage our Treasury into
this war. We have got billions, hundreds of billions of dollars spent
on this war and our social programs in America that are now necessary
for everybody — education, transportation, and other ordinary
things. These are not being funded because of this war.
AMANDA: So, I believe the count that I read yesterday was a little
above 300 billion but that does not take into account a lot of
discretionary monies. The US Army is cutting its operation spending.
Two-thirds of our National Guard troops are not ‘combat ready’
because they lack equipment to train and deploy.
ANN: Yes, I can imagine that because all of the equipment is wrapped
up in Iraq. When the National Guard unit deploys to Iraq, it takes
its equipment with them and when it returns, it does not bring it
back because it is needed over there because of all the stuff that
was brought over by earlier units is broken. The environment in Iraq
is very brutal on the equipment with all the sand storms, dust, heat,
plus the losses they suffered in the war itself — the blowing up of
tanks, and armored, and unarmored personal carriers. So we are
reaching a point where virtually none of our National Guard or
Reserves have any equipment left.
AMANDA: So what about the guys in the field then, if the loss of
equipment is this high and nobody is bringing any new equipment,
there is going to be a point, where, duh, you just don’t have it. Are
we close to that or are we there?
ANN: Well a lot of military folks are saying that we are at that
point right now. We are at a cracking point for the US Army in
particular, and I would say that the Marines probably too. The wear
and tear on the soldiers and marines who are the ground forces there
— we got people who have had 3 to 4 deployments now to Iraq plus one
to Afghanistan and they haven’t been at home at all for the last five
years — and on the individual plus the family, plus the units whose
efficiency has eroded tremendously by people who are just plan worn
out — don’t see any help in the future. There are a lot of people
that are going AWOL from the military. There are people — I was just
talking to a guy at Fort Hood, Texas — saying, "I can’t go again. My
family is more important to me than any deployment to Iraq and I will
not go. And there are many others who are saying, I will not go
because it is wrong to go there. We shouldn’t be there." So we have a
lot of dissent and discouragement in our military because there is no
end in sight. The Bush administration is not coming up with a plan
and military is left holding the bag for the failed policies of the
Bush administration.
AMANDA: On the ground in Iraq, how does this translate to US troops’
ability to barely survive? I am thinking about the last days of Viet
Nam and the Saigon evacuation…it seems to a great extent the US
troops in Iraq are in that bunkered in ‘the Green Zone?" Are they
lost out there?
ANN: Some troops, the ones that are in the green zone pretty well
stay in there. There are other bases all around Iraq that really
house most of the military fighting forces. But they too are building
their own green zones because the violence is so severe that many
times the US forces will not go out. When the fighting gets bad and
unless they are already in the middle of it, and have to fight to get
out, it is very seldom the US forces go out to resolve this on the
street. They are leaving it to the Iraqi military and police forces
who have been retrained by the US that may or may not fight when they
are sent out to quench some of the violence between the various
fractions there.
AMANDA: We are spending quite a bit of money to equip and train these
Iraqi soldiers, while at the same time as we just discussed that our
own army and marines are bearing what could be a catastrophic
shortage. How can that be justified? Are we throwing money down a
hole by this concept of training an Iraqi force to take over and
combat these surgeons?
ANN: Well, because Paul Brammer made the intralateral decisions to
disband the Iraqi army without even asking the US military for their
advise. When the military found out about it, they were horrified
because they knew what would happen. Here you have this whole army
that had been trained under Suddam, and others, that was going to be
out of work and they were the guys that knew what weapons there were
and where the ammunition was. Of course, the US forces had secured
neither of those. Unbelievably, they secured not the ammo docks, not
the weapons, not the armories, or the museums. They didn’t secure
anything.
AMANDA: Not the WMDs? (Laughter)
ANN: No, that’s right. So you have the whole army that is out on the
street, that know where the weapons are and the ammunition. So they
went and got the weapons, and started fighting against the people
that threw them out of office. There are a lot of people in Iraq that
know how to use a gun. In fact, their job is keeping the United
States on its heels. If America would withdraw and the Iraqi
government decided that it wants to include people who have been
fighting against the invaders, and know how to fight well, they can.
There’s lots of equipment. There are plenty of weapons already there.
The problem is with the Bush administration in there saying, "We want
our own militia — not only do we want our own troops there, but we
want our own militia. The Bush administration is planning for the
Iraqis to be the US’s own militia. We are part of the insurgent
violence because we are training our own Iraqi group. If the Iraqis
are given the option of creating their own army that reflects members
of all the ethnic groups, it’s going to be hard because now there are
militias for every political party. But, over time, the ultimate
solution and whether it comes in the short term or the long term is
that the Iraqis themselves would sort this out. The longer the US is
there and the longer Iraqi self-governance is postponed, they will
not have the opportunity to sort it out. There are plenty of people
in Iraq who know military and know how to use weapons. They have
discipline and they fight against the United States in a very
effective manner. So, the cheapest way for America is to get out is
to let the Iraqis form what they want. They have all the equipment in
the world there now. What is now called the Iraqi National Army is
nothing more than the militia for the United States of America.
AMANDA: We’ve gone through a number of areas from what you’ve been
doing in Washington, to what you hope to accomplish in Jordan.
Anything else you would like to add that I haven’t covered that you
think would be important for our readers?
ANN: It’s really important that the people of America know that they
are the key to ending this war in Iraq. They need to be calling their
congressional delegation every single day to register their concern
and their demand that this war end. And demand that those members of
congress do not vote in any invention of funding for the war. That is
critical! Also, if any of them can come up to Washington, it is
unbelievable how few people are up here protesting. Unbelievable, for
the last month there have only been two groups of people that have
been here for a total of maybe 50 people and we should be having
hundreds, thousands people out on the street every single day to
protest all of these policies. They need to be walking into the
congressional offices to demand that these things are stopped. I
appeal to your readers to come to Washington, in fact they can do
that in the month of September. We have what is called Camp
Democracy. And from the 5th of September to the 21st of September we
will be having workshops everyday, providing skills and opportunities
to learn about how to better lobby your congressional delegation. And
then on the 21st of September is the Declaration of Peace day,
followed by a week of activities in Washington. So there are a lot of
things for people to do and of course we are looking at the
congressional elections. Number one — who will end this war — is
the criteria for voting in this election. Will that candidate stand
for ending the war in Iraq and refusing to fund it?
AMANDA: Can the Camp Democracy help interested individuals making
arrangements of inexpensive places to stay?
ANN: Yeah, online on that website is a transportation link and there
is a housing link. We are appealing again to the fine people that
live in Washington year after year — kind of the base for all of the
events we hold in Washington — open up their homes, open up their
hearts to all these people that will be coming into Washington to
help make a change within our country. It’s the people of America
that will make the change. So we appeal to them to really put
pressure on their congress delegations.
ng.htm
Amanda Lang, PhD is retired. She serves as a news editor at
OpEdNews.com. Amanda is an honorably discharged U.S. Army veteran,
1976-79.
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