Family affair
The families of American military personnel deployed in Iraq are visiting the war zone to see things for themselves, writes Nermeen Al-Mufti in New York
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Fernando Suarez de Solar poses with Iraqi street vendors after his arrival in Baghdad. His son Jesus, an American soldier, was killed in action on 27 March.
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Last week, while US President George W Bush was holding a meeting in Fort Carson with the families of American soldiers who have fallen in Iraq, the activist organisation Global Exchange was preparing an unusual delegation to visit Iraq. The delegates, comprising family members of US occupation troops who are serving or who have died in Iraq, left America on 29 November and arrived in Baghdad on 1 December.
"These families oppose the US occupation and want to see the troops come home as soon as possible," said Medea Benjamin, co-founder of Global Exchange. In the run- up to an election year, she explained, the US administration is increasing its efforts to "manage" the news coming out of Iraq and to manipulate public opinion. "It is essential to keep the public truly aware of the costs of the occupation, both to the Iraqis and to the US troops. We already have tremendous media interest in covering the visit, and we are certain this trip will increase pressure on the Bush administration to find alternatives to the US occupation of Iraq."
The trip is also sponsored by Code Pink and the International Occupation Watch Centre in Baghdad.
Many outside Iraq have no idea of the grim realities facing a population living under occupation. There is little interest in the number of people killed daily by so-called "friendly fire". This delegation, therefore, aims to experience for themselves the situation on the ground. During their visit they will meet and speak with ordinary Iraqis, as well as troops and US officials, members of the Interim Governing Council, and visit hospitals, schools and US military installations.
On their return, the group intends to publish a report including their findings and recommendations, and to travel to Washington DC for talks with members of Congress, the US administration and the press. Finally, they will travel to New York to meet with UN officials.
Sean Dougherty is a Vietnam veteran whose 22-year-old daughter, Kelly, is serving in Iraq. In her last message to her father, she said she would return home in April, which was postponed to June and then July. She still does not know when she will be back. Kelly was just one semester short of graduation from the University of Colorado when she was called up for active duty. When I met Dougherty at the Global Exchange office, he was busy preparing for his trip. Being a Vietnam veteran, he said, he is familiar with the horrors of war, for both the troops and the local population. "When I come home, I will speak out against the occupation," he said.
Fernando Suarez del Solar lost his son, Jesus, in Iraq. Although his son will never return, he says he does not want other families to suffer his fate. "I want those other children to return to their families. This is why I am travelling to Iraq; to send a message to the Bush administration that our daughters and sons must come home now." He also wishes to extend the hand of friendship to the people of Iraq, "especially the children, on behalf of the American people".
Nicole's husband is a member of the 82nd Airborne Division and is currently deployed in Iraq. She says there are so may lies and contradictions circulating about this war that she wants to find out the truth for herself, and listen to what the Iraqi people really want. "In the last two months I have learned how to speak some basic Arabic so I'll be able to communicate better," she said.
Nicole is also the mother of a four-year-old boy. On her way home today, she said she saw a group of soldiers assembled in the car park of the local army barracks. The soldiers were standing beside a casket, on top of which had been placed a folded United States flag. "I just started crying, I mean that was somebody's father, mother, son or daughter," she said. The sight of the coffin brought home to her the harsh realities of the war in Iraq. "How many more soldiers must die before the politicians sit down and use their brains to solve this mess?" she asked.
Medea Benjamin is only too aware of what the families back home have to deal with. "Some of the delegates are mothers and fathers who are heart-broken knowing that every day their children are in harm's way. One mother, disabled and travelling to Iraq in a wheelchair, has not seen either of her sons in a year."
Some are angry wives of servicemen who have no idea why their husbands are still deployed or when they will be coming home. One father, who lost his son in Iraq, says the only way he could find meaning in his son's death was to do whatever he could "to stop others -- Iraqis and US troops -- from being killed".
