Aaron Glantz, co-author of Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan: Eyewitness Accounts of the Occupations, discusses the war experiences of common soldiers ignored by mainstream media, the military’s suicide epidemic and the vast increase in military advertising/recruiting spending.
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Alright, welcome back to Anti-War Radio.
The book is Winter Soldier, Iraq and Afghanistan, Eyewitness Accounts of the Occupations, Iraq Veterans Against the War, and Aaron Glantz of Pacifica Radio.
Welcome to the show, Aaron.
Oh, thanks for having me, Scott.
And I'm sorry for not mentioning, of course, your archive at www.antiwar.com slash glantz.
And I'm really glad to talk to you.
I'm sorry that we don't have more time to really get into the subject here, but it's a very important book.
I guess basically, just tell people real quick, what do they find?
What's in the book, Winter Soldier, Iraq and Afghanistan?
Well, what's important about the Winter Soldier book and the whole Winter Soldier event that Iraq and Afghanistan veterans put together, Iraq Veterans Against the War, is they all came forward, hundreds of veterans, and they actually talked about what it is that they saw and did while deployed overseas.
What did they do when they were in Iraq or in Afghanistan?
What is it like to be at a U.S. military checkpoint and take the life of an innocent pregnant woman because you are nervous?
What is it like to waterboard someone?
We now have 1.8 million veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, and these veterans have all been part of this war that's now gone on for six years in Iraq and eight years in Afghanistan.
And their stories are important, and I'm so happy to have had the pleasure of helping Iraq Veterans Against the War put their stories together in this book, Winter Soldier, Iraq and Afghanistan, Eyewitness Accounts of the Occupations.
Well, you know, there's an article we're featuring on antiwar.com today, or actually we're not featuring it.
I think I just found it down.
It's in the viewpoints section.
Oh, I see.
In the front line section, Kill Yourself, Save Us the Paperwork.
And this is part of a Salon series detailing the same kind of story that you have reported on in the past, where the bureaucrats that run the agencies whose job it is to protect the soldiers and care about the soldiers while they're over there and when they get back basically do not care about them at all, and that once you've served your country, rather than, you know, getting a great job working at Lockheed like on the TV commercial, a lot of these guys are simply thrown in the proverbial garbage can by the Army.
Well, that's what's happened far too much, and under the Bush administration, the government was even afraid to admit that this was a problem.
When George Bush was the president and people started to inquire about how many veterans were committing suicide after they came home, the head of mental health for the Department of Veterans Affairs wrote a memo to their spokesperson, the subject line of which was SHH!
And it went on to say, don't tell CBS News that 18 veterans commit suicide every day and 1,000 veterans under our care attempt suicide every month.
Well, I guess it was in Houston, I think there was a big scandal because the recruiters are killing themselves.
They're not even going over there, but they're finding out what's happened to the young men that they've convinced to go.
And also, they're under tremendous pressure, because as you know, Scott, we have a very unique situation with these wars.
In Vietnam, we had a draft, and so most of the people who served in Vietnam went over once, they went over for one year, and that was it.
And so, one year to the day that they set foot in Vietnam, they were back home in the United States.
And this time, in these wars, we have people serving two, three, and four tours.
They're getting layered with PTSD.
They're getting layered with traumatic brain injury.
They're being kept in through stop loss and the backdoor draft.
And the recruiters on the front lines are under enormous pressure, because after six years of war in Iraq and eight years of war in Afghanistan, people don't want to join the military like they used to, because the old sell, join the military, go to college, or join the military, see the world, join the military, get job experience.
People know now that if they join the military, they're going to go to Iraq.
And so, it's hard for the recruiters to make that sell.
And so, they're both dealing with the knowledge that they have, the people that they encourage to sign up are, in many cases, dying or coming home severely wounded.
And they're also dealing with the pressure that they have from their superiors to make their quota.
And so, yes, in Houston, there were a number of recruiters who killed themselves.
This has resulted in a national recruiting stand down by the Army.
They've actually told all the recruiters to take a certain amount of time off just recently to get their bearings and assess why it is that so many of our recruiters across this country are taking their own lives.
Yeah, it really is a disgrace.
And particularly, I guess, the contrast between honor and glory and duty, and especially, I don't know if you've seen the new commercials for the military that they debuted, or at least I saw them for the first time during Sunday night cartoons on Fox that were a couple of minutes long and just go on and on and on about all the honor and glory and wonderfulness involved.
And the contrast between that and the reality that you so often bring in your articles and this book, which you've helped put together here, it's such a stark contrast as to just knock one down.
It's incredible.
Well, you know, it's interesting that you point out that the advertising by the military is way up.
You know, the military likes to say that they are meeting their quota, but what they don't tell you is that they're actually spending ten times as much money on recruiting as they were at the beginning of this war.
So their dollars they have to spend for every body that signs up has gotten much more expensive, and they are spending a tremendous amount more money on advertising, and it's happening at the same time that our whole economy is going into the tank.
So if you're sitting there watching the football game on Sunday or watching the basketball game on a Wednesday night, you're seeing a lot more ads for the military at the same time that people are becoming unemployed, and the military is really trying to use this economic downturn to encourage people to go fight in Iraq and Afghanistan, but I think they're not having as much luck as they would like because these wars are deeply unpopular.
And, you know, that's one of the things these veterans that are profiled in the Winter Soldier book are really trying to get across.
They want to make sure that in addition to that spin that you're getting from the TV commercials and the recruiters, that there is documented, these are the soldiers who fought in the war.
These are their actual stories.
You know, this is what they did when they were stationed in Iraq.
The story of the gentleman who served as a medic at Abu Ghraib and was forbidden from treating the sick, the stories of the soldiers who were deployed in west of Baghdad and were under such a heavy attack that they ended up just deciding to stay in their base so they wouldn't get shot at anymore, the stories of the veterans who gunned down the bodyguards of the governor of Diyala province because they thought they were insurgents and then had to live with the fact that they killed the wrong people, and then of course just the stories of soldiers who have lost their buddies, those to the left or the right of them, and have to live with that for the rest of their lives and question, did I fail?
Did I fail?
Why do I deserve to come home when my buddies were killed in Iraq?
None of that is in the TV commercials, but it is in our book.
Alright, now for those who live in Southern California, tomorrow, Thursday, they'll be able to come out to which bookstore now?
If people come out to Skylight Books.
Skylight Books, and it's going to be you and the soldiers there giving a talk, right?
Yes, that's correct.
And how many of the soldiers are with you?
Well I think that we'll have just one or two present at the Skylight Books event at 1814 Vermont Street, which is in kind of the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles, 7.30pm on Thursday.
Skylight Books.
Alright, that again was 1814 Vermont Street, in which side of LA did he say?
It's in the kind of Los Feliz, Hollywood area, not far from Hollywood Boulevard, not far from Griffith Park, it's right near the House of Pies, I'll probably be at the House of Pies before the event at 7.30pm, so if anyone wants to stop by and say hi and enjoy a pie with me, that's where I'll be.
Okay great, that's at 7.30pm at Skylight Books.
Listen, I really appreciate your time on the show again today, I'm sorry I have to cut it short here.
Okay, God bless you Scott.
Alright, take good care.
Alright folks, that was Aaron Glantz from Pacifica Radio, editor and author of Winter Soldier Iraq and Afghanistan, Eyewitness Accounts of the Occupations.
Again he's going to be at Skylight Books at 1814 Vermont at 7.30pm, Thursday the 12th.
