The following comes from Jack Dresser, Ph.D., Behavioral Scientist, Co-founder, Lane County Veterans for Peace: Capt., US Army (psychologist, Vietnam era)

Squadron 13 ; Veterans Against Torture via  G.I. Special-Military Project, Volume: 6B Issue: 16 Ft. Dix, you can read it in Word or in PDF for the rest of the News Letter.

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In the winter of 1777-78, after suffering three terrible defeats by the much larger British force and marching hundreds of miles, the 11,000-man Continental Army retreated to a winter headquarters at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. Food was in desperately short supply, 2,000 men were without shoes, and many were without blankets. Typhoid fever, dysentery, malnutrition and exposure claimed some 2,500 lives that winter.

American Patriot morale had declined severely and whole militia companies had deserted to return home. Those that remained to weather the arduous winter formed powerful bonds that led them to eventually prevail in our war for independence.

Of these men and the 700 women who fed, nursed and warmed them through that winter, political activist and revolutionary thinker Thomas Paine wrote, “The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of all men and women.”

Those that endured have come to be called the “winter soldiers.”

As veterans, we once swore to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” We do not foreswear that oath upon removing the uniform.

Two Vietnam Veterans visit the My Lai Memorial, Vietnam.

Upon that basis in 1971, following prosecution of Lt. Calley for the My Lai massacre in Vietnam, over 150 honorably discharged, many very highly decorated members of Vietnam Veterans Against the War {VVAW} gathered in Detroit to share their stories. Remaining faithful to their oath beyond their obligated service and harkening back to Paine’s words, they named this the “Winter Soldier Investigation.”

Atrocities like My Lai had ignited popular opposition to the war, but political and military leaders insisted that such crimes were isolated exceptions.

The members of VVAW testified at that time on the systematic brutality and war crimes they had witnessed and inflicted upon the people of Vietnam, stating that unspeakable atrocities such as “free fire zones” were in fact US government policy, violating the Geneva Conventions and other international treaties which are defined by Article VI of the Constitution as “the supreme law of the land.”

Asked by Chairman William Fulbright to present their findings before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Lt. John Kerry delivered ringing testimony on behalf of the group. He explained, “We who have come here to Washington have come here because we feel we have to be winter soldiers now. We could come back to this country, we could be quiet, we could hold our silence, we could not tell what went on in Vietnam, but we feel because of what threatens this country, not the reds, but the crimes which we are committing that threaten it, that we have to speak out.”

Kerry concluded his testimony, “We wish that a merciful God could wipe away our own memories of that service as easily as this administration has wiped away their memories of us. But all that they have done and all that they can do by this denial is to make more clear than ever our own determination to undertake one last mission – to search out and destroy the last vestige of this barbaric war, to pacify our own hearts, to conquer the hate and fear that have driven this country these last ten years and more… And so when thirty years from now our brothers go down the street without a leg, without an arm, or a face, and small boys ask why, we will be able to say ‘Vietnam’ and not mean a desert, not a filthy obscene memory, but mean instead where America finally turned and where soldiers like us helped it in the turning.”

But thirty years have passed and America has failed to turn.

Thirty-two years later, America launched another equally brutal, equally mindless, equally unjustified attack on the nation of Iraq, again in violation of international treaty laws – the UN and Nuremberg Charters – that prohibit wars of aggression, and once more violating Article VI, the “Supremacy Clause,” of our Constitution. So once again winter soldiers are needed.

Thankfully, a current generation of outraged veterans is arising and a Winter Soldier II investigation is scheduled for March 13-16 in Washington, DC, where members of Iraq Veterans Against the War {IVAW} will replicate the model of their VVAW predecessors. All other peace organizations nationwide have been asked to suspend public events during that time so that media attention can be focused on this testimony. Information about the event may be found on the group’s Web site.

“Over 30 years later,” IVAW states, “we find ourselves faced with a new war, but the lies are the same. Once again, troops are sinking into an increasingly bloody occupation. Once again, war crimes in places like Haditha, Fallujah and Abu Ghraib have turned the public against the war. Once again, politicians and generals are blaming ‘a few bad apples’ instead of examining the military policies that have destroyed Iraq and Afghanistan.”

IVAW is planning to provide live broadcasting of the sessions for those who cannot hear the testimony firsthand.

Our blue-and-white Veterans for Peace bus, “Squadron13 Deployed,” will be there – our gas budget willing – following a 3,400 mile coast-to-coast awareness raising tour taking the southern route around the Rockies.

We will film and post on YouTube as we go and as we witness.

On the 22nd ‘War Comes Home’ posted a DKOS diary on Information on Live Streaming Audio Feed to ‘Winter Soldier II’ on KPFA with feed available at the War Comes Home website as well.

More is now up at the Iraq Veterans Against The War-Winter Soldier website:

Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan will feature testimony from U.S. veterans who served in those occupations, giving an accurate account of what is really happening day in and day out, on the ground.

The four-day event will bring together veterans from across the country to testify about their experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan – and present video and photographic evidence. In addition, there will be panels of scholars, veterans, journalists, and other specialists to give context to the testimony. These panels will cover everything from the history of the GI resistance movement to the fight for veterans’ health benefits and support.

When: Thursday March 13 to Sunday March 16

For those interested in watching or organizing around the proceedings at Winter Soldier, there will be a number of ways to watch and listen to the event.

**Live television broadcast via satellite tv, accessible through Dish Network as well as public access stations that choose to carry our broadcast – Friday and Saturday only

**Live video stream on the web – Thursday through Sunday { no site url given, as yet, on this video stream }

**Live radio broadcast via KPFA in Berkley California and other Pacifica member stations – Friday through Sunday

**Live audio stream via KPFA’s website – Friday through Sunday

Please return to the IVAW website for specific details in the coming weeks.

You can find out more at the IVAW – Winter Soldier – Site, on the left you will find links to the needed information, as well as some embedded links in page text.

Winter Soldier I site page.

In February 1971, one month after the revelations of the My Lai massacre, an astonishing public inquiry into war crimes committed by American forces in Vietnam was held at a Howard Johnson motel in Detroit. The Vietnam Veterans Against the War organized this event called the Winter Soldier Investigation. More than 125 veterans spoke of atrocities they had witnessed and committed.

With Video Trailer and much more.

In the leadup to the present Winter Soldier we get words from one who participated in the one of the past.

Joe Bangert, Smedley Butler VFP, Star of  “Winter Soldier” and “Sir! No Sir!” speaks at the Moonakis Cafe, Falmouth, Mass- 2/9/08- film by Paul Rifkin and David Souza:

Joe Bangert, a Vietnam Vet, of Vietnam Veterans Against the War and Veterans for Peace, who gave testimony at the 1971 Winter Soldier Hearings, lays the groundwork for Winter Soldier 2.

JOE BANGERT, WINTER SOLDIER

Visit  IVAW-Iraq Veterans Against The War and Support These Brave Soldiers who have Served for You!

Nixon, and the government agencies under his control, tried to stop and slander the Soldiers of ‘Winter Soldier I’ and that continues today by his loyalist and those still bent on the twisted ideologies, from the very top to the tv and radio talking heads to the print media and today to the internet.

Who will be the first to Attack the Soldiers of ‘Winter Soldier II’, which ‘chickhawk’ will try to Slander their Service and their Testimony on the Realities of War, take your pick, plenty to choose from!!

By Dennis Serdel, Vietnam 1967-68 (one tour) Light Infantry, Americal Div. 11th Brigade, purple heart, Veterans For Peace 50 Michigan, Vietnam Veterans Against The War, United Auto Workers GM Retiree, in Perry, Michigan

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Bridging The Gap

There is a broken bridge that they call America

between the people and their government.

Stressed out cracked TV’s, broken fractured newspapers

with jagged concrete facts that they call Iraq.

There’s a broken bridge between our Soldiers

and what they were told they were fighting for.

There is a broken bridge across the Euphrates river

like a broken bridge across the Mississippi too.

Rivers of darkness and light that flow

a lightning bolt currents dark and dangerous,

pieces of humans lay at the bottom and who is responsible,

who does not care at all as the rain and sand

fall like teardrops trying to see through the murky waters,

trying to find a way out, trying to stop the bleeding,

trying to kill the cause and Americans

stand and watch the horror of civilization

pounded by combat boots, they want to stop it

but they doubt it like by voting the war away.

Captain Amerika still acting like superman,

the Statue of Liberty is cracking like the economy,

who cares about a war debt, put it on a Chinese credit card,

green back dollars going down and down drowning

another bridge falling into the water.

To the energy poor depression crashed civilians

of a war wreck they once called America,

the Answer is within our Soldiers

when they come back from another tour.

The Answer is within Americans

when they stand behind the Soldiers

when they refuse to deploy on a no way next tour.

VVAW Dec 26th '70

Once again Country living in Distress!

” Every war, when viewed from the undistorted perspective of life’s sanctity, is a “civil war” waged by humanity against itself.”

– Daisaku Ikeda

( – promoted by buhdydharma )

According to those in the corporate world, the fighting and the lack of security in Iraq is no longer a major obstacle to getting at Iraq’s oil. The real problem now is the lack of a favorable hydrocarbon law.

Meet Michael Wareing. He is Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s business emissary to Iraq. His job is to bring international investors to Iraq to help stimulate economic growth.

Wareing is head of a well-connected auditing firm and was appointed head of a new Basra Development Commission. The Basra region has 70 percent of Iraq’s proven oil reserves and according to The Observer, Oil giants are poised to move into Basra. Wareing thinks security is no longer an issue for investors in Iraq.

‘If you look at many other economies in the world, particularly the oil-rich economies, many of these places are quite challenging countries in which to do business,’ he said. ‘Frankly, if you can successfully operate in the Niger Delta, that is a very different benchmark from imagining that Basra needs to be like London or Paris.’

Iraq’s parliament has yet to pass a hydrocarbon law setting out the terms oil companies will operate on and how profits will be split. ‘My sense is that many of the oil companies are very eager to come in now, and actually what they’re waiting for is the hydrocarbon law to be passed and various projects to be signed off. That is what is causing them to pause, rather than the security position,’ he said.

As noted, Wareing is also the CEO of KPMG International, a position he began in October 2005 after the U.S. Department of Justice accused the U.S. member firm of creating fraudulent tax shelters. The criminal conspiracy charge was dropped last year after the firm cooperated with the investigation. Today, KPMG firms are auditors for many major corporations and governmental agencies such as Halliburton and the U.S. Department of Justice. (Go figure the DoJ would use a firm that admitted criminal wrongdoing… Well, maybe not considering you-know-who’s administration.) But, that is beside the point.

The real problem is Iraq’s oil isn’t flowing fast enough for the governments of the United States and Britain. Time is running out for the Bush administration to persuade the Iraqi parliament to pass a hydrocarbon law that is favorable to the major oil companies. Last September, The New York Times reported Compromise on Iraq’s oil law was collapsing. The hydrocarbon law “is one of several benchmarks that the Bush administration has been pressing the Iraqis to meet as a sign that they are making headway toward creating an effective government.” And the prospect of the Iraqi approving the Bush administration’s draft hydrocarbon law remains elusive today with Iraq oil law stalled, with no end to impasse in sight according to Reuters.

“Basically we’re talking about political will here,” said a U.S. official in Baghdad, who asked not to be identified. “These are not technical issues, it’s a question of if they have the political will to reach the kind of compromises both sides need to make to achieve this. There’s a lack of trust.“

Trust, but whom? The major oil corporations do not find existing Iraqi law favorable, but that hasn’t stopped 70 foreign firms from submitting paperwork to the Iraqi government to compete for oil contracts. The “law” is something oil companies know how to exploit to their advantage if Exxon Mobile’s recent court victory freezing Venezuela’s assets is any indication.

For the Kurds, they do not trust the Shiite-controlled government in Baghdad. In the northern Iraq, Kurdistan, are about one-fifth of Iraq’s oil reserves and the Kurdish government isn’t playing along with getting the oil corporation enabling hydrocarbon legislation passed into Iraqi law. Instead, they’ve been cutting their own deals. In the Kuwait Times, Kurdish Regional Government President Masoud Barzani blamed Baghdad for the problems with the hydrocarbon law. In Kurdistan leader rules out major clashes in Baghdad, Barzani said, “The stalling of the hydrocarbon law is not from our side but from the federal government. Let this law go to the Parliament in order to implement it, and end the problem.” The Kurdish government passed its own oil law last year and have made fifteen oil deals already.

But in a background research paper published by the Council of Foreign Relations, Why Iraqis Cannot Agree on an Oil Law, “a draft oil law (PDF) has drawn criticism from Iraq’s Sunnis, who prefer a stronger role for the central government, and from Kurds, who prefer a stronger management role for the regional authorities. The majority Shiites have sought to mollify the Sunnis by keeping control of Iraq’s oil sector primarily in Baghdad, not the regional governorates.”

At the heart of the Kurdish objection to the hydrocarbon draft law is the lack of regional autonomy. According to the CFR paper:

“Kurdish dissatisfaction stems from its objection to a state-run, relatively unaccountable oil company that’s given almost all of Iraq’s proven reserves,” says Jonathan Morrow, legal adviser to the Kurdistan Regional Government’s natural resources minister. Yet most observers say that without federal legislation, major oil companies will stay out of Iraq, including Kurdish territory.

The Sunni minority does not trust the Baghdad government either and then there is also the issue of who profits from Iraq’s oil. “Sunnis in particular are worried that doing so would erode Iraqi sovereignty and redistribute oil revenues away from Iraqis and into foreign hands.” With the international oil giants now seeing the security situation no longer being an obstacle to oil development, these concerns over who gets the oil revenues now become important. As The Independent reported in January 2007, How the West will profit from Iraq’s most precious commodity. Drafts of the oil law allow the oil giants to sign 30 year “production-sharing agreements” that give a share of the oil profits to the corporation that invested the oil infrastructure.

Iraq’s passage of the hydrocarbon law is the single most important benchmark the Bush administration has left in Iraq before leaving office in January 2009. In February 2007, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice described its passage as “really critical“.

“I’m told that the oil law is almost complete.” she said. “I did say to my colleagues that I’ve heard it’s almost complete before, and this time I hope it really is complete – as in, complete – because people are looking to see some elements of national reconciliation put into place. It’s really critical.”

As demonstrated by one of the Bush administration’s own benchmarks for the Iraqi government, getting the hydrocarbon law and securing Iraq’s oil is, likely, the Bush administration’s primary reasons for remaining in, if not also invading, Iraq. Leaving Iraq without its oil secured, according to Bush in 2005, would let terrorists “seize oil fields to fund their ambitions; they could recruit more terrorists by claiming an historic victory over the United States and our coalition.”

So the lack of an Iraqi oil law is going to loom large in the upcoming final months of the Bush administration. Energy-related corporations are going to be applying pressure to the Bush administration, which will in turn try to apply pressure to the Iraqis.

As of last year, the largest single profiteer from Iraqi reconstruction money was KBR. “The largest beneficiary of reconstruction work in Iraq has been KBR (Kellogg, Brown & Root), a division of US giant Halliburton, which to date has secured contracts in Iraq worth $13bn (£7bn), including an uncontested $7bn contract to rebuild Iraq’s oil infrastructure.” But those pale when compared to the profits to be made with a new hydrocarbon law. Oil pumped from Iraq could be worth about $6 billion a day!

Even in the absence of a new, lucrative hydrocarbon law, the major oil corporations are still working with the Iraqi government and submitting the necessary documentation.

The contracts may not be what the oil firms want, but they have signed up to ensure they are in the game if and when deals for Iraq’s giant oilfields are offered.

“Companies are signaling their readiness to be involved,” said Mustafa Alani, senior consultant at Dubai-based think tank the Gulf Research Center. “It’s the foot-in-the-door strategy. They are involved but they are not committed. And until security and the legal issue are completely clarified, they won’t commit.”

For Iraq, the potential gains from overhauling oilfields could be huge, Alani said.

The country could boost output from existing fields by 1 million-1.5 million barrels per day (bpd) for around $6 billion, he estimated. Current output is around 2.3 million bpd and Iraq aims to raise output to 2.6-2.7 million bpd this year.

Large oil firms that win contracts would supply equipment, materials, and expertise but would sub-contract the actual work. That would keep them involved for a minimum investment and risk.

So, the international oil corporations will still be pressing for more lucrative Iraqi hydrocarbon law. There’s billions upon billions of dollars at stake in Iraq in Bush’s final year. Arguably the primary reason why Bush invaded Iraq in 2003 is at risk. As a businessman, Bush has a record of failures. Will Bush be able to close the deal for his corporate backers? At what cost?

^{Cross-posted from the European Tribune.}