GI Special 4K12: "The Troops Will Stop This War" - November 12, 2006 :: www.uruknet.info :: informazione dal medio oriente :: information from middle east

“I Feel That As GIs Start Coming Out, That’s What’s Going To Stop This War, And That’s The Only Thing That’s Going To Stop This War”

One Day After Surrender, AWOL Iraq War Resister Flees Again As Military Breaks Deal

An Iraq war resister who fled to Canada rather than return to the battlefield has gone into hiding again, a day after turning himself in to the military.

Army Private Kyle Snyder says he had a deal with the military that he would be discharged once he turned himself in. Instead, military officials ordered him back to his original unit where his outcome would be decided.

Kyle Snyder. Fled to Canada in April 2005 while on leave from the war in Iraq. He recently returned to the US to turn himself in to the military.

Jim Fennerty. Attorney for Kyle Snyder. He is based in Chicago and is a member of the National lawyers Guild.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about this journey that you have taken over the last two years? But let's start at the end. When you came across the Canadian border this weekend, right at the time of the mass protest across Canada, of calling for Canadian soldiers to pull out of Afghanistan, what was your understanding?

KYLE SNYDER: Well, my understanding was through a Major Brian Patterson on Fort Knox post, is that I would receive the same treatment that Darrell Anderson had received, who is another Iraq war veteran, who was discharged with an other than honorable discharge.

My lawyer, Jim Fennerty, had contacted this man on several occasions, and it was verbally promised to both him and -- so, my understanding was that I would have the same treatment as Darrell Anderson.

However, that all changed when I arrived at Fort Knox about an hour and a half after turning myself in. I wouldn’t have come back to the United States if I had known that the Army would back down on its word.

KYLE SNYDER: Well, at first, they were okay with me. A lieutenant had come in, and I was in holding at the time. And he said, “Okay, we’re just going to out process you. Everything’s going to be alright. It will take about four or five days. Don't worry. It’s going to be okay. Just don't talk to anybody about your experiences.” And I was like, “Well,, that’s fine. I don't plan on talking to anybody about my experiences on this post anyway.”

And after that conversation, another lieutenant had come in and had found out that he could send me back to my original unit in Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, which had just moved from Germany, actually, about six months ago. After they had found that out, the whole climate had changed within the holding facility. And I just knew something was wrong after that.

And I requested on several occasions to contact my lawyer before signing any documents. I refused to sign the documents, because I did not fully understand it, so I wanted, you know, my lawyer's professional help.

And they refused phone access to call my lawyer, and then they put me in holding again.

And about twenty minutes later, they gave me a Greyhound ticket, said, “You’re going to Fort Leonard Wood anyway.” They dropped me off, and I refused to go back to Fort Leonard Wood, because that was not the reason that I came down from Canada.

JUAN GONZALEZ: And the time you’ve been spending in Canada, what’s life been like there, because, obviously, during the Vietnam War, Canada became a huge area that took many war resisters from the United States, both those refusing to be drafted, as well as AWOL soldiers? What has life been like there?

KYLE SNYDER: Actually, life in Canada was fairly well. It’s still a struggle. It’s still hard. It’s not like I was relaxing while soldiers were being killed. It was, I was struggling to get them back home. I was involved in the antiwar movement in Canada.

I was generally accepted by the Canadian population. I just wanted to get on with a normal life, and that’s what I kept telling people in Canada. And after they saw that I was making those steps to have a normal life, I think that they understood.

And I was actually attending college courses -- sitting in on college courses while I was there. I worked at a massage and wellness center for disabled children. I wanted to get on with a normal life. And I think that’s what I was doing, and I gave all of that up on a chance that I can have the military off of my back. I figured this would work.

And, you know, I would have stayed in Canada working with disabled children, if I knew this was going to happen.

AMY GOODMAN: Our guest in Louisville, Kentucky, is Kyle Snyder. He has just refused to go to his base, has gone AWOL a second time, having been in Iraq, returned, went up to Canada, came back with the understanding that -- well, let’s first turn to Jim Fennerty, attorney for Kyle Snyder. What exactly did the military tell you? Was it you who negotiated directly with the military?

JIM FENNERTY: Yes, I did. I had worked out a deal, as you know, with Darrell Anderson first, and when we worked this out with Darrell, when I spoke to the military at Fort Knox, they said that since Darrell did not have a bad record in the military -- means he never got in trouble or never got arrested -- that when he came back, he would most likely be discharged within three to five days and be other than honorable discharge.

I contacted the same major, and he then checked out Kyle's records and got back to me, and he said, “Well, it appears that he doesn’t have any problems on his record, that he should be able to get the same arrangement that we had with Darrell.” They don’t guarantee anything and say, you know, we’re putting anything in writing, but we felt confident that after everything had worked out with Darrell, that Kyle was in the same position, that this should be, you know, given and worked out, and he would have been out.

What their position is now is that since Kyle’s unit, which originally was in Germany, is now in Fort Leonard Wood, that he would have to go to Fort Leonard Wood, and we’d have to start this whole process over. I’ve tried to contact Fort Leonard Wood, haven’t been able to get through to anybody. Either the phones are busy, or they just keep ringing. And I’ve been also in contact with a major from the judge advocate's program in Fort Knox to see if he could get this thing done.

I think it’s important to get people like Kyle back here from Canada, because -- two reasons.

One is, all the young soldiers I’ve dealt with all need some help. They all are suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome, and they need to get some medical help here.

The other reason I think is important is obviously because these people have been outspoken, they made conscious decisions to go to Canada, because they felt the war was wrong and they’ve been lied to. And we need to get their voices and their messages out around the country as much as possible.

JUAN GONZALEZ: And you were never contacted about the change of plans, in terms of the deal or his new assignment to return to his unit?

JIM FENNERTY: No, I called before we went down there. I called back this major, and I spoke to him. And I said, “Well, when we come down there, I’d like to meet with you, because I just hear you on the phone. I’d like to just say hello.”

If you ask the Army, they are going to say, “Well, you did the right thing. Everybody’s supposed to come here, and then we ship them out to their units, if their unit’s not overseas.” If we knew that, we never would have went to Fort Knox, and we would have tried to negotiate something or speak to people at Fort Leonard Wood.

AMY GOODMAN: What do you say to soldiers that are still in Iraq? And then, what do you say to soldiers who have gone to Canada, given your experience? But start with those in Iraq now.

KYLE SNYDER: To the soldiers that are in Iraq, for the third or fourth time: just, you know -- a lot of them are scared to make decisions about moral and conscious choices; they are told by their commanders that they can’t make these choices -- just follow your heart.

If you feel that you need to be in Iraq and that you’re doing the right thing, that’s fine, I understand that.

But if you feel that you’re doing the wrong thing, please speak out. And the GI resistance is very important in changing the politics of this country right now.

And I feel that as GIs start coming out, that’s what’s going to stop this war, and that’s the only thing that’s going to stop this war.

As far as the soldiers that are in Canada right now, I love every single one of you, and just know that whatever happens here, just keep that in mind. And I’ll be keeping in contact with them.

KYLE SNYDER: Well, first off, I hope that this deal works out. I hope that the Army can understand that they had reneged on a deal, and right now we’re trying to get a hold of them.

And, ironically, I’m on, you know, every paper in the country. I’m on your show. And, ironically, the people that we’re talking about right now aren’t available. That’s just really, really funny to me.

And they’re having coffee or lunch, you know, like a United States soldier just comes down from Canada every single day, and they could avoid this subject.

I just want to get this over with. I want out. I’m not asking for a million dollars. I’m simply saying, leave me alone, and I’ll leave you alone. And I’m hoping that this deal works out.

KYLE SNYDER: You know, I mean, I don't think that the military is actively pursuing AWOLs right now. Whatever happens happens. But I still feel that I made the right choice, and I need to stick to my conscience, and that’s what I’m doing. I’ve done that my whole entire life.

Even when joining the military, I stuck to my conscience and thought that it was right to join the military. But people's minds change, and we evolve, and they need to take that into consideration, as well.

AMY GOODMAN: Kyle Snyder, I want to thank you very much for being with us from Louisville.

AMY GOODMAN: Thank you. I wanted to end with your lawyer, Jim Fennerty. We asked Kyle about what will happen to soldiers that remain in Canada, but you continue to represent them. Among them, a man named Ivan Brobeck. What are these soldiers in Canada who want to come home, what is their response right now?

JIM FENNERTY: Well, basically I’ve been told that some of the people, after they saw what happened to Kyle, said they’re not planning on coming back. I think if the deal would have worked through with Kyle, I think that more people would have been coming back. Now, we have to realize, too, though, that there’s a difference between the Army, I’m finding out, and the Marines.

In terms of Ivan's case, Ivan wants to come back, and he wants to come back even if we can’t work something out ahead of time. But the Marines have told me, though, that Ivan will be, when he comes back, Ivan will be taken into custody in Virginia, when he comes back from Canada, and that he’ll be placed in the brig. In his situation, the Marines are planning to either court-martial him or work out an arrangement that he would spend some time in jail, probably in Quantico, Virginia. So the Marines seem to be much tougher, in terms of trying to work something out, than the Army has been.

AMY GOODMAN: Jim Fennerty, I want to thank you very much for being with us, attorney for Kyle Snyder. He is based in Chicago, member of the National Lawyers Guild. We’ll continue to follow Kyle's case and see what happens to him next. Again, he was speaking to us from Louisville, Kentucky. He had turned himself in at Fort Knox and then went AWOL.

CHAPPAQUA, N.Y. A New Yorker killed while helping to fight the war on terror is being remembered as a wonderful son, brother, husband, and father.

Sgt. Kyu H. Chay, 34, who survived a tour in Iraq, died Tuesday in Afghanistan, when a roadside bomb exploded near a convoy in which he was riding.

"He was such a kind, generous person," said Kyu T. Chay, Sgt. Chay's brother. The men shared the same first name, a tradition in some Korean families.

Kyu T. Chay said their parents are devastated. Sam and Soon Chays are well known and highly regarded in Chappaqua, where the family operates a dry cleaning store.

The brothers were born in South Korea, and moved with their parents to New York in the 1980s. Both graduated from the Bronx High School of the Sciences and attended SUNY-Albany

Sgt. Chay, an Arabic linguist with the Special Forces, joined the Army in 2001, a few months before the 9/11 terror attacks. His brother said Sgt. Chay was motivated by gratitude to America for the opportunities his parents found here. "He always appreciated coming to this country," said Chay. "He loved being American, loved being here, appreciated everything this country offered to him, and he wanted to give back in some way."

Sgt. Chay was married to Cathy, his college sweetheart at SUNY-Albany. Before joining the army, Chay studied law at Brooklyn Law School.

The Chays lived in North Carolina with their two children, five-year old Jason and 10-month old Kelly.

"My sister-in-law is a strong woman," said Chay. "She's being strong for her children, but of course she's suffered great trauma."

Cathy Chay told the Associated Press "he was just a wonderful father and husband to me."

"He loved me a great deal, and I loved him," Chay said. "He was my best friend, and I just have good memories of how we grew up together."

Sgt. Kyu H. Chay will be honored at several ceremonies in the days ahead. His Army family will salute him at Fort Bragg next week. He will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery on November 13. His family will hold a memorial service for him in Westchester County on November 19.

CANTON TOWNSHIP, Mich.: A 35-year-old Marine sergeant was killed after being struck by a sniper's bullet while serving in Iraq, his family said.

Sgt. Bryan Burgess, of Wayne County's Canton Township, was shot in the cheek in Fallujah Thursday and died instantly, his family said. He was serving with the 1st Battalion of the 24th Marines, a reserve unit headquartered at Selfridge Air National Guard Base near Mount Clemens.

"He loved his country," Burgess' mother, Evelyn, told the Detroit Free Press. "He felt that it was worth sacrificing his life for."

Burgess attended Livonia Public Schools, went to Franklin High and later worked as a framer building houses. He was an avid skier and motorcyclist.

Funeral arrangements are pending, and family members said they'll ask the Marine Corps to depart from standard procedure and allow Marines who Burgess served with to carry his body off the plane when it arrives in Michigan.

"Bryan's wish was to be carried by his friends, his Marine friends and family," said Rich Cormier, Burgess' uncle.

Marine Lance Cpl. Troy Nealey "had a big heart and a big smile," his mom says. He liked farm work and wanted to help kids.

On the drive from Eaton Rapids to Detroit to rejoin his unit, the conversation between Marine Lance Cpl. Troy Nealey and his mother took that "what-if" turn.

"He said he wanted a memorial to benefit the 4-H kids who won the livestock showman awards," Annette Nealey recalled Tuesday night. "He'd been in 4-H for 10 or 11 years, and he'd shown livestock. Troy wanted the money to go the kids."

Nealey, 24, was killed Sunday in action in Anbar province in Iraq. A Reserve Marine assigned to the Charlie Company in the 1st Battalion, 24th Regiment of the 4th Marine Division, Nealey and the other men of the Michigan-based outfit shipped out last month in one of the largest Michigan deployments to the war in Iraq.

The unit recently completed training at Twentynine Palms, Calif., and is expected to be in Iraq for a seven-month tour of duty. The Defense Department announced Nealey's death Tuesday afternoon.

"He joined the Marines, he didn't go to college," his mother said. "He felt the Marines would give him the opportunity to grow. He joined the Reserve Marines, and he realized the war was on and he might be involved. He was proud to be a Marine."

Nealey had hoped to be an electrician -- his father Norman Nealey is a builder -- but his mother said his heart was really on a farm.

"He loved agriculture," she said. "He was exposed to farm life, and he loved the cattle and crops. If he'd been born on a farm, I think that would have made him the happiest."

His last civilian job before going on active duty was milking cows on a dairy farm, she said.

Nealey's pickup truck showed his colors. "The truck had two stickers," his mother said. "One was 'Cowboy Up,' and the other was the Marines.

A graduate of Eaton Rapids High School, he played sweeper on the soccer squad and anchored relay teams.

"He was 5 feet 6, but he had a big heart and a big smile," she said. In his first e-mail home, Nealey asked his mother to send hard candy that he could hand out to Iraqi kids.

Annette Nealey said she and others had started gathering Jolly Ranchers and Beanie Babies when she got the news of his death.

"He told me he was scared, and I told him, 'But, Troy, I want you to be scared. Be smart, be brave, but don't be a hero,'" his mother said.

THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO COMPREHENSIBLE REASON TO BE IN THIS EXTREMELY HIGH RISK LOCATION AT THIS TIME, EXCEPT THAT A CROOKED POLITICIAN WHO LIVES IN THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU THERE, SO HE WILL LOOK GOOD

U.S. soldiers at the scene of a car bomb attack in Baghdad October 23, 2006. (Mahmoud Raouf Mahmoud/Reuters)

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Telling the truth - about the occupation or the criminals running the government in Washington - is the first reason for Traveling Soldier. But we want to do more than tell the truth; we want to report on the resistance - whether it's in the streets of Baghdad, New York, or inside the armed forces. Our goal is for Traveling Soldier to become the thread that ties working-class people inside the armed services together. We want this newsletter to be a weapon to help you organize resistance within the armed forces. If you like what you've read, we hope that you'll join with us in building a network of active duty organizers. http://www.traveling-soldier.org/ And join with Iraq War vets in the call to end the occupation and bring our troops home now! (www.ivaw.net)

On election day, we protested in Washington D.C. I brought a roll of "crime scene" tape to the White House, where I, Bill Perry, Dennis Kyne, Cindy Sheehan, Ann Wright, Pat McCann, Jesse Dyen, and many others, proceeded to wrap the yellow tape around the building...it was originally Nick Przybyla's (of Iraq Veterans Against The War) and my idea, and it worked out perfectly...only after I tied a piece directly to the fence did the piggies get upset and make me take it down, but EVERYONE loved the action and idea. It was a GREAT visual effect.

The election day Sit-In (2 days long) at the (very) White House, was a really fine demonstration, and we got some seriously good media...

Cindy and 3 other peace-mom's got arrested for blocking the main front gate, and the rest of us surrounded them until the "third warning" was issued by the police to disperse, which we did, by plan.

A U.S. military doctor treats a wounded U.S. soldier in a U.S. military hospital in the fortified Green Zone in Baghdad October 30, 2006. REUTERS/Thaier al-Sudani (IRAQ)

SANTA BARBARA: It looks like an engineer's dream: Forty-nine rows and 52 columns of white, wooden crosses a foot-and-a-half high, each exactly 36 inches from its neighbor, each row exactly 60 inches from the next, a precise reckoning of combat death gleaming on the beach beside Stearns Wharf.

Each cross in the display mounted every Sunday represents an American fatality in Iraq.

At its start three years ago, the project had 340 of them. Last Sunday, there were 2,831.

In a telling comment on the war's unexpected duration, organizers of the memorial called Arlington West now are talking about picking a number, perhaps 3,000, and building no more crosses after it's reached.

"It's strictly a matter of logistics — there's just a limit to how much room we can take up and how many crosses we can handle," said Dan Seidenberg, president of the local chapter of a group called Veterans for Peace. "I mean: How long will this war drag on?"

About a dozen volunteers have shown up week after week since the start. They're joined by up to 30 others who appear now and again. Some started coming only in recent months, prompted by rumors that the project would cease for lack of help.

On a recent Sunday, Rod Edwards, an engineer for the Goleta Water District, walked briskly down the rows, hunching over to secure laminated, handwritten nameplates, using two rubber bands per cross.

"You almost feel you know them after a while," said Edwards, who volunteers for the task each week. "It just tears your heart out."

Here he draped a string of rosary beads that a soldier's parents had left for their son's marker; there he propped up a plastic-encased obituary for Sgt. Mark A. Maida, who "deployed to Iraq and adopted a puppy there named Maxine." He was 22.

Marine Cpl. Jorge A. Gonzalez, 20, of Los Angeles: "Graduate of El Monte High School and father of a newborn."

Marine Lance Cpl. Jesus Suarez del Solar, 20, of Escondido: "RIP: Our Hero and Aztec warrior."

When there were fewer crosses, each name was displayed. Now, the names of all fatalities are dutifully recorded on nameplates, but volunteers put up only those whose friends or families have visited.

Not long ago, Edwards said, he comforted a sailor who had dropped by to seek out the name of his buddy.

"He seemed fine at first," Edwards said. "But when he saw the name, he just lost it. He threw himself on the sand and cried."

When the crosses are taken down about eight hours later, the nameplates are filed away just so, allowing Edwards and other volunteers to honor requests that troops who died together be grouped side by side. One such grouping has 17 crosses. One family asked for a Star of David instead of a cross, and that request also was honored.

Arlington West has inspired about a dozen similar installations around the United States, including one on the beach at Santa Monica. Except for a few rainouts, the Santa Barbara display has been erected every Sunday since Nov. 2, 2003.

"We sent up an SOS this summer, and that brought a spate of new volunteers," said Bob Potter, a retired drama professor and an officer of Veterans for Peace. "But people get exhausted."

The ideal, Potter said, would be to continue to place a marker for each battlefield death — but the sheer size of the task might make that impossible.

A committee is grappling with the question of limiting the crosses, which now span nearly an acre of prime beachfront. Although the city has given its blessing to the project, some volunteers grimly anticipate that it might one day crowd sunbathers and spill over into areas reserved for beach volleyball.

That was never the plan. The group never envisioned a permanent or even a full-time memorial because that would have taken more money, more manpower and sturdier crosses.

Last Sunday, volunteers started arriving about 7:30 a.m. Most were of a certain age, but members of the Santa Barbara High School Peace Club, just a bit younger than the troops they were memorializing, also pitched in. Joggers ran nearby, and a few kayakers paddled just offshore as people started hauling crosses lashed together in bundles of 16 from a donated truck.

Using methods developed by Ron Dexter, a retired TV commercial producer known in the group as a logistical whiz, the volunteers conducted the operation with military precision. Hundred-foot measuring tapes were stretched taut across the sand. People hurried down the rows, dropping each cross at a spot marked in red on the tapes.

GI Special 4K12: "The Troops Will Stop This War" - November 12, 2006

Thomas F. Barton

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