Kyle Snyder, the war resister print media (independent) hasn't taken an interest in. Their loss. Their readers misfortune.
That's true of all the war resisters whose stories aren't being told in the indy print media. The list includes Ehren Watada, Joshua Key, Ivan Brobeck, Darrell Anderson, Ricky Clousing, Mark Wilkerson, Camilo Meija, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Stephen Funk, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Jeremy Hinzman, Corey Glass, Patrick Hart, Clifford Cornell, Agustin Aguayo, Joshua Despain, Katherine Jashinski, and Kevin Benderman.
E-mails to this site and The Common Ills bear out that there is interest in this topic. Even if some refuse to cover it. Along with interest, there are often e-mails from those related to or friends of the war resisters. Two arrived last week to C.I. One of them contained good news, a war resister in Canada will be celebrating the holidays with his family -- in Canada. His family has gone up there for just that reason. It was a wonderful e-mail and those of us inclined to tears cried and those of us not just felt happy to know that, though largely ignored by independent media, they aren't always ignored by their friends and family.
Another e-mail came from someone who wished they were spending the holidays with their family. These are stories that could be and should be told. But when the wife of a war resister has to go to an organization's message boards to plead that her husband gets attention (and her plea is ignored) that's not going to happen.
The coming days are supposed to be about "Peace on Earth."
The war resisters who are standing up against this illegal war are doing their part to try to make that happen. Each and everyone of them has a story to tell about how they came to their decision, how it effected their lives, how it effected the lives of those around them.
We're not going to get Peace on Earth this year. The Bully Boy's already announced that he won't even announce his non-change of course until next year. But what a world it could be if we could get some coverage of the war resisters.
The military's trying harder to continue the war. That includes the decision to court-martial Ehren Watada in Feburary. As part of that effort, they are attempting to legally compel journalists Dahr Jamail and Sarah Olson to testify for the prosecution. Monday, on KPFA's The Morning Show, 7:00 a.m. PST, 9:00 a.m. Central and 10:00 a.m. EST, Mr. Jamail and Ms. Olson will be among the guests addressing this development.
The efforts are laughable. The military maintains that it's just attempting to gauge the veracity of what was reported. Were that the case, Darh wouldn't be asked to appear in court. Why? He transcribed Ehren Watada's speech. That's what he did. And if the US military needed to determine whether or not the speech was transcribed accurately, they could simply watch the video.
This is an effort to crackdown on the reporters who have covered the war resistance. (For links and more on this, see C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot" for Friday.) The targeted should see the efforts as a badge of honor for them. We'll note that not a whole lot of badges are being passed out.
Watada's speech, that few could print or broadcast, was used as evidence against him in the August hearing to determine whether or not to go forward with a court-martial. Years from now, Howard Zinn or the future Howard or Harriett Zinn will include it in a history book. It's a real shame that those pretending to cover the world around them couldn't note it in real time.
As Melanie wrote and sang, "There's a chance peace will come . . ." But it won't come from refusing to note those who are working actively to end the war.
As the year winds down, we say a loud THANK YOU to everyone in the peace movement, every war resisters and everyone else working to end the illegal war. Your actions do matter and, even when little covered, they do register.
