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Edited on Thu Aug-11-05 09:47 AM by Maddy McCall
 Disillusioned by the Iraq war, a former soldier joins the movement to bring our troops home Enrique Gili WholeLifeTimes March 4, 2005 As a soldier, Tim Goodrich stood on the tarmac of a Saudi air force base, scrawling obscene messages to Osama Bin Laden on 500-hundred pound bombs bound for the mountain hideouts of terrorist operatives. Then, he felt honored to participate in a mission he believed to be in defense of his country. Now, back home in San Diego, having completed his tour of duty—at least for the time being—the young reservist watches televised bomb trails with twinges of regret. Dressed in blue jeans and a light-blue polo shirt, the clean cut Goodrich, 24, resembles any ordinary college student home for the holidays. However, this unlikely activist is the fresh face of a recently formed anti-war group. As co-founder of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW), Goodrich leads a small but growing group of returnees opposed to the U.S. occupation of Iraq. “I was deployed in Saudi Arabia in October of 2002, around the time started talking about going to war in Iraq,” says Goodrich. “I figured, if I was going to fight in this war, I’d better know about it.” Stationed overseas with limited access to media outlets, he began avid Internet research.
His questioning was not shared by most of his unit. “Out of 300 of us, there were maybe three, including me, who had doubts about going to war in Iraq… If I had a dollar for every time I heard a soldier say, ‘Let’s nuke ‘em all,’ I would be a rich man… But I knew, even though the administration was talking about ‘weapons of mass destruction’ and ‘imminent threat,’ that after 12 years of sanctions, we had the country boxed in. If they weren’t a threat to my base, how could they possibly hit the US in 45 minutes? I could see this was a deception.
“I did as much research as I could and I came to realize the war was wrong,” continues Goodrich. And in his virtual wanderings, the born and bred soldier stumbled upon the peace movement.
The Accidental Activist
Raised in a family with a tradition of military service, Goodrich’s anti-war activism might come as a shock to those who’ve known him since childhood. As the son of a waitress and a quality assurance manager, he plastered his room with posters of planes and dreamed of becoming an air force pilot. Joining the Armed Forces was an expected rite of passage in the Goodrich family. Uncles, cousins and aunts have participated in every major conflict since World War II.
Stationed in the Middle East during the months leading up to the Iraq war, Goodrich provided navigation and communications support to recognizance planes patrolling the air space over Iraq and Afghanistan. And until the Bush Administration decided to invade Iraq, Goodrich insists he was the model gung-ho soldier.
So what accounts for his about face? When questioned, he furrows his brow as if though the answer were patently obvious. “I joined the Army to defend my country,” Goodrich says emphatically. “I don’t feel this is defending my country. I feel it’s quite the opposite because I know that we’re just inflaming the population against us.
“Luckily,” as Goodrich puts it, he finished his tour of duty two weeks after the US invaded Iraq and was able to return home, where he immediately joined the ranks of anti-war demonstrators marching on city streets across America.
In March of 2004, at a memorial procession and protest rally commemorating the first year anniversary of the war, Goodrich met Mike Hoffman. A former artilleryman with the Marine Corps, Hoffman proposed they form an anti-war group of soldiers who served in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. The group, which started with nine co-founders, has subsequently grown to 125-plus active duty soldiers and reservists. And as disillusionment among the ranks grows, inquiring emails from returning vets continue to pour in to the IVAW website.
The group went public during last July’s Democratic National Convention. Their mission, Goodrich explains, is to bring an end to the violence in Iraq by advocating the immediate withdrawal of occupation forces and to provide moral support for soldiers returning home from the war.
As a full time IVAW spokesman, Goodrich barnstorms across the country speaking at innumerable rallies. The young activist, who has programmed the ringtone on his constantly ringing cell phone to play John Lennon’s Imagine, sustains his resolve by concentrating on the importance of his message. “So many people are apathetic because the war doesn’t affect them directly…The troops over there need someone to fight for them… fight to bring them home so that no more people have to die for a lie...The only difference between pulling out now and five years from now is the number of dead bodies.”
Goodrich believes IVAW will gain momentum as the ground war drags on. He points to recently reported statistics indicating that support for the Iraq war is waning among enlisted men. “They don’t know what their mission is anymore,” he says.
As a member of the Independent Ready Reserves (IRR), a category of servicemembers who have left active duty or active reserves service but still have time left on their obligation to serve, Goodrich has two more years to fulfill on his military contract—but he’s enough of an idealist to believe his efforts might help end the war before he’s even called up. When asked if he would answer the call or join the much-publicized ranks of defecting soldiers (to date, more than half of IRR call-ups have sought delays, deferments or have simply failed to show), the young reservist pointedly dodges the question saying, “I’m speaking out so others don’t have to go.”
http://www.notinourname.net/troops/goodrich-4mar05.htm
(I am claiming fair use on this info, since it is published for dissemination on the activist website "Not in Our Name.") |
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