WINTER SOLDIER: Why testify? To set the record straight.

[bpeale]

“We need the truth. The truth is more than a matter of getting accurate data or a story that isn’t bathed in the muck of political deception and lies. It is imperative that we have it in order to make national decisions in a world that is growing smaller and more dangerous by the minute. Iraq Veterans Against the War’s Winter Soldier Investigation is a difficult and noble effort of a new generation of veterans to set the record straight.

I was a moderator of a panel at the Winter Soldier Investigation in 1970, and I saw a strange sense of rejuvenation enveloping the witnesses on my panel. They found that the truth is restorative, that it cleanses a soul that has been subject to constant lies. They found that the truth is liberating and frees the mind to deliverate soundly and critically. They found that truth breeds hope, not only for the self but for the world. But as the Greek poet Aeschylus warned, “In war, truth is the first casualty.”

That thought remains true 26 centuries after it was first recorded. The Center for Public Integrity has documented 935 lies told by the Bush Administration in its campaign to garner support for the war in Iraq. Nine hundred and thirty-five! Lying remains the order of the day for those who support the war in Iraq, and it is now time for the truth. It is time to set the record straight. It is time for the next generation of Winter Soldiers.”

--The above are the words of Tim Butz, SGT, 12th TAC Recon Squadron, United States Air Force, Nov. 1966 - June 1968. He moderated the What Are We Doing To Ourselves? panel.
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