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Iraq War veteran and GW graduate student Adam Kokesh said if veterans recount their experiences fighting in the Middle East upon return, it can help end the now five-year-long occupation.
Kokesh, who is co-chair of Iraq Veterans Against the War, spoke last week at Marvin Center at a screening of testimonials from an event titled “Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan.” Organizers of the event encouraged soldiers who witnessed war crimes while on active duty to speak and present video evidence of their experiences.
“The importance of this today is especially crucial,” Kokesh said. “We need to show that instances like Haditha and Abu Ghraib are not just isolated incidents.
The first Winter Soldier event took place in 1971 when veterans testified about war crimes they witnessed during the Vietnam War.
Many of the testimonials screened last week alleged that soldiers in Iraq did not follow the rules of engagement, guidelines that delineate the conditions in which soldiers can and should shoot at targets.
In his testimonial, James Gilligan said soldiers were frequently “given tools not to succeed in the mission, but to survive.” Gillian, 27, was a corporal in the Marine Corps who served in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
The military’s normal rules of engagement state that soldiers must positively identify a potential suspect as the enemy before shooting. In addition, soldiers are not permitted to shoot if the suspect surrenders or cannot fight any longer. Some soldiers testified that the rules of engagement were bent so much that could shoot anyone holding a cell phone while standing on a roof or anyone outside after dark.
“During the first siege of Fallujah, we changed (the rules of engagement) faster than we changed our underwear,” Kokesh said.
The military deployed James Morris, 24, to Afghanistan but he went AWOL for 22 weeks, Morris stated in his testimonial. Morris said he left because he worried the military would send him to Iraq with unacceptable orders similar to ones he received in Afghanistan.
“I got orders to shoot a 7 year old kid walking across the street holding a gun,” Morris said, adding that he refused to shoot, but another soldier in his squad followed through with the order.
Kokesh has gained much infamy since leaving Iraq in 2006. He was discharged for smuggling a pistol back to the United States. Earlier this year, he was helped orchestrate the hanging of satirical anti-Muslim posters on campus.
