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And I tried hard to be proud of my service.

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but all I could feel was shame.

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Racism could no longer mask the reality of the occupation.

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These were people. These were human beings.

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I've since been plagued by guilt anytime I see an elderly man

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like the one who couldn't walk, who we rolled onto a stretcher

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and told the Iraqi police to take him away.

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I feel guilt anytime I see a mother with her children

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like the one who cried hysterically and screamed

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that we were worst than Saddam as we forced her from her home.

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I feel guilt anytime I see a young girl

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like the one I grabbed by the arm and dragged into the street.

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We were told we were fighting terrorists.

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The real terrorist was me and the real terrorism is this occupation.

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Racism within the military has long been an important tool

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to justify the destruction and occupation of another country.

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It's long been used to justify the killing, subjugation

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and torture of another people.

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Racism is a vital weapon employed by this government.

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It is a more important weapon than a rifle

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a tank, a bomber or a battleship.

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It's more destructive than an artillery shell

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or a bunker buster or a Tomahawk missile.

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While those weapons are created and owned by this government

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they are harmless without people willing to use them.

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Those who send us to war do not have to pull a trigger

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or lob a mortar round. They do not have to fight the war.

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They merely have to sell the war.

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They need a public who is willing to send their soldiers into harm's way.

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They need soldiers who are willing to kill and be killed without question.

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They can spend millions on a single bomb but that bomb only becomes a weapon

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when the ranks in the military are willing to follow orders to use it.

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They can send every last soldier anywhere on Earth

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but there'll only be a war if soldiers are willing to fight.

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And the ruling class, the billionaires who profit from human suffering

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care only about expanding their wealth, controlling the world economy.

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Understand that their power lies only in their ability

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to convince us that war, oppression and exploitation is in our interest.

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They understand that their wealth is dependent on their ability

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to convince the working class to die

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to control the market of another country.

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And convincing us to kill and die is based on their ability

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to make us think that we are somehow superior.

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Soldiers, sailors, marines

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airmen have nothing to gain from this occupation.

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The vast majority of people living in the US

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have nothing to gain from this occupation.

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In fact, not only do we have nothing to gain

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but we suffer more because of it.

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We lose limbs, endure trauma and give our lives.

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Our families have to watch flag-draped coffins lowered into the earth.

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Millions in this country without health care, jobs or access to education

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must watch as this government squander over 450 million dollars a day

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on this occupation.

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Poor and working people in this country are sent to kill poor

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and working people in another country to make the rich richer.

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Without racism soldiers would realize

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that they have more in common with the Iraqi people

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than they do with the billionaires who send us to war.

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I threw families onto the street in Iraq

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only to come home and find families thrown onto the street in this country

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in this tragic, tragic and unnecessary foreclosure crisis.

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We need to wake up and realize that our real enemies

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are not in some distant land and not people

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whose names we don't know and cultures we don't understand.

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The enemy is people we know very well and people we can identify.

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The enemy is a system that wages war when it's profitable.

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The enemy is the CEO's who lay us off our jobs when it's profitable.

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It's the insurance companies who deny us health care when it's profitable.

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It's the banks who take away our homes when it's profitable.

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Our enemy is not 5,000 miles away. They are right here at home.

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If we organize and fight with our sisters and brothers

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we can stop this war. We can stop this government

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and we can create a better world.

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"If tyranny and oppression come to this land

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it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy...

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The loss of Liberty at home is to be charged

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to the provisions against danger real or imagined from abroad..."

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- James Madison -

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Edited by Phaedrus