An open letter
to Marines and Sailors
attending Fleetweek 2009

From Eddie Pages, a former Marine Corps Sergeant

Marines and Sailors:

First and foremost, welcome home.

We are now engaged in the second longest war in the history of the United States.

These wars are an unmitigated disaster for the people of Iraq, Afghanistan and the United States. More than 1 million have died in Iraq alone, and thousands of people have been killed or wounded in Afghanistan. The war against Iraq has caused one of the largest refugee crises in history—with over 5 million Iraqis now displaced from their homes. Years of criminal wars and occupations have completely destroyed both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Nearly 5,000 of us have died, over 34,000 have been injured, and an incalculable number of us have psychological scars and injuries that will never be added to any of the casualty counts by our government. Our leaders have attempted to justify all of this death, suffering and loss with lies of “spreading democracy” and defending the United States against threats that were non-existent.

This government has placed us—the troops that come from the most oppressed sectors of society—in situations where we are forced to either kill or be killed.

These are not our wars!

The people of Afghanistan and Iraq never foreclosed our parents’ homes. The people of Iraq and Afghanistan never underfunded our school systems or deported our parents, nor did they leave us with few options other than military service.

Many of us joined the military and went to war in order to have a better life than the one we faced from the war being waged on us at home.

The Bush daughters would never have to “fight and die” for this country because they come from privilege. People of privilege don’t go to wars—they benefit from them. But they are the first ones to wave flags, eat apple pie and boast about their undying patriotism.

We have been fed lies since the first time we were taught to recite the pledge of allegiance—at a time when we could not even understand the words we were repeating. Some extremely creative history teachers and media outlets bamboozle the poorest, most persecuted people into believing that they are from the same America as people like George Bush.

The people elected President Obama in hopes that he would end these wars, yet his plans spell more casualties and suffering for us and our families, and for the poor people of Iraq and Afghanistan. Many of us will return forever scarred by deep wounds to our bodies, minds and spirits. Certainly more Iraqis and Afghans will die due to the continuation of the war being waged against them—and more will flee their homes in search of a place free from U.S. tanks and falling bombs.

Veterans and our families are struggling to put food on the table, and to get decent housing and adequate medical care. We—the women and men who risked our lives for this country—are often forced to fight tooth and nail to get health care from an underfunded and overburdened Veterans Affairs Administration.

Hundreds of thousands of us return home only to find out that we no longer have a place to call home—and then end up on the street. On any given night, 200,000 U.S. veterans are homeless, and 400,000 will find themselves homeless at some point within the span of 12 months.

Right now, the jobless rate for veterans is 11.2 percent—compared to 8.9 percent amongst the population overall.

This is not “supporting” the troops.

Many of our brothers and sisters turn to suicide. Nearly 1,000 suicide attempts take place per month as veterans try to escape from their pain.

Things don’t have to be this way.

At a luncheon of the National Press Club on Feb. 17, 2006, the then-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Peter Pace, was asked: “Should people in the U.S. military disobey orders that they believe are illegal?”

Pace’s response: “It is the absolute responsibility of everybody in uniform to disobey an order that is either illegal or immoral.”

These wars ARE illegal and immoral!

We, the enlisted Marines, soldiers, sailors and airman make up an army of the oppressed. Many of us are literally dying on battlefields around the globe to allegedly create what we already hold in our collective hands: the power to make this a better world.

Join March Forward! as we stand up against the corporate interests that drive the United States to war, and fight for the basic rights of all service members and veterans that are all too often denied by the U.S. government: a job, a home and an education. We seek a society that doesn’t send its young men and women off to kill young men and women in developing countries across the globe.

This is not our war!

Eddie Pages is a former Marine Corps Sergeant and a member of March Forward. For more information, visit MarchForward.org.