'Refuse your orders!' An open letter
from Marine and war resister
'I refused my orders to Iraq; you can refuse your
orders to Afghansitan'
July 12, 2012
By Edward Pages
Sgt. Edward Pages
Sgt. Edward Pages leading a mass anti-war
protest
|
The
author is a founding member of March
Forward! and an organizer with the Our Lives, Our
Rights campaign.
To
my fellow Marines and service members,
My
name is Sgt. Edward Pages. I’m deeply saddened by the constant, endless
deployments of our brothers and sisters in uniform to the widely-hated
occupation of Afghanistan.
I’m saddened by the thought of more of my brothers and sisters being sent off to fight and die for no reason other than profit for the corporations, which are looking to steal the vast wealth and resources of the Afghan people—a people who had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks. I recently read a poll that said that only eight percent of young Afghan men have even heard of the attacks on that terrible morning.
How
long, brothers and sisters?
How
long are we going to continue to fight and die? How many deployments? How many
holidays must we be absent? How many of our children’s births and birthday
celebrations must we continue to miss? How many Afghan children will have to
lose their parents or their own lives before this war is over? A few years ago,
I began asking myself these questions and I’m sure many of you are asking them
right now.
As
an 18-year-old infantryman, I was stationed in Kings Bay, Ga., guarding the
strategic assets of the United States. It was there that I met a young Marine by
the name of Jason L. Dunham. Many of you may recognize the name.
After
my first tour, I got out of the Marines honorably. A year and a half after my
EAS date I learned that Cpl. Jason L. Dunham had died after jumping on a grenade
to save his Marines in Iraq. I was so deeply moved by Cpl. Dunham’s sacrifice
that I returned to active duty immediately. This time I became an intelligence
analyst. I did so because I figured that if only the intelligence Cpl. Dunham
had on that day was perhaps a little more accurate then maybe, just maybe, he
would still be here today.
I
went back in the Marines this time a bit older and a bit wiser. I quickly
started to see behind the curtain of U.S. foreign policy immediately, as I was
privy to information most of us are not allowed to see or know about. I began to
realize that I had been lied to about everything. I watched Marines around me
being deployed all over the globe without so much as a clue as to the real
reasons we were being sent to kill and be killed.
Cpl.
Dunham became the first Marine awarded the Medal of Honor since the Vietnam War.
The part of this that the press did not mention was that Cpl. Dunham had died in
vain. He did not have to be on that patrol that day. He did not have to be in
Iraq to begin with.
Cpl.
Dunham was sent there by politicians who would never walk into the alley in
which he died, who sent him there to do nothing but conquer a sovereign country
for oil giants and defense contractors.
Cpl.
Dunham’s family received some money from insurance and a medal from the
Commander in Chief, but they will never again see their son.
By
the time I received orders to deploy to Iraq—what I had re-joined the Marines to
do—I realized that I could not morally go to fight in a country that had never
done anything to me or to my family. I began to understand that if I was in the
position of most Iraqis, I too would pick up a gun and fight for my family and
for my country.
I
refused those orders to deploy. I have never once regretted it.
Since
then I have seen too many of my fellow Devil Dogs die, lose limbs, their sight,
their families or their minds for no reason.
Recently,
a U.S. military commander told a reporter in southern Helmand province that he
has come to know that the Afghan war is “more like 'Tom and Jerry' cartoon which
never ends, the only difference is the cartoon does not claim lives, but here we
lose men every day.”
Death
and life-changing injuries, for both U.S. troops and Afghan civilians, are at
the highest levels since the war began. This shows no signs of stopping.
I
refused my orders to Iraq, and you can refuse your orders to
Afghanistan. This will be a decision you will not regret. It will be a
decision that you can be proud to tell your children and grandchildren
about.
Semper
Fi,
Sgt.
Edward Pages
