Paul Abernathy
believes America's war in
Iraq is not in the best interests of either nation.
Abernathy was among the first combat troops in
Iraq and almost immediately, he said, saw "a lot of things I morally disagreed with."
"It became clear to us very early on the type of conflict it was going to be," he said.
Still, he felt the war might end quickly and that "maybe it will all work out."
"I
saw things that, quite frankly, shocked me," Abernathy said. "It became
quickly evident that our presence was becoming more destabilizing than
stabilizing."
For one thing, he said U.S.
intelligence was "poor" and assumed that insurgency was more of a
problem than it really was. As a result, many civilians were
ill-treated, detained and even killed as the
military tried to quell any hint of rebellion, real or imagined.
"I saw the war move very quickly away from a war against Saddam's regime to a war against the
Iraqi civilians," he said. "Here, in this country, we always imagine American
soldiers as knights in shining armor, but it didn't play out in the streets of
Iraq."
Abernathy, who spent eight years with the
U.S. Army Reserves, did a one-year tour in
Iraq as a combat engineer in 2003-04.
The 28-year-old Pittsburgh native has been a member of
Iraq Veterans Against the War since 2005, and one of the things he will discuss Sunday is how the movement is growing, especially within the ranks of the
military.
"There's a lot of anger directed at the
White House and the
Pentagon," Abernathy said. "Within the
military,
soldiers are undertaking methods to share their anti-war sentiments with one another without being detected by their superiors."
He said there also is "widespread blogging" by
soldiers
expressing their dissatisfaction and, to date, more than 2,000 service
members have signed the Appeal for Redress which asks Congress for an
immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from
Iraq.
One report, Abernathy said, states that 80 percent of U.S.
soldiers would like to see American forces out of
Iraq within a year.
"All of these are a clear indication that the anti-war sentiment among the
military gets stronger each day we're in
Iraq, especially when you have
soldiers doing multiple tours," he said.
Currently,
soldiers in
Iraq must do a 15-month tour of duty, up from the original 12 months.
Abernathy said the
Pentagon has admitted that, since 9/11, 40,000 members of the
military are either absent without leave or have outright deserted.
"We would never use those numbers," he said. "They come right from the
Pentagon."
"The result of all this is the
soldiers
now have no confidence in their leadership to turn this thing around,"
he said. "They put leaders in front of us and say, 'These guys are
going to get the job done,' but the reality is, there's not a lot of
confidence in these people. All of this is taking quite a toll."
