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THE HUFFINGTON POST

Posted March 16, 2008 | 05:04 PM (EST)

Iraq Winter Soldier Hearings: Victory for

Independent Media
Jeff Cohen

In 1971 at age 19, I had a life-changing experience when I met dozens of Vietnam
veterans who'd descended on my hometown of Detroit to testify at the "Winter
Soldier" hearings organized by Vietnam Veterans Against the War. In anguished
presentations, the Vets painstakingly described the horrors against Vietnamese
they'd seen or taken part in. And the attitudes of racism and bloodlust that motored
the war. Many vets blamed the lies in mainstream media for convincing them to go to
Vietnam in the first place.
Virtually every soul in that Detroit hotel banquet hall wept openly at the heartfelt,
bone-chilling revelations pouring out of the Vietnam vets struggling with bloody
memories and post-traumatic stress. But no one outside that hall could see or hear
the proceedings. No TV or radio networks covered the event.
This weekend at the National Labor College near Washington D.C., a new generation
of vets convened by Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) presented powerful
hearings -- "Winter Soldier: Iraq & Afghanistan" -- that were more extensive and
perhaps even more emotional.
Thirty seven years later, I again found myself sobbing at testimony from solemn
young Americans returned from needless war, grappling with shattered lives over
brutalities against civilians and prisoners they'd witnessed or participated in.
But I was nowhere near D.C.
This time, I watched the dramatic testimony -- often buttressed by photographic and
video evidence -- live online at www.IVAW.org. This time, I caught hours of coverage
on Free Speech TV, the national satellite network that broadcast the panels of
testimony and featured interviews with vets and their families in between panels.
This time, I received regular video news feeds in my email inbox from The Real News
Network. (The hearings were also televised on 20 public access channels from
Fayetteville to Palo Alto, and in public gatherings from Florida to Alaska.)
On my car radio, I listened to the proceedings live on the Pacifica network, which
broadcast the hearings to affiliates nationwide -- along with call-ins and email from
listeners, including Iraq vets and soldiers not as critical of the war.
The four days of vets' testimony revealed the struggle these young Americans are
waging to regain their humanity and morality after having been transformed into
callous war-fighters who largely dehumanized Iraqis as a people -- not just "the
enemy" or combatants. An objective observer hearing the testimony would have
good reason to wonder if U.S. troops -- given the often gratuitous and racist brutality,
and the mistreatment of women, children and the elderly -- can ever be a solution in
Iraq.
On panel after panel, the veterans offered heartfelt "apologies to the Iraqi people" for
what our country has done to their country. I saw a vet rip up the commendation he'd
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received from Gen. David Petraeus, denouncing the general as a cheerleader who put
his own ambitions above his duty to the troops and to the truth. Many vets called for
rapid withdrawal from Iraq and criticized Democratic leaders for prolonging and
funding the endless occupation.
Ex-Marine Jon Turner, who served two tours in Iraq, ripped his medals from his shirt
and threw them on the ground, concluding: "I'm sorry for the hate and destruction I
and others have inflicted upon innocent people... Until people hear what is going on,
this is going to continue. I am no longer the monster that I once was."
Such powerful first-hand accounts -- if heard by the American public -- would threaten
continued funding of the Iraq occupation. But national mainstream outlets in our
country, unlike big foreign outlets, largely ignored this weekend's proceedings.
Not surprisingly, these Iraq veterans had little but scorn for U.S. corporate media
whose journalistic failures helped sell the war five years ago, and whose sanitized
coverage helps sell the troop "surge" today.
But thanks to the Internet and the growing capacity of independent TV, radio and
web outlets, a significant minority of Americans had access to these proceedings.
And the archived hearings are now available to anyone anytime with computer
access.
In Detroit in 1971, I remember what happened when one of the rare mainstream
camera crews showed up at Winter Soldier... and then abruptly packed up to leave in
the middle of particularly gripping testimony. A roomful of Vietnam vets booed and
jeered. It was the moment I became a media critic.
Winter Soldier II shows that it's not enough to criticize corporate media. Even more
important is to take advantage of new technologies to keep building independent
media.
Jeff Cohen is the founding director of Ithaca College's new center for independent
media. He founded the media watch group FAIR in 1986.