By Debra Sweet
World Can’t Wait recommends:
This is Where We Take Our Stand, the series that tells the riveting and timely story of the hundreds of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who testified at last year’s Winter Soldier investigation, continues today. Tell friends, forward this email, spread the word and fan the debate. These stories must be heard.
Episode Three: Why We Fight available now.
Episode Three of the ground breaking web series, This is Where We Take Our Stand, is now live at http://www.thisiswherewetakeourstand.com. "Why We Fight" tells the story of the Iraq Veterans Against the War members’ struggle to bring hundreds of veterans to Washington, DC, to tell their stories and reveal the true nature of these occupations. If you’ve watched the first two episodes, you won’t want to miss this one. And if you haven’t, WATCH THEM. This is Where We Take Our Stand is a series that can and should help push the debate about these wars back on to the table.
Why We Fight: Flashback to January, three months before Winter Soldier. How do you bring hundreds of veterans to Washington DC, to tell their stories? An IVAW national planning meeting reveals sharp differences among the members. Is the point of Winter Soldier to show how these wars are hurting America, or the destruction America is bringing to the people of Iraq and Afghanistan? Is the goal to strengthen the military, or weaken it? Despite the differences, a deep unity is built because, as Geoff Millard declares, the bottom line is "No one can hear our stories and still support this shit."
Episode Four: Broken Soldier will launch August 24, 2009.
Episode Five: This is Not Human Nature will launch September 7, 2009.
Episode Six: No Longer a Monster will launch September 20, 2009.
Where’s the debate?
Are we watching passively while Barack Obama carries out the same policies as George W. Bush?
When an American bombing raid this May killed over two hundred civilians in a village in Afghanistan, it was met with a deafening silence. When Obama’s promised "withdrawal" from Iraq leaves 130,000 troops there for at least two more years and 50,000 permanently, it’s hailed as an end to the occupation. And who is demanding to know just what the mission really is when 30,000 more troops are sent to Afghanistan?
Where’s the debate?
In March of 2008, two hundred and fifty veterans and active duty soldiers marked the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq by gathering in Washington, DC, to testify from their own experience about the nature of the occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq. It was chilling, horrifying, and challenging for all who witnessed it. Against tremendous odds, they brought the voices of the veterans themselves into the debate. That was then.
This is now. Today, we present to you This is Where We Take Our Stand, the inside story of those three days and the courageous men and women who testified. And we present this story today, told in six episodes, because we believe it is as relevant now as it was one year ago. Maybe more.
Here is our challenge to you: Watch the series; spread it far and wide; and ask yourself is this about the past, or the present and future. Then add your voice.
If you are a veteran or active duty, present your own testimony. If you are not, but you are still a living, breathing member of the human race, then do whatever you can to join and fan the flames of debate.
– Displaced Films and Northern Light Productions
Los Angeles Chapter, The World Can’t Wait!