Winter Soldier starts in a few hours

Iraq Veterans Against The War, March 13, 2008

[Note: The IVAW.org website is being overloaded by the huge number of people coming to learn about Winter Soldier. We are working to expand our capacity as quickly as possible. If you have trouble accessing the website, please try back soon. Thank you for your patience.]

Today, hundreds of our members are traveling from all over the country to Silver Spring, MD for Winter Soldier: Iraq & Afghanistan, which begins in just a few hours. At the same time thousands, including many of you, are preparing to watch and listen to our testimony in homes, houses of worship, on college campuses, and on military bases around the world to bear witness to these stories via live broadcast.

Winter Soldier is the first event in an ongoing public awareness and outreach effort by IVAW. No longer will public debate on the "Global War on Terror" be framed solely by politicians and pundits. Winter Soldier will bring accounts of the real, first-hand experiences of veterans and civilian survivors into the discussion of the occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

IVAW will use the ongoing Winter Soldier project to spread awareness of G.I. resistance among veterans and active duty troops and build strategic alliances with the labor, student and other allied movements to broaden and strengthen our strategy to end the Iraq occupation.

Over 250 of us will arrive here in the next 24 hours. You're invited to join us - every panel, every minute of testimony, will be broadcast live and will be available to watch in an online on-demand library.

To find out how to watch on our website, on a local cable channel, by satellite TV, through internet radio, or a local radio station, go to our How to Watch page.

There are hundreds of viewing events planned around the world - in Africa, the Middle East, Europe and across North America - where people will gather to watch testimony. It's not too late to organize an event in your area. You can post the location of your event on our website.

In just a few hours, servicemembers and veterans will begin to tell the full story of what is happening in the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. We're speaking up, and we need your help to get the word out, so take a minute now to email your friends, colleagues, and family to let them know how they can tune in to this historic event.

Peace,
Kelly Dougherty
Former Sergeant, Army National Guard
Executive Director
Iraq Veterans Against the War

P.S. Broadcasting Winter Soldier around the world is important, and it's also expensive. Please make a donation today to help us pay for this important event.