While the action took place, vendors sold plastic toy M-16 rifles and young boys chased each other around, pointing and firing.
Supporters handed out a leaflet that read “The performers in military uniform are all Veterans of the Global War on Terror who question the causes and legitimacy of the Occupation and the needless destruction and murder of civilians.”
“First Casualty” re-creates a military patrol, where civilians are seen as a mortal threat and soldiers respond with fierce violence. Crowd reactions to the roving theater were mixed: shocked, supportive, and in some cases, hostile.
The stage was Hartford’s annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade on March 15, 2009. Despite the distraction of floats, marching bands and rock music (and in some cases, alcohol) thousands of people viewed the IVAW patrol where “civilians” were detained, arrested, cuffed, had bags placed over their heads and were led away.
The war came home to Hartford last week. Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) and their supporters initiated “Operation First Casualty,” a street theater action that reminds people that the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have not ended. The veterans’ agitprop challenged onlookers to question the U.S. occupation and destruction of these lands and their people.
Operation "First Casualty" in Hartford
The first casualty of war is truth. Last March I was in Oslo, Norway, the guest of that country’s peace and trade union movements. I visited the Nobel Peace Center and saw a fascinating exhibit on censorship. It was a wide-ranging piece which in part explained how active U.S. troops are speaking out against the war through the use of the internet, camera phones and other technology. The U.S. government has banned 13 websites, including You Tube and Facebook, on military computers, and has stopped some soldiers from blogging to communicate with folks back home.
The exhibit quotes General William Westmoreland who defended troop censorship in Vietnam this way: “Without censorship, things can get terribly confused in the public mind.” The same day I read those words, IVAW was providing powerful testimony to the world at the National Labor College in Washington D.C. Their "winter Soldier" hearings have since provided first-hand testimony around the country on the impact of war.
For more information about IVAW in Connecticut, contact them at IVAWCT@gmail.com
Iraq Veterans Against the War website
