February 17, 2006

 

Recap of PRC's Event Featuring Iraq War Vet Dave Adams

 

On Saturday, February 11, the Progressive Resource/Action Cooperative (PRC) hosted IVAW member Dave Adams in an anti-war speaking event. Over 50 people came out to hear Adams describe his experiences serving in Iraq and his adjustments back to civilian life.

Adams joined the military in December of 1999 and served from 2000 to 2003. He completed basic training at Ft. Jackson, South Carolina. Upon completion of basic training, he was assigned to the 101st Airborne Division at Ft. Campbell, Kentucky. He served as a mechanic for the Military Police and was stop-lossed in early 2003 shortly before the start of the Iraq War.

He described how he was assigned to various positions and tasks that he was never trained for. He also discussed the lack of armor his unit had when they were in convoys and the extreme danger the convoys brought to both the troops and the civilians in the towns they traveled through.

Upon returning home, he was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) after began drinking heavily and acting unlike himself. He then joined Iraq Veterans Against the War and began speaking out. Adams described how the VA's treatment was simply by doling out medications that didn't address the problems, and it was his work with IVAW that helped him the most. Currently, Dave is an undergraduate at Southern Illinois University (SIU) in Carbondale.

The PRC would like to thank the following cosponsors of the event: Activist Forum, Anti-War Anti-Racism Effort (AWARE), Channing-Murray Foundation, Illinois Disciples Foundation, La Casa Cultural Latina, McKinley Foundation, Mennonite Church Peace and Justice Initiative Committee, NAACP (UI Chapter), U-C Friends Meeting, UIUC Gender and Women's Studies, University YMCA, and Vietnam Veterans Against the War (CU Chapter). The PRC would also like to thank everyone who came out to the event and especially would like to thank the Iraq War veteran Dave Adams for coming to speak at the U of I!

For more coverage of the Dave Adams event, please see the article below, published in the local paper.

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"Army Veteran Speaks Out Against President Bush At Anti-War Rally"
By Steve Bauer at The News-Gazette
Sunday February 12, 2006

CHAMPAIGN – An Army veteran who served in Iraq has a challenge for the Bush administration.

Dave Adams, 25, a student at Southern Illinois University and member of Iraq Veterans Against the War, told a group of more than 50 people at a rally Saturday at Illinois Disciples Foundation in Champaign that President George Bush challenged troops to find weapons of mass destruction and members of al-Qaida.

Adams, who served as a mechanic and chaplain's assistant from 2000 to 2003, said his challenge to the president is to apologize to the American soldiers and public, to bring the troops home now and to properly care for veterans, as promised.

Later, in answer to a question from the audience, Adams added that Bush should also apologize to the people of Iraq and properly compensate them for the destruction caused by this war.

Mohammad Al-Heeti, owner of the World Harvest store in Champaign born and raised in Iraq, said soldiers and citizens of the U.S. have to understand that much of the violence directed at the troops is "just a reflection" of the violence they have suffered. A pull-out of American troops "would not be worse than what's happening now," Al-Heeti said. "It doesn't have to be all at once. It could be in phases. They need a good faith showing from the American government."

Adams said a lot of soldiers he has known feel, as he does, that Iraq will be involved in some sort of civil war no matter what the U.S. does."We need to get the international community involved and let the Iraqi people deal with their own situation," Adams said.

Adams said he grew up in a family with a strong traditions of military and Republican involvement. When Bush announced the war, he wanted to serve, he said.

Finally sent to Iraq in March 2003, Adams saw where people were living in the rubble and destruction from the first war. He also encountered a university president, who helped his unit by providing housing, but he was upset when that man was arrested because he was a member of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party.

"It was, in my eyes, so self-defeating," Adams said. "The one person that was there to help us was now in a military prison."

Adams said he and his fellow soldiers were initially greeted warmly, but that good will has been lost by broken promises to rebuild schools, bridges and other infrastructure.

The hostility of Iraqi citizens "is not falling on George Bush," he said. "It's falling on the shoulders of soldiers and marines."

Even though he wanted out of that environment, Adams said he continued to defend Bush and the war effort after he first returned home.

But as his friends continued to die in the war, his own symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder began to show, he said. "This is the point I realized there were concerns," Adams said. "My friends are dying and what the hell is going on?"

His family is very supportive of his activism and his father, a marine veteran, told him that he is sorry he voted for George Bush, Adams said.

Adams said he has a yellow ribbon on his door. "It says, 'Support the Troops. Bring them home now,'" Adams said.

http://www.news-gazette.com/news/2006/02/12/army_veteran_speaks_out_against