Documentaries shot by Mark Lewis of CSaction.org from November 8, 2007 through May 16, 2008,

December 13, 2007 (newer at the top)

(Editor's note: As an active-duty soldier, Brad did not want to use his last name for fear of reprimand.)

I wrote this poem after the first time I stared at a human being through my sights with the intent to kill them. They were acting suspiciously and right before I pulled the trigger, I realized they weren't a threat like I initially thought. It was at that point I realized how influential and destructive a 21-year-old kid from Anywhere, USA can be. We could play judge, jury and executioner. Only our conscience and values stand between Iraqis and their death.

This was written at a time when, in America, dissent was highly discouraged and Bush's popularity rating was sitting somewhere in the high-70 percentile. Seeing how I wrote this poem while I was sitting on a machine gun, in a sweaty Humvee during the hot Iraqi summer, I felt I was entitled to be a little nasty.

Back then, I just simply could not imagine that, despite all the lies and hate-talk and hysteria going on, a majority of Americans either steadfastly supported such an illegal and immoral war or were flatly apathetic toward it. I got a lot of negative responses after I passed this poem around to friends and family back home.

Looking at it now, I do admit that it is somewhat callous to the American people. But then again, I'm not as angry as I was while I was deployed in Iraq. That, and much has changed in our support for the war and our national psyche toward it since 2004.

A group of soldiers and myself met the Bouncing Souls in Germany one month before we deployed to Iraq. While in Iraq, we wrote the band and they decided to post our e-mails on their Web site on a page called "Letters from Iraq." I wrote the poem about our shared experience; us in Iraq writing letters to our friends that missed us.

(Editor's note: The poem has since been adapted into a song of the same name, which is on the 2006 Bouncing Souls album The Gold Record.)

This was, perhaps, the most radical thing a Southern California boy had ever done in order to see a Bouncing Souls concert.

It's almost certain that at some later moment, Joe Hatcher looked back and thought to himself, "That was so punk rock!" But here, bundled in a sleeping bag under a pile of clutter in the trunk of his friend's car, a border guard clenching his shoe, Hatcher was not feeling so triumphant.

Garett Reppenhagen, Jeff Englehart and Ben Schrader, all feeling the rush that accompanies improbable luck, were freed to cross the border from Germany into the Czech Republic, with Hatcher safely snuggled in the back. There would be no arrests today. No charges of international body-smuggling.

A few miles down the road, Hatcher was freed from the trunk, and immediately told his Army buddies something to the effect of, "I've never been so terrified in my life."

Reppenhagen, Englehart and Schrader — who, along with Hatcher, were stationed in Germany — had actually met the members of the Bouncing Souls the night before. The band had invited them to the next night's gig in Prague. Hatcher wanted to go, but didn't have a passport. It seemed like an OK idea to shove him in the trunk and bring him along.

The guys, facing a yearlong deployment in 2004, were blissfully unaware that these two days would help launch a chain of events that would nearly land them in military prison — not for body-smuggling, but for name-calling.

Here's the story: The guys really liked the band. So much so that, when they later were in Iraq, they decided to write to the band members. As the soldiers grew weary and began to react to the violence of their situation, the e-mails became more personal. Some began to include poetry.

"It just seemed like a necessity to do it," Reppenhagen says. Reppenhagen, a high school dropout, never imagined he'd be drawn to reading books, let alone writing.

"The stuff that I wanted to express," he says, "didn't come out any other way than poetry."

The Bouncing Souls were so impressed they began posting the e-mails on their Web page.

Then, in 2004, Hatcher set up a blog for the four friends, called "Fight to Survive," at ftssoldier.blogspot.com.

"We were opposed to the war before we went," Englehart says. "And we got together and said, "You know what we should do? We should write about this shit.'"

The posse of four began posting to the blog, using pen names. They wrote whatever they felt: the good, the bad and the "Bush is a fascist."

The Department of Defense doesn't allow soldiers to call Bush the f-word. Other words on the no-no list for presidential name-calling apparently include "Fight to Survive" favorites like "Nazi" and "gangster."

But the men got lucky (again). An investigation revealed they had not violated "operational security," and in a don't-rock-the-boat move, they were released from military service in 2005 without being charged.

They dispersed across the country, but the blog kept going. Reppenhagen was quickly drawn into activism. He took a job in Washington, D.C., with Veterans for America. In his spare time, he volunteered at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and for Iraq Veterans Against the War, a national support, advocacy and education organization.

In 2006, Reppenhagen was at the Vans Warped Tour with the Bouncing Souls, introducing the song "Letters from Iraq" — one of Reppenhagen's poems, set to music.

Coincidentally, a young soldier named Jared Hood was in the audience that day. Hood later told Reppenhagen that the Warped speech helped him decide to go AWOL.

In 2007, Reppenhagen moved to Green Mountain Falls and started attending Pikes Peak Community College, studying to be a history teacher. Slowly, he began gathering his old friends. Schrader lives in the Fort Collins area. Hatcher lives in Cascade with his girlfriend and her 5-year-old son; they are expecting twins. Englehart moved to Denver at Reppenhagen's urging, bringing his wife.

The friends are all active in IVAW. And they've found others like them. Hood is now the Denver chapter president. Another friend, Mark Wilkerson, runs the Colorado Springs chapter. Wilkerson started writing in earnest while he was locked up for deserting.

"In prison, I really started to find myself," he says, "and this stuff just started to spew out of me."

Across the country, veterans are writing and blogging. IVAW has locked into the growing interest that veterans have in poetry, by launching the Warrior Writers Project. It has since hosted five workshops, where vets share ideas and write poetry, across the country. (There has yet to be a workshop in Colorado.)

Green Door Studio, in collaboration with People's Republic of Paper, has printed one compilation book, Warrior Writers: Move, Shoot and Communicate. L. Brown & Sons Printing, Inc., is putting out a new book, Re-making Sense, in January. Colorado Springs vets are featured in both.

The local veterans' writing community continues to grow, through open mics and advocacy groups. Here are some of the poems coming out of it, along with authors' introductions.

Warrior Writers November 8, 2007

This poem was written when I had turned myself back in to Fort Hood. I was with some friends driving in the town of Killeen, and we drove by a pawn shop. On a sign outside the store, it said, "We buy broken jewelry." I don't know why that affected me so greatly. Just the fact that "why does jewelry get broken"?

So I thought of an image of a husband or wife throwing their rings, or breaking them out of anger. I pictured broken homes, broken hearts and this pawn shop was taking advantage of that, like it was profiting off others' pain. So I went back to my barracks room and wrote this.

This was written soon after I saw a recruiting commercial on the TV. This was just a week before my court-martial, and I was upset about the production quality of the recruiting commercials, and I felt (and still do) that the commercials paint a pretty picture over a very dangerous, sometimes very ugly career: that of a soldier.

Joe Barrera (SouthWestHistory.com) recounts the loss of his best friend in Vietnam

This one I actually wrote while I was on an airplane headed back from a Vets4Vets workshop in Miami. It was an amazing experience, but I was confused about how or what I needed to do to help those in need. I was still very bitter with the attitude of the country at the time, and frustrated that things weren't changing and Bush wasn't behind bars. FYI: This was written after I was out, but looking for a way to help end the war!

Garrett, and Fernando Braga, and Veterans for Peace, Thomas Brenson in NY street theater: "Operaion First Casualty"

Ms. Tina Richards, Garrett Reppehagen and Liam Madden spoke out in support of Iraqi War Veteran and ex-Marine Sgt., Adam Kokesh. He is involved in a First Amendment-related case, which focuses on the right of a former member of the military to dissent from the views of the Bush-Cheney Gang with respect to the ongoing unjust and illegal war. Kokesh is facing charges from the Marine Corps for wearing parts of his uniform at a recent anti-war demonstration.

Starting off on the bush tour bus

Kelly Dougherty and Maricelo Guzman helping rebuild houses in New Orleans 9th Ward

Warrior Writers beginnings

IRAQ VETERANS AGAINST THE WAR writers project. A book of collected writings by the Vets being sold to promote communications and healing. Drew Cameron reads a poem.

Cloy Richards, Aaron Hughes, and Drew Cameron of Iraq Veterans Against the War read their writings from "Remaking Sense". The book is a compilation created through a series of writing workshops designed by IVAW members. This was a public reading held at the Green Door Studio in Burlington, VT. The event also included an art opening and two hours of readings from veterans from all over the country.

More from the Vermont sessions. Aaron Hughes recites "I Am"

IVAW Members at the Warrior Writers workshop in Vermont. This is Drew Cameron singing "So Early in the Morning"

Adrian Stanley's continuing INDY series on the Warrior Writers (2007)

report on first Warrior Writers poetry slam at Meadow Muffins

What Was Asked of Us

An Oral History of the Iraq War--By 30 Soldiers Who Were There

by Douglas Herman

March 7, 2007

"I found myself in a highly civilized world ignoring the Vietnam War . . . . Nobody I knew even talked about Vietnam, making it a very difficult situation to return to." ~ Oliver Stone, movie director and Vietnam veteran

Imagine yourself, never having left America before and only recently out of school and, suddenly in a foreign land. Now imagine yourself as a heavily-armed, heavily-armored teenager, sweating under 50 pounds of gear in 110 degree heat, having to tell a beaten, occupied people what to do. Imagine not knowing the local language. Imagine having conquered that country, having the war declared “over” and then having the fighting intensify.

What Was Asked of Us, by Trish Wood and Vietnam veteran Bobby Muller, mostly succeeds in putting the reader into the boots of the conquering US soldier on the ground. And then puts the reader into the body armor as occupiers.

“Most of the time I was pretty calm . . . . At other times I had to be in the middle of a bunch of Iraqis that weren’t doing what you wanted them to . . . . It’s a frustrating situation to have to act outside of your nature,” said cavalry scout/sniper Gar Reppenhagen. “The reasons why soldiers do half the shit they do is mostly out of fear of punishment . . . what motivates these kids is fear of being punished.”

We discover Reppenhagen is among the most reflective soldiers interviewed, one of the more confessional voices in a revelatory book.

Some soldiers admit a thrill of combat. Like USMC veteran Matthew Winn. “I’m glad that I joined and got to see some combat . . . . I don’t think I was ever scared. I know it sounds like a typical guy, but I don’t think I was ever scared. Combat was just something I always wanted to do, and I enjoyed doing that. I had adrenaline--I guess I’m an adrenaline junkie, but it was fun.”

Yet the war eventually took a toll on everyone. As war veteran Hemingway once wrote: “The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong in the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry.”

“I started bawling,” admitted Ken Davis. I just started crying. And I said, ‘God, you picked the wrong guy for this job. You picked the wrong guy to be in this country.” Davis found himself at the center of the Abu Ghraib atrocities. He tried to report the abuses to his superior but was told to shut up. “Military intel is in charge of the entire compound,” a lieutenant told him. After the scandal exploded, Davis asked: “I don’t believe it was just a few bad apples. I’m not that gullible. I am not going to be lied to by a government that I would have given my life for in Iraq.”

Infantryman Joseph Hatcher concurred. “We’re in the country for the oil . . . . There is no connection to 9/11. There’s no reason for us to be there. We’re walking down the street telling people we’re there to help them, and all night long we just kill each other. If I was a citizen there and someone came in and tried to take over my country, take over my city . . . . I would be out on the street with every single one of them.”

In country from Feb 2004 to March 2005, Hatcher admitted his bias. “I have so many problems with this war and this military, and this government. It’s hard for me to talk about it because I don’t know where to direct my frustration.”

Mostly the frustration spills from the pages of the book, much of it directed at the mission, or lack of one.

“You know, by the time I arrived in Iraq, I realized we weren’t going in after WMD, I was there as a cop, a fireman, a sewage-waste manager,” said Brady Van Engelen. Shot in the head, he survived.

“Our idea was to use the neighborhood people to come out and clean the garbage up,” said Jonathon Powers, about his stint in Baghdad. “It would have cost us just forty dollars a week to pay for trucks, garbage bags . . . . It turns out the CPA wouldn’t give us the forty dollars a week . . . . We kept looking at each other like, what the fuck are we doing? They needed a sewage solution. Forty bucks a week for a fifty-thousand person sector and we couldn’t get it done.”

A sense of hopelessness soon overshadows the initial optimism of the interviewed soldiers. “We deal with, like, stress in situations like that in strange ways,” said Reppenhagen, reflecting on the futility. “I don’t know, its just--’Shit, did you see that kid’s arm? That fucking thing went right over the fucking Humvee.’ In situations that are just so horrible, sometimes all you can do is laugh.”

“These kids are really putting themselves on the line and you feel bad that you can’t do more for them,” Said Army surgeon Earl Hecker. “This is an injury war . . . . I saw injuries that I’ll never forget. This is the secret side of the war. Nobody knows about it. Nobody talks about it. Nobody addresses it. Nobody looks at it.”

Readers might think I’m over-emphasizing the negative, that the book cannot be as overtly anti-war as I imply. I’ll leave it to each of you to decide for yourselves. My only complaint(s) is: the 30 soldiers interviewed are rarely identified by rank and they are too few. There should have been more of them. No one can fault them for their candor, however.

“Right now there’s this cold and calculated side of the war that just accepts tragedy for what it is, and doesn’t dwell on its sorrowful nature,” observed Army guardsman, Benjamin Flanders. “This is what happens when people speak to each other with rifles.”

To their everlasting credit, the interviewers left a hefty dose of soldierly rage in the pages. This book is not your typical, PG friendly local newspaper, and thank God for that. All the profanity--and war is the biggest profanity of all--is left intact.

“What the fuck was this for, you know,” wondered Jeff Englehart. “What the fuck was this for? I hope Bush is happy.”

“The ‘Support the Troops’ ribbons on vehicles began to look like swastikas,” Reppenhagen added, once back in the USA. “Because it’s really ‘Support the War,’ not ‘Support the Troops.’ It’s a guilt-free way of saying: ‘I’ve done my duty. I support the troops. Look, I’ve got the sticker,’ when it’s a bunch of bullshit.”

“I don’t like to admit that I was directly at hand hurting people,” confessed Garett Reppenhagen. “In the end I couldn‘t stand up to my convictions and I went . . . . I don‘t think it’s going to be anytime soon that I can just let myself off the hook . . . . If I really, really get into it, I don’t think that I’m going to come back out of it for a long while. America might have to change before I can change.”

What Was Asked of Us: An Oral History of the Iraq War

IVAW Warrior Writers Colorado

December 13, 2007 (newer at the top)

Warrior Writers November 8, 2007