Former US troops rail against war :

BY DAVID LYNCH

28/02/2006

Two former US soldiers will address 18 meetings across Ireland starting this week.
The Irish Anti-War Movement is organising the speaking tour by a veteran of the Vietnam War and a veteran of the US occupation of Iraq.

Iraq veteran Benjamin Hart Viges and his unit were involved in mortar raids during the US siege of Falluja in 2003.

Mr Viges, of the group Iraq Veterans Against the War, and Frank Corcoran of Vietnam Veterans Against the War will address meetings in most major cities and towns as well as every major university on the island.

The meetings are being held in the run-up to the anti-war march planned for Dublin city centre on Saturday, March 18.

Mr Viges said: “I am a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War and Veterans for Peace. I was with the 82nd Airborne Division as a mortarman when my unit was deployed to Iraq in February 2003.

“I joined up the day after September 11, 2001. I saw action in Falluja and Baghdad. My mortar platoon dropped numerous rounds on the town of Samawa during the start of the invasion. I don’t know how many innocents I killed with my mortar rounds.

“I was so disgusted by the war that, after we came home in January 2004, I filed for conscientious objector status and received that status in December 2004. I’m a Christian. What was I doing holding a gun to another human being?”

Frank Corcoran served with the marines in 1968 in Vietnam. Before travelling to Ireland, he said: “I have been a member of Philadelphia Veterans for Peace since 1990. I have also been active in the School of the Americas Watch campaign for ten, 12 years.

“I am a cancer victim because of exposure to Agent Orange while in Vietnam. I am an elementary school teacher for the past 20 years. I’m an Iraq Veterans Against the War board member and a volunteer staff member for IVAW for the past year and a half.”

At the March 18 protest, the anti-war movement will also be calling for an end to CIA “torture flights” through Irish airspace and an end to the use of Shannon airport by the US military.

Over the past year, more than 300,000 US troops have passed through Shannon airport in Co Clare. The March 18 demonstration in Ireland will begin at 2pm in Dublin’s Parnell Square.

The two men will speak tomorrow in the ATGWU Hall on Dublin’s Middle Abbey Street at 7pm. On Thursday, they will speak at 7pm at Transport House, High Street, Belfast.

On Friday, they will speak at Badgers Bar, Orchard Street, Derry.

For a full list of the 18 meetings, go to www.irishantiwar.org.

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