reparations – Engaging Peace

Note from Kathie MM: This post from long-time guest author Ross Caputi begins a new series on ending violence; his focus is on the role of veterans in promoting repair as an antidote to violence.

Veterans Speak Out, Part 1

By Ross Caputi

Ever since I got out of the military, I’ve felt that those around me, conservatives and progressives alike, have bent over backwards to give me an opportunity to talk about my experience in Iraq. I think many people do it because they think they owe me this courtesy.

But others seek me out and ask me to speak about my experience because they know and I know that veteran stories accomplish a lot of political work. I always accept, because I have an agenda to push.

I want to end war and prosecute war criminals.

But I’ve always felt uncomfortable with using the authority of my voice as a veteran to accomplish anti-war work. It’s a strange corner that I feel backed into where I have to identify myself as a former soldier so that I can try to undermine our culture of soldier-worship. And I can’t help but feel troubled by the contradiction between the means and ends of this rhetorical strategy.

No doubt, the privileged status of soldiers/veterans in the US is a major reason why we play such an important role in the anti-war movement. Our biggest contribution is that we help civilians navigate support-the-troops jingoism and accusations that anti-war ideas are unpatriotic. For whatever historical reasons, veterans enjoy a near sacred status in US culture and society. We carry with us an enormous amount of symbolic capital, and our voices are privileged like none others. We then bring this symbolic capital and privilege with us to the antiwar movement.

Simply by letting us make short speeches at anti-war rallies, or even letting us wear our cammies in an anti-war march, organizers know that audiences will be more willing to listen and less likely to criticize. In short, veterans help legitimize anti-war ideas by vouching for them.

But we can do more than that. Stay tuned.

Ross is the co-founder of the Islah Reparations Project. He is also the director of the documentary film Fear Not the Path of Truth: a veteran’s journey after Fallujah. The full essay, from which this post is excerpted, can be read at VeteranReparations.org.

Our philosophy at Islah is that the goal of a reconciliation project must not be merely to end violence and mend feelings and attitudes between an oppressor and an oppressed group. The absence of violence with the persistence of injustice is not positive peace, but the Pax Romana. This is the peace that empires seek, the stillness of the cemeteries, where all forms of resistance against oppression have been quelled and the status quo has been preserved in totality.

Reconciliation is not realistic or desirable until all injustices have been addressed. The first step of this process lies in reparations efforts.

We see truth-telling and reparations as essential steps towards any possible reconciliation. Through voluntary reparations, individuals who feel complicit in war, occupation, or displacement can begin to directly rebuild relationships with victimized people. Reparations do not just address the responsibility of one party for harming the other, but also help to abolish structures and systems of injustice, which are often lubricated by either outright misinformation or collective aphasia.

Truth-telling is essential for accountability. Trust cannot be restored between people while wrongs committed remain a secret known only to the perpetrator and the victim. Through reparations and truth-telling, a process of restorative justice can begin, and reconciliation may be possible.

Truth and Reconciliation in Iraq
Our goal is to work towards a Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Iraq by first addressing the suffering that Iraqis experience as a direct result of the US-led invasion and occupation. Our goal is to create an enduring, restorative relationship between Iraqis and participants in the occupation of Iraq (soldiers and citizens of the occupying countries).

Ross is currently on the Board of Directors of ISLAH. He is also a graduate student and a writer. In 2004, he was a US Marine in the US-led occupation of Iraq. His experience there, in particular his experience during the 2nd siege of Fallujah, compelled him to leave the US military and join the anti-war movement. His activism has focused on our society’s moral obligation to our victims in Iraq, and to the responsibility of veterans to renounce their hero status in America. Photo by Dahr Jamail of Iraqi women using the only water available to them .