2008 Woodie Awards
P.E.A.C.E. panel discusses Iraq War
Greg Ylvisaker
Issue date: 3/19/08 Section: News
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Thursday marks the fifth anniversary of United States military entry into Iraq.
Sophomore Karen Drydyk, founder and president of the UW-Whitewater chapter of P.E.A.C.E., invited four panelists, Spec. Greg Russo of the U.S. Army Reserve; UW-Whitewater Professor Lynn Shoemaker; Jane Jensen; and Carol McKy, to share their different views on the Iraq War. Jensen and Mcky are both members of Military Families for Peace and Military Family Compassion Groups.
Shoemaker was a Christian Peacemaker in Iraq in 2005. The Peacemakers were there to work nonviolently for peace at their own risk. He told of his experiences, especially with an Iraqi who Shoemaker called "Saiid." He kept the Iraqi's real name secret because "most of the time, you want to be careful about giving the complete names of Iraqi people, as it is possible to get them into trouble."
Saiid lost 16 members of his family, home and livelihood to a U.S. air strike. Shoemaker acted as a mediator between Saiid and U.S. Army officials and tried unsuccessfully to get an apology for Saiid. Shoemaker said they were not there to judge either side in the conflict, but his group believed that there were nonviolent options to solving our problems in Iraq.
Jensen is from Madison and has a son who has served two tours in Iraq. She is the founder of Military Families for Peace and the Military Families Compassion Group in Madison. She started these groups in November 2003. There were few anti-war groups in Madison at the time, and members of these groups were treated very badly.
"We met in a church basement, were called unpatriotic and accused of being against the troops and supporting the enemy,"Jensen said. "We survived all this time and now we have about 600 members and there is hardly anyone in the Madison area who believes in the war."
The two groups were trying to support troops by sending care packages to soldiers overseas. The soldiers would send requests for things they needed, and Jensen's groups would try to fulfill their requests. One year the groups spent $800 in postage alone. Now they deal with the problems soldiers and their families are encountering upon their return home.
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