Winter Soldier: Eyewitness Accounts of the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan

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	Winter Soldier Day 1: The Legacy of GI Resistance Part I Kelly Dougherty, IVAW’s executive director, served as a medic and MP with the Colorado Army National Guard in the Balkans and Iraq. Gerald Nicosia, author of "The Definitive History of the Vietnam Veterans Movement, Home to War," reads a statement from Ron Kovic, a former Marine sergeant, who was paralyzed during his second tour of duty in Vietnam. David Cortright, professor of peace studies at Notre Dame University and author of "Soldiers In Revolt – GI Resistance During The Vietnam War," draws parallels between the GI resistance movements during the Vietnam war and today: war crimes hearings, ads and petitions, organizing on active-duty bases, and publications using whatever technology is at hand.
	Winter Soldier Day 1: The Legacy of GI Resistance Part II Barry Romo, an anti-war activist and union activist for over 39 years, and national coordinator for Vietnam Veterans Against the War.
	Winter Soldier Day 2: The Rules of Engagement Part I Hart Viges talks about the loss of his humanity during his time served in Iraq, and his moment of clarity that restored it.
	Winter Soldier Day 2: The Rules of Engagement Part II - Clifton Hicks and Steve Casey testify about their experiences in a "free-fire zone" where there were supposedly "no friendlies." But Hicks and Casey never saw any enemy combatants.
	Winter Soldier Day 2: The Rules of Engagement Part III Tod Ensign, attorney and a director of Citizen Soldier. David Cortright, professor of peace studies at Notre Dame University. Barry Romo, an anti-war activist and union activist for over 39 years, and national coordinator for Vietnam Veterans Against the War. Kelly Dougherty, IVAW’s executive director, served as a medic and MP with the Colorado Army National Guard in the Balkans and Iraq.
	Winter Soldier Day 2: The Rules of Engagement Part IV Jason Hurd, a self-described Tennessee mountain man, spent ten years in the Army and National Guard. He spent his year in Iraq in central Baghdad as a medic, sometimes doing meet-and- greets with the local population, but he didn't escape the shooting and bombardment of civilian targets. Amy Goodman talks with Aaron Keaton, one of the people who put together Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan.
	Winter Soldier Day 2: The Rules of Engagement Part V During his eight months in Iraq Vincent Emanuele witnessed and participated in: the aimless shooting at Iraqi vehicles; the random firing of rifles and mortars into the village rather than at specific targets; the physical abuse of Iraqi prisoners and the driving of prisoners out into the desert where they were abandoned; and the disrespectful handling of the Iraqi dead. Sergio Kochergin speaks about the erosion of the rules of engagement within his platoon. Within months, Kochergin says that the rules of engagement were left entirely up to he and his fellow soldiers. Jason Washburn’s unit was told to shoot anyone digging near the side of the road because they might be planting a bomb. He speaks about the shootings of innocent Iraqis. Jason Lemieux speaks about how in Iraq, the rules of engagement are being loosely defined and broadly enforced at the expense of the Iraqi people.
	Winter Soldier Day 2: The Rules of Engagement Part VI Jon Turner speaks about his actions while he was serving in Iraq and states “I am no longer the monster that I once was.” Logan Laituri speaks about his experiences while serving.
	Winter Soldier Day 2: The Rules of Engagement Part VII James Gilligan speaks about his experiences while serving in Afghanistan. Garett Reppenhagen speaks about the evaporation of the rules of engagement he witnessed and experienced while serving in Iraq.
	Winter Soldier Day 2: Crisis in Veterans' Healthcare Part I Zollie Goodman was promised that he and his family would have medical coverage when he joined the Navy. He speaks about the inadequacy of the veterans' healthcare system and his everyday struggle to maneuver through it. Eric Estenzo and Eli Wright speak about injuries they received while in active duty and their frustrations with attempting to get treatment.
	Winter Soldier Day 2: Crisis in Veterans' Healthcare Part II In her decade of military service, Adrienne Kinne noticed a significant decline in the quality of health care provided by the Veteran Administration. Joyce and Kevin Lucey, parents of Jeffrey Lucey, who committed suicide after returning, describe the last months of his life and his unsuccessful efforts to get help from the Veterans Administration.
	Winter Soldier Day 2: Crisis in Veterans' Healthcare Part III Eugene Martin is a staffer for the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents many Veterans Administration employees. He says the uncertainty of funding undermines the efforts of VA staff to help veterans. Tod Ensign, director of Citizen Soldier and author of America’s Military Today, cites a March 6 Army report that the rate of mental illness and PTSD among soldiers in their third or fourth Iraq tours is one in three. Amy Goodman speaks with Barry Romo about the Winter Soldier hearings.
	Winter Soldier Day 3: Civilian Testimony: The Cost of War in Iraq and Afghanistan Part I Kelly Dougherty presents IVAW'sresponse to the Department of Defense satement on Winter Soldier. Fernando Braga presents a film of civilian testimony from Iraq and Afghanistan.
	Winter Soldier Day 3: Civilian Testimony: The Cost of War in Iraq and Afghanistan Part II Hear testimony from civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan.
	Winter Soldier Day 3: Interviews with Liam Madden and Adam Kokesh Laura Flanders of GRITtv talks about her experiences reporting from Iraq. Vera Avery-Brown speaks with Liam Madden and Adem Kokesh.
	Winter Soldier Day 3: The Cost of War in Iraq and Afghanistan Part I Laura Flanders of GRITtv talks with Michael McPherson and Lesley Kagen about setting up the Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan conference. Margaret Stevens speaks about the people at home paying for the war and the cuts in education and healthhcare that are a result of the cost. Adrienne Kinne speaks about the cost to our freedome and our constitution. Carlos Arredondo speaks on behalf of his deceased son Alexander Arredondo.
	Winter Soldier Day 3: The Cost of War in Iraq and Afghanistan Part II Fernando Suarez del Sol speaks on behaf of his deceased son Carlos del Sol. Nancy Lessin and Charley Richardson speak about efforts to stop the war before it started. Brooks Sunket speaks about the loss of lives and the billions of dollars spent on the war.
	Winter Soldier Day 3: Racism and War: Dehumanization of the Enemy Part I Scott Ewing was an Army scout in Tel Afar from 2005 to 2006. He describes how treatment of civilians became progressively more brutal. Jeffery Smith’s unit provided base security for a large American base in Iraq. He testifies to routine degrading treatment of Iraqis. including those who worked at the base for a dollar a day, often in extreme heat and dust.
	Winter Soldier Day 3: Racism and War: Dehumanization of the Enemy Part II Mike Totten served in Iraq as a military policeman. He says his company of MPs was very well run, with “phenomenal leadership.” But he testifies to cruel abuse of Iraqi prisoners by Iraqi police and by Bulgarian, Polish, and American soldiers—in one case by Totten himself. Camillo Mejia says the abuse of Iraqis is “not the result of people waking up one morning as monsters, but it’s part of … the military culture. They train us that way.” Michael Leduc served in the Marines during “Operation Venom Fury,” the attack on Fallujah. Before the attack, the battalion’s legal counsel told them the strict rules of engagement under which they had previously operated would not apply to this assault.
	Winter Soldier Day 3: Racism and War: Dehumanization of the Enemy Part III Bryan Casler served in the Marines in Iraq and Afghanistan. He speaks of soldiers’ disrespect for the people of those countries. Matthew Childers speaks about his experiences while serving in Iraq. In Iraq, he says, his unit abused prisoners and Iraqi civilians who were the victims of their nighttime raids, mostly innocent victims of faulty intelligence. Sam Lynch was a conscientious objector who supervised medical services for Iraqi detainees. He says most American doctors at his clinic refused to take care of the prisoners, so he had to rely on less-trained medics.
	Winter Soldier Day 3: Racism and War: Dehumanization of the Enemy Part IV Verna Avery-Brown speaks with Amandee Braxton. Andrew Duffy testifies to incidents in which Iraqi detainees desperately in need of medical treatment were denied it. Mike Prysner describes a mission he took part in which his unit forced Iraqis out of half a dozen homes, with no compensation, so the US military could use them.
	Winter Soldier Day 3: Racism and War: Dehumanization of the Enemy Part V Christopher Arendt, who served at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, describes “how one goes about becoming a concentration camp guard.” Geoff Millard describes the widespread use of “Hajis” as a derogatory term for Iraqis, including those who worked for the Americans, and even for Pakistani workers. Domingo Rosas, an ex-Army sergeant who served in Iraq from April, 2003 to 2004, describes mistreatment of detainees at a site called Tiger Base on the Syrian border.
	Winter Soldier Day 3: Racism and War: Dehumanization of the Enemy Part VI Christian Appy is a history professor and author of two books on the Vietnam War. He tells the story of Wayne Smith, an African-American medic. Dahlia Wasfi speaks about what racism means.
	Winter Soldier Day 3: Racism and War: Dehumanization of the Enemy Part VII Christopher Arendt introduces a filmed interview with an Iraqi mother named Um Ahmed, who describes a terrifying raid by American soldiers on her home. The raid turned out to be a mistake: they were after a militia member who lived next door. Verna Avery-Brown speaks with Brian Conely and Anthony Arnove
	Winter Soldier Day 4: Breakdown of the Military Part I Steve Mortillo speaks about his experiences while serving in Iraq. “I hope the American people can understand the impact that this occupation is having on the military,” he said. “It’s tearing us apart.” Daniel Fanning served in Iraq with a Wisconsin National Guard transportation unit and speaks about lack of proper armor and training. “I enlisted [after 9/11] to be part of the solution, not part of the problem,” Fanning says, but I feel like I did just the opposite, and many of the people in my unit feel the same way.
	Winter Soldier Day 4: Breakdown of the Military Part II Kristofer Goldsmith saw the World Trade Center towers collapse on September 11, 2001. He enlisted in the Army and went to Iraq in 2005. In Sadr City, he witnessed abuse of Iraqi civilians.
	Winter Soldier Day 4: Breakdown of the Military Part III A strong supporter of the Iraq War, Lars Ekstrom reported to boot camp in November 2003, six months after graduating high school. Ekstrom's faith in the military and the U.S. mission, however, steadily eroded during his training and subsequent deployment to Iraq.
	Winter Soldier Day 4: Breakdown of the Military Part IV Former Marine Matt Howard says the Marine Corps “bases itself on dehumanization and subjugation and abuse of its lower enlisted in order for it to function.” He was severely beaten in a hazing incident.
	Winter Soldier Day 4: Breakdown of the Military Part V Capt. Luis Carlos Montalvan notes that IVAW critics have challenged the speakers to testify under oath, subject to the penalties of perjury. He says he would love to do that. He discusses several military reports and his own experiences showing the shortcomings of the military.
	Winter Soldier Day 4: Divide to Conquer: Gender and Sexuality in the Military Part I Abby Hiser spent eight years in the Wisconsin National Guard and was honorably discharged as a sergeant in 2007. She describes a string of her own experiences that show woman in the military still face prejudice and obstacles to advancement. Joe Wheeler landed in Kuwait at the beginning of the war when the Iraqis were firing Scud missiles. He speaks about specific incidents that he encountered while serving. Margaret Stevens was a medic in the New Jersey National Guard on 9/11, and knew she was likely to be deployed to a war or occupation. She says women who are raped in the military are pressured not to try to document the crime. Jeff Key was a reservist who did not plan to tell anyone he was gay, but “once you’re in a fighting hole with someone who’s sharing the deep contents of their soul and willing to take a bullet for you and you for them, to manufacture some bogus life is ridiculous and I would not spit in their face by doing so.” Patty McCann served in Iraq with the Illinois National Guard. In her unit, she says, rank was used to coerce women into sexual relationships.
	Winter Soldier Day 4: Divide to Conquer: Gender and Sexuality in the Military Part II Rafay Siddiqui, a Marine veteran of Iraq, says that in the military, “you’re not a man until you’ve taken advantage of a woman.” Wendy Barranco trained as a combat medic. At her request, a surgeon let her work in the operating room, but then he wanted sexual favors in return. Nathan Peld served in the Navy as a nuclear electronics technician. He tells the story of a young woman whose direct superior exposed himself to her. She filed a complaint, but when it reached the senior enlisted commander in Peld’s department, he tried to talk her out of pursuing it, saying the offender hadn’t actually hurt her, and he was just two years from retirement.
	Winter Soldier Day 4: Corporate Pillaging and Military Contractors Part I Kelly Dougherty speaks about an experience where she was ordered to destory a truck full of food while pointing a machine gun at Iraqis people to keep them away Captain Luis Montalvan speaks about Iraqi corruption that leads to American corruption.
	Winter Soldier Day 4: Corporate Pillaging and Military Contractors Part II Antonia Juhasz is the author of several books about the oil industry and a visiting scholar with the Institute for Policy Studies. She notes that even Alan Greenspan, in his memoirs, wrote that “the war in Iraq is about oil,” although he later retreated from that statement under attack from the right. Jeremy Scahill is the author of Blackwater, the Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army. He describes the Sept. 16, 2007 incident in which Blackwater guards killed 17 civilians in a Baghdad square.
	Winter Soldier Day 4: The Future of GI Resistance Jeff Engelhart was in the 1st Infantry Division and served in Baquba, Iraq. He has been a member of the GI resistance for several years and created the blog "Fight to Survive" in Iraq, writing about his experiences and what he thought was wrong. Garett Reppenhagen says soldiers can use their First Amendment rights to speak out without getting in trouble, and IVAW stands ready to help them learn how. IVAW is asking soldiers and veterans to join a fight to make America better, says Garett. Ronn Cantu wants his active duty brothers and sisters to know that they do have a First Amendment right to dissent and still serve honorably. Iraq veteran Camilo Mejia (chair of the IVAW board of directors) describes the long history of resistance in the military and salutes those who continue to speak out about their experience.
	Winter Soldier Day 4: The Aims of the Global War on Terror Part I Anthony Arnove speaks about the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan and the geopolitical considerations that he sees driving US policy.
	Winter Soldier Day 4: The Aims of the Global War on Terror Part II Amy Goodman speaks about the legacy of Winter Soldier and power of the media.

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