To friends and family when my video launched.

“This doesn’t just close out a month when I (determinedly) worked through each weekend, it signifies a milestone in my Street Team tenure. I am half way through this journey. My production skills have greatly improved, but more than that, I think I found what a friend and mentor advised I do back in January.

“Erica, Humanize this War.”

With that advice, I thought – and continue to think, about the way to do it. For this video, and over time, I talked to dozens of Veterans. Read every article I could. And through conversation, absorbed anecdotes — about a confusing and unorganized war – from intelligence officers, artillery soldiers, explosive specialists and more.

Here is my video, Mission Possible.”

Hey Everyone. Let me catch you all up. It’s been a busy three weeks and because of it I have a very cool development to share with you.

Though I”ll do a specific post for Erica-America a little later, here is what I did for MTV this week. It was origianlly posted on THINK, along with a short video — and serves as a brief introduction to the time I’ve been spending with a young group of DC based Veterans.

Young Surge in Anti-War Movement

Three Sundays in a row, at 4:00PM, I would pack all my gear, strap the tripod to the pack’s side and summon my inner EricaAmerica to come out and play. Thank karma she did, which made those afternoons of metro rides and shooting the shit with young Iraq Vets not just educational, but also a lot of fun.

This group house, by some measure, is the Real Real World. A place stocked with fruit snacks and beer , testosterone and girls. But in an UnReal World sense, these co-existors were more than just age-similar. They had all served in Iraq or Afghanistan since 9/11 and upon return, joined a fast-expanding group called the Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW). The house, on the Northeast side of DC, is not only their bunker, but the central headquarter for the business of IVAW’s grassroots operations.

I had my first dose of IVAW in action back in March, when I attended the Winter Soldier event. [see my video here] I was taken back by the candid, powerful, testimonies about the U.S.’s occupation in Iraq. I realized as I walked around the confernece exactly what IVAW was doing — reporting the war from the eyes and ears of a very young, elite graduation class. A class that received educations at the University of US Occupies Iraq and are now taking their diplomas to bring attention to what they call a criminal occupation and use of force.

There is a 22-year-old freckled Embassay Guard. A 19-year old college junior. A southern farmer with flow hair and a jewish political theory student. They are unlikely messengers. But they keep coming back with a message.

Over the three Sundays I went to the IVAW Group House, I listened for those messages. I captured three tapes, about five interviews and a whole lot of b-roll. While I kick off the process of importing, editing and producing it, I thought I’d share with you all this little sound bite from former Marine, Adam Kokesh. Kokesh has his own blog and attends Graduate School at George Washington University. In Iraq, Adam served on a Military Affairs team, which, he told me, “means we’re the guys shaking hands and kissing babies.” During the tour he also set up a store front to pay Iraq famliy grievance checks.

“Historically unprecedented,” he said. “We are actually paying people for losses.”

Here is the video…

As one soldier told me, “Erica, it’s a fast and furious world.” That it is.

This week’s video draws from footage from the Winter Soldier event last March and brings into the story the shortcomings of the GI Bill, in particular what it offers soldiers for education. As I reported for MTV, three former Presidents, a dozen U.S. Senators and fourteen Nobel Prize winners went to college on the GI Bill. The last time it was updated was back in the 80s, when we were at peace, not war, and soldier were less likely to serve multiple deployments and then choose to move on.

From my work on Veteran issues I’ve heard a lot of talk about why they joined. Some did out of patriotism, and felt, after 9/11 it was their undisputed duty. Others, and perhaps the most common thread I’ve heard, is the cost of education. A shot at a four year university that they otherwise wouldn’t be able to pay for.

I can trace my fascination with GI’s, the cost of education and war, back to Indiana University. For three years, my next door neighbor was ROTC. From our manicured front lawn, I would watch my peers walk in and out of the former Fraternity house. In uniform and up with the sun, they would practice marching orders and do endless push-ups. A part of me felt sorry for them, perhaps not rightfully so, but still — because I wondered if a commitment to our armed forces was their best option to pay for a four-year university.

Not long after those careless afternoons, the war broke out. I remember having profound realizations that several of those students — soldiers — would now be sent to fight a war. And I questioned. Were they recruited – in a bigger picture by the Pentagon – with the knowledge a war was on the brink? And Is college tuition the new draft?

Today, 57 Senators are supporting a large increase to the GI Bill for public university tuition. In a letter I obtained from the Senate, Defense Secretary Robert Gates asked Senator John McCain, who is on the fence, to consider how the bill might hurt retention.

“The Department estimates that serious retention issues could arise if the benefit were expanded beyond the level sufficient to offset average monthly costs for a public four-year institution.”

Here’s my video. Hope you’ll check it out and let me know how Congress should approach GI Rights while we fight two wars and send soldiers on multiple deployments.

Quick Disclaimer: No one is perfect, especially EricaAmerica. I misspelled “Sergeant” at 1:26. Take total responsibility, but am so tired from I am calling it a day and putting the effort into research. I totally need an editor. One man band life is hard. 

While 21-year old Iraq Veteran, Paul, aims to add normalcy back to his life, the war transcended on Washington, DC. At the start of the sixth year of war on Iraq, March 19, a mix of people gathered within an ear shot of the White House to demonstrate dissatisfaction.  Join me as I explore how courage and activism bridge unlikley partners in the fight against US Occupation of Iraq.

Decision to Desert: Part I
My MTV Profile

Tonight I’m going to Landmark E St. Cinema to check out an early viewing of Body of War. The 87 minute documentary is about 26-year old Veteran and Kansas native, Tomas Young. The film, (hit the circuit at the Toronto Film Fest)  came together through a collaboration of unique names like Ralph Nader, Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder, and Co-directors Phil Donahue and Ellen Spiro.

I got an early copy of the Body of War soundtrack at the Iraq Veterans Against the War Winter Soldier event. The album is honestly the best collection of political music I’ve heard since, well, spinning old records of my parents. My favorite songs on the album are Pearl Jam cover of Masters of War, Bruce Sprinsteen’s Devils & Dust and Lupe Fiasco’s American Terrorist.

The movie is on a nationwide — grassroots — if you will, tour, with Tomas, wheelchair, pills, complications and all - and Donahue and Spiro. Though the movie is about the life of Tomas as a paraplegic, it’s also about the build up to the passage of HR 411, the Iraq War Resolution of 2002.

After DC, the third stop on the tour, Tomas will go to New York, Philly and Boston.. Los Angeles, San Francisco & Seattle and then a finale in Chicago, Minneapolis and St. Louis.

To watch the trailer, click here.

In January, I discovered I have an unlikely connection to the War in Iraq. His name is Paul, and not forty miles away from me, he was serving time in the Quantico Brig (military prison) for deserting the Marine Corp after a tour in Iraq.

Though we had only met once before, I decided there was only one thing to do. Go visit my second cousin and get the story. Here is Part I of a two Part series, which can be seen below or, here on MTV. 

On January 23, 1973, President Nixon made a public statement to the American people. After five years of peace talks, the United States had reached a peace accord with Vietnam. United States Prisoners of War (POW) would be released and, as Nixon announced over a live television broadcast, an internationally supervised ceasefire would soon commence.

By March, U.S. troops had pulled out completely, and men aged 18-26 had one less thing to worry about: the draft.  Not long after, the draft officially ended and the U.S. converted to an All-Volunteer Force (AVF).

vol•un•teer n. (v l  n-tîr ): A person who performs or offers to perform a service voluntarily.

The scenario for enlistment is now much different than when we were at war with Vietnam. Today, millions of men and women voluntarily enlist in the Navy, Marine Corp, Army and Air Force. Many hope to make the military into a career, and thousands see the world with assignments to Air Force bases in Japan and Korea, Naval fleets in the Pacific and Army barracks in Saudi Arabia. But when I mentioned the phrase ‘voluntary military’ to an Army Intelligence Officer and Army Infantryman, my sincerity was met with laughter.
 
“When I was deployed to Iraq, I had about three months left in my eight year military service,” Army Infantryman Camilo Mejia told me.

“Three months. And before being deployed to Iraq, my company commander got everyone together and he said, ‘If you’re about to get out of the military, you’ve been extended until the year 2031.’ 2031…After eight years of service. So I’m not sure you can call that voluntary.”

I paused to consider what he had said. And I wondered, what exactly does it mean when your military contract is extended without your consent?

It means you’ve been stop-lossed.

According to the Department of Defense’s (DOD) online dictionary, stop-loss is described as this:

“to suspend laws relating to promotion, retirement, or separation of any member of the Armed Forces determined essential to the national security of the United States… This authority may be exercised by the President only if Reservists are serving on active duty under Title 10 authorities for Presidential Reserve Call-up, partial mobilization, or full mobilization.”

So in a basic sense, if the President determines that the loss of a soldier, sailor, airman or Marine would compromise the security of the U.S., the contract is extended. Simple as that. According to the Army Times, the Army has been hardest hit, with more than 10,000 members being stop-lossed in recent years.

As the war in Iraq enters its sixth year of occupation, 4,000 American deaths and multiple deployments – experts suggest that stop-loss is a major factor in producing the the highest rate of desertion in the military since 2001, leaving the military strained. But just who is deserting, and how can a volunteer decide to do something so drastic?

Stay tuned for more on GI Resistance and a first hand account of a Marine who joined at age seventeen with incentives of college tuition. Barely two years later, he found himself on a journey of self-discovery and resistance — and, as he told me from a Federal prison, there was no choice but to desert after learning of a second deploment to Iraq.

This is Erica Anderson. Washington, DC. Street Team ’08.