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Veterans bemoan Iraqi occupation

Veterans For Peace members from around the area gathered to attract University of Wisconsin students and Iraqi war veterans to their national antiwar organization Wednesday.

At the gathering, members and non-members congregated to discuss their opinions of the war, meet student activists and brainstorm future endeavors.

"Veterans or non-veterans, students need to know [more about the war in Iraq]," Iraqi war veteran and Edgewood College student Patrick Wilcox said.

Wilcox is currently the only member of the VFP local chapter who is a veteran of the Iraqi war.

He said he was especially hoping to meet students around campus who were also veterans of the Iraqi war, adding he has met very few people since returning.

Unlike other veteran associations, VFP members said they are not interested in lobbying or promoting benefits for future veterans.

Instead, they said VFP specifically wants to diminish the number of veterans and, ultimately, stop war.

VFP member Joel Garb said Madison's VFP chapter consists of veterans from a multitude of U.S. wars.

"The local group has a broad base of people from the Korean, Vietnam and World War II," he said.

According to its mission statement, Veterans for Peace intends "to end the arms race and to reduce and eventually eliminate nuclear weapons."

VFP members said they actively reach out to potential military recruits at area high schools.

"We [at VFP] go into high schools and talk to students about options that recruiters tell them are not true," Robert Kimbrough said.

Kimbrough, retired UW English professor and veteran of the Korean War, spoke of the significance of counter-recruiting high school students.

"The military has easy access to high school students because of George Bush's No Child Left Behind Act," Kimbrough said, adding he feels that high school students need to be more aware of military obligations before they make an irreversible commitment.

VFP member Richard Grum, a peacetime solider in his mid-50s, said the military targets youth because a middle-aged adult would be less likely to risk his life by joining the military.

"One out of three soldiers [is] going to have [his] brain scrambled a little bit," Grum said of soldiers facing combat.

Grum added that one of the biggest problems for the military is the psychological stress soldiers experience.