In March of 2000, I walked into a recruiting office and did what I had wanted to do for years. I joined the Marine Corps. Two months later (at the age of 34), I was off to boot camp with men young enough to be my sons. Even after all that has happened, I'm still very proud to have served my country in the Marine Corps and proud to own a title that can never be taken away from me.
In March of 2003, I found myself headed to a country which had never attacked mine but which I had been told posed an immediate threat to my own. Beyond that, my belief that that country's leader, Saddam Hussein had been placed in power and kept in power partially because of our support of him and that he was a horrible tyrant. I believed I owed it to the Iraqis to remove him. In my naivete, I thought that we would defeat Saddam and then give the country to the Iraqi people to whom it belonged.
While I was in Iraq and further upon my return I began to wake up about the real reasons we were sent to Iraq. As I became more and more aware of how much our invasion and subsequent occupation had nothing, in fact to do with defending my nation or helping the Iraqis and everything to do with the exploitation of their natural resources and fueling the military industrial complex, I felt compelled to speak out. I could no longer be a party to what I knew in my heart of hearts was illegal and immoral war. Because I had taken an oath that I still felt passionately loyal to, an oath that prohibits me from following an unlawful order, an oath that swears me to do any and everything I can to defeat all foreign and domestic enemies of my country and her constitution, I spoke out.
On March 31, 2003, I went on CNN's Paula Zahn Now and said to five million people, what I was afraid at one time to tell anyone. I used "Don't Ask Don't Tell" the policy that precludes homosexuals from serving openly in our military to force them to discharge me. I had been blessed enough not to have killed in my short deployment to Iraq and I would be damned if I would ever "kill a kid for oil."
My life since that time has not always been easy. I have been spit on, called a traitor, threatened and criticized. I have also met the most incredible people on earth. To serve alongside great men and women in the military has been one of the great honors of my life. Serving alongside them again in this noble cause to bring home the troops now and take care of them when they get here, is an even greater honor. The enemy we face now is more ominous than any our nation has ever faced because it is fueled from within and disguises itself as patriotism. True freedom and democracy will win in the end. Our country may be down but it is not out. Government of, by and for the people will endure and it is because of my brave brothers and sisters in Iraq Veterans Against the War and like-minded patriots all across America.
Showtime has made a movie about me which will air for the first time on June 25, 2007 at 8:30 pm. www.SemperFiTheMovie.com
I also set up a NON-POLITICAL/NON-PARTISAN none profit to benefit Iraq era vets and Iraqi civilians. www.MehadiFoundation.org