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Tyler Zabel - War Resister, Afghan photos by Chris Vongsawat, and petition

Afghanistan Awareness Update 10.30.09

This is our final Afghanistan Awareness Update for October. We are just dollars away from meeting our goal of raising $3,500 by the end of the day tomorrow. Won't you please make a last minute donation to help push us over the top? You can donate here.

Tyler Zabel on how he became a Conscientious Objector

"Basic training wasn't all what I had thought it would be, as I callously screamed out brutal chants about slaughtering kids in schoolyards and laughing about the way napalm would stick to their skin. We must've screamed, "Kill!" hundreds and hundreds of times to get into our heads that this was our purpose as soldiers. But I played along, acting the part of the good soldier, nodding my head and doing what I was told, though the feeling in my gut told me something was wrong..."

Read Tyler's full story here

Images of Afghanistan - photographs by Chris Vongsawat

Photographer and IVAW member, Chris Vongsawat, documented his entire experience as a soldier in Afghanistan while working with the Afghan mlitary and conducting convoys all across the country. "These photos were an attempt to maintain a connection with what was happening around me, to prevent the sometimes inevitable downward spiral into blindness that often comes with getting used to a place and seeing everything in tactical terms. I wanted to see people, not 'targets,' 'civilians,' or 'potential threats.' I wanted to see mountains and valleys, not 'positions,' 'dead space,' or 'cover and concealment.' I wanted to remember that I really was in a place called Afghanistan, that I wasn't just a ghost with a rifle and a nervous dream of going home."

View Chris' photos here:
http://www.necessaryillusion.com/afghanistan/


Demand Civilian Solutions for Afghanistan - Download Petition here

IVAW is partnering with Brave New Foundation, producers of the film, Rethink Afghanistan, to raise awareness about what is really happening in Afghanistan. Would you circulate this petition among your friends? It asks to Congress begin debate on civilian alternatives to military action in Afghanistan.

You can also host a screening of Rethink Afghanistan in your home, church, or other community setting to raise awareness.

Your donations have made October Afghanistan Awareness Month possible, so thank you for giving! If you haven't already, please make a donation today to help us reach our goal of raising $3,500 by midnight tomorrow.

Thank you,

Iraq Veterans Against the War

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