Updated Winter Soldier Info w/ Speakers List!!!

Winter Soldier Northwest

Hear eyewitness accounts of the realities of war from soldiers, theirfamilies, Iraqi refugees, and Afghan-Americans. Panelists will discussthe true costs of war, and what we can do here at home to support ourveterans, work in solidarity with the Iraqi and Afghan people and endthe war.

Where: First Unitarian Church 1011 SW 12th Street (at Main), Portland Oregon
When: Saturday, October 18 12:00-5:00
Topics include: Veterans' Voices from Iraq and Afghanistan, Human Costs of War and Building Resistance to War.

Cost: $5-10 sliding scale, no one turned away.

Sponsored by: PDX Peace Coalition, Iraq Veterans Against theWar(IVAW) Seattle Chapter, Veterans for Peace Chapter 72, MilitaryFamilies Speak Out Oregon, American Friends Service Committee, AmericanIranian Friendship Council, Code Pink Portland, International SocialistOrganization (ISO) Portland Chapter, KBOO Community Radio 90.7 FM,MoveOn Portland, Peace Memorial Park Foundation of Portland, People ofFaith for Peace, Portland Peaceful Response Coalition, Recruiter WatchPDX, Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, Vancouver for Peace, WarResisters League Portland and more.

For more information, to volunteer or to cosponsor Winter Soldier, email wintersoldier@pdxpeace.org or call 503-230-9427.

Panel 1: Voices of Veterans From Iraq & Afghanistan

* Camilo Mejia, a National Guard staff sergeant who after fighting for five months in Iraq, became the first combat soldier to refuse to go back to Iraq. He now serves as Chair of the Board of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) and is the author of Road from ar Ramadi.
* Jan Critchfield, a specialist with the Army National Guard who served as an army "journalist" while attached to the 1st Cavalry in Baghdad during 2004. His unspoken job in Iraq was to "counter the liberal media bias" about the occupation. Member of IVAW Seattle.
* Joseph Holness, served in the US Army in Iraq and with the US Air Force Reserves supporting Operation Enduring Freedom, from Gresham, Oregon.
* Evan Knappenberger, served one year in Iraq with the Army 4th Infantry Division working as an intelligence analyst; held one week long "Tower Guard Vigils" in Bellingham, WA and Washington, DC to call attention to the STOP-LOSS policy.
* Seth Manzel, an Army sergeant who served as a vehicle commander and machine gunner in Iraq. Member of IVAW Seattle.
* Adriana Moyola, US Army war resister from Portland and IVAW member.
* Chanan Suarezdiaz, a Navy hospital corpsman and purple heart recipient who served in Ramadi from September 2004 to February 2005 with a weapons company. He is now the Seattle Chapter president of IVAW.
* Michael William, Army National Guardsmen who went AWOL, IVAW Northwest Regional Coordinator.
* and more local veterans to be announced.

Panel 2: The Human Costs of War

* Dahr Jamail, an independent journalist who spent a total of 8 months as an unembedded reporter in occupied Iraq. He has written for Mother Jones and The Nation, among other publications, and has provided radio reports on Democracy Now! and the BBC. Author of Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches from an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq.
* Ahmed Abed, father of Mustafa Abed, an Iraqi child who was injured by an American air raid and is currently receiving medical care in Portland through the No More Victims project.
* Dr. Baher Butti, formerly the chief psychiatrist at a mental health clinic Baghdad, now an Iraqi refugee and faculty member at the OHSU School of Medicine.
* Mary Geddry, member of Military Families Speak Out (MFSO) Oregon and mother of a Marine son who served two tours of duty in Iraq.
* Adele Kubein, Military Families Speak Out Oregon chapter president, mother of an Iraq war veteran.
* Sara Rich, M.S.W., anti-war activist and spokesperson for Courage to Resist; mother of Eugene Iraq war vet & war resister Suzanne Swift.
* Dr. Zaher Wahab, Professor of Education at Lewis & Clark College; serves as a senior advisor to the Minister of Higher Education in Afghanistan, and has been spending about five months annually in that country since 2002.

Panel 3: Building Resistance to War

* Iraq War Veterans on building an Oregon IVAW Chapter.
* Leah Bolger, Veterans for Peace Chapter 132 from Corvallis, on the statewide effort to keep Oregon's National Guard in Oregon.
* Gerry Condon on linking with the Canadian War Resisters Campaign.
* Daniel Shea, Veterans for Peace Chapter 72 on the PDX Peace campaign to make Portland a Sanctuary City for War Resisters.
* and more discussion of local actions we can take to support veterans, refugees and end the war.

Please donate to help build Winter Soldier. We are bringing in speakers from around the Northwest and around the country, and that costs money. Please donate now to PDX Peace and make this event possible. Thank you!