Kelly Dougherty

Executive director, Iraq Veterans Against the War

by Will Dean

(CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

As Veterans Day approaches next week, and the war in Iraq shambles bloodily along, we sat down with Kelly Dougherty, founding member of Iraq Veterans Against the War, a national group headquartered here in Philadelphia. Its membership is made up entirely of retired and active duty veterans who have served in the military since Sept. 11, 2001. The group has grown from seven members in 2004 to 625 today and supports immediate withdrawal, reparations for Iraqis and full benefits and health care for returning veterans.

City Paper: Do you think IVAW's growing ranks has anything to do with the failure of the new Democratic Congress to bring about any change in the war?

Kelly Dougherty: Once the election brought the Democrats into more power than they had been in before, [some of our members] thought, "Now something's going to happen, things are going to get better and the war's going to start coming to an end." But at the same time, a lot of people in the military [and] veterans didn't necessarily have a huge amount of faith that just by electing a few more people, it was going to drastically change the course of the war.

CP: There have been cases of soldiers refusing to be shipped out. Have any in Iraq been refusing to go on missions?

KD: Most of the resistance that happens in Iraq, we would never hear about. Recently ... independent journalist Dahr Jamail interviewed active duty and retired veterans about "search and avoid" missions, which basically means instead of going out and doing a patrol, you go out and set up an over-watch position on a bridge or park under some shade and call in radio reports that you are patrolling a route when really you're just sitting there hoping nothing happens to you.

CP: So, is there any good news for Veterans Day?

KD: People are really getting fed up and there's a lot of movement to do more organizing. I think that it's encouraging to see more people in the military and more veterans actually coming out and speaking out against the war in whatever way they are able to do.