NORFOLK
For Ann Wright, it's a badge of honor that Fox News host Bill O'Reilly once cut off her microphone midinterview.
"He was questioning my patriotism," Wright said in an interview this week. "All I had said was that the United States needed to follow the Geneva Conventions in its treatment of prisoners. I said, 'Bill, I was in the military 29 years and I was a diplomat for 16 years. What have you done for the country?' "
Presumably Wright, 61, won't have to worry about being cut off when she speaks tonight at the Naro Expanded Cinema about her unlikely odyssey from soldier to diplomat to full-time anti-war activist.
By her own description, hers was a "squeaky clean" life story. She grew up in Bentonville, Ark., where she was a Girl Scout and her father was a banker who gave Sam Walton a loan that helped launch the Wal-Mart empire.
After retiring from the Army as a colonel, she joined the State Department and served in a variety of overseas posts, including reopening the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, after the 2001 terrorist attacks.
Over the decades, she said, she had often disagreed privately with U.S. policy but kept her mouth shut, believing she could serve best within the system.
"But it all changed when President Bush decided that he would invade and occupy an oil-rich Arab Muslim country that had not attacked the United States," she said. "It was such a dangerous move for the United States that I felt I could not be a part of it."
Wright was one of three U.S. diplomats to resign in protest over the American invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Since then she has been arrested 15 times for raising her voice in a public and indelicate manner. Once, after lecturing the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from the gallery, she was sentenced to three days in jail.
Wright has co-written a book, "Dissent: Voices of Conscience," a collection of profiles of men and women in government who have publicly criticized the Bush administration's foreign policy.
Appearing with Wright tonight will be Jonathan Hutto, a sailor and co-founder of Appeal for Redress, an organization that encourages active-duty personnel who are against the war in Iraq to speak out..
Bill Sizemore, (757) 446-2276, bill.sizemore@pilotonline.com
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Colonel Wright
honorably served her nation, both militarily & as a diplomat. She has earned the right, to disagree with policies of our govt. As a veteran, I know I was obligated to obey only rightful orders. Any order given that was a violation of US or international law, concerning actions toward a nation or prisoners of war, was to be disobeyed & reported to high command. Calling persons captured doing combat, "enemy combatants", doesn't change the fact they were caught in battle. The US can't have it both ways. If these persons aren't pow, covered by the Geneva Convention, then they can't be charged, held & convicted of war crimes. If they are pow, they can't be tortured. Don't go to the bodies hanged from a bridge & burned, scenario, as an excuse. American Whites have done that & more to Blacks & other minorities throughout US history.
regime change in iraq us policy
bryana95615, look up the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998.
Quagmire !!!
This war is what happens when we get involved in an illegal war. There has not been a legally declared war since WWII . There was never an act of war declared. That’s what makes Vietnam and this war quagmires.
SPEAKING OUT AGAINST THE WAR
She cashed her miitary pay check every month I wonder if she disliked the miliatry than. If she doesn't agree with the military I hope she gives back her retirement check every month. When my husband ( FREELY) joined over 25 years ago he took an oath he serves with PRIDE everyday. Maybe, she wasn't there that day the taught that subject in officer school.
orion, you want to try that again?
You have shown that you do not know what you are talking about. Try again.
Obeying Orders
After the Nuremburg Trials the oath was changed from 'obey all orders..' to 'obey all lawful orders', which made it incumbent upon all military personnel to apply their own conscience and determine for themselves the lawfulness of given orders. If they disobey a lawful order they must account later.
re: "an oath to obey the Commander and Chief"?
Keith,
Open mouth, insert foot...
"I, _____, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God." (Title 10, US Code; Act of 5 May 1960 replacing the wording first adopted in 1789, with amendment effective 5 October 1962).
"an oath to obey the Commander and Chief"?
What was that oath, lawrence? It would be interesting to see those words.
Protestors should do something real instead of whine
Go to Darfur, go work to settle the fight between the Tutsis and Hutus, or the Tamil Rebels. Bring women's rights to a muslim country. Staying in the safety of America and whining (or trying to shout down or filibuster others who have an equal right to have their voices heard) isn't remarkable, it's just plain lazy and self-centered.
Ms Benedict Arnold
It is too bad she feels the way she does. The administration acted on the best intelligence they had at the time. Regardless Sadam needed to be taken down. The Congress was for it before they were against it. Hind sight is 20/20. Unlike her, I support the effort and our men and women who sacrifice everyday. She is fortunate that we have those men and women so she can express herself like she does. I vote to give her more time in jail.
Bushes War
Iraq was a discretionary intervention done at the behest of Bush. There was no longstanding policy he was simply following. Iraq was not a grave and imminent threat to the U.S. and was compliant with the U.N. WMD mandates. We imposed punishing sanctions against Iraq for 10 years, then invaded and occupied them, at enormous cost and little benefit.
Wright tonight will be with Jonathan Hutto
Traitors and an embarrassment to our Country!!!
Follow the geneva convention?
So she denounces the US for Geneva Convention violations (which terrorists do not fall under), however, apply this to the terrorists [from Article 3 of the Geneva Convention]:
(a) Violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture;
(b) Taking of hostages;
(c) Outrages upon personal dignity, in particular, humiliating and degrading treatment;
(d) The passing of sentences and the carrying out of executions without previous judgment pronounced by a regularly constituted court affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized peoples.
Where is Ms. Wrights call for outrage against the terrorists?
Benedict Arnold
She spent twenty nine years in the military. During those years she enjoyed all the benefits that military officers are given such as educational opportunities and a sweet retirement. She took advantage of the system until it was time to pay up by being a soldier. When it came time to do what soldiers are trained to do(fight a war) she ran away. She took an oath to obey the Commander and Chief and at that she failed her country miserably.
Is it the President's fault?
It sure is funny that if something goes wrong or is not popular, it all gets blamed on the president. Yet it is CONGRESS that must do the voting and say that it is okay. The President can say all day long that he wants something, but unless CONGRESS is behind him and says YES, the odds are it won't happen.
Another Left-Winged Nut
Notice the career..."29 years" of which most were as a week-end warrior...it's officers like her that embarass those of us that follow our leaders (who "may" just have access to info that we don't)...
http://www.truthout.org/article/ret-col-ann-wright-to-refuse-serve