Iraq Veterans Telling Their Stories

Winter Solider: Iraq & Afghanistan – Eyewitness Accounts of the Occupations

Iraq Veterans Against the War
Philadelphia, PA

The Problem: While the majority of the US public opposes the U.S. occupation of Iraq, it continues to destroy the lives of Iraqis and US service members, while bankrupting the nation and impacting our entire generation.

The Solution: Iraq Veterans Against the War’s goals are: to end the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, fully fund veterans’ benefits, and pay reparations to the Iraqi people.

The Strategy: In order to achieve their goals, IVAW aims to build a movement of veterans and soldiers to resist the war. This directly-impacted constituency has the power to end the occupations because of their position and moral authority. Along with their ongoing outreach and organizing efforts, IVAW opted to convene a gathering called “Winter Solider: Iraq and Afghanistan,” following in the tradition of the first Winter Solider Investigation (held by the Vietnam Veterans Against the War in 1971.) IVAW gathered corroborated testimony of soldiers, and eyewitness accounts from Iraqi civilians, in order to illustrate the oppressive reality of occupation, and show the systemic nature of mismanagement, human rights violations, and oppression. They also wanted to inspire other soldiers and GI’s to speak out and tell their stories, and know that they are not alone.

AlJazeeraEnglish news coverage of Winter Solider:



The high profile event was the largest gathering of IVAW to date, and strengthened the IVAW community. It was also broadcast and web cast live, and satellite events in military and other communities streamed the hearings to an audience of soldiers (and sympathetic civilians.) The media strategy successfully targeted military publications and reached active duty personnel. The messaging focused on mobilizing the military community against the wars.

smartMeme’s role:
SmartMeme has been working in partnership with IVAW since 2006, to  support their role as a directly impacted constituency providing leadership to the anti-war movement. We believe that amplifying the voices of veterans  as protagonists in the anti-war story is one of the most effective ways to shift the public debate on the occupation. Our role in Winter Solider was to support IVAW in achieving their goals, help to frame the event, and build the messaging and media capacity. The Winter Solider project explored the transformative power at the intersections of storytelling, organizing, and new media – the heart of smartMeme’s mission.

The Result: Winter Solider amplified testimony of 55 young veterans, and experimented with new media vehicles and models for grassroots efforts (live web cast and distributed events). This resulted in widespread media coverage, most importantly in military publications like Stars & Stripes and Army Times which reach IVAW’s priority audience, active duty military personnel, and helped increase IVAW membership by 30%!

Iraq veteran Camilo Mejia (chair of the IVAW board of directors) describes the long history of resistance in the military and salutes those who continue to speak out about their experience. "We live today in times of universal deceit," he says, "but throughout the past four days, we have witnessed firsthand accounts that challenge that universal deceit... We have become a dangerous group of people, not because of our military training, but because we have dared to challenge the official story."

Learn more about Winter Solider