-
ZOLTÁN GROSSMAN
- This page is from Dr. Grossman's faculty website
- when he was an Assistant Professor of Geography
- and faculty advisor to Amnesty International at
- the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire in 2002-05.
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- Dr. Grossman is now teaching at The Evergreen State College
- Lab 1, Room 3012,
- 2700 Evergreen Parkway,
- Olympia, WA 98505 USA
- grossmaz@evergreen.edu
- Office (360) 867-6153
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- ROBERT SARRA
- Marine Sergeant in Iraq invasion,
- and co-founder of Iraq Veterans
- Against the War (IVAW)
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- "SUPPORTING THE WARRIOR,
- NOT THE WAR"
- Keynote speech for Human Rights
- Awareness Week at the University of
- Wisconsin-Eau Claire, Dec. 6, 2004
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- AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM
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- Robert Sarra is the keynote speaker for U.W.-Eau Claire's Human Rights
Awareness Week, observed annually by the campus chapter of Amnesty International.
This evening's event is held in conjunction with International Human Rights
Awareness Day (Dec. 10), which marks the U.N.'s passage of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. Amnesty International has played a
leading role in exposing human rights abuses around the world, including
in Iraq under both Saddam Hussein and the current rulers. Previous keynote
speakers for the campus observance include Senator Russell Feingold.
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- Robert Sarra is a co-founder of the Iraq
Veterans Against the War (IVAW). He is a nine-year veteran of the U.S.
Marine Corps and an urban warfare instructor who served as an infantry
sergeant in last year's invasion of Iraq. He supported the war before his
deployment, but after witnessing it firsthand, he joined his mother, a
member of Military Families Speak Out
(MFSO), in fighting to end the occupation. Sarra currently lives in Chicago.
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- In an interview with Alternet.org, Sarra said that when he headed to
Iraq in January 2003, he was a 31-year-old eager to serve his country and
the Marine Corps. But the day he opened fire on an Iraqi woman, everything
he had believed in for most of his life changed forever. When he saw the
white flag in the hands of the dead woman that he'd mistaken for a suicide
bomber, Sarra said he began to question the war and his role in it, while
continuing to honor his fellow troops.
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- In a speech he delivered last Memorial Day, Sarra remembered, "The
waves and smiles we got when we first moved in were disappearing quickly,
and we all had the feeling that we had overstayed our welcome. When we
were told we would be going home, missions and excuses kept popping up,
and we were kept in-country with no certain end in sight. This was a cause
for severe frustration on all levels in my unit, as well as for our families
at home."
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- Sarra quit the military soon after returning home in June 2003. His
reentry into civilian life was marred by the effects of Post-Traumatic
Stress Disorder (PTSD) and alcoholism. He received therapy and made peace
with his war experience by taking on the role of peace organizer
"an unlikely vocation," wrote Alternet.org, for someone who "had
always seen protesters as 'hippies who had no right to protest and just
hated the military.'" The group Sarra co-founded, IVAW, is the only
anti-war organization comprised entirely of soldiers who served in the
Iraq War. It takes part of its inspiration from the Vietnam
Veterans Against the War (VVAW), which involved many thousands of GI
enlistees and draftees disillusioned with the quagmire in Southeast Asia.
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- Sarra told Alternet.org that the Iraq War "reinforced my feelings
on what these guys [soldiers] sacrifice, and what they are sacrificing
now. And what an honorable job it is. For the guys over there, politics
isn't a factor to them. It's about fighting for that guy next to you and
getting home in one piece and getting back to your family. I hope that
this war is going to end sometime soon. That we can bring all these guys
home and Iraq will be stable. That we didn't just go in there and stir
up a huge hornet's nest."
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- This event is free and open to the public. Military personnel, veterans,
family and friends are welcome. It is sponsored by the UWEC chapter of
Amnesty International, the Progressive Student Association, and Eau Claire
Staff and Faculty for Peace and Justice, with support from the Departments
of English, Economics, Sociology, History, and Philosophy & Religious
Studies, Student Life & Diversity, Active Student Association, SSDP,
College Feminists, College Democrats, Eau Claire Peace Coalition, Women
in Black, Citizens Against the War in Iraq, and other organizations.
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- NEWSPAPER ARTICLE
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Veteran of Iraq war now opposes conflict
by Tom Giffey, Eau Claire Leader-Telegram, Dec. 7, 2004
Robert Sarra saw combat in the early months of the Iraq war and still
speaks with the frank confidence of a U.S. Marine.
Some of his comrades-in-arms remain in Iraq, where they're fighting anti-American
insurgents.
But now the ex-Marine sergeant's battle is different: He wants to end
the war.
"I'm doing it for my buddies. "I'm fighting from home,"
Sarra told more than 200 people Monday night at UW-Eau Claire.
Sarra, who spoke as part of Human Rights Awareness Week at the university,
is co-founder of Iraq Veterans Against the War. The group aims to end the
Iraqi occupation immediately and bring U.S. troops home, support soldiers
in Iraq and those who've returned, and help rebuild Iraq.
Sarra said the fact some returned troops have committed suicide highlights
unmet mental health needs. However, he said, such services for veterans
are inadequate.
Sarra is blunt in his assessment of the war. "When's the insurgency
going to end? When we leave," he said.
The nine-year Marine veteran from Chicago didn't always oppose the war.
In fact, in early 2003 Sarra and his comrades were eager to fight. They
accepted the justifications for the invasion: That Saddam Hussein had weapons
of mass destruction, that he was an imminent threat to the United States,
that he was harboring terrorists and that he mistreated his own people.
(In retrospect, Sarra believes that only the last reason was true.)
Sarra's perspective changed dramatically after his unit rolled into Iraq.
Casualties and shortages of critical supplies, like body armor, became reality.
So did the fact that enemies were dressed as civilians. Word of suicide
bombings spread.
One day Sarra watched as a woman clad in black approached other Marines,
ignoring warnings to stop. Fearing she carried a bomb, Sarra shot her twice.
As she fell, he saw her pull a white flag from her bag.
"Right then and there I said, 'What the hell just happened?' "
Sarra recalled.
Such incidents happen every day in Iraq, he said.
"Civilians are being killed, not because we're lining them up and
shooting them, but because we don't know who the enemy is," he said.
From that point, distraught that he'd made a mistake and killed a civilian,
the war changed for him. He refused to obey orders that he thought would
put his men at unnecessary risk. He said he fought onward, but only to survive
and protect his buddies.
Sarra began speaking out against the war after he was given an honorable
discharge from the Marines last year. While he's been called a traitor by
some troops serving in Iraq, Sarra said others silently support his group.
Many military family members feel pressure not to speak out against the
war, said Bethany Jacobson of Osseo, whose son, Elijah, is a Marine corporal
in Iraq. However, Jacobson said she's found her voice through participation
in anti-war groups like Military Families Speak Out and Women in Black.
Jacobson, who attended the speech Monday, hopes Sarra's frankness gets
the reality of the war across to the public.
"His message is disturbing, but we need to be disturbed," she
said. "We need to be shaken out of our complacency."
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- GETTING INVOLVED IN EAU CLAIRE
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- Amnesty International (AI) UWEC chapter
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- Progressive Student Association (PSA)
- Contact Andrew Werthmann
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- Eau Claire Staff & Faculty for
Peace and Justice (SFPJ)
- Contact Rick Richmond
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- Eau Claire Peace Coalition (ECPC)
- Contact Elizabeth Preston
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- Military Families Speak Out (MFSO)
- Contact Steve Wagener
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