Military service personnel on active duty are restricted from expressing their personal views, but rules in the Military Whistleblower Protection Act allow them to express their opinions to politicians while out of uniform and off duty without fear of retaliation. Due to this right, a campaign has been started by US troops to request a pullout from Iraq. The campaign, called the Appeal for Redress from the War in Iraq, questions the necessity of being in Iraq and the use of repeated tours of duty.

The appeal, posted on the campaign’s website at www.appealforredress.org, states; “As a patriotic American proud to serve the nation in uniform, I respectfully urge my political leaders in congress to support the prompt withdrawal of all American military forces and bases from Iraq. Staying in Iraq will not work and is not worth the price. It is time for US troops to come home.”

Once at the website, service members can sign the appeal which will be delivered to members of Congress on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in 2007. The amount of signatories has risen from 65 to 219 in just a couple days. In a conference call with reporters, Marine Sergeant Liam Madden said, “The real grievances are: Why are we in Iraq if the weapons of mass destruction are not found, if the links to al-Qaeda are not substantiated?” Navy Seaman Jonathan Hutto, the first serviceman to join the campaign, stated similar concerns. In my opinion, what’s truly insane is the fact that troops wanting to pullout are being killed everyday by militants who want the same thing.

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