March will mark the third anniversary of the Iraq War, and
several groups — The Peace Action and Education Task Force, Rochester Against
War, and the RIT Antiwar Network — are presenting the second installment of
their speaker series, “Realities of
War: Truth From the Front Lines” next week. The program will be held at 7
p.m. Thursday, February 22, at the First Universalist Church, 150 South Clinton
Avenue downtown.

Guest speakers and anti-war activists Stan Goff and Lee Zaslofsky will deliver their grassroots message, “Not Your Soldier.” Goff, an Army
Ranger in the Special Forces and Delta Force, served in Vietnam and Haiti. He
wrote “Hideous Dreams,” a memoir of his experience in Haiti, and “Full
Spectrum Disorder,” an analysis of the effects of Afghanistan-Iraq
conflicts. Most recently, he has worked on the coordinating committee for Cindy
Sheehan’s “Bring Them Home Now!” organization.

Goff has been ardent critic of the Bush Administration says
that the age of US imperialism is ending, and the neo-cons, namely
Bush-Cheney-Rove, have unwittingly advanced it by failing to understand that
wars are won politically, not tactically on the ground. He says the Rochester
engagement will be aimed at convincing Democrats how important it is to take a
stand with a unified message against the Iraq war, which is now being used,
along with The War on Terror, to usurp civil liberties.

“The American public is paying close attention to this war,”
says Goff. “If Democrats have any hope at all of winning back seats in
Congress, they need to denounce this war right now. Anyone who thinks that this
scandal-ridden Administration can’t win another election and take even more
seats is misguided. The anti-war movement is the only way Democrats can
win because right now Republicans are redefining the terms of winning so they
can keep US forces in the region. They are using Colonialism — “we have to
stay the course” rhetoric that translates nicely into patriotism for the
masses.”

Co-speaker, Lee Zaslofsky, is a conscientious objector and
was a draft resister during the Vietnam War. He is also the coordinator of the
War Resisters Support Campaign of Canada, a broad based coalition that supports
US soldiers seeking asylum in Canada.

The event is free and open to the public. For more
information, visit www.metrojustice.org and www.resisters.ca.

This article appears in Feb 15-21, 2006.