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Army Spec. Suzanne Swift, 21, Arrested for Refusing to Deploy to Iraq.

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Philosoraptor Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jun-13-06 11:36 AM
Original message
Army Spec. Suzanne Swift, 21, Arrested for Refusing to Deploy to Iraq.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/B/BRF_SOLDIER_DETAINED?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US

EUGENE, Ore. (AP) -- A 21-year-old woman who refused to deploy with her Army unit to Iraq for a second tour has been arrested and will be returned to Fort Lewis, Wash., Eugene police said Monday.

Eugene Police spokesman Sgt. Rich Stronach said Spec. Suzanne Swift, 21, told officers she did not want to go back to Iraq. She was picked up Sunday night at the request of the Army.

Stronach said Swift at first did not say who she was but was identified by tattoos described in the warrant and was arrested at her family's home without incident.

She was listed as AWOL late last year and her unit left for Iraq without her. She served her first tour in Iraq with a military police unit in 2004, her mother, Sarah Rich, told Oregon Public Broadcasting.

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Caoimhe Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jun-13-06 11:37 AM
Response to Original message
1. Very hard to blame her
I'd do the same thing. Bush is a criminal.
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Philosoraptor Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jun-13-06 11:41 AM
Response to Reply #1
2. She and thousands of others WERE tricked into it.
They were lied to by their commander in chief, and told that Iraq attacked us, and many of them are there with patriotism and revenge in mine.

They need to turn their backs on this so called commander in chief and be patriotic dissenters like this American G.I.
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TexasLawyer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jun-13-06 11:59 AM
Response to Reply #2
8. They were tricked and lied to on many levels
http://www.registerguard.com/news/2006/06/13/a1.arrest.0613.p1.php?section=cityregion

Army specialist refuses to return to Iraq
AWOL soldier's arrest brings out supporters
By Susan Palmer
The Register-Guard
Published: Tuesday, June 13, 2006


Suzanne Swift

Kevin Clark
The Register-Guard


<snip>


Swift's mother, Eugene social worker Sara Rich, has been a vocal opponent of the Iraq war, but said she didn't stand in her daughter's way when Swift decided to join the Army in spring 2003. Swift had graduated from South Eugene High School the year before and had been working, but felt she wasn't getting anywhere, Rich said. The message from Army recruiters - that she could receive an education and travel - resonated. Rich said recruiters told her daughter if she signed up for a five-year tour with the military police, she would not be sent to Iraq.

But it didn't work out that way. After Swift became part of the military police, her company was deployed to Iraq in February 2004.

<snip>

She came home to Fort Lewis in February 2005, believing she had the standard 18 months decompression time before she would be redeployed, Rich said. Mother and daughter visited whenever they could, but Swift didn't tell her much about what she'd seen of the war. "She had been through so much, but she didn't want to freak me out," Rich said.

Then Swift was asked to sign a waiver agreeing to return to Iraq early, in January, 11 months after returning to the United States. It was the last thing Swift wanted to do, Rich said. Having seen the war first-hand, she had profound doubts about it, and had told her mother she thought the war lacked purpose and that no one had benefited from the U.S. presence in Iraq.

<snip>



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Doohickie Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jun-13-06 06:26 PM
Response to Reply #8
29. I don't feel sorry for her
She joined in 2003? She knew what she was getting into.
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Skittles Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jun-14-06 04:25 AM
Response to Reply #29
34. I am inclined to agree
I'm a veteran and I never would have enlisted with this crazy incompetent warmongering piece of garbage masquerading as president
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Philosoraptor Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jun-14-06 05:07 AM
Response to Reply #29
35. That was my reaction too.
She knew what she was getting into, they all did, none were drafted.

I've never been in the military and may be unqualified to speak to this, but, I know of a lot of people who joined and regretted it. And let's face it, this is the neocons we're talking about, and they flat out fooled all these people.

And in this woman's case, she was tricked several times.
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uppityperson Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jun-14-06 02:25 PM
Response to Reply #29
38. Did she know? I feel sorry for her
I don't believe she knew what she was getting into, and do feel sorry for her.
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Doohickie Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jun-14-06 05:54 PM
Response to Reply #38
39. Anybody who signs up for the military knows they may be sent to war.
Anybody who trusted Bush was a fool.
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coalition_unwilling Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jun-14-06 05:58 PM
Response to Reply #29
40. Article is vague, saying she joined in "Spring 2003" -- we
invaded Iraq in March, 2003 and the bloom didn't start coming off the rose for the vast majority of people until, at the earliest, the Abu Ghraib scandal.

I'm not making excuses for her, any more so than I would for any of the people caught up in this "poverty draft."
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partylessinOhio Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jun-13-06 11:50 AM
Response to Original message
3. We should all stand up and support Suzanne for saying, "Hell, no!"
"I won't go!"

We've had enough killing by the cowards, Bush/Cheney!
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Philosoraptor Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jun-13-06 11:53 AM
Response to Reply #3
5. please delete, thanks.
Edited on Tue Jun-13-06 11:56 AM by Philosoraptor
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Union Label Donating Member (451 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jun-13-06 11:57 AM
Response to Reply #3
7. But now we need MASSIVE
troop disobedience to tell the cons that this is an illegal war.
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TexasLawyer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jun-13-06 11:53 AM
Response to Original message
4. Some more info
Army officials at Fort Lewis say she's been listed as a deserter since February but her family says she sufferers from post traumatic stress disorder and was sexually harassed multiple times by Sergeants in Iraq leaving her unfit to go to war again.

Since January Sarah Rich's oldest daughter, 21 year old Suzanne Swift has been in hiding. Swift's attorney says he has been in contact with the Army since January. We've been "working to legally get all the ducks in a row so she could turn herself if eventually that was going to happen," said Rich Monday. Swift had been staying on her mother's couch.

Rich says she just wants her daughter to be safe, monday she met with members of community alliance of lane county hoping they can help her daughter. Rich says, "she went to Iraq once and she was my hero she decided not to go back and she's even more my hero."

http://www2.kval.com/x56846.xml
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Philosoraptor Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jun-13-06 11:55 AM
Response to Reply #4
6. Thanks.
PTSD and Sexual Harrassment. Nothing political, just personal I guess.

The republicans will call her a coward of course.
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bullimiami Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jun-13-06 12:06 PM
Response to Original message
9. a drip, then a trickle, then a torrent. this is just the second drip.
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sweetheart Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jun-13-06 12:07 PM
Response to Original message
10. Good vibes to Suzanne Swift
Your courage in the face of criminal war to not be coerced
in to being an accomplace to a war crime. If only the whole
army had the courage to put down their guns and not move a
finger, the plans of war criminals would be foiled.
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Poll_Blind Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jun-13-06 12:11 PM
Response to Original message
11. Here is her face. The face of a courageous individual.
Taken from the Lane County Jail after being arrested and booked.



PB

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gratuitous Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jun-13-06 12:14 PM
Response to Original message
12. That's two now from the Pacific Northwest
"And if two people, can you imagine two people? Walkin' in, singin' a bar of 'Alice's Restaurant' . . . in harmony? They'll think they're both faggots, and they won't take either of them. And can you imagine fifty people a day, I say fifty people a day walkin' in, singin' a bar of 'Alice's Restaurant' and walkin' out? They may think it's a movement. And that's what it is, the Alice's Restaurant Anti-Massacree Movement, and all you gotta do to join up is to sing it the next time it comes around on the guitar."
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Poll_Blind Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jun-13-06 12:26 PM
Response to Original message
13. Please K&R this article folks- more people need to know about this!
Much thanks!

PB
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WI_DEM Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jun-13-06 12:34 PM
Response to Original message
14. Who can blame her she saw the death and destruction first hand
during her first tour. Get the fucking Bush twins and send them instead.
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Tanuki Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jun-13-06 12:36 PM
Response to Original message
15. Send her back
for her second tour of duty AFTER Jenna and Barbara Bush finish their first tour. :grr:
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Proud_Feminist4Peace Donating Member (29 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jun-13-06 01:59 PM
Response to Original message
16. Best wishes Suzanne!
Hopefully, things will work out for you. I will be thinking about you! Good job for standing up to them and never mind what other people think. You are very brave and I salute you! :)
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countryjake Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jun-13-06 02:08 PM
Response to Original message
17. I was going to post about this...figured it'd get no attention, today
Ft. Lewis Soldier Detained After Refusal To Return To Iraq
June 12, 2006
http://www.komotv.com/stories/43886.htm

~snip~

"Pentagon statistics indicate that since the beginning of the war more than 7,900 members of the four military branches have deserted but that desertions have declined as the war progresses."


She needs to hear support for her actions, I would think.
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meganmonkey Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jun-13-06 02:49 PM
Response to Original message
18. I salute you!!!!
Hero!!!

:patriot:
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geardaddy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jun-13-06 03:06 PM
Response to Original message
19. Civilian Police?
Why are the civilian police arresting her? Why is the army having the local police do their dirty work?
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Pastiche423 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jun-13-06 04:50 PM
Response to Reply #19
27. That is a very good question
Why not the military police, since this is not a civil issue?
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Pacifist Patriot Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jun-13-06 03:06 PM
Response to Original message
20. I think we're going to see more and more of this.
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Karenina Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jun-14-06 04:14 AM
Response to Reply #20
33. I HOPE a LOT more. Real quick.
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soothsayer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jun-13-06 03:39 PM
Response to Original message
21. she should just say she's gay and get discharged
Use their own stupidity against them.
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Vidar Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jun-13-06 04:09 PM
Response to Original message
22. I salute Suzanne Swift!
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Zhade Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jun-13-06 04:12 PM
Response to Original message
23. HEROINE.
NT!

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bigtree Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jun-13-06 04:13 PM
Response to Original message
24. .
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blogslut Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jun-13-06 04:23 PM
Response to Original message
25. kick
recommended
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dogday Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jun-13-06 04:25 PM
Response to Original message
26. That is why tattoos are a bad idea
Edited on Tue Jun-13-06 04:26 PM by dogday
I like them, but if it came down to it and something like this happened, you can be recognized easily by those tattoos on your arms and neck, etc..... I give this girl credit for standing up to this war, and this is coming from the Mother of a child in Iraq... I so wished he wouldn't of gone...
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Philosoraptor Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jun-13-06 05:41 PM
Response to Original message
28. Kick to drown out Karl
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lonestarnot Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jun-13-06 06:27 PM
Response to Original message
30. SHE DON'T NEED NO BUSHIT WAR!
END THE WAR OF LIES BASTARDS!
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Blue Velvet Donating Member (207 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jun-13-06 09:45 PM
Response to Original message
31. BRAVO!
I applaud the actions of all the brave and patriotic dissenters who don't wish to contribute any more senseless carnage to this criminal and duplicative enterprise.

And I agree with others on this thread that we will be seeing more and more of this.

PEACE.

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stephinrome Donating Member (494 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jun-14-06 02:55 AM
Response to Original message
32. I first read about her...
...a couple of weeks ago on AfterDowningStreet.org:

Sara Rich, my friend from Eugene, has a daughter, Suzanne, who was sent to Iraq. She had a very hard time coping with the events she saw and was asked to participate in, and experienced sexual harrassment from her superiors in the army. She lodged 3 sexual harrassment complaints - 2 in Iraq, and one at the base in Bellingham, Washington. After returning to Eugene a few months ago after her tour of duty, she was told she needed to return - the furlough was first for 6 months, then shortened to 3 months. A few days before the date she was told to report for duty, she told her Mom she just could not go back.


http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/11397


Steph
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stephinrome Donating Member (494 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jun-14-06 07:31 AM
Response to Original message
36. message from her mother
Fear for my daughter
By Sara Rich

It started out with being scared for her life when she signed up for
the military. She assured me that she was promised she would not go to
Iraq. I was not as trusting.

She was sent to Iraq right out of her basic training. She assured me
she would be ok as we cried while she was packing. One of her Sgt.
assured me. "Don't worry Ma'am, we'll take good care of your daughter."
I desperately hoped that I could trust him to watch over her. I later
found out he was one the first predators to try and have sex with her
and make her "his private"


http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/11791
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Sad4world Donating Member (149 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jun-14-06 02:16 PM
Response to Original message
37. Bush was AWOL
and he became the President!!
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