Chicago’s corporate ad space was taken over last Monday by street art advocating for the care of traumatized veterans, and against their redeployment. Just Seeds teamed up with Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) veterans and supporters for Operation Exposure: War is Trauma, a part of the ongoing series held by the National Veterans Art Museum, Chicago in War.
One wall plastered by Operation Exposure
IVAW asserts that returning veterans have a right to heal, a right that is being denied by the continual redeployment of troops to support US occupations. Traumatized troops, suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, military sexual trauma, Traumatic Brain Injury, or any of a host of other war related injuries have been sent back into combat, away from the medical care they need. IVAW’s Operation Recovery is a campaign to stop such redeployments, and hold military officials accountable for their decision to send those troops back to war.
Support GI Resistance by Kevin Caplicki, a contribution to Operation Exposure
Operation Exposure pulled source material from the IVAW campaign and offered examples, stories of soldiers who had resisted redeployment, and offered them up for public discussion. Nicholas Lampert of Just Seeds gives a few of the narratives:
One stencil honored Camilo Mejia, a Florida National Guard Sergeant who became the first US combat veteran to publicly refuse to redeploy back to Iraq. Mejia had witnessed detainees being tortured and abused by US troops in Iraq. He served nine months in prison for desertion and in August 2007 he was elected Chair of IVAW. Another stencil honored Suzanne Swift, a 23-year-old Army SPC who was continually sexually harassed and assaulted by three men in her command while she served in Iraq. She suffered from PTSD and went AWOL in January 2006 to resist redeploying with the same unit. She was apprehended and imprisoned briefly in January 2007 and is now active in anti-war and anti-rape campaigns. The last stencil honored Rodney Watson, a 29-year-old Army Specialist who served 12-months in Iraq. Watson refused redeployment and is currently seeking refuge near Vancouver, Canada.
Documentation of the accompanying visuals to these (and many other) stories can be seen here.
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