Prominent Iraq veteran Bruhns quits major anti-war organization

The leading Washington coalition for ending the war in Iraq has lost its highest-profile Iraq veteran.

John Bruhns, a former Army  sergeant who participated in the 2003 invasion, left his position as legislative representative of Americans Against Escalation in Iraq (AAEI) at the beginning of October.

{mosads}He had started in May, but quickly became frustrated with the group’s lack of legislative success as well as some of its tactics.

He was part of AAEI’s “Iraq summer” campaign, which launched in August and was designed to get as many as 50 Republicans to break with Bush on the war. Only one Republican House member has since switched.

 “I feel I’ve done all I can,” Bruhns said. “I can’t continue to attack members of Congress to pass legislation that isn’t going to get passed.”

Bruhns, who has continued to write blog posts and visit congressional offices to lobby for withdrawal, said he left AAEI on good terms and will be glad to help again if asked.

“They’re playing a necessary role,” Bruhns said. “They’re trying to shift public opinion.”

AAEI spokeswoman Moira Mack concurred that Bruhns left the coalition “on friendly terms.”

“John has been very passionate about this issue,” Mack said. “He’s going to continue to advocate on it.”

Supporters of the Iraq war and President Bush’s “surge” strategy say the departure of someone like Bruhns could be an early sign of trouble for anti-war forces.

“These groups put veterans up on a platform, and if they step off, it says something,” said Pete Hegseth of Vets for Freedom, which bills itself as the largest group of Afghanistan and Iraq veterans.

Mack said AAEI has another Iraq veteran on staff, Josh Lansdale, who is in charge of outreach to veterans. AAEI’s coalition includes VoteVets.org, and Sue Dinsdale, the AAEI’s Iowa director, is the mother of an Iraq veteran.

Bruhns is angry that supporters of a Senate bill to increase training and rest time between deployments, including himself, didn’t fight hard enough for the bill. The bill was sponsored by Sens. Jim Webb (D-Va.) and Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.).

“It makes me want to go knock on the door of everyone who voted against it,” Bruhns said. “That’s my biggest regret: that we didn’t fight hard enough for Webb-Hagel. I take responsibility for that.”

Fighting harder for it, he acknowledged, might have included publicly criticizing senators who voted against it. So he admitted, “A lot of this might sound contradictory.”

“I’m not a political hack. I’m not a campaigner,” Bruhns said.

Bruhns also said he has no dispute with MoveOn.org’s New York Times advertisement referring to Iraq commanding Gen. David Petraeus as “General Betray Us.”

“I support MoveOn 100 percent. God bless MoveOn for opening the debate,” he said. “This is something the George Bush and Karl Rove smear machine has been doing for six years. Nobody complained then.”

Bruhns was a Marine Corps reservist in Pennsylvania on Sept. 11, 2001. After the attacks, he learned his unit wasn’t heading to Afghanistan, so he switched to the Army infantry.

Instead of Afghanistan, Bruhns found himself training for Iraq in June 2002, nearly a year before the invasion.

He was part of the invasion from the first day, then found himself stationed in a neighborhood of Baghdad near Abu Ghraib prison.
Bruhns left the Army with an honorable discharge in 2005. He got a job in Northern Virginia, where he found he was able to pursue his anti-war activism in his spare time.

In 2005, he got noticed by Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), who read into the Congressional Record parts of a letter he had written criticizing the war.

His profile as an anti-war vet grew in April when he created a video that won MoveOn.org’s VideoVets contest and joined an anti-war press conference with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).

In May, Bruhns joined AAEI, which includes MoveOn, the Service Employees International Union and VoteVets. He was hailed by anti-war legislators for his experience and willingness to speak out.

With his short-cropped hair, barrel chest and blunt-spoken beat-cop demeanor, Bruhns did not look the part of an anti-war activist. That was an advantage when meeting with lawmakers or joining them at anti-war press conferences.

As to what he might do next, Bruhns called it a “possibility” that he could start his own group. But beyond that, he isn’t throwing out options.

“I’ve got a lot of fight left in me,” Bruhns said. “I’ll work with anyone. I’ll walk the halls alone.”