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stories. the. campaign. live up. to its war.

faces charges including genocide. because some serbs accuse the hague of the one sided justice. back in half an hour from now as the news continues here on in the meantime we meet a former war correspondent who's taken the walk of almost a thousand kilometers just to talk people out of war that's our special report next on r.t. . can we.

do. what i came home it was amazing i was honestly one of the best friends of my life i thought i was going to pass out i was so happy. there was my wife and my daughter that i hadn't seen for a year and it was just almost too good to be true it was going to. at the same time there was only so wonderful because it's been the last year away from them in iraq which was terrible and so when a t.v. camera man came up to me and asked me some questions i told him out of the bat it's a i'm really glad to be home i'm proud of my service but i am against or in iraq and i know that some family members and some friends weren't pleased that i said

that i thought it was maybe inappropriate at the time but if every soldier comes home and they just say that they're glad to be home the nuns going to know the truth about what's going on in iraq. just. puts a. slight listed missing a spin and maybe the support is absent that say to an impatient look at him and so plenty of people on the field one hundred plus the two seen them as you know maybe a.

little sleep. at least. let him. sleep. at least. in the office. my whole life and whatever i've tried to do i've tried to unite the will of the spirit to the work of the flesh or that's a spiritual journey my spirituality which all this after. have to deal with whether you call that or not call it conscience i was never an athlon this to. letters because i didn't think i learned how and then i died after casein have been. killed for about three weeks my daughter read a poem and in the last couple of hindsight if we the people let them continue another mother will meet i have

a duty to go east the east you know tell people buy store. it's the guys are stuck or. you know a couple so they all go back there is they're fine for us so we asked for. their house. people like us if i didn't object to some obvious injustice i couldn't live with myself i thought well i can't make a difference unless i'm going to try at least some of the damage on my deathbed and say at least i tried to make a difference when i thought we were getting deployed we live in ohio so we just threw everything in a van and moved back home so now everything's kind of settled and i'm getting out of the army. and i have to go through all this crap and figure out what's the stuff i keep what's the stuff i turn back to the unit. so i can get out without paying too much money. i'm going to do this. they are back from iraq

on july twenty fourth that's the day utah celebrates its statehood and so you know there's like tons of fireworks parades and things like that it was a bad day to come home as a soldier it's loud sounds when it's really jittery but in the middle of the night i'd wake up and i would think it was still right. if. he called me one night and said when i come home i have to do something to help end this war spending the year in iraq as a military journalist i saw so much waste going on with u.s. contractors i saw so many soldiers not having a clear mission they're just kind of wasting their time trying not to get killed for a year and then i talked to so many iraqis and they said they wanted the u.s. presence gone you just watch the movie i guess part of the part of the lie and you told me that i watched it so i kind of understand some of the feeling seals coming

from i felt a connection to run cooking you know he was this special he's been protesting war for decades you know and i photo i was followed in his footsteps pretty pretty bad and i just always just heard his crazy ideas and then n.p.r. . well there maybe ever said it was really a dream i just said i'm going to spank him it's hard because protesting is kind of a paradox you need to do something crazy enough to get the media and people to pay attention to you in the same time it can be so crazy that people think you're insane and you lose all credibility he kept thinking of these ridiculous ideas and things like. south. places going on a hunger strike and then finally it came to me i thought all walk the link that you thought it would be about five hundred miles i had it would take me about twenty seven days and we were going to publicize it and have people invited to come with

us i could to hopefully speak with people started to bait have a dialogue instead of just. chanting a slogan or waving a sign in someone's face and i figured walking it's pretty normal i think people walk every day right too bizarre it's not going to do this right if you are right on to something very simple we're such non-controversial if this ever. look. for us this is really again raised and during the vietnam era when the peaceniks were a bunch of weird people they were hippies and and into drugs and that kind of stuff and i just didn't want my son to be associated with that kind of a thing but. he really felt that. yeah he needed to stop. the read a statement he should have the highest approval ratings for bush and for the war

and it's my home state so i think this is the best place to do it and marshall is of utah ease of the predominant faith she says she's he she looks like a normal utah nice not on the fringe she's not being mean. state of utah as a whole i think is extremely conservative and by that term i mean resistant to change the tone still really like george bush and like him as a guy they would mind having a glass of milk with them or if they're that kind of time i support president bush totally with sending all the people out to fight for our country because that's what it's all about our support bush. and others because there were purpose of. this is because if you ma'am up her him one of them one of the. command had one of the new now don't know whether it. an eight or sad eight here. bob don't know which one it is but one of them shady things liberality meant disease.

and i've wanted to fight it out with a lot of the right kind of i disagree with him it's not just age isn't good net effect cut disease as can be cured. i mean you're starting out you want to spread the word and let people know you have no budget no influence no connections how do you do that. serious serious for. a. shit load. that's such a funny thing there's a. shit load it screams. for. it let's talk a. little bit tense. press releases we got

a website a network news with six hundred invited politicians from both parties i talked to an orthopedic doctor i talked to the physical trainer publicize that we got permits to walk over protesting the students so my family and friends together they all chipped in everyone can seem to use their towns in your abilities to keep treat this momentum i also went to the street you'll see. what's the meanest thing anybody's ever said driving by your mother it's pretty bad you can imagine them all out of jail or where we have libeled that make up but it takes one other person all. that because i think it is very important because the president needs to be there every week like people look for a long time since sept. would. look. look look look look look look look look

look at all. look like to. look. look look look look. i presume you are still here not knowing why not appreciate you guys to know you're right there are photos and they haven't been there you have no idea what like they are they don't know what you will look what i've been on the ground i thought i'd heard. that they were here but why were there . i didn't think it was communication anything take it with me don't offer we don't support the troops you support. but i wish the troops were doing peace making. amy goodman is the host of democracy now its really popular news program and she was coming to town to do a book signing she's come to salt lake three people independently one of them told

her hey why you're here and so if you should interview this army sergeant and she calls up that night and we were expecting to have the next day we were down there in salt lake doing the interview maybe goodman is going to announce. today ted democracy now exposed army reservist marshall thompson dispensing year in iraq working as a military journalist the son of a former you time they are he now plans to walk across his home state the red in the nation to protest war at this point it doesn't matter why we go into the war or what the partisan politics are about well matters is the two soldiers die every day on average and any any way that we can in this war one day soon as two lives saved and i would walk five hundred miles for that i would walk a thousand miles for them. some people said some terrible things not never to my face you know but in even though they got this

electronic bravery and they would really say some crazy things one guy wrote in and he said that he hoped that i got run over by a truck on my walk. a lot of people said i just hope you keep walking to mexico when you leave this country when i want you here. and want gavan said that he wished that i had died in iraq because then i would have been honorable. so i was about to go speak to utah state to help promote the walk in right before we go in a phone call from the utah department of transportation and they told me that if i was going to walk they would arrest me for trespassing on the state highway suddenly it was political suddenly he was against it suddenly he needed a permit. for no other reason than that it was a peaceful but you. told you that i would be arrested if i try to walk i can't believe that but what if someone's watching and i mean you don't know why they're walking you just arrest them unchecked he says that i can't walk on the sidewalk

myself because i have a reason for sidewalk but would like you to do is could you tell your superiors to do we can't just arbitrarily decide to meet me didn't surance policy from other people. and. so will not be. but i'm. on to i'm sorry and i was just you just the right of you just wants to like walk because you're trying to arrest me yeah seriously you arrest me. a. reference to keep believing the americans and the rest to walk down the street clearing way over heads we don't know what we're doing luckily my father in law is a lawyer and so so he got in touch with the a.c.l.u. together they were able to convince the attorney general of the time that. it wasn't that way right as a u.s. citizen and iraq war veteran to walk down the street without being arrested. this use of toilet paper imodium ibuprofen camelback butter and water walkie talkie cell

phone ring tone pants and then calories like trail mix or get in get or it can this is a good start. it's the morning of the walking. and everything is pretty much ready . for good weather if nothing else this walk with me feel better make me feel like i'm doing my best right so nobody shows up i just washed in the rain all day it was thought i. was. just not saying this so say we run out of time let the bang out of the. sound just like burning is in the early oh come on i mean this money away. now getting me get. shyness i'm glad that i'm done as well and get that

lived in love again and again on the streets without the sound the same spiel that it's a good look at this thing of the good. but by the time we got to the point where people are going to walk through the review kind of stuff are the scum the first test of this crazy stuff is going to work you know in around that corner and there is a big you can i could imagine it's probably one hundred fifty people which response how i quote it that's a lot. that was amazing that just didn't feel so good i feel at that moment i thought i could finally come home everybody. it's just wonderful to see so many people here who want peace thanks so much. total thank. him i let's start at the them. when i say something then six then they say no get

up stand up. stand. he said get up stand up to some sound good love the other side. of. my name is john shawn morning and i came down oregon. heard me goodman on her program now say marshall was going to do this law and so i come from a long history. in this during the civil rights movement. vietnam. and saw the outcome. we're going to turn the whole world around. but what can the world can't survive with with the spores going on and on no this has to happen spouting that. there is

a changing tide in america and you're part of it today we're sending a mandate from the people to the government of the united states and to the representatives of utah specially the utah does not support a war we support peace and we support a plan for. this morning to become real to the american people the military is a war america is not and then needs to change. way . to get them here because my my dad is a neat mom dad and the way they were affected him. made her in some cases. this is a violent childhood in my house and so i hope that this will be

a place for some sense of unity about finding another way i see as being like gandhi's. gandhi's walk his walk to the sea this is a big deal i think it will call attention to the fact that a lot of people feel similar you know similarly to the way he feels deep down inside but maybe they're afraid to voice their opinion even just a small demonstrations going to make the community aware that hey we exist i think it will help people think. when somebody from the u.s. military a soldier. sees what's going on over there and and can tell you exactly that there's no good that's coming out of iraq. it's a people listen to that they listen to a soldier i think his opinion is that really indicative of what most soldiers think i think most soldiers think this right here you know that. that really we ought to

stay the course we've got state we've got to put together we got to fight smarter we got to fight harder but we don't just give up and run away we can't leave these people we commit ourselves now whether or not we are for the you know being committed or not we're there now and we need to get committed to the cause but i would much rather die for a cause then for to just die in vain i mean we've cut and run now all those people died in vain all it's time for us to pull ourselves up by the bootstraps and. i mean come on wake up america we got it we got to win this thing. for about a mile or so in the canyon starting here and. this is dog door again a better. america in honoring his willingness to speak out community about this that's why i came down oh you're on the air. yeah you know the worst nightmare

for us. over there i'm sorry don't laugh at me don't laugh at me you know whacked because you are and you know when you better start paying attention to president bush and what we want you to do we are over there for a good cause we have found. now destruction weapons whatever and you know what my loved one came home and you want to get back to work find children here at the port what on earth are you doing around you one that and why did we have loved one as a mother one of the people are you and you know what we're. for the country over there i don't know i had a mother i can pour president bush and what he thought he's in charge not you and you know what my opinion of this guy walking i think is crazy i think there's an easier way to get a point across the more across the state of utah in the one nine hundred sixty s. to be an activist an anti-war activist was considered generally. sort of

disreputable not really ethical thing to do and i think that's still true today people are. protesting this is this is this is what i hear from people i talk to them you know the people who protesters in phoenix near you know they're dead enders they're in their pot smokers. and they were demonstrators protest us and. estimate on how to. make up a. simple. state . system. she said just think that this.

this is. the problem with this list you just. listed. just. as she. still. says. that must be. in the military they tell you that the people protesting the war and this mistress will tell you the same thing that this one should be sort of heavy and something. for you or against the troops and what fun is that it's exactly the opposite i mean think about the leaders in the peace it's erect actions against the war it's

veterans for peace it's military families speak out it's gold star families for peace these are for organizations that are the leaders of the peace movement that are all surrounded by the military part of military families speak out that's true but the group are worried and it. all starts with my door at eight o'clock. am there was a military court. order. that like this you don't want to go. from that day i realize that unless. someone acted like. it too many of your family for good or for your. good for you. that's. please keep. telling me how to

survive i'm going to go thank you thank you so much yeah i must be both of you i'm . the democratic candidate for congress in the first district i was honored. except the invitation to be part of this monday in st ashdown i'm running for u.s. senate for utah and i'm here to support marshall because i think what he's going to great and i want to emphasize larry can agree with me so much so that i just got out of the army myself i was active duty army for five years one of the rank of a sergeant i'm here to support arsenal. really support the cause enough to leave the people you know people need to be aware of what's going on the world right now great majority of the active duty army supports this and they want more of this they don't want to put it you know send packages or put a sticker on her car or they want you to do this supporting the troops supporting the change.

the losing.