A few weeks ago, when Army Spc. Thomas Wilson of the Tennessee National Guard asked Donald Rumsfeld why American troops were forced to scrounge for armor in garbage dumps, his question broke through the carefully crafted illusion that the Administration has spun (and that the mainstream media has helped them spin) throughout the war, and showed things, if only for a moment, as they really are.

As soldiers start shooting themselves at home so that they won’t have to be shot abroad; as soldiers have their tours forcibly extended and get sent back, over and over, to the killing streets of Iraq, the troops themselves are the only ones who are going to be able to stop this. Just as was the case in Vietnam, brave soldiers are going to have to overcome the Army’s “shut up and follow orders” mentality in order to speak up.

We have already seen cracks in the military’s stoic code–from soldiers refusing to follow orders in Northern Iraq to soldiers suing the Army to protest stop-gap measures, to soldiers in the Abu Ghraib case pointing out that the roots of the torture went all the way up the chain of command, to military doctors at Walter Reed displaying gruesome war injuries in medical journals. Ordinary soldiers are beginning to speak up, and when they do, the Administration has no way to spin their words–sure, the Bushies can take down a pack of liberals with a flick of their wrists, but when actual soldiers speak up–those paragons of virtue upon whose patriotic sacrifices the Administration has built its imperial fancies–they have no choice but to back down.

And it is only when soldiers realize the power they have–realize that their voices are the only ones that can stop this mess–that we will begin to get out of it. Those soldiers, no matter how patriotic they are, know that the situation in Iraq is a disaster, and that the Administration’s choices–from sending in too few troops to disbanding the Iraqi army, thus creating the insurgency–have proved disastrous. These soldiers will realize, after a while, that they are bearing all of the costs of the war but getting none of the benefits. They are paying for this with their lives, and when they begin to see the truth of the callous opportunism and profiteering of the war’s planners, they will have to speak out.

That seems unlikely, I know, but it may be the military’s only choice if it is to save itself. We can all see that recruitment is down; we can all see that the military is stretched too thin; we can all see that they have inadequate supplies. In order to save themselves, in order to save our military and the country it represents, ordinary soldiers have to speak up.

And I hope that when they do, they reflect on the criticism heaped on John Kerry for having spoken up about Vietnam, and on Kerry’s famous quote: “How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?” Because that is, again, the question before our nation once again.

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