"No one is being liberated." William Stewart-Stark deployed to the Anbar Province of Iraq as a medic in 2004 in full support of the war. He soon began to wonder though, why he was even there and what they were really fighting for. "We knew we weren't fighting Al- Qaeda, we were fighting civilians who were fighting back and were just perpetuating the violence." Still, William wanted to believe he and his fellow soldiers were part of a just cause. The longer he spent in...
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"No one is being liberated." William Stewart-Stark deployed to the Anbar Province of Iraq as a medic in 2004 in full support of the war. He soon began to wonder though, why he was even there and what they were really fighting for. "We knew we weren't fighting Al- Qaeda, we were fighting civilians who were fighting back and were just perpetuating the violence." Still, William wanted to believe he and his fellow soldiers were part of a just cause. The longer he spent in Iraq the more holes he began to see in what the media had been telling him before he deployed. While deployed though, he had very little time or energy to really process what he was a part of and it wasn't until he was back in the U.S. that he began to put the war into historical, political, and economic context. Then he was sure that it must be stopped. William now heads up an organization on the University of Kansas campus in Lawrence, Kansas that is made up of students and veterans who are working to end the wars. ..William Stewart-Stark, Iraq War Veteran from Lawrence, KS.
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