Return to Conscientious Objection: A Practical Companion for Movements
Wendy Barranco was born in south central Mexico in 1985. At the age of four, she migrated to the United States 'illegally'. She was then raised in Los Angeles, California, and at the age of 17, joined the United States Army. She was later deployed on so called 'Operation Iraqi Freedom' and honourably discharged upon her return home. While at college, she encountered Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) and has since served as a chapter president with them, organising events to raise awareness about the true cost of war, troops' right to heal, and GI resistance, as well as demanding an immediate end to the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. Elected to the organisation's board of directors, she has served as national chair. Today, she is an activist on womyn’s rights, military sexual trauma, migrant rights, workers' rights, antimilitarism, and anti-imperialism. She writes about these here.
As a woman veteran, my three years of service in the United States Army as a combat medic and my deployment to Iraq is constantly questioned and met with faces of disbelief. It is no novelty that we, women, exist in patriarchal, misogynistic, and sexist societies, constantly 'surprising' individuals as to our capabilities for thousands of years. While we may not be properly valued, respected, and understood, we continue to play key roles in a variety of settings, including the peace and antimilitarist movements. While rich men wage war, we traditionally supply its lifeline of blood and bodies from our wombs. As the producers of the casualties of war in this way, women have often been a crucial and revolutionary factor in attaining peace for we often have the most to lose; many of us have skin in the game. Even if we do not have skin in the game however, we do have game changing insights about the sexist workings of the war machine. Without us, and without listening to us, the peace and antimilitarist movements will remain ignorant of these and be the weaker for it.
