The Independent Collegian

Issue date: 3/13/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Sarah Alfaham Ann Wright, a retired Army colonel, speaks in the Law Center Auditorium last night.

Retired Army Colonel Ann Wright has no problem being a whistleblower, especially when it deals with the occupation in Iraq.

Wright considers the war a "criminal act."

President George W. Bush and others in his administration are "war criminals," according to Wright.

"They are the ones who should be arrested and not the ones who practice peaceful non-violent protest," she said.

Wright spoke at the UT Law Center Auditorium on Monday to give her perspective on the war in Iraq. The event was sponsored by UT Anti-War and the Northwest Ohio Peace Coalition.

Wright enlisted in the Army in 1967.

"At that time, women were not even being trained to use weapons," she said.

Wright served in such areas as Somalia and helped set up the embassy in Uzbekistan. In 2001, Wright volunteered to go to Afghanistan, an invasion she supported, she said.

"We were responding to a direct attack on the United States," she said.

It was in Afghanistan where Wright and others first heard about invading Iraq. The group barely had the manpower in Afghanistan to fight what was going on there, let alone enough troops to send to Iraq, Wright said.

When Wright was sent to Mongolia, the place that became her final duty location, she first heard about the supposed weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and then how the United States had invaded that country as well.

It was then that Wright resigned from her position and wrote to then U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell.

"I have served my country for about 30 years in some of the most isolated and dangerous parts of the world," she said. "I want to continue to serve America. However, I don't believe in the policies of this administration and cannot morally and professionally defend or implement them."

Wright did not hear back from Powell, but did receive a letter asking where she wanted her belongings sent.

Wright felt this wasn't an adequate response after 30 years of serving the country, so she responded, "Hawaii, because it's warm there."

Wright will continue to protest the war until it ends, she said.

Continued...

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