NL: When we first formed we felt we had a very special need to speak out, but also a very special voice with which to speak. One example of that is we are positioned to take on the myth that supporting the troops means supporting the war.

We can, as military families, say ‘of course we support the troops — they are our hearts, they are our souls, they are our loved ones.

What we do not support is the illegal, immoral, reckless military misadventure that they have been sent on. We re-characterize it by saying ‘supporting the troops means opposing the war. Supporting the troops means opposing the policies that are putting them in Iraq.’

NL: We’ve really been welcomed into the peace movement in the US. We spoke from the stage on February 15 in New York, at large demonstrations and small neighbourhood talks. We feel part and parcel of the peace movement.

NL: There is the corporate globalization agenda that has been so devastating for working people around the world. What we see in Iraq is the next step. Armed globalization. They are using military force to get the access for the corporations. They will do it through a treaty or they will do it through a gun. The United States is using both and we’re going to be opposing them.

CR: Technically there is no draft in the United States, however, National Guards signed up to ‘stay at home and serve your country’. They did not sign up to be sent overseas to fight a war based on lies. In many senses they were drafted out of the National Guard that they joined and into a different National Guard that is being used as an expeditionary force around the world.

Then we have things like "stop loss" that say when you’re supposed to get out you can’t get out and if that’s not a draft then I don’t know what is because it’s involuntary service in the armed forces.

CR: The question of why people join the military is an important one. For a lot of people in the United States the military represents an economic opportunity whether that’s to go to college or to get a long-term job with health insurance. Fewer and fewer jobs in the United States provide health insurance, so frankly in those terms the military looks like a good deal. So people do go into the military on that basis. The rich obviously don’t have to make that decision.

CR: The next step for MFSO is March 20. We’ll be with people all over the United States, in small towns and large cities, speaking out against the war. Uniting with veterans and others to join the world in saying no to this war.