An Open Letter and Call to Conscience to the Soldiers of Fort Drum from Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW), Ft. Drum Chapter and Veterans For Peace (VFP) to be published November 11, 2007 in the Watertown Daily Times, Watertown, NY.

“How long are we going to continue down
this road to nowhere?”

~ Major General John Batiste

On Veterans Day, November 11, 2007 to honor and to support the troops and to end the occupation in Iraq, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Ft. Drum Chapter, and Veterans For Peace, NY State raised over $4,000.00 in less than two weeks to publish an Open Letter and Call to Conscience to their fellow soldiers stationed at Fort Drum and citizens of the United States of America.

A full-page, 4-color letter will be published on Veterans Day, November 11, 2007 in the Watertown Daily Times, the largest circulating newspaper in the communities near Ft. Drum.

Ft. Drum has had the largest number of casualties in Afganistan, very significant causalities in Iraq, and is also the first active duty base with an Iraq Veterans Against the War chapter.

Major General John Batiste, has referred to the war in Iraq and as “the road to nowhere.” With 2007 being the deadliest year in Iraq and over 3800 American servicemen and women dead, not including suicides, the Veterans are warning it has not only been “the road to nowhere”, but "the road to death". For thousands upon thousands more it has been the road to severe head injury, lost limbs, PTSD, paralysis, blindness, exposure to uranium 238 and the list of catastrophic injuries continues.

The Open Letter and Call to Conscience, along with a public list of contributors can be found at www.vfpchapter10.org.