Military Families Speak Out (MFSO) is a US

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 based anti-Iraq war group.

Military Families Speak Out (MFSO) was founded by two military families in November, 2002 to speak out against the planned US invasion of Iraq to try to prevent the invasion.

MFSO’s first national press conference was held to launch the "Bring Them Home Now" campaign in August, 2003 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. It was organized by the Mintwood Media Collective and was televised on C-SPAN

C-SPAN

C-SPAN , an acronym for Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network, is an American cable television network that offers coverage of federal government proceedings and other public affairs programming via its three television channels , one radio station and a group of websites that provide streaming...

. Following the event, over 100 military families joined the organization within a week. That same month, MFSO members marched together for the first time with Veterans For Peace

Veterans for Peace

Veterans For Peace is a United States organization founded in 1985. Made up of male and female US military veterans of World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, and other conflicts, as well as peacetime veterans, the group works to promote alternatives to war.-Foundation:The...

 at a national demonstration opposing a U.S. invasion of Iraq. In February, 2003, 15 members of MFSO filed a lawsuit against President Bush

George W. Bush

George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....

 and then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld

Donald Rumsfeld

Donald Henry Rumsfeld is an American politician and businessman. Rumsfeld served as the 13th Secretary of Defense from 1975 to 1977 under President Gerald Ford, and as the 21st Secretary of Defense from 2001 to 2006 under President George W. Bush. He is both the youngest and the oldest person to...

 seeking to prevent a U.S. invasion of Iraq in the absence of a Congressional declaration of war. The lawsuit went two rounds in the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals, and ultimately failed on March 18, 2003. The invasion began on March 19, 2003. Within two weeks of the beginning of the war in Iraq, the membership of MFSO doubled, with 400 member families at the end of March, 2003.

The first MFSO chapters began in 2004. MFSO chapters have organized and built the voice of military families opposing the war in Iraq locally and regionally, with speaking programs, vigils, demonstrations, press conferences, meetings with elected officials, and many different kinds of creative actions. Chapters have allowed the organisation to reach out to new families around the country, get the voices of military families opposing the war into the media, work with local coalitions seeking to end the war in Iraq and to help mobilise citizens and elected officials to oppose the war in Iraq and take action to end it.

As of the summer of 2007, MFSO included over 3,600 military families speaking out to end the war in Iraq, withdraw troops, take care of them when they return, and end the policies that allowed the war to happen. They have members in every state in the U.S., in Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...

, American Samoa

American Samoa

American Samoa is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the South Pacific Ocean, southeast of the sovereign state of Samoa...

and on US military bases in several other countries. Over 130 of these families have suffered the ultimate tragedy – their loved ones have died as a result of the war in Iraq. Many other MFSO member families have seen loved ones wounded in Iraq – physically, psychologically or both. Many MFSO member families currently have loved ones serving in Iraq – some for third, fourth or fifth deployments; and for most of the rest, their loved ones are eligible for deployment or redeployment to Iraq.

External links

• http://www.mfso.org/
• http://www.archive.org/details/Military_Families_Salem
• http://www.mfsomichigan.org
• Reaching Out To Our Veterans and Their Families includes Zohreh Whitaker of Military Families Speak Out