Sue Supriano talked to Anne Wright at the Oregon Country Fair, where she was a speaker in July 2008. Ann Wright spent 13 years of active duty in the US Army, and 16 years in the Army Reserves attaining the rank of Colonel in the Army. In 1987, Wright went to work for the Foreign Service within the U.S. State Department and served as US Deputy Ambassador and other positions in Sierra Leone, Micronesia, Mongolia, Somalia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Grenada and Nicaragua.
She resigned from working for the State Department the day before the invasion of Iraq to which she objected saying that, without the authorization of the UN Security Council the US had no legal right to attack. She objected to the curtailment of civil liberties within the United States as well. While Wright was stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina in the early 1980s, one of her duties was to draw up contingency plans for invading several countries, one of which was Iraq. She would later express dismay over what she considered the dismissal of such carefully laid plans in the actual invasion of Iraq in 2003. Wrights eventual resignation was not the first time she had spoken out against U.S. policy. She said that she spoke out against United Nations bombing tactics waged in Somalia and she many times "held her nose" about US policies, continuing her State Department work despite her own disagreements with the policy.
Since her retirement from the State Department, Wright has become a prominent figure in the movement opposed to the occupation of Iraq. She has attended many conferences and given numerous lectures on her political views and her experiences before and after her resignation. Wright is on the move 365 days a year-- traveling the US and criticizing the policies of the Bush Administration and their implementation, including and especially the war in Iraq and a pending Iran war. She works with several front line peace organizations including Code Pink, Iraq Vets against the War, Military Families Speak Out, and Women for Peace. She worked with anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan on several occasions, including helping organize the Camp Casey demonstration outside George W. Bushs Crawford, Texas, ranch in August 2005, and by accompanying the southern leg of the Bring Them Home Now bus tour. She also volunteered at Camp Casey 3, the Veterans For Peace shelter for Hurricane Katrina victims in Covington, Louisiana, during the bus tour. Wright has willingly been arrested while taking part in anti-war demonstrations, the first such arrest occurring in front of the White House on September 26, 2005. It has been followed by other arrests too numerous to mention here. She has said in interviews that she does not remove the arrest bracelets attached to her wrists upon the processing of her arrest, but rather collects them.
Recorded July 2008.
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Sue Suprianos Steppin Out of Babylon is a radio interview series covering a broad range of important issues in todays world: peace and war, human and civil rights, communication, the media, the environment, food security, racism, globalization, immigration and matters of the spirit.
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