Nancy Lessin and Charley Richardson have a personal investment in the war in Iraq. Their son, Joe, was deployed in August 2002 and returned in May of 2003. There is a good chance he will go back.

But Lessin and Richardson are working to prevent that from happening again.

“The occupation of Iraq is the problem not the solution,” Richardson told a crowd of anti-war protestors at the Steelworkers Hall last Friday. “All of us have to stand together and say no to war.”

Lessin and Richardson are co-founders of US Military Families Speak Out (MFSO), a grassroots movement that is looking to end the war in Iraq.

Worried their son was being used as “cannon fodder” for a military operation they did not see as justified, the two have moved to gather the support of other families with loved ones in the military.

The Friday gathering, organized by the Toronto Coalition to Stop the War, was one of many speaking engagements MFSO has held at town halls, universities, and at the foot of government buildings across the US and here in Toronto.

As the development of the war unfolded, Lessin and Richardson looked for justification. They heard only unconvincing rhetoric and an economic motive gone too far. “We didn’t see any connection with 9/11 and Saddam Hussein,” explained Lessin. “What we did see is if the main resource in Iraq was olive oil, we would not be here tonight.”

“I don’t feel secure,” said Richardson. “In fact, I feel less secure as a result of what’s been going on.”

Seeing their struggle as a movement against “armed globalization,” MFSO has grown since its founding in 2002 to close to 1,000 military families. They have also filed a lawsuit against President George W. Bush.

Included in the 40-minute talk were deeply personal accounts from families, soldiers, husbands and wives, who experienced the war in one way or another. One email from a young female soldier expressed resentment for being used as an “expendable pawn in a chess game.”

But not all letters were supportive of MFSO. Some voiced anger over their supposedly anti-patriotic agenda.

“One of the best ways to support your troops is to get them out of a war they shouldn’t have been there in the first place,” countered Richardson. “The patriots are the ones against the war.”

Still, if nation-building this past century is any indication, an American presence in Iraq is sure to keep in the years ahead.

Consequently, energy is now being spent fighting what MFSO describes as the “corporate war” transpiring in the Middle East.

The MFSO is set to speak today at Sidney Smith.