Former soldier, diplomat sees dissent as 'civic duty'

Published: 2006-10-18

ERIE, Pa. (CNS) -- Citizens should dissent from government policies with which they do not agree and take action to hold public officials accountable. That was Ann Wright's message in an address titled "Dissent in a Democracy" that she gave at Mercyhurst Prep in Erie in early October. Wright should know. She is a retired U.S. Army colonel with 29 years of military service who later served in the U.S. Foreign Service for 16 years. Her latter job ended when she resigned in protest over the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. "Dissent is one way of looking at it; civic duty is another," she said in an interview before her talk, which was co-sponsored by the Mercy Regional Community of Erie, the Benedictine Sisters of Erie, the Sisters of St. Joseph and other groups. Professionally, Wright said she was against the invasion because too few troops were used. In the 1980s, she drew up a plan for the invasion of Iraq should the former Soviet Union decide to take over Iraq's oil fields. The plan called for 600,000 troops to be used. The 2003 U.S.-led invasion used an international force of just 263,000 troops. "Also, there was not a plan to protect Iraq's infrastructure. We won the war but not the peace," she said.

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