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By ROBERT PLAIN, Reformer Staff

BRATTLEBORO–Democrats were in Denver and Republicans were in [Saint Paul] touting the virtue of their politics. Liam Madden was in both cities during the last two weeks, telling both parties they are wrong on the war in Iraq.

An ex-Marine who served in Iraq and then became an anti-war activist, Madden says neither Democrats nor Republicans can claim the mantle of either being against the war or supporting our troops. At both conventions, he had tailored criticism for both Barack Obama, the Democrat candidate for president, and John McCain, his Republican counterpart.

“Obama has presented himself as the anti-war candidate and he is not,” Madden said. “He said he wants to remove all the combat troops, but there are tens of thousands of non-combat troops in Iraq, too. He hasn’t committed to removing them. He’s just repackaged the war and re-selling it to the American people. It’s still the same war based on the same lies. It’s still the same violation of the Constitution.”

If you think Madden is tough on the Democratic candidate, he’s got even less confidence in the GOP.

“McCain is obviously not supporting the troops,” he said. “As far as their voting record on veteran issues goes, Obama is clearly doing a better job.”

Madden, who grew up in Bellows Falls and now lives in Boston, is an anti-war organizer, a distinction he said is something more active than being an activist.

“An activist is someone who shows up, or someone who cares,” he said. “An organizer is someone who is leading and building the movement.” As a board member of Iraq Veterans Against the War, he is definitely more the latter than the former. He raised funds to help pay his way to both political conventions, and while there, worked to affect change within both parties.

“There was a lot of late-night strategizing and contingency planning,” he said of the work he and IVAW did in Denver and then earlier this week in [Saint Paul]. “It was frantic. It was surreal.”

In [Saint Paul], he said their hard work didn’t pay off, not that he thought the Grand Old Party would be receptive to his message of ending the war.

“The Republicans don’t care about the anti-war people,” Madden said. “They ignored us.”

In Denver, at the Democratic National Convention, he said, that was not the case at all. IVAW helped to organize a concert headlined by Rage Against the Machine, a popular rock band and outspoken opponents of the war. He and other veterans against the war got on stage and convinced a large contingency from the concert to join them in a march to the Democrats party.

“We marched right through the front gates of the Democratic National Convention,” he said proudly. Once inside, though, he said the protest group was met by “heavily armed guards. They had non-lethal, but very intimidating, weapons. There were 70 of us in formation, and thousands behind us.”

They told the guards they had a letter they wanted to deliver to Sen. Obama. Protesters, Madden said, are used to their efforts ending in defeat, but that’s not what happened on Wednesday night at the DNC. The Obama campaign agreed to meet with leaders of IVAW behind the police line.

“It was the first victory of the anti-war movement in seven years,” Madden said. “They didn’t just send some Secret Service officer, they sent a senior official. it was the first time a protest ended in something other than everyone just going home.”

Madden and a group of veterans delivered the letter to Phil Carter, Obama’s senior veteran’s affairs liaison. During the meeting, Carter agreed to meet with IVAW at a later date. Madden is hoping he may get some face time with the nominee himself, as well.

Despite this victory, Madden said he had an even more memorable moment at the Democratic convention.

On the way to the convention headquarters, he marched with Ron Kovic, the author and Vietnam veteran who wrote the autobiographical memoir “Born on the Fourth of July.”

“I was speechless,” Madden said about marching with Kovic. “It was one of the most memorable experiences of my life. He was just as excited to be around us as we were to be around him.”

Like Madden, Kovic, too, was a Marine who became disillusioned with war and became an anti-war activist. Kovic also marched at a political convention. A major difference between Madden and Kovic, Madden was quick to point out, is that Kovic lost the use of his legs as a result of a war wound. Madden said he bears no physical war injuries.

Where their stories are similar, Madden said, is that he, too, never thought he would end up as an anti-war organizer.

“I didn’t join the Marines thinking this is where I was going to end up,” he said.

[Received by IFP via email]