Loading ...The MFSO group, short for Military Families Speak Out, is a group created in November 2002 by two military families that were against the plans of invasion of Iraq and wished to prevent it, considering it as simply putting the lives of soldiers in danger. During their first press conference in Washington, D.C held in August 2003 at the National Press Club, they launched the "Bring Them Home Now" campaign. The conference was put together with the assistance Mintwood Media Collective and rebroadcast on TV by C-SPAN.
Memorable actions
Following this conference, during the same month the Military Families Speak Out organization had a march with a similar group named Veterans For Peace. It was organized as a national demonstration against the invasion of Iraq. Also, within a week, the group was joined by more than 100 additional military families.
The group’s first serious action was a lawsuit filed in February 2003 by 15 of their members against George Bush and Donald Rumsfeld, President of the United States of America and the Secretary of Defense of respectively. This was done to prevent during the absence of the Congressional declaration of war to prevent the invasion of Iraq by the U.S. However, after two initial rounds at the Court of Appeals, the lawsuit ended as a failure on the 18th March 2003. After the start of the invasion on the 19th March 2003, 400 families joined the group near the end of the month.
The group only got really active in 2004 by organizing vigils, speaking programs, meetings with officials, vigils and press conferences among others, building the up the voice of the military families.