Prominent Blacks Who Served

Newly elected GOP congressman Allen West, an Iraq War veteran, feels that he fought in a just war. But some other prominent black vets don't exactly feel the same way about that conflict.

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  Retired Lt. Col. Allen West

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  Allen West, a Florida Republican newly elected to the House of Representatives, is a vet of the Iraq War who believes wholeheartedly in the campaign in which he fought.

  Captions by Lauren Williams

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  Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.)

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  Charlie Rangel, a decorated Korean War veteran, has long proposed bringing back the draft, saying in 2006 that President George W. Bush and his administration "never would have invaded Iraq, especially on the flimsy evidence … presented to Congress, if indeed we had a draft and … the administration thought their kids from their communities would be in harm's way."

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  Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.)

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  A member of the Michigan National Guard, the U.S. Army and the Army Reserves throughout the 1940s and '50s, John Conyers voted against the 2002 resolution to go to war in Iraq and in May 2010 formed the congressional Out of Afghanistan Caucus.

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  Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.)

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  Bobby Rush served in the Army from 1963 to 1968 and went on to launch his storied career as a civil rights activist. In Congress, he has repeatedly voted against measures related to war, including that authorizing the war in Iraq and President Bush's 2007 troop surge.

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  Harry Belafonte

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  Entertainer and activist Harry Belafonte, who served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, has called the Iraq and Afghanistan wars "immoral, unconscionable and unwinnable."

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  The Rev. Jeremiah Wright

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  President Barack Obama's notorious ex-minister served in both the Marines and the Navy in the 1960s, but Jeremiah Wright is best known for saying, in reference to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, that "America's chickens are coming home to roost."

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  Ossie Davis

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  Before he died in 2005, World War II veteran and actor Ossie Davis protested the invasion of Iraq, saying, "The choice is to live together as brothers or perish together as fools."

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  Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.)

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  While G.K. Butterfield, who was a member of the U.S. Army during Vietnam, makes veterans' welfare one of his core issues as a legislator, he doesn't have the same warm and fuzzy feelings about the Iraq War. He voted against the surge and voted to reduce troops in Iraq.

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  Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.)

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  An Army veteran, Ed Towns made his position on war clear when he joined the congressional Out of Iraq Caucus.

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  Shaggy

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  Reggae singer Shaggy, a Marine who fought in Operation Desert Storm, is vocal in his opposition to both recent Iraq wars, calling them "stupid."

 

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