A Dead Iraqi is Just Another Dead Iraqi… You Know, So What?’
It is an axiom of American political life that the actions of the US military are beyond criticism. Democrats and Republicans praise the men and women in uniform at every turn. Apart from the odd bad apple at Abu Ghraib, the US military in Iraq is deemed to be doing a heroic job under trying circumstances.
That perception will take a severe knock today with the publication in The Nation magazine of a series of in-depth interviews with 50 combat veterans of the Iraq war from across the US. In the interviews, veterans have described acts of violence in which US forces have abused or killed Iraqi men, women and children with impunity.
The report steers clear of widely reported atrocities, such as the massacre in Haditha in 2005, but instead unearths a pattern of human rights abuses. “It’s not individual atrocity,” Specialist Garett Reppenhagen, a sniper from the 263rd Armour Battalion, said. “It’s the fact that the entire war is an atrocity.”
A number of the troops have returned home bearing mental and physical scars from fighting a war in an environment in which the insurgents are supported by the population. Many of those interviewed have come to oppose the US military presence in Iraq, joining the groundswell of public opinion across the US that views the war as futile.
This view is echoed in Washington, where increasing numbers of Democrats and Republicans are openly calling for an early withdrawal from Iraq. And the Iraq quagmire has pushed President George Bush’s poll ratings to an all-time low.
Journalists and human rights groups have published numerous reports drawing attention to the killing of Iraqi civilians by US forces. The Nation’s investigation presents for the first time named military witnesses who back those assertions. Some participated themselves.
Through a combination of gung-ho recklessness and criminal behavior born of panic, a narrative emerges of an army that frequently commits acts of cold-blooded violence. A number of interviewees revealed that the military will attempt to frame innocent bystanders as insurgents, often after panicked American troops have fired into groups of unarmed Iraqis. The veterans said the troops involved would round up any survivors and accuse them of being in the resistance while planting Kalashnikov AK47 rifles beside corpses to make it appear that they had died in combat.
“It would always be an AK because they have so many of these lying around,” said Joe Hatcher, 26, a scout with the 4th Calvary Regiment. He revealed the army also planted 9mm handguns and shovels to make it look like the civilians were shot while digging a hole for a roadside bomb.
“Every good cop carries a throwaway,” Hatcher said of weapons planted on innocent victims in incidents that occurred while he was stationed between Tikrit and Samarra, from February 2004 to March 2005. Any survivors were sent to jail for interrogation.
There were also deaths caused by the reckless behavior of military convoys. Sgt Kelly Dougherty of the Colorado National Guard described a hit-and-run in which a military convoy ran over a 10-year-old boy and his three donkeys, killing them all. “Judging by the skid marks, they hardly even slowed down. But, I mean… your order is that you never stop.”
The worst abuses seem to have been during raids on private homes when soldiers were hunting insurgents. Thousands of such raids have taken place, usually at dead of night. The veterans point out that most are futile and serve only to terrify the civilians, while generating sympathy for the resistance.
Sgt John Bruhns, 29, of the 3rd Brigade, 1st Armored Division, described a typical raid. “You want to catch them off guard,” he explained. “You want to catch them in their sleep … You grab the man of the house. You rip him out of bed in front of his wife. You put him up against the wall… Then you go into a room and you tear the room to shreds. You’ll ask ‘Do you have any weapons? Do you have any anti-US propaganda?’
“Normally they’ll say no, because that’s normally the truth,” Sgt Bruhns said. “So you’ll take his sofa cushions and dump them. You’ll open up his closet and you’ll throw all the clothes on the floor and basically leave his house looking like a hurricane just hit it.” And at the end, if the soldiers don’t find anything, they depart with a “Sorry to disturb you. Have a nice evening”.
Sgt Dougherty described her squad leader shooting an Iraqi civilian in the back in 2003. “The mentality of my squad leader was like, ‘Oh, we have to kill them over here so I don’t have to kill them back in Colorado’,” she said. “He just seemed to view every Iraqi as a potential terrorist.”
‘It would always happen. We always got the wrong house…’
“People would make jokes about it, even before we’d go into a raid, like, ‘Oh fuck, we’re gonna get the wrong house’. Cause it would always happen. We always got the wrong house.”
Sergeant Jesus Bocanegra, 25, of Weslaco, Texas 4th Infantry Division. In Tikrit on year-long tour that began in March 2003
“I had to go tell this woman that her husband was actually dead. We gave her money, we gave her, like, 10 crates of water, we gave the kids, I remember, maybe it was soccer balls and toys. We just didn’t really know what else to do.”
Spc. Philip Chrystal, 23, of Reno, Nevada. In Ramadi from August 2004 to March 2005*
“We were approaching this one house… and we’re approaching, and they had a family dog. And it was barking ferociously, cause it’s doing its job. And my squad leader, just out of nowhere, just shoots it… So I see this dog - I’m a huge animal lover… this dog has, like, these eyes on it and he’s running around spraying blood all over the place. And like, you know, what the hell is going on? The family is sitting right there, with three little children and a mom and a dad, horrified. And I’m at a loss for words.”
Specialist Philip Chrystal, 23, of Reno, 3rd Battalion, 116th Cavalry Brigade. In Kirkuk and Hawija on 11-month tour beginning November 2004
“I’ll tell you the point where I really turned… [there was] this little, you know, pudgy little two-year-old child with the cute little pudgy legs and she has a bullet through her leg… An IED [improvised explosive device] went off, the gun-happy soldiers just started shooting anywhere and the baby got hit. And this baby looked at me… like asking me why. You know, ‘Why do I have a bullet in my leg?’… I was just like, ‘This is, this is it. This is ridiculous’.”
Specialist Michael Harmon, 24, of Brooklyn, 167th Armour Regiment, 4th Infantry Division. In Al-Rashidiya on 13-month tour beginning in April 2003
“I open a bag and I’m trying to get bandages out and the guys in the guard tower are yelling at me, ‘Get that fuck haji out of here,’… our doctor rolls up in an ambulance and from 30 to 40 meters away looks out and says, shakes his head and says, ‘You know, he looks fine, he’s gonna be all right,’ and walks back… kind of like, ‘Get your ass over here and drive me back up to the clinic’. So I’m standing there, and the whole time both this doctor and the guards are yelling at me, you know, to get rid of this guy.”
Specialist Patrick Resta, 29, from Philadelphia, 252nd Armour, 1st Infantry Division. In Jalula for nine months beginning March 2004
‘Every person opened fire on this kid, using the biggest weapons we could find…’
“Here’s some guy, some 14-year-old kid with an AK47, decides he’s going to start shooting at this convoy. It was the most obscene thing you’ve ever seen. Every person got out and opened fire on this kid. Using the biggest weapons we could find, we ripped him to shreds…”
Sergeant Patrick Campbell, 29, of Camarillo, California, 256th Infantry Brigade. In Abu Gharth for 11 months beginning November 2004
“Cover your own butt was the first rule of engagement. Someone could look at me the wrong way and I could claim my safety was in threat.”
Lieutenant Brady Van Engelen, 26, of Washington DC, 1st Armoured Division. Eight-month tour of Baghdad beginning Sept 2003
“I guess while I was there, the general attitude was, ‘A dead Iraqi is just another dead Iraqi… You know, so what?’… [Only when we got home] in… meeting other veterans, it seems like the guilt really takes place, takes root, then.”
Specialist Jeff Englehart, 26, of Grand Junction, Colorado, 3rd Brigade, 1st Infantry. In Baquba for a year beginning February 2004
“[The photo] was very graphic… They open the body bags of these prisoners that were shot in the head and [one soldier has] got a spoon. He’s reaching in to scoop out some of his brain, looking at the camera and smiling.”
Specialist Aidan Delgado, 25, of Sarasota, Florida, 320th Military Police Company. Deployed to Talil air base for one year beginning April 2003
“The car was approaching what was in my opinion a very poorly marked checkpoint… and probably didn’t even see the soldiers… The guys got spooked and decided it was a possible threat, so they shot up the car. And they [the bodies] literally sat in the car for the next three days while we drove by them.
Sergeant Dustin Flatt, 33, of Denver, 18th Infantry Brigade, 1st Infantry Division. One-year from February 2004
“The frustration that resulted from our inability to get back at those who were attacking us led to tactics that seemed designed simply to punish the local population…”
Sergeant Camilo Mejía, 31, from Miami, National Guardsman, 1-124 Infantry Battalion, 53rd Infantry Brigade. Six-month tour beginning April 2003
“I just remember thinking, ‘I just brought terror to someone under the American flag’.”
Sergeant Timothy John Westphal, 31, of Denver, 18th Infantry Brigade, 1st Infantry Division. In Tikrit on year-long tour beginning February 2004
“A lot of guys really supported that whole concept that if they don’t speak English and they have darker skin, they’re not as human as us, so we can do what we want.”
Specialist Josh Middleton, 23, of New York City, 2nd Battalion, 82nd Airborne Division. Four-month tour in Baghdad and Mosul beginning December 2004
“I felt like there was this enormous reduction in my compassion for people. The only thing that wound up mattering is myself and the guys that I was with, and everybody else be damned.”
Sergeant Ben Flanders, 28, National Guardsman from Concord, New Hampshire, 172nd Mountain Infantry. In Balad for 11 months beginning March 2004
The Other War: Iraq Vets Bear Witness, by Chris Hedges and Laila al-Arian, appears in the 30 July issue of The Nation
© 2007 Independent News and Media Limited
*CommonDreams Editor’s Note: The original Independent article incorrectly attributed this quote to Jonathan Morgenstein. This was a mistake.
“We were approaching this one house… and we’re approaching, and they had a family dog. And it was barking ferociously, cause it’s doing its job. And my squad leader, just out of nowhere, just shoots it… So I see this dog - I’m a huge animal lover… this dog has, like, these eyes on it and he’s running around spraying blood all over the place. And like, you know, what the hell is going on? The family is sitting right there, with three little children and a mom and a dad, horrified. And I’m at a loss for words.”
**what I hate about statements like this is that the inclusion of “huge animal lover’ implies that the only reason to be upset would be that you love non human animals. An emotional reaction whether than a rational one. Ther eis love and then there is respect.
Its the injustice of it–killing an innocent being that is what makes it wrong. Not some emotional response.
A good way to see the problem is to twist it around.
“we had to go tell a woman her husband was killed. I’m a huge human lover.”
And here lies the reason for the rise in insurgency….not AQ as the admin like to say.
The Origins of Torture In Endured Child Abuse
Tuesday June 01, 2004
Alice Miller.
Many people have claimed to be appalled by the acts of perversion committed by American soldiers on ADULT people, Iraqi prisoners. Amazingly, I have never heard of any such reaction in response to the occasional attempts to expose similar practices committed towards CHILDREN as for instance in British and American schools. There, these practices come under the heading of “education.” But the cruelty is the same. The world appears to be surprized that such brutality should rear its head among the American forces.
After all, America presents itself to the international public as the guardian of world peace. There is an explanation for all this, but hardly anyone wants to hear it.
It is definitely a good thing that light has been cast on the situation and that the media have exposed this lie for what it is. Basically it runs as follows: We are a civilized, freedom-loving nation and bring democracy and independence to the whole world. Under this motto the Americans forced their way into Iraq with devastating results and still insist that they are
exporting cultural values. But now it turns out that alongside their bombs and missiles the well-drilled, smartly dressed soldiers are carrying a huge arsenal of pent-up rage around with them, invisible on the outside, invisible for themselves, lurking deep down within, but unmistakably dangerous.
Where does this suppressed rage come from, this need to torment, humiliate, mock, and abuse helpless human beings (prisoners and children as well)? What are these outwardly
tough soldiers avenging themselves for? And where have they learnt such behavior? First as little children taught obedience by means of physical “correction,” then in school, where they served as the defenseless objects of the sadism of some of their teachers, and finally in their time as recruits, treated like dirt by their superiors so that they could finally acquire the highly dubious ability to take anything meted out to them and qualify as “tough.”
The thirst for vengeance does not come from nowhere. It has a clearly identifiable cause. The thirst for vengeance has its origins in infancy, when children are forced to suffer in silence and put up with the cruelty inflicted on them in the name of upbringing. They
learn how to torment others from their parents, and later from their teachers and superiors. It is nothing other than systematic instruction by example on how to destroy others. Yet many people believe that it has no evil consequences. As if a child were a container that can be emptied from time to time. But the human brain is not a container. The things we learn at an early stage stay with us in later life.
In my recent book “Die Revolte des Körpers” (The Body Never Lies) appeared in Germany in March 2004, I pointed out that in 22 American states children and adolescents can be beaten, humiliated, and sometimes exposed to outright sadism without this having any legal consequences. Such treatment is equivalent to genuine torture. But it is not called so. It goes by the name of education, discipline, leadership. These practices are actively supported by most religions. There is no protest against it, except on some Internet websites. But the Internet is also full of advertisements for whips and other devices for punishing small children and making them into God-fearing individuals so that God will approve of them and give them His love. The scandal in Iraq shows what becomes of these children when they reach adulthood. The perverted soldiers are the fruits of an education that actively instills violence, meanness, and perversion into young people.
The media quote psychological experts who contend that the brutality displayed by the American soldiers is a result of the stress caused by war. It is true that war unleashes latent aggression. BUT TO BE UNLEASHED IT HAS TO BE ALREADY THERE. It would be impossible for individuals who have not been exposed to violence very early, either at home or at school, to abuse and mock defenseless prisoners. They simply couldn’t do it. We know from the history of the last World War that many conscripted soldiers were able to show a human face, even in the stress of war, if they had grown up without being exposed
to violence. Many accounts of the war and the conditions in the camps tell us that
even such extreme stress will not necessarily turn adults into perverted individuals.
Perversion has a long, obscure history invariably rooted in the childhood of the individual. It is hardly surprising that these histories are usually concealed from the eyes of society. People who have been taught to obey by having violence inflicted on them have very good reasons to avoid being reminded of the sufferings they went through in childhood and prevent the suppressed facts from ever emerging into the light of day. Many prefer to submit to whippings in S/M clubs, which they claim to enjoy, rather than ask themselves why they indulge in such perversions. In our society the cult of the unconscious still holds sway.
It is not true that we all carry in us the “beast,” as some psychological experts claim.
Only people who were treated in a perverse way, but deny the fact, will seek scapegoats
on whom they can unconsciously take out their rage, telling in interviews they did it only “just for fun” (exactly as their abusing “innocent” parents might have declared). Or they destroy themselves by taking substances to ease the pain. Children, of course, are unable to bear the pain of their victimization or understand that crime is being committed to them. But as adults they can learn to sympathize with the wounded child and, by becoming conscious, they can free themselves (and the world) from the “beast” within.
I’m with you, davepepper; I don’t support nationalist serial killers.
Sarcasm:
Do these guys know they are traitors for even mentioning these incidents? As Kerry was for bringing to light atrocities during the Vietnam War? He was excoriated for relating the soldier’s stories. Who wrote this anyway. Oh, someone in a country that still reports real news and has real journalists.
When the news of the green zone mortar attack appeared on the bar-room TV where I was sitting, I had to supress hard the urge to jump off the stool and cheer - but could not supress cracking a big grin. I felt good for the next hour or so.
Any army which treats civilians of other lands in this way eventually does the same to people in its own country too.
AmeriKKKa terrorized and murdered 2 million women, children and old people in Vietnam, what’s fucking new…
AmeriKKKa is the threat to world peace
As horrible as these atrocities are, they are not even the most horrible.
These men and women bear the burden of human conscience. They will pay throughout their lives, many by committing suicide or other acts of self-destruction.
Society will pay, in (hopefully) attempting to care for them.
Their families will pay as they try to function through lifelong PTSD, DU poisoning, chemical poisoning, alcoholism and drug addiction.
The price of this kind of violence called war never stops
As horrible as these atrocities are, they are not even the most horrible.
These men and women bear the burden of human conscience. They will pay throughout their lives, many by committing suicide or other acts of self-destruction.
Society will pay, in (hopefully) attempting to care for them.
Their families will pay as they try to function through lifelong PTSD, DU poisoning, chemical poisoning, alcoholism and drug addiction.
The price of this kind of violence called war never stops collecting interest.
But even worse than all that, of course, is the price the Iraqis pay and will pay. It’s incalculable.
And even worse, is the fact that the politicians who engineer this horror skate its direct consequences without literally, getting their fingers dirty. And the corporate war mongers cash registers go cachink, cachink.
And we never mention the Air Force, those Top Guns who rain lead, poison, DU, Cluster bombs, fuel air explosives: the most violent terror ever created by human kind.
You do not ever hear them confessing for what they do. They are above all that. Unlike, for exaple Kurt Vonnegut and Howard Zinn.
To me, they are the worst.
So the best that we can do is to try to keep as many as possible of our sons, daughters, neighbors and friends from entering into this shit storm.
And when they come home, broken, weird and wired, try to care for them. That does not mean “Support the Troops” or any of that nonsense.
It means they are us, part of us all, and we need to help them get through life better so we can. Whether we like it or not.
A tiny minority (one in a thousand?) of USAns heard this story this morning on Democracy Now. Others will read it in the Nation - circulation a few tens of thousands out of 300 million. Few USAns will ever know about it, almost no one outside useless fora among strangers like this one will talk about it.
Meanwhile, to the east of here, a majority in the UK read this story this morning in the Independent and in other newspapers in other languages throughout Europe. As I am typing this, many of them at talking about it around the supper table.
This is the probelm in a nutshell.
When evil leads, evil follows. The invetaion be all that you can be means, stiff upper lip or smile as you kill.
I posted an article with a similar theme last year:
http://www.distantocean.com/2006/06/support_the_tro.html
To bleat “support the troops” without paying attention to what those troops are doing is to make yourself an accomplice.
The part of the article that was ignored in the excerpt above is what also appeared in the Nation article below.
“The soldiers, sailors and marines emphasized that not all troops took part in indiscriminate killings. Many said that these acts were perpetrated by a minority.”
The minority that engage in these acts should be punished, and punished severely. Not only are their actions abhorrent but they actually aid the insurgency and create new insurgents by their actions. And those that fail to report what is going on until they come home and tell a magazine about it? They have made themselves an accessory. The minority will never be stopped from committing atrocities if the majority just stands by and does nothing.
What is wrong here is that the temptation will be to paint those who have not participated in nor witnessed atrocities with the same brush as those who committed them and they will be condemned for what a minority have done as was done to the Viet Nam vets.
And that makes those doing the condemning no better than the GI’s that condemn Iraqis as being less human for having darker skin and not speaking English.
Lobo Gris
in russia under the czars, when you got your draft notice you went—for a 25-year hitch, with no hardship deferments. the officers would point and say “charge,” and if you charged at the enemy, you might live; if you charged for the rear, the officers would gladly shoot you with the sidearms they carried for just that purpose. i don’t imagine that things were much different under saddam, which is to say that it was possible under such circumstances to serve honorably under a dishonorable leader.
but we’re citizens of a (nominal) democracy. we have a (theoretical) say in what our government does—the same government that prided itself for the nuremberg war crimes trials, that declared “just following orders” an insufficient defense for committing acts one knows or should know to be wrong.
in a democracy, therefore, i have to conclude it’s impossible to serve honorably in a dishonorable cause. in a democracy each individual is called on to make moral judgements for him/herself and refuse to obey an immoral or illegal order.
the weapon most feared by fascists is the person who says “no” and means it.
Happens every war were lied into. The anti-war types spread the same puke as the hawks, “support of the troops.” You can’t oppose the killing and support the killers! Every human reserves the right to refuse to participate in an immoral act. Any soldier who chooses to participate in the invasion, occupation, destruction of a country, murder, rob, maim and rape its citizens - a country and people who have never harmed us - then lynch it’s leader, who also never harmed us, deserves the same fate as anyone and any country who would, without cause, would do the same to us. We would try to kill every one of them. US troops and their sobbing relatives are getting what they deserve. They are not heroes! They are willing dupes who in the words of the Nazi cremators, “were just following orders”. The fewer of them we have around, the safer we and the rest of the world will be. Good riddance!
And Americans rail against Janjaweed atrocities in The Sudan?????????? Maybe those Sudanese government guys are right. Maybe it’s all about the oil in Darfur.
Support the Troops!
This administration doesn’t support the troops. They’re sent over with inadequate body armor in inadequately armored humvees. They come home to inadequate medical care and little VA support. What a joke.
The tragedy is there are so many young, poor and poorly educated Americans with few prospects other than to enlist. “Be all that you can be” …Dead?
The atrocities of Abu Ghraib mirrored Zimbardo’s Stanford prison experiment exactly. EVERYONE is subject to The Lucifer Effect. Its not “bad apples” or suppressed rage from bad childhoods, or some maniacal fringe minority. It’s only human.
“I felt like there was this enormous reduction in my compassion for people. The only thing that wound up mattering is myself and the guys that I was with, and everybody else be damned”
You’re only human. Enter a combat zone and this is how you’ll feel. It’s the situation. The war.
Did you pay your taxes? You’re an accomplice!! You’re supporting this war. The contractors are loving you. Bush is laughing at you. The world despises you. And the next umpteen generations of Iraqis will be gunning for you. Don’t even imagine their memories are as short as yours.
Citizens of Iraq have my deepest sympathy. Americans think they have it bad in the world, Iraqis have experienced ten times worse for ten times as long. Saddam Hussein was not the only culprit in Iraqi misery either. In fact, the US empire, the British Empire, and virtually every dead empire in the “known world” of Human History have terrorize/occupied Iraq. Americans honestly believed that THEY could do a better job securing Iraq than Saddam Hussein could, despite not knowing the language of its citizens no less?
To Americans in general, the notion is prevalent that an Iraqi life is not worth much. After all, The US military have terrorized Iraqis for almost twenty years and to a lesser extent when Saddam Hussein was a puppet for the United States. The complete destruction of Iraq as a nation is the ultimate goal, but to the United States this is not enough! The entire population must be killed slowly over years while ensuring that the Iraqis live as much of a miserable existence as possible - far worse than what Saddam Hussein was capable of. So what makes Americans believe they are morally superior to Saddam Hussein in their regard to the Iraqi populace? Just by being Americans you really believe that you have more worth as a person than Iraqis do?
The “insurgents” of Iraq are very much like US Border Patrol Agents or The American Minutemen in their goals - they are merely defending their nation against the Americans, British, Austrailians and any other foreigner because, again, they are tired of being occupied - AGAIN! Americans call the Iraqis who kill American military personnel in THEIR country “terrorists.” Hezbollah has the same purpose - defending their homeland and are called “terrorists” also. Americans do this in their nation but call members of their defense organizations “heroes.” Most Americans seem unable to understand this dynamic.
If you want to prove the war hawks right, just keep right on bad mounthing the U.S. troops. I’ve engaged in countless conversations with right-wing nut jobs, and what comes up time and time again is how the soliders came home from Vietnam and people spat on them. It’s probably an urban legend, but it’s a powerful rallying image for right-wingers and especially many veterans.
I continue to believe that the overwhelming number of people in the military are honorable. But brutality breeds brutality. And when you give weapons to 150,000 people and put them in a situation where they are justifyably scared for their lives, atrocities should be expected.
Don’t get the idea that I’m defending the war. No one opposes it more than I do. This dehumanizing phenomenon is just one more reason to end it now.
Just don’t spit on anyone when they come home. You don’t know what they did or didn’t do over there.
Has there ever been a time when a war was fought and soldiers behaved in a civilized manner? War is not a civilized behavior.
I believe when people enter the service they do something to brainwash them. I don’t know if they inject them with some sort of drug or if it’s pure drilling but I have noticed that people that have been in the service don’t think like a person who is in control of their own minds.
During the 2004 election just about everyone I know who supported Bush had been in the military. They have the same exact mentality. There is NO WAY one is going to convince them that God created Iraqi’s too. I can’t explain it other to say they are full of hate and distrust of anyone unlike themselves.
A bunch of foreign soldiers kicks in my door in the middle of the night and terrifies my family—if I wasn’t an insurgent before that happened I sure as hell would become one afterwards.
Soldiers are complex creatures.
Let’s not romanticize them.
Or deify them.
Or demonize them.
Let’s try to see them in all their complexity.
But above all, let’s get them the hell out of Iraq, Afghanistan and anywhere else they don’t need to be.
Every last one of them.
Doug
Questionable Content @ http://unlikelysource.greatestjournal.com
In Iraq “freedom and democracy” means murder, torture, killings of whole families, women and children. Who the hell wants that?
If Americans believe that “A dead Iraqi is just another dead Iraqi,” then I wish CNN and FoxNews would show graphic images of what war REALLY is, and the gruesome crimes that come with it, right there at supper time, on TV. Americans should see it; they just don’t know the reality of war.
Show the world what’s really going on over there. War crimes, crimes against humanity, yes, and I’m not talking about Saddam Hussein! Iraq was certainly more secure and a better place under Saddam than the bloody mess it is today. And we have Idiot-in-chief to blame for that, and the voters who put him in office.
“A bunch of foreign soldiers kicks in my door in the middle of the night and terrifies my family—if I wasn’t an insurgent before that happened I sure as hell would become one afterwards.”
Exactly…When are we going to wake up and realize we ourselves have created the insurgency and extremists?? And how exactly did Al-Qaeda manage to regain strength when the stated goal of the strongest, smartest and best-equipped army in the world was to destroy them so they could never threaten us again?
When Bush says we’re fighting them over there so we won’t have to fight them over here, he means it literally; our soldiers are meant to serve as a lightening rod, cannon fodder, whose purpose is to draw the enemy’s fire, not, I think, to actually “win” the so-called War on Terrorism. We have created a far deadlier and more determined enemy than ever existed before, and we have no one to blame but ourselves.
Insurgents? There is no such thing as “insurgent.” The Iraqis are defending themselves against the American invader. That is not insurgency, it is resistance (Was the French resistence an insurgency?????). If Mexico attacked the USA, and Americans defended their families and property against the invaders, would Americans be called “insurgents???” Maybe by the Mexican invaders, but not by Americans.
If you don’t support what the troops are doing in Irak, then don’t support the troops, as I don’t. They volunteered, and they knew what they were doing when they signed up. Tyhe made a conscoius decision to go kill civilians in a sovereign nation that was no threat to the USA. That is a crime against humanity, according to the Nuremberg trials jurisprudence. No one should ever support that crime, or the criminal who perpetrates it. And try to avoid paying federal taxes to the criminal US war machine. I don’t pay any, and I feel very good at making no contribution to the USA’s war crimes.
Mmmmm. I’ll bet this does not make it to the MSM.
The reason? Who cares?
“The veterans said the troops involved would round up any survivors and accuse them of being in the resistance while planting Kalashnikov AK47 rifles beside corpses to make it appear that they had died in combat.”
Makes you wonder how many other criminal performances the military is staging and then directing the blame toward a group or country they don’t like.
It’s a sad state of affairs when you can no longer believe anything the mainstream media or the government tell you without analyzing every word and questioning the potentially deceptive intent of the delivered message.
Congress needs to get a grip on reality and start directing this country away from empire-building and begin working on global peace along with fair trade policies. Our country is already bankrupt and China is building a military to secure its future position as the world’s economic and military global leader.
With all the industries we outsourced to China, India and elsewhere, this country is no longer capable of producing the necessary items needed for the military defense of our nation.
If Congress doesn’t start to act in the interest of all the people in this nation we will soon be taken over by another country.
A quote from Henry Kissinger.
“Military men are just dumb,___ stupid animals, to be used as pawns in foreign policy.”
A quote from General William Looney, referng to Iraq.
“If they turn on their radars we’re gong to blow up ther goddam SAMS. They know we own the country and airspace. We dictate the way they live and talk. And that’s what is great about America right now. It’s a good thing, especialy when there’s a lot of oil out there that we need.”
I couldn’t help but wonder about the general’s name.
I saw this topic covered on DemocracyNow yesterday. The sign I have carried for years in various protests says, Support the Truth. I can’t stand the military or the way veterans march out and get worshipped several times a year. It’s a shame for those who made a wrong choice in joining the military because of our propaganda. There are many also who are nothing but war mongers.
I continually read, in the alternative media of course, how “the war on terror” is only creating more terrorists as if this were somehow counter to the plans of the architects of the invasion/occupation. I’ve always believed, particularly going forward from 9/11, that the creation of a credible enemy is at the heart of our military actions. How else can the public be frightened into shelling out trillions of dollars to weapons manufacturers whose products are of dubious (to say the least) military value?
Ferris says: “A bunch of foreign soldiers kicks in my door in the middle of the night and terrifies my family—if I wasn’t an insurgent before that happened I sure as hell would become one afterwards.”
If Bush has his way, it won’t be foreign soldiers, but these very guys. He recently created “signing orders” that gives him the right to suspend the Constitution, disregard Congress, and handle the reigns of government as he sees fit, including declaring martial law in the event of another “terrorist attack”–his form of “continuance of government.” No, it won’t be foreign soldiers you have to worry about. And for all of those who want to take everyone’s guns away, the people discussed in this article will be the ones with the guns telling you what to do. For this reason, the framers of the Constitution meant for citizens to have guns–so they could protect themselves from enemies without and within. An unarmed citizenry will be sitting ducks. Of course, the fact that Bush is recruiting foreigners promising them citizenship in exchange for military service may prove me wrong about the “foreign” part of the above quote. Indeed, it may be “foreign” troops kicking in your door in an American military uniform. I heard that the ATF has recently called for the sale of ammunition for guns to be placed under them, the same as if you were buying “explosives.” I suppose if they can’t confiscate your guns, confiscating the ammunition will be the next best thing, and perhaps just as effective.
…”This view is echoed in Washington, where increasing numbers of Democrats and Republicans are openly calling for an EARLY WITHDRAWAL from Iraq.”
EARLY WITHDRAWAL? EARLY??? Tell THAT to the THOUSANDS of U.S. families who have lost loved ones in this illegal and completely unnecessary U.S. invasion of Iraq.
EARLY WITHDRAWAL? EARLY??? Tell THAT to the MILLIONS of Iraqi citizens whose lives have been FOREVER changed because of the bumbling, money-obsessed idiots…the U.S. military industrial Congre$$ional complex.
EARLY WITHDRAWAL? EARLY??? Tell THAT to the families who have now become LIFE-LONG
caregivers for returning vets with PERMANENT brain injuries and physical disabilities.
EARLY WITHDRAWAL? EARLY??? Tell THAT to the THOUSANDS of returning vets who now suffer from PTSD!
EARLY WITHDRAWAL? EARLY??? Tell THAT to future generations of U.S. citizens who will be responsible for paying off the billions and billions of dollars of debt created by waging this illegal invasion on Iraq.
EARLY WITHDRAWAL? EARLY??? My A$$!!!!
B.ring
U.S.
S.oldiers
H.ome!
YESTERDAY!!!!
Join the George W. Bush Movin’ Out Campaign!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aB6PNTKM2xg
IMPEACH the pResident criminal….NOW!!!!
I SEEM TO RECALL STORIES FROM MY FRIENDS WHO SERVED IN NAM, ABOUT HOW THE CHILDREN WERE USED TO GET CLOSE TO SOLDIERS AND THEN BLOW THOSE SAME SOLDIERS TO BITS WITH CONCEALED BOMBS. WE ALL KNOW IT IS TOUGH TO TELL PEOPLE APART WHEN WE ARE IMMMERSED IN A ETHNIC POPULATION, FROM THE COMMENTS OUR SOLDIERS HAVE MADE NOW AND IN THE PAST.
-”ALL GOOKS LOOK ALIKE”,
-”ALL RAGHEADS LOOK ALIKE”,
-”THE ONLY GOOD INDIAN IS A DEAD INDIAN”.
THIS IS NOT THE OLD WARFARE WITH TROOPS IN UNIFORM DISTINGUISHING THEMSELVES FROM ONE ANOTHER. NOW WE ARE FIGHTING EXTREMEIST, AND THAT IS A GOOD TERM “EXTREMEIST”, FOR THEY WILL GO TO ANY EXTREME TO FULFILL THEIR GOAL, EVEN TO BECOMING A MARTYR IN ALLAH’S BRIGADE, SACRAFICING THEMSELVES FOR THE CAUSE. “NO GREATER SACRAFICE CAN THERE EVER BE THAN TO LAY DOWN YOUR LIFE FOR YOUR FELLOW MAN”.
IT MUST BE HELL FOR OUR TROOPS TO BE STUCK IN THIS URBAN WARFARE SITUATION WHERE THE ENEMY CAN HIDE BEHIND WOMEN AND CHILDREN, AND WHERE EVEN WOMEN AND CHILDREN CAN BE CONCEALING THE MEANS TO KILL YOU.
OUR TPOOPS COMMITTING ATROSITIES? HOW ABSURD! THE VAST MAJORITY ARE OUR FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS WHO ARE GIVING UP THEIR LIVES TO BRING A BETTER LIFE TO THE IRAQI PEOPLE.
WE ARE NOT THE ONES BLOWING UP HUNDREDS OF OUR OWN NEIGHBORS WITH CAR BOMBS AND INDICRIMINATELY PLANTING ROAD SIDE DIVICES IN ORDER TO INFLICT CASUALTIES ON JUST ONE U.S. SOLDIER. OR, JUST BECAUSE THEY ARE SUNI OR SHIA( IRISH PROTESTANT OR IRISH CATHOLIC)
DO YOU REMEMBER THE INDICRIMINATE WHOLSALE SLAUGHTER OF INNOCENTS IN IRELAND BY CHRISTIAN FACTIONS? THEIR FACES WERE INDISTINGUISHABLE AS WELL IN AN IRISH CROWD.
PEOPLE, WE WON THE WAR AGAINST SADAMS IRAQ. IN DOING SO WE SERVED ONLY TO KICK THE LID OFF THAT BOILING POT OF FUNDAMENTAL HATRED THAT HAS EXISTED WITHIN THE HEARTS OF THOSE WARRING FACTIONS FOR HUNDREDS OF YEARS. THEIR RELIGION IS STILL BASED UPON THE OLD BIBLICAL TRADITION OF AN “EYE FOR AN EYE”,IF YOU KILL ONE OF MINE I WILL KILL ONE OF YOURS. SORT OF LIKE THE HATFIELDS AND MCCOYS OF THE OLD HILBILLY FAME.
OUR ARMED FORCES ARE BROUGHT UP WITH THE CHRISTIAN ETHIC OF “TREAT ME THE WAY YOU WOULD BE TREATED”. THIS IS HOW OUR LEGAL SYSTEM WORKS WE STRIVE TO PUNISH THE WRONGDOER AND NOT A MEMBER OF HIS FAMILY.
IF A MAN MURDERS ANOTHER, HE IS FORGIVEN BUT MUST PAY THE PRICE FOR HIS INDISCRETION, HIS LIFE IN RETURN FOR THE LIFE HE DESTROYED.
OUR MILITARY HUNTS DOWN THOSE INDIVIDUALS WHO CALL US ENEMIES, OUR MILITARY IS THE VANGUARD OF OUR SAFETY AND WELL BEING,AND IT IS UP TO US, THE CITIZENS TO GIVE THEM ALL THE MORAL SUPPORT THEY NEED WHEN FACING SUCH A DEMENTED AND MANACEING FOE, BUT ESPECIALLY TO HELP HEAL THEIR WOUNDS,WOUNDS OF THEIR HEARTS, THEIR SOULS, AND THEIR MINDS. IT IS NOT UP TO US TO CONDEMN THEIR ACTIONS IN THE FIELD WHERE THEY HAVE LABORED LONG AND HARD TRYING TO BRING A BIT OF PEACE AND STABILITY TO THAT PART OF THE IRAQI POPULATION WHO SO DESPERITELY WANT WHAT WE IN AMERICA HAVE, FREEDOM OF CHOICE. NOT SUNNI FREEDOM, NOT SHIA FREEDOM,NOT AL-Q FREEDOM, BUT IRAQI FREEDOM. THEY DON’T WANT TO BE SODOM AND GAMORRAH, HAVING THEIR FREEDOM OF CHOICE TRAMPLED UPON BY THE MALISCIOUS WILL OF OTHERS. THEY WANT PEACE AND PROSPERITY TO COME TO THEIR LAND. BUT THEY WILL HAVE TO MAKE A STAND, FOR LIBERTY DOES NOT COME WITHOUT THE SHEDDING OF BLOOD, OUR OWN CIVIL WAR IS AN EXAMPLE OF THIS TRUTH.
LET AMERICA PULL BACK, YET NOT FULLY AWAY, AND PROTECT IRAQS SOVERENTY BY GUARDING ITS BORDERS AGAINST ANY INTERFERENCE FROM OUTSIDE INTERESTS. LET THE IRAQIS FACE ONE ANOTHER AND DECIDE ONNCE AND FOR ALL THE COURSE THEIR COUNTRY WILL FOLLOW. LET NOT THIS FAMILY FUED, AND MAKE NO MISTAKE THIS IS WHAT IT IS, SPILL OVER INTO THE SURROUNDING NATIONS. LET US CONTAIN THE INFECTION AND LET THESE WEARY FOLKS WORK AT HEALING THEIR PROBLEMS FROM WITHIN. WE HAVE WORKED WITH THEM TO ESTABLISH A DEMOCRACY, WE HAVE GIVEN THEM THE BREATHING ROOM TO SET UP A NEW REALITY IN THEIR LIVES. IT IS NOW UP TO THE IRAQI PEOPLE AND THEIR APPOINTED LEADERS TO DECIDE IF THEY WANT TO CONTINUE DOWN THE OLD WORN ROAD OF DOG EAT DOG, EYE FOR AN EYE PHILOSOPHY, OR ESTABLISH FOR THEMSELVES A NATION THAT WILL ALLOW THE FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION FOR ALL, AND THE PEACE AND PROSPERITY THAT WILL FOLLOW.IT IS TIME FOR THE IRAQIS TO CHOOSE. LET US STEP BACK AND HELP THEM TO DECIDE, AFTER ALL, IT IS A FAMILY AFFAIR. GOD BLESS US ALL, AND MAY ALLAH BE MERCIFULL…..A-MAN….LMJ
CrackerJack69,
Thank you for the best comment I ever read on this site. Whenever I think about this “occupation” I always think about the harm to the Iraqui’s. A group of people who suffered terribly for nearly 30 years. And what do we do to them? Kill them, humiliate them, destroy their country and then say “Until the Iraqui’s take responsibility for their own country we can’t leave.” Great, blame the Iraqui’s. The most educated and secular people in the Middle East. This is were we set out to “liberate” the Middle East.
We haven’t liberated them, we are dstroying them. Is there not empathy, no compassion, how can so many millions people only care about our troops. Are troops are volunteers, the Iraqui’s had no say and no choice. And they are paying for our arrogance and prejudice.
What ever we think of Bush and Republicans, we have to remember we (Americans) voted these people into office. We are reposinsible for their actions. Our complacency is killing millions of people in a lot of country’s. I have been to many country’s (most countries actually) and we have never been liked. Our arrogance and rightousness always irritated them. I was always very popular in foreign countries and they would say “Your not like most American’s” and then they’s say what they didn’t like about us.
In WWI the English (our best buddies) had a saying about our troops that they still use today. “Over paid, over sexed and over hear” And they are our allies.
When you see “support our troops” decals, cross out the “tr” in “troops” so it reads “support our oops” - i.e., support our huge, immoral mistake. As the song says, the Universal Soldier really is to blame. The deserters are the heroes, not the brainwashed robots with their license to kill.
Lljakamike you have drunk too much koolaid. This war was never about liberating the people of Iraq from bad old Saddam Hussein–a guy our government put into power and supported over the years. What cave have you been living in??? If you knew your history of Iraq, you would know this is a war about empire–keeping control of oil in the Middle East and the Caspian Sea region. We went into Afghanistan for the same reasons as the Soviets–oil!!! Were you sleeping all those years when oil companies were trying to place pipelines across these areas? Stop repeating the establishment mantra about “they hate our way of life.” For God’s sake quit being a mouthpiece and quit with the “we want to liberate Iraq” crap. We’ve liberated about million souls from their bodies over there–I’m sure they don’t care if they were murdered by Saddam or about us. Your Mayberry view of life is nice but it has nothing to do with reality in Iraq–would that it did. If you are going to, as the song says, “knell down before the one you serve, you’re gonna get what you deserve.” Wake up! Quit being a fool! This government is screwing you over just like it is the Iraqi people, it just hasn’t gotten around to killing you yet–though the 3,000 victims of 9/11 can’t say that.
Terrorist Israel don’t care who dies or how……
http://www.atfl.org/timeline/
Our soldiers are war criminals. Sounds too controversial? But how do you call people who are aiding war crimes? This Iraq invasion is illegal and immoral.
citizen1: we are all war criminals. As someone in this post said, if you pay your taxes to support this you are just as guilty as the soldiers. It is no harder for you to say no to paying war taxes than for a soldier to say no to going to Iraq. Hell, we don’t even get off our duffs to march on Washington!!! If you work for a defense contractor, you should resign your job NOW!! If you were in any capacity supporting this killing machine, you should do something else. This question is to any reading this post: how do you make your living? Do you have blood on your hands? We all have to ask ourselves what steps we can take to throw a monkey wrench in the works. We have to quit being passive slaves.
holymoly: “we are all war criminals”
You got it right. Bush, Neocons, the Repugs…. alos to Dems (who allowed Bush to start this illegalwar), the MSM, and the Americans, especially who voted for the Repugs…..
There is a difference though between actively invading a country and paying tax in a quasi-dictatorial country like USA. I try to do my part by writing my elected reps, demonstrating against the White House thugs…..
I can not and will not see our soldiers as anything but war criminals…
Read confessions of our war criminals here
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/07/13/2509/
Citizen1: yes, I know. I read the confessions and, like Vietnam, it’s deja vu all over again. Unfortunately, when I wrote letters to my congressman, and letters to the editors before this bloody mess began, all I got was harassed for it–my supervisor at work let me know that she was harassing me because my anti-war letter to the editor was published before we ever invaded Iraq–I was working at a University then–a money grubbing medical facility in a grunt job. But being in a red state, all I got for my troubles was called a terrorist-lover.
I was shocked once when my father-in-law spoke of his fellow soldiers being ordered to shoot three young German soldiers in WWII. He said “I was glad my commander didn’t ask me to do it.” Apparently, they had no way to keep the soldiers as prisoners, so they just took them off and shot them like dogs. He was only 18 at the time. When I asked my father who fought the Japanese if he had seen anything similar in that theater, he denied it. He said that sometimes they had “let the bastards go” if they couldn’t keep them prisoners. “We didn’t shoot unarmed soldiers. You’ve got to have a conscience,” he said. I don’t think he was saying that just for my benefit–but who knows–he wouldn’t talk much about the war–I had to drag it out of him. When I told my father-in-law that I thought it was horrible that they shot the three unarmed Germans, others present jumped on me and told me I wasn’t there in the thick of war and had no right to judge. So there you have it. When we send people to war, especially unnecessary wars, we just invite this sort of carnage. It was all very predictable–in fact, I predicted it, and I’m no prophet–I was just a kid when Vietnam happened and I remember that crap on the radio and TV “we killed 2,500 of them today and lost only 5 of ours.” This type of hype is only acceptable if the enemy is seen as less than human–a sentiment which governments and media do their damnest to foster. I know the Bible can be used for all sorts of theories, but there are a lot of verses I like: an evil ruler brings evil on his people.(Bush and Saddam) AMEN. Why do you war? Because you lust after the wrong things. AMEN. Oh, yeah, and the sins of the fathers are visited onto the children until the third and fourth generations. Anyone can say what they like, but this evil will follow unto our third and fourth generations–if we survive that long. However, to keep from being a total pessimist, I will point out that there are hundreds and hundreds of passages that say “fear not…fear not for I am with thee, etc. etc. I guess that is what we need now more than anything COURAGE AND A GAME PLAN. I guess praying is ok, but I am like the little old black housekeeper who, upon being told by her white mistress that her (the employer’s) prayers had been answered because the local speak-easy had burned down, the little black lady just nodded and said: sometimes you got to put feet on them prayers. We need to put some feet on them prayers.
My stomach turned when I read this. I showed it to my 17 year old son who had the same response. I have drawn attention to it by sending it to various friends. But that’s just it - it is a preaching-to-the-choir process: all of us here reading it will alert other like minded people to read it. We might alert non-like minded people too (I have), but it doesn’t make a damn bit of difference to them. So, what is the solution then to getting people mobilised into making a change?