July 12, 2007
The Enemy Within
The Nation: Valiant Iraq War Veterans Talk Of Abuses Against Iraqi Citizens
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Marines Charged In Iraq Deaths
Eight marines have been formally charged in connection with the killing of 24 Iraqi civilians. The killings occurred more than a year ago in the town of Haditha. David Martin reports.
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The Abu Ghraib Whistleblower
In Full: Joe Darby, the man who first exposed the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, tells CNN's Anderson Cooper he faced hostility and lived in fear after blowing the whistle on his fellow soldiers.
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Iraqis protesters hold banner reading "No Freedom with Occupation" outside Abu Ghraib prison, Baghdad, Iraq. (AP)
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Battle For Iraq
The government, the insurgency, key players, background and photos.
One day in January 2005, an elderly couple was driving down a road in Mosul, Iraq, when without realizing it they passed through a makeshift US military checkpoint. The checkpoint, recalled a sergeant who came upon the scene, was "very poorly marked." Yet, he said, the soldiers "got spooked" and opened fire. The bodies of the couple sat in the car for three days, the sergeant said, "while we drove by them day after day."
That incident was no Haditha or Abu Ghraib. It was a fairly typical day for Iraqis under U.S. occupation. As Chris Hedges and Laila Al-Arian make clear in their exhaustive investigation in this issue, the degradation and killing of civilians by U.S. troops have become commonplace in Iraq. At tense checkpoints, in futile house-to-house searches, as convoys and patrols hurtle down the roads, the official rules of engagement and unofficial day-to-day practices of the occupation often add up to shoot first and ask questions never. The results make for tough reading: a family's dog gunned down for barking, a 2-year-old shot in a spray of gunfire, the terrified scream of a father awakened in a midnight raid. Few such incidents were reported, according to most of those interviewed; even fewer resulted in discipline.
This Nation investigation, based on interviews with 50 soldiers, sailors and marines, marks the first time so many veterans have spoken on the record about civilian casualties at the hands of U.S. troops in Iraq. They have shown notable courage in speaking out about the horrors they witnessed. Most insisted that only a minority in their ranks have killed civilians indiscriminately. Yet such abuses are common enough that many veterans have returned home with deep emotional scars.
It is time to reckon with the weight of evidence that American forces regularly kill Iraqi noncombatants. Occupying armies with little knowledge of the local culture, fighting guerrillas who mingle among the population, have usually meant disaster for civilians. In Iraq, the impossible mission, poor training and inconsistent and irresponsible rules of engagement have compounded the problem, leading many American soldiers to conclude that endangering civilians is simply the cost of staying safe; to consider all Iraqis the enemy; or, under extreme stress, to lash out in revenge after insurgent attacks.
As described by these veterans, the occupation of Iraq has become a classic example of what psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton calls an "atrocity-producing situation." Their testimony of eroding moral constraint, a direct consequence of the untenable position in which they've found themselves, was confirmed recently by the Pentagon. A May survey by the U.S. Army Medical Command that should disturb every American found that just 47 percent of soldiers and 38 percent of marines agreed that civilians should be treated with dignity and respect.
Veterans of conscience deserve encouragement for speaking up. Instead they face a Congress that has been willfully blind to civilian casualties and has tolerated virtually no reporting on this matter from the Pentagon. It is time for a Congressional inquiry into these daily attacks on Iraqi civilians, one that traces responsibility up the chain of command. Most important, we need to wake up to the true costs of this war. If the President and his aides lie about the war with no consequence, if troops are deployed again and again to prop up a deteriorating occupation, if the rules of engagement guarantee frequent brutalization of noncombatants, then it is no wonder some soldiers conclude that their conduct has few limits. And it should come as no surprise that an occupation of this sort continues to inflame anti-American sentiment throughout the Arab and Muslim worlds. The problem is not a few "bad apples" (Bush's phrase after Abu Ghraib) but the occupation itself. It needs to end.
By the editors of The Nation
Reprinted with permission from the The Nation.
| If you like this article, check out www.thenation.com for more investigative reports, timely editorials and incisive columns |
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The citizens of this country had gone soft and comfortable. Perhaps we do need a few attacks stateside to remind them again the cost of maintaining thier freedom. But then again, we already know thier tactic..SURRENDER
So you don't think the news media, who publish stories about national defense secrets and our intelligence gathering methods, should be held accountable? They've succeeded in making you believe that WE are the bad guys; in doing so they are uniting themselves with the sub-human a$$holes that torture and mutilate the bodies of American soldiers. You tell me of a war that had no casualties... there is no such thing. It's unfortunate that innocent people have been caught in the cross fires but it happens in war. I bet you feel more compassion for the wackos who died flying their planes into our trade center towers and I seriously question your patriotism.
Unfortunately you may be right...how quickly they forget.
Saying that you were sympathetic to the terrorists was wrong, I apologize.
Posted by xzavierbrown
And doubtless your fascist friends can arrange for a few, eh? Whip the peasants into line, remind them which side their bread is buttered on.
I sure wouldn't put it past the most corrupt, arrogant, and unConstitutional administration in U.S. history. The Tiny Texass Tyrant might not be smart enough to arrange it, but I'll bet Darth Chickenshithawk is.
Posted by USBrit at 04:42 PM : Jul 12, 2007
Now that's just a cop out. I think the press should be held accountable. They clearly know what harm can be done by leaking sensitive information yet they continue to do it, hoping for a pulitzer I'm sure. How honorable is that? What they do is commit treason and then play the first amendment card to defend their behavior. It's completely irresponsible. Journalism today is nothing but an elitist sport.
Posted by USBrit at 05:05 PM : Jul 12, 2007
Absolutely.
So, like the hundreds of war crimes committed in Vietnam, as recently admitted by the Pentagon, for which murders and rapes the maximum sentence served was less than one year, the soldiers are pushed to the ends of their ropes, with their prolonged tours of duties, their repeated exposure to the stresses of war, all so Bushit and company won't have to impose the military draft they know would sink them.
And I don't think that, except for a handful of sociopaths, you come home to a life that is ever normal again after an experience like that.
Bushit and Chickenshit are going to have a lot of ruined lives to answer for on their Judgment Day.
Posted by gkc99 at 05:51 PM : Jul 12, 2007
Are you calling the democrats in congress neocons, cause they are also responsible for sending our troops to Iraq? They now would like to pull that support back and defund them, now that's what I call "scum".
As always, you're an idiot.
Now let me get this right.
Muslims of all sorts including children can walk up to soldiers and blow themselves up, killing many soldiers, and soldiers are not expected to have the nerves of someone living on a knife edge...come on...
Some of our poor men will live for the rest of their lives with mistakes that they have made, and of course some will be very stupid mistakes which in a normal society could have been avoided, and living under their horrific circumstances it is something that we can never imagine, but why do we blame these men, they didn't start this hatred, the murders of thousands of civilians, the killing of villages when they didn't do as they were told, all we have done, (whether it be right or wrong) is try to help..
God bless you guys and thank you for trying to do the right thing..
We don't hear of accidental shootings of our guys simply because all our men are killed deliberately and our women are raped and tortured first..
Why is it that in all wars our media seems hell bent on destroying us, they wont even print what is in the Muslim holy books which shows why Muslims suicide amongst the infidels, and the reason that 97% of Muslims say nothing is because they know that it is the good Muslims who are the terrorists.
When will people wake up that there is never any outrage from Muslims against horrors that Muslims do to non Muslims, yet there is outrage when a Quran is supposedly put down the toilet..
I suppose that although lying is not allowed in Islam, Muslims are allowed to lie under certain circumstances which are... to the infidel, in times of war, to further Allah's cause etc, as long as they don't mean it in their hearts, so it would mean that any outrage couldn't be believed anyway..
We must realize that in the Muslim holy books that the infidel is counted as their enemy, to be slaughtered for Allah, so they consider that they are always at war with the enemy (us)..
and USBrit the world has NOT totally turned against America.. perhaps you should go to Iraq yourself and see the conditions these poor soldiers live under, and the lack of sleep that they get..far away from loved ones..
Posted by taddles at 03:19 AM : Jul 13, 2007
As always, Taddles, that's all you have to say.
Our soldiers are being killed because the Bush administration manufactured false intelligence to install Halliburton in the middle east.
Face reality.
"One way or the other, we are determined to deny Iraq the capacity to develop weapons of mass destruction and the missiles to deliver them. That is our bottom line."
- President Clinton, Feb. 4, 1998 | Source
"If Saddam rejects peace and we have to use force, our purpose is clear. We want to seriously diminish the threat posed by Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program."
- President Bill Clinton, Feb. 17, 1998 | Source
"He will use those weapons of mass destruction again, as he has ten times since 1983."
- Sandy Berger, Clinton National Security Adviser, Feb, 18, 1998 | Source
"Saddam Hussein has been engaged in the development of weapons of mass destruction technology which is a threat to countries in the region and he has made a mockery of the weapons inspection process."
- Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D, CA), Dec. 16, 1998 | Source
"Hussein has ... chosen to spend his money on building weapons of mass destruction and palaces for his cronies."
- Madeline Albright, Clinton Secretary of State, Nov. 10, 1999 | Source
But I do know that civilians always pay a very high price in every war. Especially in an urban setting with the enemy always trying to blend in with the locals. We are asking our fine men and women to be in a place of exceptional danger so it is somewhat understandable that they may make mistakes that cost lives. I also feel that this is not a result that the vast majority of them desire.
Far better for us to expend out energies to get them out of there as soon as possible. They are now in the middle of a civil war that we can not win. They were put in harms way by people in the Bush Administration (with the all too passive support of Congress at the time) who were all too eager to invade. All of those reasons have now turned to dust and we still do not have Osama in custody or his head on a pike outside the World Trade Center site where it belongs.
The Neocons had dreams of glory, democracy and American bases in Iraq and our forces are paying too high a price. Instead of post WWII Europe they should have looked at post Tito Yugoslavia to see what would follow the ousting of Sadam.
Since we removed Saddam and determined there were no weapons of mass destruction four years ago, the neocon spin has been to associate Iraq with 9/11 over and over again in the media. It was Bush himself who declared "Mission Accomplished" in 2003.
According to some in government, the withdrawal will not occur until the division of oil profits is agreed to by all parties, including Halliburton.
After all, both he and his national security advisor completely ignored the bi-partisan report on terrorism that warned that american buildings were going to be attacked by terrorists using planes as weapons.
The neocons are running out of excuses for the BUsh administration. All they can do is reply with "But Clinton...."
Posted by Gaye5 at 06:58 AM : Jul 13, 200
And as a supporter of the war, what the heck are you doing still here in the US? You should have volunteered for the US military and be on active duty in Iraq.
You do realize that the press is sequestered in the green zone, unable to venture out on their own because there is so much chaos that anyone (especially Americans) not in armored vehicles die.
And they say Bush lied? Thanks for shoving the facts in their faces; doesn't matter though, they'll dismiss it as usual.
must be referring to bushit and warmongering henchmen - they're the real enemy.
March 3, 1999
In explaining to Gulf War veterans why he chose not to pursue the war further, President Bush said, "Whose life would be on my hands as the commander-in-chief because I, unilaterally, went beyond the international law, went beyond the stated mission, and said we're going to show our macho? We're going into Baghdad. We're going to be an occupying power %u2014 America in an Arab land %u2014 with no allies at our side. It would have been disastrous." -Wikipedia
Posted by afsc30574 at 11:43 AM : Jul 13, 2007
I once worked next to a guy that said the Holocaust in World War II Nazi Germany never took place- but I don't think it is afsc30574, or is it?
All the loser conservatives like dogsoul can come up with quotes of democrats why Iraq has wmd. Unfortunately, Bush with his mis-intelligence was the person who pushed for the war in Iraq, not the Democrats. We can discuss about it all day, but we won't have a war with Iraq if Bush was not President.
It was the SAME evidence that convinced Clinton & the rest of the Democrats - the very same evidence that convinced Bush, in fact, while Clinton disagreed w/ Bush on certain tactical measures, he himself said that he would have absolutely invaded Iraq in a post 9/11 world... I know liberals' collective memory generally goes as far as the last headline, but people PLEASE! Point being that this whole liberal mantra the "Bush lied Bush lied" is absolute nonsensical banter that simply has to be applied against the overt facts. In fact, I WISH Clinton were in office post 9/11, because since according to Clinton himself - he would have also invaded Iraq - we would at LEAST have the support of BOTH liberals and conservatives... but since that is not the case, instead we are facing a united coalition between the American Left and Radical Islam to defeat Bush & the Republican Party... unfortunately for liberals (and every other American), while they may gain the Presidency, they'll have bolstered Islamic terrorism significantly in the long term...
And really, blaming 9/11 on Bush while he was in office a matter of months after 8 years of Clinton is like blaming a loss on the pitcher you put in the game during the bottom of the 9th instead of the one who gave up 26 runs thru the 8th inning....
There is no greater ally for Al Queda & radical Islam than the American Liberal & his media machine...
Excellent Post, dogsoul.
It should be read twice a day, slowly, out loud, by everyone posting on this board.
...
Night night.
The reasoning for war in Iraq was a complete distortion of the facts. Bush might not have lied but his administration did. They refused to listen to intelligence reports and had a battle plan for Iraq long before 9-11. This is an unnessicary war and it will have reprecussions for the next century. Oh and Clinton didn't invade Iraq...the mrs may have voted for it, but you can only fool some of the people some of the time.
Spreading Democracy in this fashion is no different than the Reich's quest to conquer the world in the name of a superior culture.
Posted by dogsoul
And they'll all laugh while Rome is burning. Haunting post. Well said.
But it defines the difference between Conservative and Liberal well. The Conservative sees things in black/white and extremes: killing civilians is bad, these are bad people, this is negative, please don't tell me about it, I want to pretend the truth isn't ugly.
The Liberal reads this and thinks, what have we done to our soldiers who are good people to drive them to do these things? how will we as a society deal with the legacy we are creating? how will we help the soldiers regain humanity and fit into society after this? Liberals listen to the truth, to soldiers' stories of the hell of being caught up in a civil war, not knowing who is good or bad, having to regard every car or person as a potential bomb, living with that fear and stress.
When this many bad things are happening, Liberals ask "why? and how do we fix it?" Conservatives say "Please don't tell me, it must be the story/media fabrication."
When the soldier returns home, Liberals say "thank you for your service, how can we help you now?" Conservatives say "Hey get back to work, counseling? medical care? c'mon toughen up! that stuff is expensive!"
Personally I am proud to be a Liberal.
Not the way this war has been fought. The difference between Vietnam and Iraq was, we could have controlled Iraq, had we done it right, and sent in enough troops in the beginning. Because we didn't, there were in some cases, days, even weeks before places in Iraq knew who was in control, or what was going on. Military bases were raided, weapons stolen, along with ammunition, and other weaponry. Now every body has got a gun, a bomb, and lots of ammo, even the crazies and the criminals. We might as well of put our soldiers in a barrel, the outcome is the same.
We got to bring them men and women out, and let Iraq play it out on its own. We also need to ask ourselves just what were our leaders thinking. Theres a lot more here than the press has ever let out, believe me on that. This situation has been ugly for a lot longer than the media, and the government has acknowledged. Our soldiers aren't just fighting an Army, or insurgents, they are fighting a whole country, in a civil war, and bent on destroying itself, because of a lack of leadership, and a big religious divide.
Get our military out of Iraq before we suffer anymore loses. We can't sustain the ground were holding, without the support of the locals. It's evident because we can't even effectively protect the Green Zone. They are able to penetrate the inner circles of our defense, and its just a matter of time before something really bad happens. Bring them home as soon as we can load the freedom birds, and the ships with equipment. This isn't another war our soldiers lost, its a war our leaders should have never let happen to begin with, and the planning was derelict.
Great posts, keep it up.
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by grumpas
July 14, 2007 9:53 AM PDT
- dogsoul: your rants are the typical right wing rhetoric that is crippling this country! In the whole piece I couldn't find one statement that even comes close to the truth or makes much sense! Just the ranting of another right wing nut case trying to shift the blame to someone else to cover Bush's sorry ***. The sad part about it. There are those who have been so dumbed down by Republican propaganda they believe your slop! How people like you are able to call yourselves a patriotic American's and aid and abet it's wholesale destruction is amazing. You have done more to destroy this country than anyone else! We are hated around the world for invading a country who posed no threat to us as a nation! Anyway you spin it you can't unspin that fact! The whole blame for this mess rests with Bush and the Republican's!
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