www.justiceblind.com
Iraq Vets' Shocking Admissions
Matthew Robinson, PhD
An alarming series of interviews of fifty Iraq combat veterans
published in The Nation
provides a stunning picture of what our troops have experienced there,
as well as what they become when faced with the constant stress of
urban war against a poorly defined enemy among a young, civilian
population. The interviews helped me better understand why our good
young men and women have committed such atrocities in Iraq as the
massacre of innocent civilians in Haditha, the rape of a youg girl in
Mahmudiya, and the torturous treatment of prisoners in Abu Ghraib and
other facilities.
While supporters of the war, including our own president, say that our
troops are "defending our freedom," "spreading liberty" and the like,
the truth is that our troops are doing much worse. The soldiers and
marines interviewed admitted to humiliating entire families during
searches based on nothing more than heresay evidence; scaring residents
during neighborhood searches and routine patrols; rounding up lots of
innocent people for interrogation based on no evidence; beating up men,
their wives and children; illegally hooding suspects; denying suspects
due process; denying injured medical treatment; killing civilians by
running them over with large trucks; being trigger happy and opening
fire against civilian populations; planting guns on unarmed people they
killed; desecrating dead bodies; failing to report shootings; and even
killing pets of civilians for no reason! Further, the common racist
phraseology from Vietnam ("gooks") is being used in Iraq against the
"hajis" and "sand niggers."
Perhaps it is not surprising then, that of the approximately 600,000
civilians killed by violence since our March 2003 invasion, coalition
forces killed more than 185,000 of them!
Of course, it is reasonable to assert that the fifty troops interviewed
for the article do not speak for the more than 150,000 troops currently
in Iraq . However, it is also reasonable to assume that they do. A
Pentagon survey, conducted by the Office of the Surgeon General of the
US Army Medical Command, found that less than half of soldiers (47%)
and marines (38%) thought that noncombatants should be treated with
dignity and respect. Further, just only 55% of soldiers and 40% of
marines said they would report a unit member who had killed or injured
"an innocent noncombatant."
To me, the article is further proof that our troops should come home,
out of the horrible environmental conditions that create the abuses
outlined above.