Archived: Apr 14, 2008

> Editorial

Listen to the troops

“Winter soldier received no attention”

By Jeff Flashinski

“*We were told that we were fighting terrorists. The real terrorist was me, and the real terrorism is this Occupation.*”
– Mike Prysner

It strikes me as odd that so many Americans say they “support the troops,” yet so few listen to what the troops have to say. Veterans from Iraq gathered in Maryland this past March to testify at Winter Soldier, an event which received very little press coverage. The veterans’ testimonials during the event contradicted the image of the occupation as presented to the American public.

Matt Childers described what happened when his platoon once had detainee watch, “These detainees, there were three of them, were in our custody for about a week. Over this week, these guys were beaten relentlessly...The Marines would scream at them to get up and then they would trip them on their face.”

Jon Michael Turner served as an automatic machine gunner. He said, “We were all congratulated after we had our first kills...My company commander personally congratulated me, as he did everyone else in our company. This is the same individual who had stated that whoever gets their first kill by stabbing them to death will get a four-day pass when we return from Iraq.”

Many veterans at Winter Soldier felt that Iraqis were being dehumanized. Mike Totten said “Haji” was a commonly used term to describe all Iraqis and that it served “as a tool to degrade and dehumanize these people. It also permitted ourselves to separate us from the people of Iraq.”

He was angered by “the Americans behavior overseas, by our president's continuous rhetoric about Iraq being a ‘success,’” and “about this country's citizens in apathy to this occupation.”

Bryan Casler said that when he would say good morning to a staff sergeant, the typical response that he would receive was “Kill babies.” Casler continued, “While on convoys I saw Marines defecate into MRE bags and throw them at children on the side of the road.”

Michael Leduc said there was little concern for Iraqi civilians and that his platoon would sometimes get bored and would “try to more accurately adjust the sites on their rifles by shooting at the heads of people out in the street.”

Staff Sergeant Camillo Mejia served at a prisoner of war camp and was told that the detainees “are like animals, they are just like dogs. If you yell at them long enough, it doesn’t matter what language it is in, they are going to get the point.”

Hart Viges said once his unit was told “to fire on all taxicabs, because the enemy was using them for transportation.” He added, “In Iraq, any car can be a taxicab.”

After the order “the town pretty much lit up; all the units that were in there fired on numerous cars”. He also said that “we never went on a raid where we got the right house, much less the right person. Not once.”

Sometimes Iraqi civilians were killed for simply not obeying orders. Garett Reppenhagen described the killing of two Iraqi farmers by U.S. troops: “I asked the sergeant why [he fired] upon these men if he knew that they were farming in their field?” His sergeant responded, “Because they were out after curfew.”

These civilian killings were not random occurrences, according to veteran Phil Aliff. He said, “The key issues are…that soldiers are not committing these crimes and atrocities in Iraq individually; it’s actually a policy from the top.”

Scott Ewing described house raids in Tal Afar: “We knocked down doors, dumped drawers out, pushed furniture over, broke windows, and generally trashed the homes we went to. In the end, my platoon found absolutely no evidence of foreign fighters.” He ended, “It seems as though, in the end, the only war our country has really waged well is a propaganda war on its own people.”

Mike Prysner said, “We were told that we were fighting terrorists. The real terrorist was me, and the real terrorism is this occupation. Racism within the military has long been a tool to justify the destruction and occupation of another country. It has long been used to justify the killing, subjugation, and torture of another people.”

These are only a few samples of the important eyewitness accounts that were told and mostly ignored at Winter Soldier. I think the American media has little interest in listening to the troops they supposedly “support.” (For full testimonials go to ivaw.org)

> Comments

Nathan Johnson on Apr 14, 2008 at 07:51 AM:

Any way you look at it, this war is hurting the Iraqi people and the American working class.

The corporate news doesn't report even half of the truth, so it's important to read first hand accounts, such as veteran testimonies.

Johanan Raatz on Apr 14, 2008 at 09:34 AM:

"Any way you look at it, this war is hurting the Iraqi people and the American working class."

I know Bush&Co have been abusing this economically but the outcome of this has consequences to national interest that all Americans share. In addition to Iraq going into severe chaos a pullout would likely result in Basra being subsumed by Iran which would almost certainly result in the intentional devaluation of the petrodollar. Our dollar is having serious problems right now, and people are already having trouble with it. A further decline in the dollar would almost certainly hurt all Americans rich, middle-class and poor alike.

Jacob Flom on Apr 14, 2008 at 11:54 AM:

Jeff, great article. From what I saw at Winter Soldier, you really captured alot of the message. What can't be conveyed through text is the daily struggles of these men and women. The room was in tears much of the time, especially when Jon Turner apologized to the Iraqi people for the innocent people he murdered, and then hyperventilated and had to leave the podium for the on-site PTSD phsycologists. One veteran could hardly finish telling how he used a compass to locate gunfire, but his readings were skewed because they were taken to close to his weapon, and the Air Force bombed and obliterated a small town several times over.

Katie Jesse on Apr 14, 2008 at 12:36 PM:

Johanan, I think you're missing the point of this article. You're making statements about why withdrawl is a bad thing, but that's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about personal stories from the front line. We're talking about abuses to civilians and mistreatment of prisoners. But above all else, we're talking about the government's refusal to tell these stories. Attempting to paint in a more favorable light things that are beyond horrific all in the name of not upsetting the american public. It's shameful no matter how you feel about occupation. When we have press coverage that doesn't tell half the story, that's a problem.

Johanan Raatz on Apr 14, 2008 at 12:47 PM:

Very true I suppose. I just get a little frustrated when this thing comes up because stated or not it is almost always used to promote an immediate withdrawal, and when that happens people don't usually think about the consequences of doing so.

Johanan Raatz on Apr 14, 2008 at 12:50 PM:

"Bryan Casler said that when he would say good morning to a staff sergeant, the typical response that he would receive was “Kill babies.” Casler continued, “While on convoys I saw Marines defecate into MRE bags and throw them at children on the side of the road.”"

Jeff, I would agree with you here. That kind of behavior should not be tolerated no matter what side of the war we are on.

JF on Apr 14, 2008 at 06:52 PM:

J. Raatz, there is no evidence to support that an immediate withdraw would increase violence or hurt the Iraqis. The Iraqi people want us to leave immediately and their opinion's should be considered first if we are truly trying to help that country. It is in America's real interest to obey international law. Nate, you should check out Prysner's testimonial when you get the chance. Jacob, thanks for the nice words, and I did listen to that story about blowing up the village. One testimonial that I didn't listen to early enough, I wish I could've included:

Veteran Andrew Duffy: “Me[sic] and [another medic] were called to the in-processing center where they had a man who was semi-unconscious in the back of a ‘5 ton’, which is a very big truck. And he was restrained with his hands cuffed behind his back and his feet cuffed and he was also blindfolded. The sergeant asked me if I felt as though he could walk the approximate 15 feet to the doorway. And I revived him and said that he could probably walk with assistance to the doorway. [The sergeant] then proceeded to pick the blindfolded man up by the flexicuffs, throw him off the back of the Humvee, face down, chest down, in the gravel, and say “You can’t spell ‘abuse’ without ‘Abu’.”

Johanan Raatz on Apr 15, 2008 at 10:08 AM:

JF;

"J. Raatz, there is no evidence to support that an immediate withdraw would increase violence or hurt the Iraqis. The Iraqi people want us to leave immediately and their opinion's should be considered first if we are truly trying to help that country."

Well I seriously hope you know what you're doing.

"It is in America's real interest to obey international law."

That depends on what the international law is predicated on. I take serious issue with the fact that the UN is closer to a pure democracy than a republic. The fact that it treats free western societies on par with communist dictatorships, Islamist states and other human rights abusers are grounds for questioning it's legitimacy. Though he could chosen a better situation for doing so I am pleased that Bush made it clear that American national interests are not subserviant to an international body that operates like this.

It looks mighty screwed up that the UN hasn't taken action against the Sudan or Baathist Iraq when it had the chance but then goes on to rip on the US for invading Baathist Iraq or on Israel for defending itself.

Jacob Flom on Apr 15, 2008 at 10:11 AM:

"Well I seriously hope you know what you're doing." This is what the Iraqi people said to us when we invaded their country. It is clear now that our leaders DO NOT know what they're doing.

JF on Apr 15, 2008 at 03:44 PM:

The UN is dominated by the US which has led, by far, in vetoes since WW2. It doesn't function because the US doesn't allow it to. Baathist Iraq was a US ally, as are most of the worst human rights abusers around the world.

Johanan on Apr 15, 2008 at 04:24 PM:

"The UN is dominated by the US which has led, by far, in vetoes since WW2."

Well it wasn't in the runup to the war. Now we may debate over the justification of the war but what if this had been in some other situation.

"It doesn't function because the US doesn't allow it to."

Well it's human rights commission is stacked with human rights' abusers, all of which we happen to define as rogue states. So this doesn't explain how they got on the human rights commission nor does it explain why the international court tried to penalize Israel for defending itself.

"Baathist Iraq was a US ally,"

Which is why we overthrew them. ? They were an ally a very very long time ago before the Kurds got gassed. After the Gulf War they were an enemy. It doesn't help that you are forgetting the history here. They were an enemy for ever since I can remember.

"as are most of the worst human rights abusers around the world."

We are not allies with Iran, Cuba, Sudan or North Korea. During the Cold War we were not allies with the Soviet Union the PRC or Vietnam. We do support some authoritarian regimes like Musharraf's, but they are by far less dangerous than the alternatives. So this this really doesn't hold water.

JF on Apr 16, 2008 at 06:13 PM:

The Baathist coup in Iraq in 1963 was funded and sponsored by the US. Hussein was trained by the US in Egypt. The US stepped up aid to Saddam when he was gassing the Kurds in 1988. Those were German and American chemical weapons he was using as well. US allied states with atrocious human rights records: China, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Pakistan, Congo, Uganda, Rwanda, Columbia, Uzbekistan, Somalia, Nigeria, Indonesia, etc.

Johanan Raatz on Apr 16, 2008 at 06:45 PM:

"The Baathist coup in Iraq in 1963 was funded and sponsored by the US."

Now government has perfect foresight into all of the consequences of policies they enact. We put the Baathists in in 1963 we couldn't have known they would attack the Kurds 25 years later.

"Hussein was trained by the US in Egypt. The US stepped up aid to Saddam when he was gassing the Kurds in 1988. Those were German and American chemical weapons he was using as well. "

Yes we gave him chemical weapons to fight the Iranian regime. He had some left over afterwards but we certainly didn't tell him to use them on his own people. Shortly thereafter during the Gulf War Baathist Iraq became an enemy.

"US allied states with atrocious human rights records: China, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Pakistan, Congo, Uganda, Rwanda, Columbia, Uzbekistan, Somalia, Nigeria, Indonesia, etc."

I agree with you that China is a problem here. As for Israel I know most of the criticisms of it are simply propaganda as I have friends who have lived over there. Israel's self-defence can not be called a "human rights abuse." Saudi Arabia we have no choice over. The Saudi regime is very delicate and seeing whereas both Islamic holy cities are located in Saudi Arabia we have to be very careful how we deal with them. We don't have many options in that regard. Rwanda we stopped the genocide in, albeit far to late but we didn't back their human rights abuses. Pakistan under Musharraf is actually better, and some human rights that would not otherwise be considered are being enforced there. For example without Musharraf rape victims would be forced into jail sentences. It is good he is there.

You don't seem to include any of the context in these examples, and seem to forget that we are often forced to support the bad guy to avoid the worse guy.

The other trouble I have with this is that when people use examples like this they hardly ever do so in a constructive fashion. The underlying tone is deeply anti-patriotic not just unpatriotic. Now I'm not accusing you of being unpatriotic but we have to be careful to make sure our criticisms are constructive ones. I have this same problem with many opponents of the Iraq war. Many opponents of the war attack the government over it but don't often offer constructive suggestions of how we should fix the situation.