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Today's
Stories
December
13, 2004
Douglas
Lummis
The Pentagon's Neurosis: Fallujah
Gulag
December
11 / 12, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
Running an Empire on the Cheap
Ron
Jacobs
The Drugs of War: Getting High in the Green Zone?
Saul
Landau
Listening and Talking to God About
Invading Other Countries
Gary
Leupp
Bush's Capital
Sharon
Smith
The Horrible Toll on US Troops
Dave
Lindorff
Deja Vu All Over Again: 5,000 Desertions and Counting
Uri
Avnery
The Boss Has Gone Crazy
Jude
Wanniski
The Neo-Con Smear on Kofi Annan: What Food-for-Oil Scandal?
Heather
Gray
How the South Became Republican: an Interview with John Egerton
Patrick
Cockburn / Ken Sengupta
Fallujah: the Homecoming and the Homeless
John
Pilger
Return to Kosovo: Calling the Humanitarian Bombers to Account
Joshua
Frank
All the Rage: Mr. Solomon, Say You're Sorry
Ben
Tripp
O Canada!: the Truth About the Election of 2004
John
Stanton
God Speaks!
Laura
Nathan
Porn Stars are People, Too: a Talk with Christi Lake
Poets'
Basement
Capaccio, Davies, Louise, Ford and Albert
Website
of the Day
Fallujah Photos: Killed in Their Beds
December
10, 2004
Ralph
Nader
President Bush, Stop Destroying the
Mosques of Iraq
Greg
Moses
Whitewashing Voter Fraud
Nicole
Colson
Rebellion in the Ranks: Grunts Are Resisting Stop-Loss Orders
Frederick
B. Hudson
"They Still Got Those Dogs": A New Book Probes Old
Civil Rights Lessons
Patrick
Cockburn
Iraq's Insurgents Oppose the Occupation, Not the Elections
Kathy
Kelly
From Haiti to Iraq: Burying Water
December
9, 2004
Greg
Moses
Ask Not Who Bankrolled Fallujah
Joshua
Frank
Cobb and the Ohio Recount: Vote Fraud as Fundraiser!
Ralph
Nader
An Open Letter to Bush: It's Time to
Disclose the Real Casualty Figures
Lee
Sustar
Bhopal: the Making of a Disaster
Tom
Barry
Restrictionist Resurgence
Mickey
Z.
Sander Hicks and the 9/11 Truth Movement
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush in the Bubble
Mark
Donham
Why are House Democrats Trying to
Deny Cynthia McKinney Seniority?
Gary
Corseri
On the Anniversary of John Lennon's Death, 2012
Paul
de Rooij
The Voices of Sharon's Little Helpers
December
8, 2004
Ralph
Nader
Will the Real Michael Moore Ever Re-Emerge?
Ann
Harrison
The Ohio Recount: Reluctant Officials
and Few Rules
Paul
Craig Roberts
War Crime
Dave
Lindorff
They've Got a Secret: Inside the $40 Billion Black Budget for
Spying
Patrick
Cockburn / Andrew Buncombe
CIA Warning on Iraq: Fallujah Did Not Break the Back of the Insurgency
Col.
Dan Smith
Rules of Engagement in Iraq
Emily
Alves / Michael Johnson
Paradise Lost: Corruption and Clientelism in Costa Rica
Richard
Oxman
The Dylan Bob Wouldn't Mention: Up With Dylan Thomas
Ron
Jacobs
In Fallujah, Freedom Isn't Free
December
7, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn
Running Battles in Baghdad
Behrooz
Ghamari
Lost Muslim Voices of Dissent
Dave
Lindorff
American Fantasies: Psst! Hey Buddy,
Did You Hear How Well the War's Going?
Joshua
Frank
Dean at the DNC?
Richard
Oxman
Down with Dylan: the Insufferable Interview
Ray
McGovern
All Mosquitoes, No Swamp
John
Chuckman
The Invasion of Hallifax: The Imperial Wizard Visits Canada
James
Petras
Latin America: the Empire Changes Gears
Website
of the Day
ToxMap: Who's Poisoning You
December
6, 2004
Paul
Craig Roberts
Paranoia and Pre-emption: Is the
Bush Administration Certifiable?
December
4 / 6, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
Politicize the CIA? You've Got to
be Kidding
Joe
Bageant
Dining with the Rhinos
Alan
Maass
Reporting from the Ground in Iraq: an Interview with Patrick
Cockburn
Brian
Cloughley
Democracy, Bush-style, in the Gulf
Laura
Carlsen
Latin America Shifts Left
Lenni
Brenner
Jefferson, Madison, Bush and Religion
Anna
Ioakimedes
Brazil's Haitian Mission: Doing God's Work or Washington's?
Uri
Avnery
Widow of Opportunity?
Fred
Gardner
Supreme Court Hears Medical Pot Case
Dave
Zirin
Steroids to Heaven
Jackie
Corr
Mining Camp Blues: the Red State Variation
Don
Fitz
Will Greens Abandon IRV?
Lucy
Herschel
"Art can be a Weapon of the Oppressed": an Interview
with Artist Anthony Papa
Richard
Oxman
No Angels in America: Bashing the Gay Play
Ron
Jacobs
Holiday Greeting Card
Poets'
Basement
Collins, Albert, LaMorticella
December
3, 2004
Dave
Lindorff
Lie Then Escalate
Ben
Tripp
Fun With Boycotts: How to Shop in a
Time of Crisis
Joe
Allen
Murder in El Salvador: the Assassination of Teamster Organizer
Gilberto Soto
Matthew
B. Riley
Human Rights Court Fails Lori Berenson
Meir
Shalev
In the End, It is the Violin that Wins
Bob
Wing
The White Elephant in the Room: Race and Election 2004
Christopher
Brauchli
When McCain Bit His Tongue
Sasan
Fayazmanesh
The EU, the US, Israel and Iran
December
2, 2004
Tito
Tricot
No Justice in Chile: I'm a Torture
Survivor in a Country Where Torturers Still Run Free
Behzad
Yaghmaian
The Murder of Theo Van Gogh and Muslim Migration
Dr.
Susan Block
Lana and Me: Meetings with Remarkable Apes
Frank
/ Chowkwanyun
Liberalism and Its Bounds
Lee
Sustar
Standoff in Ukraine: the Bad v. the Corrupt
Patrick
Cockburn
Another Grim Record in Iraq
Mark
Engler
Seattle at Five
Michael
Donnelly
Something Stinks in South Bend: the Firing of Tyrone Willingham
Nate
Collins
The Bay Area Mall on an Ohlone Burial Grounds
Saul
Landau
The Assassination of Danilo Anderson
December
1, 2004
Phillip
Cryan
Associated with Whom? Rightist Bias
in Wire Coverage of Colombia
Dave
Zirin
What's the Matter with "Leon"?:
Budweiser's Racist Commercial
Ghali
Hassan
Iraq's Health Care Under the Occupation:
200 Children Die Every Day
Donna
J. Volatile
Beware Western Nations Threatening "Democracy"
Patrick
Cockburn
How Saddam Tried to Arm the Insurgency
Nick
Meo
Chemical War Over Afghanistan
Mike
Ferner
The Battle of Toledo
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
Shame and Determination on Global AIDS Day: 40 Million and Rising
Kathy
Kelly
Looking the Other Way: the Real Crimes
of the UN in Iraq
November
30, 2004
Jennifer
Van Bergen
The Veil of Secrecy
Toni
Nelson Herrera
Meeting Kurtz: When Art is a Crime
Paul
Craig Roberts
The Bush Delusions: Successful at Incompetence
Patrick
Cockburn
The Insurgency Strikes Back: There Are No Safe Havens in Iraq
Chuck
Munson
WTO Protests Five Years Later: Seattle Weekly Trashes Anti-Globalization
Movement
Adam
Williams
Citizenship Sold: Back to Business in Indiana
Gregory
Elich
A Dangerous Turn in the US Plans for
North Korea
Website
of the Day
Read Lynne Cheney's Lesbian Novel Online!
November
29, 2004
Dave
Lindorff
Blowback in Ukraine: The Hand of
the CIA?
Omar
Barghouti
"The Pianist" of Palestine:
Roadblock Concerto at Gunpoint
Mike
Whitney
The US Media and Fallujah: How to
Market a Siege
Uri
Avnery
The Abu Mazen Style: "Give Me
Some Credit!"
Matt
Vidal
Globalization and Economic Inequality: a Look at the Numbers
Patrick
Cockburn
An Interview with Iraq's Foreign
Minister
Alan
Farago
Sex Change and Salvation: God, Girly Men and Endocrine Disrupters
Justin
Huggler
Bhopal 20 Years Later
Antony
Loewenstein
How Australia Reported Arafat's Death and Legacy
Gary
Leupp
Ukraine: Poll Results Aren't the Real
Issue
Website
of the Day
Mosul: Images from a Kill Zone
November
27 / 28, 2004
Peter
Linebaugh
Torture & Neo-Liberalism with
Sycorax in Iraq
Alexander
Cockburn
What Happened to O'Reilly's Loofa?
Fred
Gardner
Ashcroft v. Raich: Medical Marijuana and the Supreme Court
Kathy
Kelly
What We Can Control
Diane
Christian
The Other Cheek: "Empire Doesn't Analyze, It Acts"
Gary
Leupp
One More Neocon Target: South (Yes, South) Korea
Lenni
Brenner
Equality and Rights of Return: Jefferson Instructs the New York
Times
Ron
Jacobs
Death Squads and Iraq's Elections: the Mysterious Murders of
the AMS Clerics
Joshua
Frank
An Interview with Kevin Zeese on Nader, Kerry and the ABB Crowd
Toni
Solo
The Murder of Danilo Anderson
Saul
Landau
Fallujah, the 21st Century Guernica
JoAnn
Wypijewski
Matthew Shepard Case 6 Years Later: Why Hate Crimes Laws are
No Cure for Homophobia
Justin
Taylor
Empire's Lawless Opportunities
Amos
Harel
The Case of Captain R.
Walter
A. Davis
Tabloid Justice
Stephen
Hendricks
God's Kind of Men
Poets'
Basement
Albert, LaMorticella and Ford
November
26, 2004
Peter
Feng
Gavin Newsom: Man or Machine?
Greg
Moses
It's the White Vote, Stupid
Liaquat
Ali Khan
The Devil's Work: Bush's Minority Appointments
Michael
Mandel / Gail Davidson
Why Bush Should Be Banned from Canada: a Memo to the Ministry
of Immigration
Dave
Lindorff
Nation of Sheep, Turkey of an Election: Urkrainians Show the
Way
Gary
Corseri
When Black Friday Comes...
Paul
Craig Roberts
Whatever Happened to Conservatives?
Website
of the Day
Iraq Pipeline Watch
November
25, 2004
Willliam
Loren Katz
Giving Thanks to Whom?: "Thanks
to God We Sent 600 Heathen Souls to Hell Today"
Mitchel
Cohen
Why I Hate Thanksgiving
Mike
Ferner
An Uncommon Mom
November
24, 2004
Gila
Svirsky
License to Kill: the Example of Violence
is Set by the State
Winslow
T. Wheeler
The
Other Mess in Congress
Christopher
Brauchli
The Company He Keeps: the Syndicate of Tom Delay
Dave
Lindorff
Double Standards on Exit Polls: Hypocrisy Sans Irony
Ron
Jacobs
The Occupation of Iraq is the Root of t he Problem
Ken
Sengupta
Witnesses: War Crimes in Fallujah
Diana
Barahona
The Final Holocaust or Why I Voted for Ralph Nader
John
L. Hess
Safire the Shameless
Jason
Leopold
Did Harvard Hire (Another) War Criminal?
Jeffrey
St. Clair
The Mark of McCain: the Senator Most Likely to Start a Nuclear
War
Map
of the Day
Now and Then: 2004 v. 1860
November
23, 2004
Forrest
Hylton
Bush and Uribe at the Beach
November
22, 2004
Dave
Zirin
Fight Night in the NBA: Selective Outrage
in Detroit
Paul
Craig Roberts
On to Iran: We Won't Get Fooled Again?
Michael
Mandel / Gail Davidson
Why Bush Should be Banned from Canada
Kathie
Helmkamp
Our Son: a Marine Who Won't Kill
Ken
Sengupta
The Triangle of Death: "This is Now the Most Dangerous Place
in Iraq"
Mike
Whitney
Greenspan's Hammer
Roger
Burbach
Why They Hate Bush in Chile
Website
of the Day
Fed Up with Government Lies and Corporate Spin?
November
20 / 21, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
The Poisoned Chalice
Todd
May
Religion, the Election and the Politics of Fear
Abbas
Ahmed Ibrahim
The Horrors of Fallujah: a First-Hand Account
Kevin
Zeese
Mishandling Nader
Landau
/ Hassen
After Arafat
Tom
Barry
The Vulcans Consolidate Power: The Rise of Stephen Hadley
Fred
Gardner
Pot Shots: Ask Dr. Todd
Justin
E.H. Smith
Triumph of the Will: the Sequel
Carl
Estabrook
Where We Are Now
Gary
Leupp
Imperial History-Making vs. Reality-Based Thought: a Dialogue
Dave
Lindorff
Apocalypse Soon
Jenna
Michelle Liut
Plans Colombia and Patriota: Wanton Wastes of Money, Manpower
and Lives
Mickey
Z.
The Granma Moses of Radical Writing: an Interview with William
Blum
Greg
Moses
The Same Old Struggle Against Imperial America
Sharon
Smith
Abortion Rights and the Election: What Now?
Ron
Jacobs
Sandwiches and Car Bombs
Ben
Tripp
Raising d'Etre: Finding Money in Hollywood These Days
Richard
Oxman
Basketbrawl Two Pointer: Iraq Rules!
Gilad
Atzmon
Politics and Jazz
Poets'
Basement
LaMorticella, Albert, Ford, & Anon.
Website
of the Day
Voice of the Forest
Hot Stories
Alexander Cockburn
Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
Subcomandante
Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click
Here for More Stories.
|
December 13, 2004
Abused Iraqis, Abused Americans
The
War is the War Crime
By
M. JUNAID ALAM
A Special Investigation by CorpWatch
This was a war to transcend all wars
a war fought not for crass interests or crude motives,
but for freedom and democracy. Or so we were told. Once this
grand narrative was felled by reality, however, the story of
its basic actors was twisted to meet new requirements: since
it could not possibly be that the war aims were themselves corrupt,
it must be the Iraqis the supposed recipients of liberation,
and the American soldiers the deliverers of that liberation
who were flawed. This twist was to serve as punishment
for those Iraqis who interpreted "freedom" to mean
not only freedom from Saddam but freedom from US control, and
as a smear job against those US soldiers who interpreted "defending
the country" to mean something other than killing innocents
and creating more hatred for America.
And so a new narrative was
fleshed out by the administration and its sycophants: Iraqis
are not so good after all; many of them are terrorists, dead-enders,
and crazed murderers who need to be brought to heel or wiped
out. Moreover, not all those Americans who signed up to defend
their country are good, either: those who report atrocities,
fight against illegal extension of their service, and reject
a war based on lies are deemed cowards, criminals, and traitors.
As the struggle in Iraq intensifies,
its bitter and revealing ironies rise like angry waves, pummeling
the eroding promontory of the war's many myths - foremost among
them its very viability. Iraqis resisting occupation, soldiers
exposing the brutalities that are fueling anti-occupation sentiment,
and other Americans reluctantly being pressed into service to
strengthen that occupation, are, in uneven, overlapping and contradictory
ways, all victims of this war.
Consider the case of the case
of Sergeant Frank Ford, a counterintelligence agent in the National
Guard's 223rd Military Intelligence division with 30 years of
military service. He was witness to five incidents of torture
and abuse of Iraqis in Samarra before he decided he could no
longer stand by and do nothing. US Army counterintelligence agent
David Debatto, who spoke with Ford, related his story thusly:
"He described multiple
incidents of what he called 'war crimes' and 'torture' of Iraqi
detainees in age from about 15 to 35. According to Ford, his
teammates, three counterintelligence agents like himself
one of them a woman systematically and repeatedly abused
several Iraqi male detainees over a two to three week time period.
Ford describes incidents of asphyxiation, mock executions, arms
being pulled out of sockets, and lit cigarettes forced into detainee's
ears while they were blindfolded and bound."
Ford, his anger apparent, also
noted, "I guess one of the things that pisses me off most
is the arroganceSome of the medics, too. Saying things like 'So
what, he's just another haji,' like they were scum or some kind
of animal, really just pisses me off."
So what happened when Ford
brought the brutalities to the attention of his superior officer
in June 2003? His immediate superior was himself involved in
the abuse, and the one above him, when told of the allegations
of war crimes by Ford, simply said chillingly, "Nope, that
never happened. You're delusional, you imagined the whole thing.
And you've got 30 seconds to withdraw your complaint. If you
do it, it will be as if this conversation never took place."
What happened next topped even this surreal Orwellian encounter:
"[Ford was ordered] to report immediately to Captain Angela
Madera, an Army psychiatrist, at the base mental-health facility
for a 'combat stress evaluation.'" When Madera evaluated
Ford as having no mental health issues, the superior officer,
according to another witness, was "just livid," and
berated and intimidated Madera into altering the report.
Ultimately, Ford was strapped
down to a gurney and literally shipped out of Iraq illegally
on the basis of non-existent mental problems - all because he
had the courage to speak out against abuses he personally witnessed.
His case is not unique: a military doctor charged with examining
Ford in Germany (and who cleared him of any illness) noted "that
he had treated 'three of four' other US soldiers from Iraq that
were also sent to Landstuhl for psychological evaluationsafter
they reported incidents" Another soldier who reported abuse,
Julian Goodrum was "allegedly locked in a psychiatric ward
as punishment for filing a complaint over the death of a soldier
under his command;" he had also appeared before Congress
to air grievances about the poor quality of medical care Reserve
soldiers received. In another known case, Sergeant Samuel Provance
of the 205th Military Intelligence Brigade lost his security
clearance and was shipped off to Germany after reporting abuses
at Abu Ghraib. (1)
That Iraqis and other Arabs
are being illegally abused, tortured, and killed on a systematic
basis and that the top levels of command are assiduously
covering it up - is not in any doubt. A leaked letter from July
2004 sent by a senior Justice Department official to the Army's
leading criminal investigator reveals that FBI agents witnessed
acts of torture and abuse committed against detainees at Guantanamo
Bay in 2002, and reported them to the Pentagon which proceeded
to do nothing. "Harrington [the FBI counterterrorism expert
who wrote the letter] said FBI officials complained about the
pattern of abusive techniques to top Defense Department attorneys
in January 2003, and it appeared that nothing was done."
One of the incidents witnessed
by an FBI agent was as follows: "Sergeant Lacey [a female]
whispered in the ear of a handcuffed and shackled detainee, caressed
him and applied lotion to his arms" This occurred during
Ramadan when sexual activity is forbidden for Muslims.
But this was not about sex: "Later, the detainee appeared
to grimace in pain, and the FBI agent asked a Marine who was
present why. The Marine said [Lacey] had grabbed the detainee's
thumbs and bent them backward and also indicated that she also
grabbed his genitals."
The Marine also "implied
that her treatment of that detainee was less harsh than her treatment
of others by indicating that he had seen her treatment of other
detainees result in detainees curling into a fetal position on
the floor and crying in pain." (2) It does not take much
imagination to understand what was happening: Arab prisoners
at Guantamo were having their testicles crushed by female military
personnel.
Another classified report written
around the same time recently (partially) released indicates
similar horrors were imported into Iraq: "one of Defense
Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's closest advisers learned of allegations
that a clandestine military task force in Iraq was beating detainees,
ordering Defense Intelligence Agency debriefers out of the room
during questioning, confiscating evidence of the abuse and intimidating
the debriefers when they complained." The director of the
DIA is the highest official in the administration known to complain
of abuse, though the Bush administration "fought vigorously
to keep the new documents from public view." The two-page
memo explains that a group named "Task Force 121" (now
Task Force 6-26) hid "ghost detainees" in secret facilities
and beat them up, including, as DIA agents noted, "punch[ing]
a prisoner in the face to the point the individual needed medical
attention," and leaving burn and bruise marks all over detainees.
(3)
Outside America's new gulags,
Iraqis still face the wrath of Bush's freedom campaign. According
to military prosecutors and several soldiers, in an August 28
raid in Sadr City, two "American soldiers shot to death
two unarmed Iraqi men in their homes, then tried to cover up
their crimes by claiming that the Iraqis had reached for guns."
Soldiers from the 41st Infantry Regiment, 1st Battallion who
participated in the raid in which the civilian Iraqis were killed
"said they immediately suspected that their two colleagues
had murdered the Iraqi." This followed another killing.
"The second killing occurred
less than 30 minuters earlier, soldiers testified, when troops
discovered an AK-47 rifle during a search of another house down
the street.Williams ordered that the Iraqi man, who had been
handcuffed and was being held on his knees in front of the house,
be brought inside
William cut off the plastic handcuffs, laid the rifle near the
Iraqi and said aloud to other soldiers in the room, 'I feel my
life has been threatened.'
Williams then shot the man twice"
One of the testifying soldiers,
Private first class Gary Romriell, who had to switch units after
complaining about the murders said, "It was a real moral
dilemma. On the one hand, my friends and associates were involved
in the crimes. On the other hand, it was wrong." Romriell
rejected the perverse right-wing notion that the any act is moral
so long as "our side" commits it. He rejected the logic
of "my country, right or wrong" as a citizen
serving his country, he did what was right, and called out those
citizens of his country who were wrong. (4)
Other soldiers have gone further.
Former US Marine Sergeant Jimmy Massey "said his unit killed
more than 30 innocent Iraqi civilians" in testimony before
a Canadian tribunal, which is deciding whether it will allow
deserting paratrooper Jeremy Hinzman, formerly of the 82nd Airborne,
to seek asylum in that country and therefore avoid prosecution
in the US. In support of Hinzman, Massey told the court, "I
do know that we killed innocent civilians," adding, "I
was never clear on who was the enemy and who was not. When you
don't know who the enemy is, what are you doing there?"
(5) Hinzman himself has said he began having doubts about the
military when "I was walking to chow hall with my unit,
and we were yelling, 'Train to kill, kill we will,' over and
over again. I kind of snuck a peek around me and saw all my colleagues
getting the red in the face and hoarse yelling and at that
point a light went off in my head and said, 'You know, I made
the wrong career decision.'" (6)
Hinzman is one of over 5,500
servicemen who have deserted the armed forces since the war in
Iraq began. Many of these soldiers left the military not because
they are cowards, but because they discovered that war was based
on lies. Private first class Dan Felushko, 24, for instance,
remarked, "I didn't want, you know, 'Died deluded in Iraq'
over my gravestone," noting that he along with every
intelligence community around the world - saw no connection between
September 11th and Hussein. One youngster from Texas who signed
up for the Army two months before the war started said that at
first, "I was supportive. I didn't think to question."
But then, he did:
"I found out, basically,
that they found no weapons of mass destructionand the claim that
they made about ties to al Qaeda was coming up short, to say
the least. It made me angry, because I felt our lives were being
thrown away as soldiersmy image of my country always being the
good guy, and always fighting for just causes, has been shattered"
(7)
Only a handful of the deserters
have actually fled to Canada. But those who desert during wartime
and remain within the US military's reach are usually thrown
in jail for years. The full penalty under the law is execution.
When the war machine is not
forcing Americans into morally compromising situations, transforming
some into killers; when it is not actively intimidating and attacking
those brave enough to speak out against atrocities; when it is
not trying to hunt down and jail those who reject an illegal
war, it still ensnares, grinds up, and spits out perfectly "patriotic"
military personnel and even Americans who aren't supposed
to be part of the military anymore.
Official casualty statistics show that more than 1,230 American
soldiers have died and more than 9,300 have been wounded in action.
But this is misleading. A Pentagon letter recently disclosed
that more than 15,000 troops with "non-battle" injuries
and diseases have been evacuated from Iraq. These include injuries
arising from "accidents," as well as emotional and
psychological trauma. According to a CBS report, only
20% of these 15,000 troops return to their units. (8)
Also misleading are the official
non-fatality casualties: over half of them are serious enough
to prevent a return to the war theater. Because more troops are
being spared death from improved body and battle armor, more
of those who survive suffer from severely crippling injuries.
US troops injured in Iraq "have required limb amputations
at twice the rate of past wars, and as many as 20 percent have
suffered head and neck injuries that may require a lifetime of
care." A majority of casualties come not from bullet fire
but IEDs, which retired US Army Surgeon G. Holt explained, are
particularly vicious because, "The angle of the force of
these IEDs is right for the neck and face." (9)
What becomes of those military
veterans who undergo amputation? The case of Army specialist
Robert Loria is instructive. His arm ripped off by an IED while
in Baqubah, Loria spent several months recuperating at Walter
Reed Army Medical Center in Washington D.C., before being sent
back to his base in Fort Hood, Texas. There, he was expecting
to leave the Army with $4,486 in pay. But instead he received
something else: an Army bill totaling $6,255.50 for medical care,
an "erroneous" previous payment, and items in his possession
that were blown up in the attack. Now he is $1,768.81 in debt
and doesn't even have enough money to return home. His wife was
outraged: "They want us to sacrifice moreHis being blown
up was supposed to be the worst thing, but it wasn't. That the
military doesn't care was the worst." (10)
While the Army is busy booting
out some of its discarded material, it is equally busy trying
to recycle others. It has called up 5,000 Americans from the
Ready Reserve for two years of service, who "generally don't
train or get paid or belong to units, butcan be called up in
case of war or national emergency." The vast majority of
them never dreamed they would be called up for duty: they served
years ago and are tied to the military through an obscure clause
relegated to the "remark section" of their contracts
- and represented only in the form a six-digit reference to the
actual clause itself that requires them to resign their
commissions to fully exit the service.
Therefore people like Carey Trevino, a 31 year-old woman with
three kids, including a baby boy, and Margaret Murray, a 4 foot
8 inch 55 year-old woman, and Rick Howell, a 47 year-old who
is disabled at the knee from an injury suffered during his military
career, are all being thrown onto the front lines. Howell, who
said he would serve if he was restricted to carrying out duties
in the United States and was refused that request, now says,
"They're going to have to come and get me. I mean literallyThey'll
have to drag me away and make me go." (11)
The military's resort to desperate
and draconian measures should come as no surprise. Its forces
in Iraq are overstretched, overextended, and unable to cope with
battlefield requirements, a fact most military experts freely
admit. A full 43% of the 138,000 troops deployed in Iraq
soon to be boosted to 150,000 are part-timers. Many are
trapped there under "stop-loss" orders extending their
stay; one of the eight soldiers who recently sued the military
for this tactic lost his court battle to prevent the Army from
turning his one-year contract into a two-year (at least) ordeal.
Still, soldiers are resisting lucrative bonuses designed to entice
them into staying in the service. In fact, a recent army survey
revealed that half the existing force was not planning to re-enlist
at all. (12) No serious person can doubt, therefore, that a continuation
of the war at this level will require full-blown military conscription.
This war is a multi-layered disaster for an ever-expanding swath
of Iraqis and Americans. The fundamental contradiction of war
is that it can be based on lies, but it cannot be fought by liars.
If people were willing to fight for lies, then they would not
have to be lied to in the first place. Those American soldiers
in the battlefield, like all Americans at home, were subjected
to an intense propaganda barrage about the motives, aims, and
goals of the war. They were deceived. But today, those soldiers
are facing a barrage of an altogether different sort: that of
an Iraqi insurgency whose very existence, success, and growth
explodes all the official war claims.
The government believes that
it can lie without consequence because, as one administration
minion put it, such matters only concern "the reality-based
community." It must be conceded that is true. But it must
also be conceded that those soldiers witnessing their friends
and comrades dying and suffering around them, those troops aware
of the horrific atrocities taking place, those families seeing
their loved ones sent off without warning and return home without
limbs, are leading members of "the reality-based
community." It is the duty of American anti-war activists
to reach out to these people as we have already begun to
do and end the war that is destroying America's soul.
M. Junaid Alam is co-editor of the radical youth
journal Left Hook (http://www.lefthook.org);
he can be reached at alam@lefthook.org
Notes
1. "Whitewashing
torture?" David DeBatto, Salon.com, December 8, 2004.
2. "FBI witnessed Guantanamo
'abuse'." The Associated Press, December 7, 2004.
3. "Report to Defense
Alleged Abuse By Prison Interrogation Teams." Barton Gellman
and R. Jeffrey Smith, Washington Post. December 8, 2004.
4. "U.S. Military Prosecutors
Allege Murder, Cover-Up." By Edmund Sanders, LA Times,
December 6, 2004.
5. "U.S. Marine claims
unit killed Iraqi civilians." ABC News, December
8, 2004.
6. "Deserters: We Won't
Go To Iraq." CBS News, December 8, 2004.
7. See note 6.
8. "Press Routinely Undercounts
U.S. Casualties in Iraq." E &P Staff, November
25, 2004.
9. "Amputation rate for
US troops twice that of past wars." By Raja Mishra, Boston
Globe, December 9, 2004.
10. "He lost an arm in
Iraq; the Army wants money." By Dianna Cahn, Times Herald-Record,
December 10, 2004.
11. "Old Soldiers Back
on Duty." CBS News. December 5, 2004.
12. "U.S. Army Plagued
by Desertion and Plunging Morale." By Elaine Monaghan, The
Times U.K., December 10, 2004.
Weekend Edition
Features for November
27 / 28, 2004
Peter
Linebaugh
Torture & Neo-Liberalism with
Sycorax in Iraq
Alexander
Cockburn
What Happened to O'Reilly's Loofa?
Fred
Gardner
Ashcroft v. Raich: Medical Marijuana and the Supreme Court
Kathy
Kelly
What We Can Control
Diane
Christian
The Other Cheek: "Empire Doesn't Analyze, It Acts"
Gary
Leupp
One More Neocon Target: South (Yes, South) Korea
Lenni
Brenner
Equality and Rights of Return: Jefferson Instructs the New York
Times
Ron
Jacobs
Death Squads and Iraq's Elections: the Mysterious Murders of
the AMS Clerics
Joshua
Frank
An Interview with Kevin Zeese on Nader, Kerry and the ABB Crowd
Toni
Solo
The Murder of Danilo Anderson
Saul
Landau
Fallujah, the 21st Century Guernica
JoAnn
Wypijewski
Matthew Shepard Case 6 Years Later: Why Hate Crimes Laws are
No Cure for Homophobia
Justin
Taylor
Empire's Lawless Opportunities
Amos
Harel
The Case of Captain R.
Walter
A. Davis
Tabloid Justice
Stephen
Hendricks
God's Kind of Men
Poets'
Basement
Albert, LaMorticella and Ford
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