Mopping Up (in Iraq) - Village Voice

[groovedaddy]

Mopping Up
The ordeal of the New Yorkers sent to clean up the mess at Abu Ghraib
by Graham Rayman
June 5th, 2007

If you ask some of the members of his military unit, Sgt. James McNaughton, the only New York City police officer killed in Iraq, should never have been put on the assignment that ultimately resulted in his death.
Since he was killed in August 2005, McNaughton has become a celebrated, iconic figure in New York. His name graces streets and buildings, and he is invoked by politicians and military leaders for his heroism and sacrifice. Just last week, McNaughton's name was added to a new plaque honoring city police officers who have died in combat.

But McNaughton's death was symbolic in other ways as well. A Manhattan subway cop from Centereach, Long Island, McNaughton had been a cadet in the first police class to graduate after the 9/11 attacks. And after the 2004 scandal at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison that introduced the world to photos of naked Iraqi prisoners, barking dogs, and Lynndie England holding a leash, he was part of the New York–based 306th Military Police Battalion, a hastily assembled unit of raw and aging reservists given limited training and shipped to the most dangerous prison in the world while being told repeatedly that they were being sent to "restore America's honor."

Except for McNaughton's death, however, almost nothing about the hellish 11 months the unit spent at Abu Ghraib has been reported. While they were there, the 306th dealt with a prison population that doubled, dodged repeated rocket and mortar attacks, and survived a multi-pronged frontal assault on the prison considered one of the most complex insurgent operations of the war. But that battle went largely ignored stateside.

http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0723,rayman,76859,2.html

[peacebird]

1. what a terribly sad and depressing read.... k&r