Confessions from U.S. Soldiers in Iraq on the Brutal Treatment of Civilians

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

By Chris Hedges and Laila Al-Arian, The Nation. Posted July 13, 2007.

http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/56761/

---SNIP---

In June 2003 Staff Sgt. Camilo Mejía's unit was pressed by a furious crowd in Ramadi. Sergeant Mejía, 31, a National Guardsman from Miami, served for six months beginning in April 2003 with the 1-124 Infantry Battalion, Fifty-Third Infantry Brigade. His squad opened fire on an Iraqi youth holding a grenade, riddling his body with bullets. Sergeant Mejía checked his clip afterward and calculated that he had personally fired eleven rounds into the young man.

"The frustration that resulted from our inability to get back at those who were attacking us led to tactics that seemed designed simply to punish the local population that was supporting them," Sergeant Mejía said.

We heard a few reports, in one case corroborated by photo­graphs, that some soldiers had so lost their moral compass that they'd mocked or desecrated Iraqi corpses. One photo, among dozens turned over to The Nation during the investigation, shows an American soldier acting as if he is about to eat the spilled brains of a dead Iraqi man with his brown plastic Army-issue spoon.

"Take a picture of me and this motherfucker," a soldier who had been in Sergeant Mejía's squad said as he put his arm around the corpse. Sergeant Mejía recalls that the shroud covering the body fell away, revealing that the young man was wearing only his pants. There was a bullet hole in his chest...

[cassiepriam]

1. Support the troops indeed.

[phildo]

2. Leadership starts at the top.

At least in the military realm. Back in the day, I sure trained my troops better than this.

We as a country and government have totally failed to hold any Senior Officers accountable for was has occurred.

In the Iragicide the break down started from the top, with full COLs in the 3rd Armored Division ordering the kidnapping of innocent civilians -- a clear War Crime.

With that kind of leadership, it comes as no surprise what builds up downstream. By the time this is done, if we ever want to clean it up, we will have to start a War Crimes commission.