Officers lied to the troops - scammed them into killing

[donsu]

http://www.sacbee.com/content/opinion/story/9316830p-10241546c.html

'I killed innocent people for our government'

For nearly 12 years, Staff Sgt. Jimmy Massey was a hard-core, some say gung-ho, Marine. For three years he trained fellow Marines in one of the most grueling indoctrination rituals in military life - Marine boot camp.

The Iraq war changed Massey. The brutality, the sheer carnage of the U.S. invasion, touched his conscience and transformed him forever. He was honorably discharged with full severance last Dec. 31 and is now back in his hometown, Waynsville, N.C.

-snip-
(interview)

I was in charge of a platoon that consists of machine gunners and missile men. Our job was to go into certain areas of the towns and secure the roadways. There was this one particular incident - and there's many more - the one that really pushed me over the edge. It involved a car with Iraqi civilians. From all the intelligence reports we were getting, the cars were loaded down with suicide bombs or material. That's the rhetoric we received from intelligence. They came upon our checkpoint. We fired some warning shots. They didn't slow down. So we lit them up.

Q: Lit up? You mean you fired machine guns?

A: Right. Every car that we lit up we were expecting ammunition to go off. But we never heard any. Well, this particular vehicle we didn't destroy completely, and one gentleman looked up at me and said: "Why did you kill my brother? We didn't do anything wrong." That hit me like a ton of bricks.

Q: He spoke English?

A: Oh, yeah.

-snip-

Q: The reports said the cars were loaded with explosives. In all the incidents did you find that to be the case?

A: Never. Not once. There were no secondary explosions. As a matter of fact, we lit up a rally after we heard a stray gunshot.

-snip-

EDITED BY ADMIN: COPYRIGHT

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he also talked about Embedded Reporters and Showdown With Superiors


sigh

[boobooday]

1. This was a very disturbing story

But a very courageous soldier! We need to hear their voices.



http://www.wgoeshome.com

[SEpatriot]

2. This is really sad.

This is the reason we don't get into "preemptive" wars and become occupying forces in the Middle East. The damage done will take a long, long time to reverse - both here and abroad.

If anyone is interested in understanding what a .50 caliber round does and looks like go here:

http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/50.htm

I certainly don't place the blame on these soldiers ... they will suffer the psychological impact for years. The RW jerks and their apologists who are fueling this madness need to understand the impact of what they've done.

[Moderator]

3. donsu

Per DU copyright rules
please post only four
paragraphs from the
news source.

Thank you.


DU Moderator

[Tinoire]

4. Great article.

What a young man of courage and integrity.

How many more others are getting their eyes opened?

[IrateCitizen]

5. Powerful piece

I forwarded it to a few contacts in the Bring Them Home Now campaign. SSGt. Massey's voice is one that needs to be heard wide and far.