"A Soldiers Diary" from Kos...Truth or Fiction with this?

[KoKo]

:shrug:


This Soldier's Iraq Diary
by tricky dick
Wed Jun 22nd, 2005 at 16:33:25 PDT

You know that Marvin Gaye song "What's going on"? Of course you do. I ask myself that question quite often. Much of what happens in country I never see. In many ways I am as in the dark as everyone else. But, for what it's worth, today I will throw in my two cents. Perhaps by adding the small part of the picture I see, it will put into sharper focus all of the reports you read every day. I don't really see myself as a Soldier blogger such as Soonergrunt or Nameless Soldier. I would much rather have pie flame wars than discuss what I do for a living. But I have decided that there are some things you should know...

Diaries :: tricky dick's diary :: :: Trackback ::

This is a diary about torture. Torture and cruelty. It's been in the news quite a bit lately, so I have decided to tell you what I know about torture and cruelty in Iraq.

Many of the Iraq War apologists are quick to point out how much better off Iraq is today with Saddam Hussein in prison. They cite the closing of Saddam's torture chambers as a central justification of the Iraq campaign. Well, there's a problem with that theory. The torture hasn't stopped. It continues to this day, under new management.

What I have seen, specifically, is the torture and brutal beating of Iraqis by members of the Iraqi Army (IA). Much of it is conducted by Shia and Kurds against the Sunnis, payback for decades of Sunni brutality. I also suspect that many of the thugs who previously served Hussein have now signed up with the new Iraqi Government. The bottom line is that these guys are largely a bunch of thugs, and that their victims are largely unarmed civilians. They might be Sunni civilians as opposed to Kurdish or Shia, but they are every bit as helpless regardless of their ethnicity.

We have actually received guidelines as to how to deal with abusive IA officers. We cannot admonish them in front of their men, lest they lose face. We have been instructed to correct them in private, if possible. It is a bullshit policy. In fact, our leadership openly acknowledges that the problem is "difficult to control". They pretty much tell us that the best course of action is to stay out of it. We have no control over these guys.

To me, this situation speaks to the problem of nation building. It is simply very difficult to change the way an entire nation operates. It isn't as if every one in Iraq was good and decent, but Saddam made them do all these awful things. He had alot of help. In a way, Saddam was a product of his environment. Iraq is a tough place to grow up, cruelty is a way of life here. Torture is much more accepted here than in the US.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/6/22/193325/756

[IndyOp]

1. Reading this makes me angry and sad...

Had the * administration supported Iraqi community leaders and teachers in leading the country post-Hussein, the violent would not now be rising to power.

Gandhi made the point that if the Indians achieved their independence from the UK by use of violence, they would be left with a violent leadership.

The way that the US has acted has directly led to this internal violence.

A friend of mine thinks that this divisiveness is exactly what the US has wanted all along -- by intensifying these divisions in Iraq, internal strife will intensify in other Middle Eastern countries (especially Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Syria). The US won't have to attack for the corporations to take control - they can simply take advantage of the strife.

:grr:

[KoKo]

3. I have to think they wanted what they got. It's hard to believe that

Cheney and Rummy who've been in Govt. so long could have condoned this if it wasn't "Chaos" they wanted all along.

I have a hard time wrapping my brain around what it was they wanted. I know the PNAC Doctrine...all of it.

But the total destruction of the Middle East? I have to go back in my history reading to the British Empire...and have to wonder again...what the Hell were they thinking. Except that they are so intellectually disfunctional that every President they served never listened to them, looked on them as beaurocrats they could keep in the background until the MIGHTY CHIMPEROR-in-THIEF arrived with his Poppy Grudge and allowed them all the keys to the War Toy Box and let them run amuck.

I hope someone can write about what happened here some day...but until then, I want these imbeciles, innocents are whatever the hell they are OUT OF OUR GOVERNMENT! THEY ARE TOO IGNORANT TO SERVE! THEY ARE KILLING INNOCENTS!

[IndyOp]

4. Did they want total destruction of the Middle East?

I think that different people in the cabal had different goals that resulted in the current insanity --

I think * wanted a war, because successful Presidents lead wars - I think he might have really believed that the Iraq war could be short and sweet - like the Gulf War; like Grenada. The pay off: us corporations profit, profit, profit.

I think PNAC want what they have said all along - to use US military at the drop of a hat to control world resources, empire. Setting up bases in Iraq is an important beginning of this goal.

I think that some in this coalition want the end of times - for Israel to return to its historical boundaries so Jesus will come back to earth.

Other parties have had, and will continue to have other related goals -

I don't think anyone really wants total destruction of the Middle East - so long as the populations could just be very, very compliant and be good consumers of international corporation products.

The conclusion: All of these folks are wrong, greedy, sick, delusional, ignorant or worse. They all have to go.

The trick will be opening the eyes of the sheeple. I try not attack those who are not yet aware - my awakening only began post 9/11 when I could not find the answer to "Why Do They Hate Us?" in my Newsweek.

[KoKo]

6. Probably what you say is true. A great "coming together" of like minds

all destined to push for their own ego's and agenda's causing a mighty force that just cowed or overwhelmed all of us.

We didn't see it coming and so didn't know how to defend against it. But, it was it's moment in history and maybe it was just destined to happen. If only we could be a hundred years ahead to look back, we might see what precipitated it. We might see it as the period in America when the Salem Witch Trials and Puritanism took over the fledgling infant America and Hawthorne wrote about much of this.

Or, we could say that this was the dawn of a new age of ENLIGHTENMENT where America tested "flexed her muscles" and it's the dawn of a new Empire...but this time...we will get it right..unlike so many countries that decided they new better than everyone and in the end bled their country dry fighting to preserve the Capitol of Empire.

I don't know. But it seems that our Academics and the rest have totally screwed us leaving these Self-Serving Maniacs in control of our country.

[IndyOp]

7. We didn't see it coming...

That is for sure - without journalists who are working for the people, reporting the news that we need to know to maintain our freedoms - we didn't see it coming.

It is very much like the frog placed in cool water in a pot on the stove - if the temperature is increased very, very slowly the frog won't detect the change and does not jump out of the pot.

"...it seems that our Academics and the rest have totally screwed us." I think academics got seduced by the same 'delusions' of success and comfort that everyone else in the US was seduced by. Many academics have spoken out and are continuing to speak out -- the journalists don't always cover it and academics are being punished for it (example: Ward Churchill).

:kick:

[IndyOp]

8. We didn't see it coming...

That is for sure - without journalists who are working for the people, reporting the news that we need to know to maintain our freedoms - we didn't see it coming.

"...it seems that our Academics and the rest have totally screwed us." I think academics got seduced by the same 'delusions' of success and comfort that everyone else in the US was seduced by. Many academics have spoken out and are continuing to speak out -- the journalists don't always cover it and academics are being punished for it (example: Ward Churchill).

:kick:

[oneold1-4u]

2. Soon to change

When a person sees and has knowledge of the human as an animal it never leaves the mind! This country took a big jump into the largest septic system of humanity in the ME and cannot ever go back to being a people of decent society! The Daumer refrigerator will look like a florist display compared to the future of the next century. Becoming a caveman will be a life vacation and vocation to be able to have any sensibilities!

[JohnyCanuck]

5. I was thinking along those lines too.

When I read this:
Torture is much more accepted here than in the US.

I said to myself, "For how much longer?"