'This is war-This is what we did to the Iraqis' (The Nation: Winter Soldier Testimony)

[kpete]

Winter Soldier
Laila Al-Arian & Laura Hanna


A closer look at the Winter Soldier testimonies, via this VideoNation/Hidden Driver report.


While on tank patrol through the narrow streets of Abu Ghraib, just west of Baghdad, Pfc. Clifton Hicks was given an order. Abu Ghraib had become a "free-fire zone," Hicks was told, and no "friendlies" or civilians remained in the area. "Game on. All weapons free," his captain said. Upon that command, Hicks's unit opened a furious fusillade, firing wildly into cars, at people scurrying for cover, at anything that moved. Sent in to survey the damage, Hicks found the area littered with human and animal corpses, including women and children, but he saw no military gear or weapons of any kind near the bodies. In the aftermath of the massacre, Hicks was told that his unit had killed 700-800 "enemy combatants." But he knew the dead were not terrorists or insurgents; they were innocent Iraqis. "I will agree to swear to that till the day I die," he said. "I didn't see one enemy on that operation."

................

Several veterans said it was common to carry a stash of extra automatic weapons and shovels to plant near the bodies of unarmed civilians they had killed to make it look as if they were combatants. Others described the surreal sensation of committing cold-blooded murder without facing any consequences. Jon Michael Turner, who served as a machine gunner with Kilo Company, Third Battalion, Eighth Marines, said he shot an unarmed Iraqi in front of the man's father and friend. "The first round didn't kill him, after I had hit him up here in his neck area. And afterwards he started screaming and looked right into my eyes. So I looked at my friend...and I said, 'Well, I can't let that happen.' So I took another shot and took him out. He was then carried away by the rest of his family." Later, Turner pointed to a tattoo on his right wrist of the Arabic words for "fuck you." "That was my choking hand," he explained. "And any time I felt the need to take out aggression, I would go ahead and use it."

.............

While the Winter Soldiers offered a searing critique of the military's treatment of civilians, which they described as alternately inhumane and sadistic, they also empathized with fellow soldiers thrust into a chaotic urban theater where the lines between combatants and civilians are blurred. "It's criminal to put such patriotic Americans...in a situation where their morals are at odds with their survival instincts," said Adam Kokesh, who served as a Marine sergeant in the raid on Fallujah in 2004.

..........

During the last day, photographs of nameless Iraqi dead flashed on large screens. Army Sgt. Kristofer Goldsmith took the photos on May 15, 2005, a day he remembered as "very hot, uncomfortable and miserable." Goldsmith was ordered to photograph a dozen Iraqis who were presumably murdered and dumped in a large landfill. But the photos were not taken to identify the dead or assist the Iraqi police investigation. "They were used for morale purposes," Goldsmith remarked bitterly. "(Soldiers) bombarded me to copy my pictures. They made videos of them to send home to their friends and families to brag, 'This is war. This is what we did to the Iraqis.'"

more at:
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080407/wintersoldier

[patrice]

1. no words . . .

[IndyOp]

2. First you have to cauterize the wound, cause pain, before healing can begin.

American public sit still and read and listen to everything the Winter Soldier's have to say.

This nation has a nasty, self-inflicted wound.

It must be cauterized.

If you are unwilling to feel other's pain, you are not a moral person.

[indepat]

3. Those unwilling/unable to feel others' pain are imo devoid of humanity: one must wonder where

this journey on earth will take a society that is so chock-full of members who are devoid of humanity (imo the supporters, enablers, shillers, and those doing nothing to stop the madness). :shrug:

[patrice]

4. I think they feel it alright; they've just mis-labeled it.

They've been taught by their parents and churches that what you need to do is "Believe" strongly enough and long enough and, if you do, your belief makes what you believe more and more real. It would stand to reason then, that ANY suffering, which occurs as a result of what you believe, is validation of the strength of your belief and, thus, enhances the thing that is believed in. This magical thinking is considered a positive character trait in our culture, reinforced primarily by the churches that are selling more bathos than anything else.

I also think that there must be an awful lot of churches who have apparently forgotten or NEVER understood what the 1st Commandment means, i.e. they do not recognize blasphemy when the see it and practice it. As a matter of fact, blasphemy is HABITUAL with most of what passes for religion these days.

[indepat]

6. And every "christian" who has ever supported the carnage and torture committed in Iraq at the

behest of our leaders for the benefit of big oil are themselves a blasphemy imo. :mad:

[patrice]

7. Yep. They call it "Glory". nt

[baby_mouse]

5. dee dee dee dum dum...

whistle...

[Amonester]

8. k