Back From Iraq: “I Killed Innocent People”

[NNN0LHI]

http://rinf.com/alt-news/war-terrorism/back-from-iraq-i-killed-innocent-people/2928/

“We forget what war is about, what it does to those who wage it and those who suffer from it. Those who hate war the most, I have often found, are veterans who know it.” — Chris HedgesInterview with Marine Sergeant Jimmy Massey

by Paul Rockwell
Oakland, California

For nearly 12 years, Staff Sergeant 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 Iraqi war changed Massey. The brutality, the sheer carnage of the U.S. invasion, touched his conscience and transformed him forever. He was honorably discharged last December 31 and is now back in his hometown, Waynsville, North Carolina. When I talked with Sergeant Massey last week, he expressed his remorse at the civilian loss of life in incidents in which he himself was involved.

Introduction

Paul Rockwell: You spent 12 years in the Marines. When were you sent to Iraq?

Sgt. Massey: I went to Kuwait around January 17th. I was in Iraq from the get-go. And I was involved in the initial invasion.

Paul Rockwell: What does the public need to know about your experiences as a Marine?

Sgt. Massey: The cause of the Iraqi revolt against the American occupation. What they need to know is we killed a lot of innocent people. I think at first the Iraqis had the understanding that casualties are a part of war. But over the course of time, the occupation hurt the Iraqis. And I didn’t see any humanitarian support.

[SteinbachMB]

1. Sad story

But the soldiers are not to blame. It's a tough job, and I respect them. I know I Wouldn't want do it. (At least not in Iraq.)

[OwnedByFerrets]

2. 1.3 MILLION IRAQI'S......

didn't all kill themselves. We, Murika, have blood on our hands.

"I think at first the Iraqis had the understanding that casualties are a part of war." If "YOUR" Mother, Father, Brother, Sister, Son, or Daughter was killed by an invading Empire, would YOU be understanding that they were "merely" a casualty of war?:puke:

[acmavm]

4. No but it sure sounded like a good excuse for the initial criminal

act of Shock and Awe, didn't it?

[amihol]

12. :puke:

:puke:

[JohnyCanuck]

13. True stories of the terror war

Three-Stomp Blues: Vets Tell True Stories of the Terror War
Written by Chris Floyd

Monday, 03 March 2008

I. Absence of Evidence
There are many things that the American people are forbidden to know by the immensely profitable organizations that control the dispensing of information in the United States. Some things will simply not be reported, others will be distorted or sugar-coated or shellacked with fabrications until they bear only the most tangential connection to the actual events being "reported."

One of the most forbidden topics of all, of course, is the savage reality of the conflicts being fought in the name of the so-called "War on Terror." This global war – launched solely to advance a long-held, openly acknowledged militarist agenda of global domination by an authoritarian, lawless elite – has slaughtered hundreds of thousands of innocent people, while corrupting and brutalizing the soldiers ordered, under knowingly false pretenses, to carry out the Dominators' sinister agenda. But the full story – and full force – of the crimes being committed every day in America's name, by American forces, at the command of America's leaders, are hidden from the American public by the American media. It is entirely possible to live your entire life as an active, engaged member of American society, diligently keeping up with the latest news from the most respectable sources, and never once have to confront this horrifying truth. The information-dispensers will not provide it for you; you have to seek it out yourself.

SNIP

II. "All I Saw Were Civilians"

The atrocities began in Iraq at the very start, from the first days and hours when the "mission" was being "accomplished" to a chorus of hosannas from the ex-generals and the war-profiteering commentators like Richard Perle brought in by the networks to provide "expert" analysis of the victorious campaign:

Jason Washburn…fought in the initial invasion of Iraq in 2003 where, he says, he met little resistance. Most people were surrendering. "There were massive amounts of artillery strikes before we even invaded. We saw the results of that. Streets full of bodies – women and children – body parts, extremely indiscriminate. I’m talking about rolling through villages here, not military encampments."

He was told there was a military structure in one village. “I didn’t see it. I didn’t see any army uniforms. Or weapons. All I saw were civilians.”

Two years later – now on his third tour in Iraq, banging down doors and terrifying families in midnight "home raids" – Washburn was in Haditha the day that a group of his fellow Marines massacred 24 civilians. Washburn wasn't at the site, but he knew many of the men who took part.

http://www.chris-floyd.com/content/view/1446/135/

[OwnedByFerrets]

14. So many many people are

so ready to turn a blind eye to these atrocities.

[midnight]

3. War is about killing innocent people. Stop it, and

Bring them home.

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. Staff Sergeant Jimmy Massey,

Thank you for speaking out. :applause:

[KharmaTrain]

6. The REAL Iraq Legacy

Even if our troops come home tomorrow...this ugly war for profit will linger for the remainder of our lifetimes...we've created a new generation of wounded Vets that have more complicated problems than what we've seen in any war. The mental war...especially of those who've had repeat and extended tours is hard for anyone to fathom yet endure...and there's a price to be paid. The military tries to downplay the PTSD issue as it shows that soldiers are human, not machines.

Democrats should press Gramps on why he refuses to support veterans...why he wants to make more dead and walking wounded. If he's willing to pay for 100 years of war, is he willing to adequate fund and support the needs of who fought in his war of opportunity.

One day, our beloved corporate media will play the "who lost Iraq" game...and these people will be still fighting the battles and living with that stigma...and, of course, us dirty, fuckin', librul hippies will be the ones they blame.

[NNN0LHI]

8. Yes some of us have seen this movie before

Unfortunately Democratic anti-war presidential candidates haven't faired too well in the past either.

Don

[Echo In Light]

7. But...but...ya mean all them al-Qaeda turists are really average Iraqis fighting against invasion?

[WinkyDink]

9. Day, Minute, Second One we murdered civilians. "Shock and Awe" MURDERED INNOCENTS.

Where was the SECRET here??

"I think at first the Iraqis had the understanding that casualties are a part of war."
WHAT THE HELL??? What "war" did the Iraqis sign up for??

NO, THEY DID NOT "UNDERSTAND" why we were BOMBING, INVADING, and MURDERING THEM to "SAVE" THEM. "Hey, your leader is a dictator, so you know what? We're gonna KILL YOU."

This man is STILL DELUDED.

[Hubert Flottz]

10. Yeah...but look at the bright side

Exxon Mobil Posts New Record for Profit

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=&imgrefurl=http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1027-06.htm&h=250&w=350&sz=32&hl=en&start=11&um=1&tbnid=RoGQpjFkjkJoAM:&tbnh=86&tbnw=120&prev=/images%3Fq%3DEXXON%2BCeo%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN

Do you think the people making the big bucks off of the war in Iraq give a damn about Marine Sergeant Jimmy Massey of the dead in Iraq? All that registers in their minds is their income.

Compassionate Conservatism hurts like hell, if you're on the wrong end of the stick.

[JohnyCanuck]

11. And it was the same story in Afghanistan

The Good War is a Bad War

by John Pilger

SNIP

Acclaimed as the first “victory” in the “war on terror”, the attack on Afghanistan in October 2001 and its ripple effect caused the deaths of thousands of civilians who, even more than Iraqis, remain invisible to western eyes. The family of Gulam Rasul is typical. It was 7.45am on 21 October. The headmaster of a school in the town of Khair Khana, Rasul had just finished eating breakfast with his family and had walked outside to chat to a neighbour. Inside the house were his wife, Shiekra, his four sons, aged three to ten, his brother and his wife, his sister and her husband. He looked up to see an aircraft weaving in the sky, then his house exploded in a fireball behind him. Nine people died in this attack by a US F-16 dropping a 500lb bomb. The only survivor was his nine-year-old son, Ahmad Bilal. “Most of the people killed in this war are not Taliban; they are innocents,” Gulam Rasul told me. “Was the killing of my family a mistake? No, it was not. They fly their planes and look down on us, the mere Afghan people, who have no planes, and they bomb us for our birthright, and with all contempt.”

There was the wedding party in the village of Niazi Qala, 100km south of Kabul, to celebrate the marriage of the son of a respected farmer. By all accounts it was a wonderfully boisterous affair, with music and singing. The roar of aircraft started when everyone was asleep, at about three in the morning. According to a United Nations report, the bombing lasted two hours and killed 52 people: 17 men, ten women and 25 children, many of whom were found blown to bits where they had desperately sought refuge, in a dried-up pond. Such slaughter is not uncommon, and these days the dead are described as “Taliban”; or, if they are children, they are said to be “partly to blame for being at a site used by militants” – according to the BBC, speaking to a US military spokesman.

http://www.johnpilger.com/page.asp?partid=470

[bdamomma]

15. it is time to bring the troops home.

[spanone]

16. you are right, but it's waaaaay past time imho