"We Are Facing Death in Iraq for No Reason"

[kskiska]

A serving US soldier calls for the end of an occupation based on lies


For the past six months, I have been participating in what I believe to be the great modern lie: Operation Iraqi Freedom.

After the horrific events of September 11 2001, and throughout the battle in Afghanistan, the groundwork was being laid for the invasion of Iraq. "Shock and awe" were the words used to describe the display of power that the world was going to view upon the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom. It was to be an up-close, dramatic display of military strength and advanced technology from within the arsenals of the American and British military.

But as a soldier preparing to take part in the invasion of Iraq, the words "shock and awe" rang deep within my psyche. Even as we prepared to depart, it seemed that these two great superpowers were about to break the very rules that they demanded others obey. Without the consent of the United Nations, and ignoring the pleas of their own citizens, the US and Britain invaded Iraq. "Shock and awe"? Yes, the words correctly described the emotional impact I felt as we embarked on an act not of justice, but of hypocrisy.

From the moment the first shot was fired in this so-called war of liberation and freedom, hypocrisy reigned. After the broadcasting of recorded images of captured and dead US soldiers on Arab television, American and British leaders vowed revenge while verbally assaulting the networks for displaying such vivid images. Yet within hours of the deaths of Saddam Hussein's sons, the US government released horrific photographs of the two dead brothers for the entire world to view. Again, a "do as we say and not as we do" scenario.

more…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1045345,00.html

[DuctapeFatwa]

1. He calls all that money Halliburton is making "no reason?"

Well, I guess we know what's NOT in that Guardian writer's portfolio.

[NJCher]

2. Thank you, Tim Predmore

For speaking up as a firsthand observer, participant and person of conscience.


Cher

[Mari333]

3. This should run in every newspaper in the US

and on every channel...but the mediawhores will ignore it.

[Beetwasher]

4. Holy Cow!

That's a helluva piece...

[sasquatch]

16. You bet your ass that's one helluva piece.

Best I read in quite a long time. We had some "military" repug write a piece into the Dayton Daity News, but this is the true military

[PartyPooper]

5. I hope this brave soldier returns home safely without reprisals

from Rumsfeld and his criminal gang of thugs.

[disgruntella]

6. that is amazing

That guy has just cornered the market on bravery.
Support our troops - Elect a NEW commander-in-chief!

[Brucey]

7. I'm amazed and proud that a soldier would be that brave -

- to take on the fascists who hijacked the USA.

[aquart]

8. Was anyone bothered by the lack of detail?

All he discussed was stuff that's already been reported. No personal experience.

This isn't anything like the other soldiers' reports we've read.

It just sounds odd.

[NNN0LHI]

10. This was printed nearly a month ago in the Peoria Journal Sta -Link below

http://www.pjstar.com/news/opedcolumns/b0gtbbgr059.html

[IndianaGreen]

13. A 1985 Richwoods High School graduate and native Peorian

According to the original opinion piece published by the the Peoria Journal Star:

Tim Predmore is on active duty with the 101st Airborne Division near Mosul, Iraq. A 1985 Richwoods High School graduate and native Peorian, he has been in Iraq since March and in the military for about five years.

http://www.pjstar.com/news/opedcolumns/b0gtbbgr059.html

[NNN0LHI]

9. That is a powerful piece n/t

[FlemingsGhost]

11. Shades of Siegfried Sassoon

For those who are unfamiliar, Siegfried Sasson was a very popular British poet and writer during WWI. He enthusiastically enlisted for frontline officer duty and was awarded the many medals of heroic valor. His poems, written from the trenches, were published regularly in Britian and a clear picture for the a common man to grasp what was really happening abroad.

Like this soldier, Sassoon eventually wised up to the sheer criminality of the war and published the following letter in the London Mirror:

----------------------------

Finished with the War:
A soldier's declaration

I am making this statement as an act of willful defiance of military authority, because I believe the war is being deliberately prolonged by those who have the power to end it.

I am a soldier, convinced that I am acting on behalf of soldiers. I believe that this war, upon which I entered as a war of defense and liberation, has now become a war of aggression and conquest. I believe that the purposes for which I and my fellow soldiers entered upon this war should have been so clearly stated as to have made it impossible to change them, and that had this been done, the objects which actuated us would now be attainable by negotiation.

I have seen and endured the suffering of the troops, and I can no longer be a party to prolong these sufferings for ends which I believe to be evil and unjust.

I am not protesting against the conduct of the war, but against the political errors and insincerities for which the fighting men are being sacrificed.

On behalf of those suffering now I make this protest against the deception which is being practised upon them; also I believe that I may help to destroy the callous complacence with which the majority of those at home regard the continuance of agonies which they do not share, and which thety do not have sufficient imagination to realize.

S. Sassoon
July, 1917


----------------------------
Chilling, isn't it?

This is the same gentleman who penned:

"You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye
Who cheer when soldier lads march by
Sneak home and pray you'll never know
The hell where youth and laughter go."

Indeed.

[markses]

12. More Sassoon: Blighters

Describes plenty of rah-rah folks on this very board, in fact:

THE House is crammed: tier beyond tier they grin
And cackle at the Show, while prancing ranks
Of harlots shrill the chorus, drunk with din;
‘We’re sure the Kaiser loves our dear old Tanks!’

I’d like to see a Tank come down the stalls,
Lurching to rag-time tunes, or ‘Home, sweet Home’,
And there’d be no more jokes in Music-halls
To mock the riddled corpses round Bapaume.

[FlemingsGhost]

14. One more... my favorite.

Written for Sasson's brother, Hamo, who perished at Gallipoli.


To My Brother

Give me your hand, my brother, search my face;
Look in these eyes lest I should think of shame;
For we have made an end to all things base.
We are returning by the road we came.

Your lot is with the soldiers dead,
And I am in the field where men must fight.
But in the gloom I see your laurell'd head
And through your victory I shall win the light.

18 December 1915

[Cha]

15. I've read this somewhere before but obviously not in the "Guardian"

Glad it's making more pages!

:kick:

[Cappurr]

17. If that is his real name...

He is going to be in a heap of trouble. I believe there are regulations subscribing what military personell may say in opposition to the country's policy during war.

[lindashaw]

18. This brave man is putting his life on the line for saying this...look

what happens to reporters...they get blown up.