Hold On to Your Humanity: Open Letter to GIs in Iraq, by Stan Goff

[G_j]

posting this again, read the whole thing, it is heart-felt and devastating!

http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/what/latest.html#openletter031115

An Open Letter to GIs in Iraq, by Stan Goff

Dear American serviceperson in Iraq,

I am a retired veteran of the army, and my own son is among you, a paratrooper like I was. The changes that are happening to every one of you—some more extreme than others—are changes I know very well. So I'm going to say some things to you straight up in the language to which you are accustomed.

In 1970, I was assigned to the 173rd Airborne Brigade, then based in northern Binh Dinh Province in what was then the Republic of Vietnam. When I went there, I had my head full of s**t: s**t from the news media, s**t from movies, s**t about what it supposedly mean to be a man, and s**t from a lot of my know-nothing neighbors who would tell you plenty about Vietnam even though they'd never been there, or to war at all.

The essence of all this s**t was that we had to "stay the course in Vietnam," and that we were on some mission to save good Vietnamese from bad Vietnamese, and to keep the bad Vietnamese from hitting beachheads outside of Oakland. We stayed the course until 58,000 Americans were dead and lots more maimed for life, and 3,000,000 Southeast Asians were dead. Ex-military people and even many on active duty played a big part in finally bringing that crime to a halt.

When I started hearing about weapons of mass destruction that threatened the United States from Iraq, a shattered country that had endured almost a decade of trench war followed by an invasion and twelve years of sanctions, my first question was how in the hell can anyone believe that this suffering country presents a threat to the United States? But then I remembered how many people had believed Vietnam threatened the United States. Including me.

...more..
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[G_j]

1. kick

[LeahMira]

2. Outstanding letter...

... and I will hope and pray in a new way for those men and women in our military now. Thank you.


I believe it was Golda Meir who said that if Israel's sons were killed, somehow she hoped to be able to forgive the Arabs, but if Israel's sons were turned into killers, that she could never forgive the Arabs.

In this case, I'll prefer to substitute America and Bush. If America's sons are killed, somehow I hope I can forgive Bush, but if America's sons are turned into killers, this I will not ever forgive.

[0rganism]

3. That's one of the saddest, scariest, frankest explanations I've ever seen

Thanks for posting the link. I hope A LOT of people read it. I hope any neo-cons who read it can surrender their dedication to profits-uber-alles and see, if only for a second, that the souls they're sacrificing are their own. I don't expect it to happen, but hope springeth eternal.

[G_j]

4. Everytime I see the picture on the home page

of the guy with tears streaming down his cheeks, it chokes me up. Some very good letters are posted there also.

[cliss]

5. Thanks for posting, GJ.

I am an ardent fan of Stan Goff. He is an extremely intelligent man, and has lots more to say about the War, the US and corruption, the War for Oil, and Peak Oil.

I go to Counterpunch.com about once a week. I scroll down to see if he has any new articles. I'm always interested to see what he has to say.

[Donna Zen]

6. Read Chris Hedges

"War is a Force Gives Us Meaning"

I avoided this book for a long time, although after seeing him speak I was drawn to his work. I must have picked the book up and set it down on ten different occasions. Finally, I took the bait, and it was not the book I thought I would be reading. Here's is a review:

In this powerfully honest book by this Pulitzer prize-winning New York Times Journalist, we see through a glass darkly into war as necrophilia, war that in the beginning looks like love. Hedges, who has a Masters of Divinity from Harvard, speaks with brutal honesty of his own addiction to the adrenaline rush of war as he witnessed it in El Salvador, the Middle East and the Balkans. He writes about Thanatos, the death instinct in the human psyche in constant struggle with Eros, the impulse to love. He exposes what he calls the "god-like exhileration of destroying" that emotionally maimed veterans reflect on later as "nothing gallant or heroic, nothing redeeming." He shows us in graphic detail how he almost lost his soul, but was redeemed by love in partnership that recognizes both the fragility and sanctity of the individual. He warns us that this flirtation with weapons of mass destruction is a flirtation with our own obliteration, an embrace of Thanatos. With humility and grace, he reminds us that "love alone can save us." Hegdes' message is one that the world desperately needs to hear

[Tinoire]

7. Glad you posted this. Don't be surprised though if you don't get a ton

of comments. It's been posted before but I'm glad to see it popping up like this.

Go Stan!

[G_j]

8. yes I know

I posted it myself when it first was published. I thought it deserved another viewing. :-)

[opihimoimoi]

9. kick

a well deserved :kick:

[Q]

10. From the Stan Goff Letter:

"And when you put this into perspective, you know that if you were an Iraqi, you probably wouldn't be crazy about American soldiers taking over your towns and cities either. This is the tough reality I faced in Vietnam. I knew while I was there that if I were Vietnamese, I would have been one of the Vietcong.

Until that baby was silenced, though, and here's the important thing to understand, that baby never surrendered her humanity. I did. We did. That's the thing you might not get until it's too late. When you take away the humanity of another, you kill your own humanity. You attack your own soul because it is standing in the way.

They are your enemies—The Suits—and they are the enemies of peace, and the enemies of your families, especially if they are Black families, or immigrant families, or poor families. They are thieves and bullies who take and never give, and they say they will "never run" in Iraq, but you and I know that they will never have to run, because they f***ing aren't there. You are

It it perfectly legal for you to refuse illegal orders, and orders to abuse or attack civilians are illegal. Ordering you to keep silent about these crimes is also illegal."

[DUreader]

11. kick

[G_j]

12. for those who missed it

and may find it worth passing on. :kick:

[IrateCitizen]

13. Yesterday, my reserve battalion saw 150 of our soldiers activated

I'm going to be passing this on to them. Especially after our battalion commander's speech about how "noble" and "righteous" our mission was over there -- securing "freedom" for the Kuwaiti and Iraqi peoples. :puke:

Thanks, G_j.

[G_j]

14. there are some

sorriful and anquished ghosts from past wars and especially from Viet Nam crying out for us to hear them. At our own peril do we ignore them. Already we have another generation of spiritually traumatised and soul-wounded people from this war. It must STOP!!!

even the wind is crying.........

[Ficus]

15. truely powerful

this was a moving letter.