What Has Happened to the US Army in Iraq?

[QuietStorm]

snip
Recently there have been several reports of incidents in Iraq involving the killing of civilians by the US Army. ("July 30--Two Iraqi civilians on foot shot dead by US soldiers in the Mansour district of Baghdad, Iraq. No weapons or explosives were found. August 8--US forces fire on a car carrying an Iraqi family at a checkpoint north of Baghdad. Five Iraqis, including three children, were killed, and two others wounded. August 11--US soldiers kill six Iraqi civilians at three different checkpoints in Baghdad, Iraq. No weapons or explosives were found." And so on.)

There is no doubt that civilians are being killed in increasing numbers, and the matter of army involvement is apparently being investigated. Last month, before the present series of killings, a US military spokeswoman, Major Josslyn Aberle, stated in an email to the Associated Press (she refused to comment by interview) that soldiers "work very hard to avoid collateral damage and injury to civilians, but regrettably this happens sometimes." Certainly death and injury happen; and we'll have a look at 'collateral damage' in more detail.

snip

No matter the weasel words conjured up by desk-bound wordsmiths to disguise shrieking, agonising bloody death caused by bullets gouging out gobbets of flesh from bodies that spout showers and jets of blood like a berserk fountain, there comes a time when the killing of civilians demands proper investigation. There is no use having an internal inquiry, because nobody is going to believe it when impartial accounts by on-the-spot reporters contradict the findings. Deputy defense secretary Wolfowitz was reported in London's Times as saying contemptuously that "people in the Middle East will believe just about anything" in order to justify Washington's exhibiting the bodies of Uday and Qusay Hussein. He wanted to convince Arab viewers that the men were dead, and, in the usual 'don't do as I do, do as I say' fashion of Bush Washington, contradicted everything that the US had said about the grossness and indeed illegality (by virtue of the Geneva/Hague Conventions), of displaying mangled enemy bodies on television.

snip

Since when were wives and children deemed non-civilians? Are children to be used as bargaining counters? This is totally against the Geneva Conventions and against all human decency. The Nazis did this, dammit. It was one of their preferred tactics in occupied territories. Are the wife and children of Colonel Hogg considered combatants, just because he wears uniform? Can this man imagine what it would be like for his own family to be treated like this? Do the American people know what is being done in their name? This is terrible, and I never thought that an officer of US Army could ever lower himself to this sort of despicable action. I served in the Australian army in Vietnam and knew the US army well. It was rough, tough and barbaric in these days, but I thought this type of brutish and uncivilised behaviour was a thing of the past that went out after exposure of the My Lai atrocities. Apparently not.

more

http://www.counterpunch.com/cloughley08162003.html

[wtmusic]

1. Surprise, it's Nam again, we haven't learned a thing

and I would have to say the statement, "civilians are being killed in increasing numbers" is unfounded. Large numbers of civilians have been killed from the very start--but the Pentagon refuses to believe that any civilian might resist American occupation. The moment they do they leap from civilanhood to 'Hussein loyalist', 'paramilitarist', or 'Fedayeen militia'.

[QuietStorm]

8. are you familiar

with the Iraqi body count site. They have been tracking civilian body count . Are you familiar with this site and their methods?

[Ohio Dem]

2. The conditions have and will continue to push some of them over the edge.

I was reading about a US soldier firing into the crowd at Baghdad. While I certainly don't condone this or make excuses for barbaric behavior, I can't say that I'm surprised.

120 degree heat, doing work they're not trained for, being told they're going home and having the army change its mind, not really knowing when (if?) they'll ever go home, hostile people who want to see them dead all around them, working for civilian contractors, finding out the reasons they are there are lies, not enough food and water, etc.

I think you'll see more things being done by our soldiers that will turn our stomachs. They are very desperate men and women.

[HawkerHurricane]

3. Soldiers make poor policemen.

The training is wrong. The circumstances press the soldiers 'kill or be killed' buttons, and the tendency is to fall back on training rather than think it through.

[madfloridian]

4. They killed the Reuters cameraman, thought camera was a weapon.

Turned their tanks toward him, shot him at least 3 times.

[Kat 333]

5. EXCELLENT Question ...

They appear to be as "out of control" as their commander and chief. Just finished reading the following article. There IS NO Excuse for this or the many similar such incidents:


BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A fresh wave of sabotage and violence took its toll on Iraq on Sunday as a second blaze hit a crucial oil export pipeline, a water pipeline was blown up and six Iraqis were killed in a mortar attack on a Baghdad prison.

A Danish soldier was killed as he tried to stop looting on Saturday night and a Reuters cameraman was shot dead while working near a U.S.-run prison on the outskirts of Baghdad.

Reuters cameraman Mazen Dana, 43, a Palestinian who has worked for Reuters for a decade, was filming outside Abu Ghraib prison when he was shot, witnesses said.

Reuters soundman Nael al-Shyoukhi, who was working with Dana at the time, said Dana was shot by a U.S. soldier on a tank.

"I cried at the soldier, telling him you killed a journalist. They shouted at me and asked me to step back and I said 'I will step back but please help, please help and stop the bleed'," Shyoukhi said. The soldiers tried to help but Dana died.

The U.S. military acknowledged on Sunday that its troops had "engaged" a Reuters cameraman, saying they had thought his camera was a rocket propelled grenade launcher.

"Army soldiers engaged an individual they thought was aiming an RPG at them. It turned out to be a Reuters cameraman," Navy Captain Frank Thorp, a spokesman for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Reuters in Washington.

Dana's death brings to 17 the number of journalists or their assistants who have died in Iraq since war began on March 20.

http://my.aol.com/news/news_story.psp?type=1&cat=0600&id=2003081718210002277

[FloridaPat]

6. Our troops are being screwed.

They are rationed on water and food. They are allowed 3 liters of water a day. They are dying from dehydration. They are living in 120 degree heat, no air conditioning, being bitten by bugs. No cream to stop the bites. They are eating crap. They government gave Haliburton the non-bid contract to provide the basic necessities. They aren't. It is criminal what is being done to our troops, and I would guess that the stain is getting to them. There are desertions and suicides. I had read one place there were 2,500 desertions, but could not verify it. Interestingly, people with no expirence are being put in charge of civilan areas, like airport, transportation. One persona told a reporter he thought the US was trying to make it as big a mess as they could to better control the Iraqis. They would be so grateful for a nice country they would do anything. Well, if the idea to make the troops as miserable as possible to make them more mean, you couldn't find a better way to do it.

And don't forget all the "mystery illnesses" they are subject to. People getting out are being extended indefinately. They are reactivating people who have been out for years. Fine print in the enlistment contract. Again I say, this is criminal. Bush and the whole gang should be in Guantanimo.

[Kat 333]

7. Their living conditions

are much better than the average citizen of the country that the United States, brutally, took over - Illegally we might add. It is not as if Anyone in Iraq is having a "good time".
One thing that CAN be said, however, is that to become a member of the US military one voluntarily joins - meaning they agreed to and knew their obligations in so doing. Should their "obligations" include attacking an innocent bunch of people for the financial gain of their commander and chief and his buddies ? HELL NO but does it mean they should conduct themselves in the manner as inhumane as the idiot that sent them over there ? I still say No they should not.