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“Iraqis are not as human as us!” -- How U.S. soldiers devalue Iraqi lives |
Posted By Amina Anderson
Americans think of the U.S. army as the anchor and the salvation for the outside world. On a daily basis, the media, charities and ordinary people commend the women and men working on freeing civilians worldwide and bringing them a better life.
However, a recent article on the The Nation Magazine totally erases the perceptions that the Americans have. The magazine interviewed 50 combat veterans of the Iraq war in a bid to examine how far has the four-year invasion gone with helping the war-torn country.
Shockingly, most of the interviewed veterans hold brutal memories of the war with physical and emotional scars. The report is not talking about known crimes committed by U.S. troops, such as the massacre in Haditha in 2005, when 24 unarmed Iraqi civilians were murdered by 12 marines. It’s mainly covering human rights abuse cases that the public doesn’t know anything about.
It was a surprise to learn that many of these veterans now oppose the war that was initiated by the U.S. under President Bush’s leadership. Now is definitely not the best time for the American president, who is now suffering from growing opposition from both Democrats and Republicans who demand an early withdrawal from Iraq.
The Nation interviews showed that U.S. troops in Iraq would simply accuse civilians of taking part in the resistance in order to cover up unjustified killings. They could even plant Kalashnikov AK47 rifles beside the corpses to make it look like the dead Iraqis were combatants. The irony of it all is the fact that most of these innocent civilians are killed by U.S. troops by mistake.
According to the Independent, Joe Hatcher, 26, a scout with the 4th Calvary Regiment said: “It would always be an AK because they have so many of these lying around.” He also added that 9mm handguns and shovels were also used to imply that civilians died while they were trying to dig holes for bombs.
Ordinary incidents like a hit-and-run happen occasionally as Sgt Kelly Dougherty of the Colorado National Guard admitted that a 10-year-old kid and his three donkeys were ran over and killed by a military convoy. "Judging by the skid marks, they hardly even slowed down. But, I mean... your order is that you never stop”, said Dougherty.
The most outrageous abuses were reported to be the raids on private homes. Usually these house calls take place late at night when the soldiers can catch the civilians off guard. The veterans explain that they have instructions to tear the civilians’ house apart to make sure that they hold no weapons and no anti-U.S. propaganda material. The most disturbing thing ever is that they wish them good night and apologize after they leave innocent civilians with wrecked houses.
Dougherty explains how she suffered from having a mentally disturbed squad leader in 2003 who believed that every Iraqi is a terrorist and therefore should be shot in his own country before attacking him in the U.S. This twisted perception led to many civilian killings back in 2003.
Another dilemma is attacking wrong houses, something that Sergeant Jesus Bocanegra says is common in Iraq. After such raids, the U.S. army offers nothing but material compensations for the death of a family member.
"We were approaching this one house..., and they had a family dog. And it was barking ferociously, cause it's doing its job. And my squad leader, just out of nowhere, just shoots it... So I see this dog - I'm a huge animal lover... this dog has, like, these eyes on it and he's running around spraying blood all over the place. And like, you know, what the hell is going on? The family is sitting right there, with three little children and a mom and a dad, horrified. And I'm at a loss for words”, said 35- year-old, Lieutenant Jonathan Morgenstein, of Arlington, Virginia, Marine Corps civil affairs unit.
Specialist Philip Chrystal, a 23-year-old shared another brutal story with The Nation and said “I'll tell you the point where I really turned... [there was] this little, you know, pudgy little two-year-old child with the cute little pudgy legs and she has a bullet through her leg... An IED [improvised explosive device] went off, the gun-happy soldiers just started shooting anywhere and the baby got hit. And this baby looked at me... like asking me why. You know, 'Why do I have a bullet in my leg?'... I was just like, 'This is, this is it. This is ridiculous'”.
The soldiers admit that the No. 1 rule is to protect your own back. Therefore, if anything goes wrong, they claim that their life was at risk, and get away with any crime.
Such incidents are not rare in Iraq, according to Sergeant Dustin Flatt, who had another disgusting story to share. “The car was approaching what was in my opinion a very poorly marked checkpoint... and probably didn't even see the soldiers... The guys got spooked and decided it was a possible threat, so they shot up the car. And they [the bodies] literally sat in the car for the next three days while we drove by them”, he said.
Veterans admit that the fact that they were unable to get back at whoever attacked them in the first place pushed them to attack civilians.
There is a racial aspect too behind attacking innocent Iraqis, according to Specialist Josh Middleton, 23, of New York City, 2nd Battalion, 82nd Airborne Division, who said: "A lot of guys really supported that whole concept that if they don't speak English and they have darker skin, they're not as human as us, so we can do what we want."
Sergeant Ben Flanders agreed, saying: "I felt like there was this enormous reduction in my compassion for people. The only thing that wound up mattering is myself and the guys that I was with, and everybody else be damned."
According to The Nation, a detailed list of questions and a request for comment on descriptions of specific patterns of abuse was communicated to the Pentagon. These questions included requests to explain the rules of engagement, the operation of convoys, patrols and checkpoints, the investigation of civilian shootings, the detention of innocent Iraqis based on false intelligence and the practice of "throwaway guns." The Pentagon referred the magazine to the Multi-National Force Iraq Combined Press Information Center in Baghdad, where a spokesperson sent the magazine a response by e-mail:
“As a matter of operational security, we don't discuss specific tactics, techniques, or procedures (TTPs) used to identify and engage hostile forces," the spokesperson wrote. "Our service members are trained to protect themselves at all times. We are facing a thinking enemy who learns and adjusts to our operations. Consequently, we adapt our TTPs to ensure maximum combat effectiveness and safety of our troops. Hostile forces hide among the civilian populace and attack civilians and coalition forces. Coalition forces take great care to protect and minimize risks to civilians in this complex combat environment, and we investigate cases where our actions may have resulted in the injury of innocents.... We hold our Soldiers and Marines to a high stand¬ard and we investigate reported improper use of force in Iraq."
When The Nation reporters asked about testimonies given by the veterans themselves, a spokesman of the Press Information Center replied: “Any allegations of misconduct are treated seriously.... Soldiers have an obligation to immediately report any misconduct to their chain of command immediately."
There seems to be no end for the horrible tragedies that Iraqis have been suffering from since the 2003 invasion. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives have vanished. According to the British Medical Journal, The Lancent, the war claimed the lives of more than 601,000 civilians; 31 percent of whom have been killed by mistake.
One of the U.S. initial justifications for invading Iraq was to “liberate its people”. This turned out to be a big lie; there’s no justification for the loss of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives. Nothing can better describe this other than the words of Sergeant Timothy John Westphal, 31, who told The Nation “I just remember thinking, 'I just brought terror to someone under the American flag'." |
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