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By Dahr Jamail
MARFA, Texas, Sep 16 (IPS) - Aside
from the Iraqi people, nobody knows what the U.S. military is doing in Iraq
better than the soldiers themselves. A new book gives readers vivid and detailed
accounts of the devastation the U.S. occupation has brought to Iraq, in the
soldiers' own words.
"Winter Soldier Iraq and Afghanistan: Eyewitness
Accounts of the Occupation," published by Haymarket Books Tuesday, is a
gut-wrenching, historic chronicle of what the U.S. military has done to Iraq, as
well as its own soldiers.
Authored by Iraq Veterans Against the War
(IVAW) and journalist Aaron Glantz, the book is a reader for hearings that took
place in Silver Spring, Maryland between Mar. 13-16, 2008 at the National Labour
College.
"I remember one woman walking by," said Jason Washburn, a
corporal in the U.S. Marines who served three tours in Iraq. "She was carrying a
huge bag, and she looked like she was heading toward us, so we lit her up with
the Mark 19, which is an automatic grenade launcher, and when the dust settled,
we realised that the bag was full of groceries. She had been trying to bring us
food and we blew her to pieces."
Washburn testified on a panel that
discussed the rules of engagement in Iraq, and how lax they were, even to the
point of being virtually non-existent.
"During the course of my three
tours, the rules of engagement changed a lot," Washburn's testimony continues.
"The higher the threat the more viciously we were permitted and expected to
respond."
His emotionally charged testimony, like all of those in the
book that covered panels addressing dehumanisation, civilian testimony, sexism
in the military, veterans' health care, and the breakdown of the military,
raised issues that were repeated again and again by other
veterans.
"Something else we were encouraged to do, almost with a wink
and nudge, was to carry 'drop weapons', or by my third tour, 'drop shovels'. We
would carry these weapons or shovels with us because if we accidentally shot a
civilian, we could just toss the weapon on the body, and make them look like an
insurgent," Washburn said.
Four days of searing testimony, witnessed by
this writer, is consolidated into the book, which makes for a difficult read.
One page after another is filled with devastating stories from the soldiers
about what is being done in Iraq.
Everything from the taking of "trophy"
photos of the dead, to torture and slaughtering of civilians is
included.
"We're trying to build a historical record of what continues to
happen in this war and what the war is really about," Glantz told
IPS.
Hart Viges, a member of the 82nd Airborne Division of the Army who
served one year in Iraq, tells of taking orders over the radio.
"One time
they said to ï¬re on all taxicabs because the enemy was using them for
transportation.
..One of the snipers replied back, 'Excuse me? Did I hear that
right? Fire on all taxicabs?' The lieutenant colonel responded, 'You heard me,
trooper, ï¬re on all taxicabs.' After that, the town lit up, with all the units
ï¬ring on cars. This was my ï¬rst experience with war, and that kind of set the
tone for the rest of the deployment."
Vincent Emanuele, a Marine rifleman
who spent a year in the al-Qaim area of Iraq near the Syrian border, told of
emptying magazines of bullets into the city without identifying targets, running
over corpses with Humvees and stopping to take "trophy" photos of bodies. "An
act that took place quite often in Iraq was taking pot shots at cars that drove
by," he said. "This was not an isolated incident, and it took place for most of
our eight-month deployment."
Kelly Dougherty, the executive director of
IVAW, blames the behaviour of soldiers in Iraq on the policies of the U.S.
government. "The abuses committed in the occupations, far from being the result
of a 'few bad apples' misbehaving, are the result of our government's Middle
East policy, which is crafted in the highest spheres of U.S. power," she
said.
Knowing this, however, does little to soften the emotional and
moral devastation of the accounts.
"You see an individual with a white
flag and he does anything but approach you slowly and obey commands, assume it's
a trick and kill him," Michael Leduc, a corporal in the Marines who was part of
the U.S. attack of Fallujah in November 2004, said were the orders from his
battalion JAG officer he received before entering the city.
This is an
important book for the public of the United States, in particular, because the
Winter Soldier testimonies were not covered by any of the larger media outlets,
aside from the Washington Post, which ran a single piece on the event that was
buried in the Metro section.
The New York Times, CNN, and network news
channels ABC, NBC and CBS ignored it completely.
This is particularly
important in light of the fact that, as former Marine Jon Turner stated,
"Anytime we did have embedded reporters with us, our actions changed
drastically. We never acted the same. We were always on key with everything, did
everything by the book."
"To me it's about giving a picture of what war
is like," Glantz added, "Because here in the U.S. we have this very sanitised
version of what war is. But war is when we have a large group of armed people
killing large numbers of other people. And that is the picture that people will
get from reading veterans testimony...the true face of
war."
Dehumanisation of the soldiers themselves is covered in the book,
as it includes testimony of sexism, racism, and the plight of veterans upon
their return home as they struggle to obtain care from the Veterans
Administration.
There is much testimony on the dehumanisation of the
Iraqi people as well. Brian Casler, a corporal in the Marines, spoke to some of
this that he witnessed during the invasion of Iraq.
"But on these
convoys, I saw marines defecate into MRE bags or urinate in bottles and throw
them at children on the side of the road," he stated.
Numerous accounts
from soldiers include the prevalence of degrading terms for Iraqis, such as
"hajis," "towel-heads" and "sand-niggers".
Scott Ewing, who served in
Iraq from 2005-2006, admitted on one panel that units intentionally gave candy
to Iraqi children for reasons other than "winning hearts and
minds".
"There was also another motive," Ewing said, "If the kids were
around our vehicles, the bad guys wouldn't attack. We used the kids as human
shields."
Glantz admits that it would be difficult for the average U.S.
citizen to read the book, and believes it is important to keep in mind while
doing so what it took for the veterans to give this historic
testimony.
"They could have been heroes, but what they are doing here is
even more heroic -- which is telling the truth," Glantz told IPS. "They didn't
have to come forward. They chose to come forward."
_______________________________________________
** Dahr Jamail's
MidEast Dispatches **
** Visit the Dahr Jamail website
https://dahrjamailiraq.com **
Dahr Jamail's new book, /Beyond the Green
Zone/ is NOW AVAILABLE!
"International journalism at its best." --Stephen
Kinzer, former bureau chief, New York Times; author /All the Shah's
Men/
"Essential reading for anybody who wants to know what is really
happening in Iraq." --Patrick Cockburn, Middle East correspondent for The
Independent; author of /The Occupation: War and Resistance in Iraq/
Order
/Beyond the Green Zone/ today!
https://dahrjamailiraq.com/bookpage
Winner of the prestigious 2008
Martha Gellhorn Award for Jounalism!
right? Fire on all taxicabs?' The lieutenant colonel responded, 'You heard me,
trooper, ï¬re on all taxicabs.' After that, the town lit up, with all the units
ï¬ring on cars. This was my ï¬rst experience with war, and that kind of set the
tone for the rest of the deployment."
Vincent Emanuele, a Marine rifleman
who spent a year in the al-Qaim area of Iraq near the Syrian border, told of
emptying magazines of bullets into the city without identifying targets, running
over corpses with Humvees and stopping to take "trophy" photos of bodies. "An
act that took place quite often in Iraq was taking pot shots at cars that drove
by," he said. "This was not an isolated incident, and it took place for most of
our eight-month deployment."
Kelly Dougherty, the executive director of
IVAW, blames the behaviour of soldiers in Iraq on the policies of the U.S.
government. "The abuses committed in the occupations, far from being the result
of a 'few bad apples' misbehaving, are the result of our government's Middle
East policy, which is crafted in the highest spheres of U.S. power," she
said.
Knowing this, however, does little to soften the emotional and
moral devastation of the accounts.
"You see an individual with a white
flag and he does anything but approach you slowly and obey commands, assume it's
a trick and kill him," Michael Leduc, a corporal in the Marines who was part of
the U.S. attack of Fallujah in November 2004, said were the orders from his
battalion JAG officer he received before entering the city.
This is an
important book for the public of the United States, in particular, because the
Winter Soldier testimonies were not covered by any of the larger media outlets,
aside from the Washington Post, which ran a single piece on the event that was
buried in the Metro section.
The New York Times, CNN, and network news
channels ABC, NBC and CBS ignored it completely.
This is particularly
important in light of the fact that, as former Marine Jon Turner stated,
"Anytime we did have embedded reporters with us, our actions changed
drastically. We never acted the same. We were always on key with everything, did
everything by the book."
"To me it's about giving a picture of what war
is like," Glantz added, "Because here in the U.S. we have this very sanitised
version of what war is. But war is when we have a large group of armed people
killing large numbers of other people. And that is the picture that people will
get from reading veterans testimony...the true face of
war."
Dehumanisation of the soldiers themselves is covered in the book,
as it includes testimony of sexism, racism, and the plight of veterans upon
their return home as they struggle to obtain care from the Veterans
Administration.
There is much testimony on the dehumanisation of the
Iraqi people as well. Brian Casler, a corporal in the Marines, spoke to some of
this that he witnessed during the invasion of Iraq.
"But on these
convoys, I saw marines defecate into MRE bags or urinate in bottles and throw
them at children on the side of the road," he stated.
Numerous accounts
from soldiers include the prevalence of degrading terms for Iraqis, such as
"hajis," "towel-heads" and "sand-niggers".
Scott Ewing, who served in
Iraq from 2005-2006, admitted on one panel that units intentionally gave candy
to Iraqi children for reasons other than "winning hearts and
minds".
"There was also another motive," Ewing said, "If the kids were
around our vehicles, the bad guys wouldn't attack. We used the kids as human
shields."
Glantz admits that it would be difficult for the average U.S.
citizen to read the book, and believes it is important to keep in mind while
doing so what it took for the veterans to give this historic
testimony.
"They could have been heroes, but what they are doing here is
even more heroic -- which is telling the truth," Glantz told IPS. "They didn't
have to come forward. They chose to come forward."
_______________________________________________
** Dahr Jamail's
MidEast Dispatches **
** Visit the Dahr Jamail website
https://dahrjamailiraq.com **
Dahr Jamail's new book, /Beyond the Green
Zone/ is NOW AVAILABLE!
"International journalism at its best." --Stephen
Kinzer, former bureau chief, New York Times; author /All the Shah's
Men/
"Essential reading for anybody who wants to know what is really
happening in Iraq." --Patrick Cockburn, Middle East correspondent for The
Independent; author of /The Occupation: War and Resistance in Iraq/
Order
/Beyond the Green Zone/ today!
https://dahrjamailiraq.com/bookpage
Winner of the prestigious 2008
Martha Gellhorn Award for Jounalism!