U.S. Aims To Lure Insurgents With ‘Bait’
Snipers Describe Classified Program
A Pentagon group has encouraged some U.S. military snipers in Iraq to target suspected insurgents by scattering pieces of “bait,” such as detonation cords, plastic explosives and ammunition, and then killing Iraqis who pick up the items, according to military court documents.
The classified program was described in investigative documents related to recently filed murder charges against three snipers who are accused of planting evidence on Iraqis they killed.
“Baiting is putting an object out there that we know they will use, with the intention of destroying the enemy,” Capt. Matthew P. Didier, the leader of an elite sniper scout platoon attached to the 1st Battalion of the 501st Infantry Regiment, said in a sworn statement. “Basically, we would put an item out there and watch it. If someone found the item, picked it up and attempted to leave with the item, we would engage the individual as I saw this as a sign they would use the item against U.S. Forces.”
In documents obtained by The Washington Post from family members of the accused soldiers, Didier said members of the U.S. military’s Asymmetric Warfare Group visited his unit in January and later passed along ammunition boxes filled with the “drop items” to be used “to disrupt the AIF [Anti-Iraq Forces] attempts at harming Coalition Forces and give us the upper hand in a fight.”
Eugene Fidell, president of the National Institute of Military Justice, said such a baiting program should be examined “quite meticulously” because it raises troubling possibilities, such as what happens when civilians pick up the items.
“In a country that is awash in armaments and magazines and implements of war, if every time somebody picked up something that was potentially useful as a weapon, you might as well ask every Iraqi to walk around with a target on his back,” Fidell said.
Soldiers said that about a dozen platoon members were aware of the program, and that numerous others knew about the “drop items” but did not know their purpose. Two soldiers who had not been officially informed about the program came forward with allegations of wrongdoing after they learned they were going to be punished for falling asleep on a sniper mission, according to the documents.
Army officials declined to discuss the classified program, details of which appear in unclassified investigative documents and in transcripts of court testimony. Criminal investigators wrote that they found materials related to the program in a white cardboard box and an ammunition can at the sniper unit’s base.
“We don’t discuss specific methods targeting enemy combatants,” said Paul Boyce, an Army spokesman. “The accused are charged with murder and wrongfully placing weapons on the remains of Iraqi nationals. There are no classified programs that authorize the murder of local nationals and the use of ‘drop weapons’ to make killings appear legally justified.”
It is unclear whether the program reached elsewhere in Iraq and how many people were killed through the baiting tactics.
Members of the sniper platoon have said they felt pressure from commanders to kill more insurgents because U.S. units in the area had taken heavy losses. The sniper unit — dubbed “the painted demons” because of the use of tiger-stripe face paint — often went on missions into hostile areas to intercept insurgents going to and from hidden weapons caches.
“It’s our job out here to lay people down who are doing bad things,” Spec. Joshua L. Michaud testified in Iraq in July, discussing the unit’s numerous casualties. “I don’t want to call it revenge, but we needed to find a way so that we could get the bad guys the right way and still maintain the right military things to do.”
Within months of the program’s introduction, three snipers in Didier’s platoon were charged with murder for allegedly using those items and others to make shootings seem legitimate. Though it does not appear that the three alleged shootings were specifically part of the classified program, defense attorneys argue that the program may have opened the door to the soldiers’ actions because it blurred the legal lines of killing in a complex war zone.
James D. Culp, a civilian attorney for one of the snipers, Sgt. Evan Vela, said the soldiers became “battle-fatigued pawns in a newfangled concept of ‘baiting’ warfare that, like an onion, perhaps looked good on the surface, but started stinking to high hell the minute the layers were pulled back and scrutinized.”
Spec. Jorge Sandoval and Staff Sgt. Michael Hensley are accused by the military of placing a spool of wire into the pocket of an Iraqi man Sandoval had shot on April 27 on Hensley’s order. The man had been cutting grass with a rusty sickle when he was shot, according to court documents.
The military alleges that the killing of the man carrying the sickle was inappropriate. Hensley and Sandoval have been charged with murder and with planting evidence.
As Sandoval and Hensley approached the corpse, according to testimony and court documents, they allegedly placed a spool of wire, often used by insurgents to detonate roadside bombs, into the man’s pocket in an attempt to make the case for the kill ironclad.
One soldier who came forward with the allegations, Pfc. David C. Petta, told the same court that he believed the classified items were for dropping on people the unit had killed, “to enforce if we killed somebody that we knew was a bad guy but we didn’t have the evidence to show for it.” Petta had not been officially briefed about the program.
Two weeks after that killing, Sandoval and his sniper team stopped for the night in a concealed “hide” in the village of Jurf as Sakhr along the Euphrates River. While other snipers slept, Hensley watched as an Iraqi man, Genei Nesir Khudair, slowly approached the hide. He radioed to Didier, then a first lieutenant, for permission to go for a “close kill.”
“I told him that as the ground forces commander, I would authorize that if it was necessary,” Didier testified. “And about five minutes later, he told me that he had indeed killed the individual.”
The U.S. military alleges that Vela, on Hensley’s order, shot the Iraqi man twice in the head with a 9mm pistol after he had been taken into custody. It was Vela’s first kill, and he was visibly shaken. “He looked weird,” Sgt. Robert Redfern testified. “Just messed up from it. How would you feel if you had to shoot someone?”
At the time the two shots rang out, Sandoval was on guard duty about 20 meters away, out of sight of Vela, inside a broken-down pump house along the Euphrates River, soldiers testified.
Vela and Hensley told investigators that the man had an AK-47 with him and that he posed a threat, but other soldiers have alleged that the AK-47 was planted next to Khudair after he was shot.
Hensley’s attorney could not be reached to comment. Sandoval’s attorney, Capt. Craig Drummond, thinks his client is innocent in both deaths.
“Literally, they have charged this guy with two murders when on both occasions he was just doing his job,” Drummond said.
Drummond said Sandoval did not have anything to do with placing an AK-47 in the pump-house killing. Sandoval made a statement to investigators discussing his involvement in planting the command wire on the first victim.
“That was done by one of the soldiers at the scene basically out of stupidity. The guys were trying to ensure that there were no questions at all about this kill,” Drummond said. “It was done to overly justify a kill that didn’t need justification.”
Hensley is also charged with killing an Iraqi man whom he approached after the sniper team noticed the man placing wires on a road. Hensley shot him outside his home, maintaining that the man appeared to be moving for a weapon.
Two and a half months after the shooting near the pump house, authorities seized Sandoval while he was vacationing at his mother’s house in Laredo, Tex. The charges have baffled family members, who describe Sandoval as a caring and honest young man who is being punished for following orders.
“This has been a shock to all of us,” said his eldest sister, Norma Vasquez. “He’s been in shock, too, he doesn’t know what . . . is going on.”
Sandoval, a former high school ROTC member, is scheduled to face a court-martial in Baghdad on Wednesday.
Vela’s father, Curtis Carnahan, said he thinks the military is rushing the cases and is holding the proceedings in a war zone to shield facts from the U.S. public.
“It’s an injustice that is being done to them,” Carnahan said. “I feel like you can’t prosecute our soldiers for acts of war and threaten them with years and years of confinement when this program, if it comes to the light of day, was clearly coming from higher levels. . . . All those people who said ‘go use this stuff’ just disappeared, like they never sanctioned it.”
Partlow reported from Baghdad. Researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.
© 2007 Washington Post
Look, I don’t see why there’s a problem. After all, the Iraqis understand that we’re killing them for their own good.
Really.
I’m sure they do.
At least most of them.
How else are we going to win their hearts and minds? (Oops, sorry! Wrong quagmire!)
Oh yes, don’t forget to “Support The Troops.”
They are just nice brave somewhat confused racist Americans thinking they are playing terrorist video games with human flesh.
We elected Democrats to stop the killing, and their answer has been they oppose the war but “Support The Troops” with another $500 Billion wasted on war crimes.
War crime number 12,001, war crime number 12,002…
Capt. Matthew P. Didier should be charged with murder.
Cowboy: Pick up the gun.
Sheepherder: I won’t pick up the gun cause you’ll shoot me.
Cowboy: Pick up the gun.
Sheepherder: But you’ll shoot me!
Cowboy: I shoot you anyway. Pick up the gun!
Sheepherder: Alright.
-BLAM!-
Cowboy: You saw him he had a gun!
-The late comedian, Bill Hicks
Why am I reminded of the poor young lovers in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia? Shot on a bridge, left to die, and when anyone tried to retrieve their bodies for decent burial, they were shot too.
This from a ‘civilised’ society.
I’m not a terrorist, but if there was something on my street (no matter what it was) I would look at it and probably pick it up to dispose of it.
I don’t think I should be shot for doing so.
This is the problem with war. Once you engage in war, there are all sorts of excuses for using the means of war. The argument goes that once in engaged in war, we MUST kill, torture, lie to the public, kill religious figures, use cluster bombs, support dictators and thugs, use phosphorous bombs, imprison numerous innocents, etc… in order to win.
We have the ability to win through means of peace.
Peace…is only found in the cemetary. I belive that is a quote from Malcolm X. Before he was shot. By a cop.
Can you imagine the mind set of being a sniper, killing humans on THEIR homeland, which was illegally invaded by your country?
I wonder if there is an age limit for any who pick up the “bait”?
One thing that strikes me as unbelieveably stupid is, when our military does something they often get it printed in the paper. For example, early on, when going after bin Laden, the Pentagon announced they were tracking him down from his use of a cell phone. Of course after that info hit the news, bin Laden lay very low and for some reason his phone calls ceased. I’m glad this one came out, I can just see some young child picking up a small piece of rope, just prior to having their head explode.
You know, sniping is nothng but murder, but then war is just that, murder. If we were invaded by a foreign nation, I’d be a sniper, if we were fighting another World War Two, where our country was in danger of being invaded, I wouldn’t hesitate to be a sniper. But for the types of wars we’ve fought since that time, I could not and would not do it.
As always, a couple or three sloggers get transmorgriffed into “bad apples” while scum who make it happen sit comfy and sip brandy or whatever it is they sip — distilled blood, perhaps.
Another tactic we’ve learned from the Israelis.
Remember, they trained US soldiers before the invasion of Iraq. If you look closely at many of our prctices, they are identical to those carried out by the IDF against the Palestinians. With the same results and no recriminations - just more dead ‘ragheads’.
Then again the US was dropping ‘humanitarian’ aid suppies in Afghanistan… in wrappers the exact shade of yellow that is found on cluster bomb sub-munitions. And they would drop the supplies right in the middle of, you guessed it, cluster bombed areas. So you gambled ‘literaly, with your life. Is it food? Is it a bomb? Does that qualify as state terrorism?
curmudgeon99, you mean doing the same thing over and over again will attain the same results? Who woulda thunk it? Not Bush apparently…
As I posted elsewhere on CD… modern ’soldiers’ are cowards, trained to kill innocent, unarmed civillians. If they encounter moderate, capable resistance, they call in air cover to saturation bomb the area, an act of more cowardice.
some of these snipers are hunters in civilian life–where you also set bait and sit in trees. Also cowardly–except in iraq you are at risk from DU poisoning and Iraqi snipers.
And of course, as anyone in heavy construction or mining knows, detonator cord (primacord) looks just like a jump rope or clothesline!
And at any rate, if I saw (obviously unwired) blasting materials lying in the street, I’d pick them up for no other reason than to keep them out of the wrong hands!
This story is positively chilling!
Does anyone beside me see this happening in a city near you? Soon? Aren’t some Blackwater boys due home? Some troop rotations?
Why not just plant a grenade out there so it will explode if someone picks it up?
We could start using land mines.
We could put bombs next to the road and blow them up if the insurgents drive cars past them!
Since every civilian is an insurgent we should just shoot all of them right? Freedom through attrition!
Wow, illegally invade and occupy their country, steal their oil resourses, and you destroy their economy, then shoot them when they scavenge for scap to sell.
nice
And while you are at it, destroy a world historical site, loot the museums, close the univercitys and hospitals, bomb weddings, shoot journalists in their hotels with .50 cal machineguns, shoot people at random roadblocks, break into their homes in the middle of the night, destroy the entire infrastructure EXCEPT the oil pipelines… no, no reason to try to fight back.
Isnt that from “full metal jacket”: If they run away, they are Vietcong. If they dont run away, they are disciplined Vietcong.
We brought them freedom, but they prefer to be alive.
War is a dirty business
Might just as well march the whole Iraqi population off to the gas chambers. The U.S. military seems to have lost all sense of what it is they’re supposed to be doing there.
They are following orders…just like the German army did 1939-45.
Just as bad as cops planting evidence..
“See he had a gun!”
All these so-called insurgents that are being killed are most likely armed by us.. remember all those hundreds of millions in lost dollars/arms?
The gods only know what’s floating around those battlefields..
Not to mention the 300 TONS of explosive that wandered off from a ’secured’ storage facility being ‘guarded’ by US soldiers…
Jest like huntin deer eh Bubba?
Hey people… instead of damning America for the extreme, immoral, unlawful actions by it’s military, why not make an issue of how UN-American it is for any soldier to act as “judge, jury and executioner”?
We should be rubbing the Republicans’ (and Senator Lieberman’s) noses in this from now until the next election.
Print out copies of this story and use the magnetic yellow ribbons on people’s cars to stick the paper to their tailgates.
Work For Change.
saywhat September 24th, 2007 3:15 pm
War is a dirty business
or is it that Dirty Business means Warbucks?
This murder has a terrible cost on both sides of the gun barrel.
We will see these military killers with their guilty conscience holding signs on street corners for years to come. Signs saying “No Job, No Food, No Money and No Hope.” Those without concience will run for Congress or become CEOs.
“Work For Change.”
And this will change what exactly?
Funny how you don’t hear too much here about how SoDamned Insane placed military bases near preschools and other places where children congregate, so the kids would get blown up and then they could holler about how the Americans were killing children.
And in what way is this war illegal? Congress sure as heck approved it.
So all of you that voted Democrat in the last umpteenth elections can start blaming yourselves for this damned war.
Why bother with the ‘bait’ until after you shoot someone? It would be much more efficient.
I don’t see much difference when people are starving and need medical care for cash which can only be obtained by selling war material.
I’ll bet the pentagon advisors were Neocons with dual American/Israeli citizenship. Israeli soldiers have entrapping Palestinian children for years.
Zionists consider anyone who is not one of them to be animals.
If you really want to work for change, stand in the road with a street saying, “No soldier leaves a dead child behind” or GOP perverts never leave a child behind.” It is called out flanking the media.
The same signs in the back window of your car have the same effect. (Lazy Cowards need not apply, thought I’ve been doing it for 4 years.)
The Mafia is an elusive and difficult organization to become a member of.
The military however is easy to get into and you can kill more people and it’s absolutely legal!
Thoughtful Republicans (there are a few) characterize us progressives as “frustrated,” not realizing that we are scornful– quite different– and morally indignant at their unawareness of their own faults.
The American occupation of Iraq is similar to the historical English occupations including Ireland and the United States.
The Israeli occupation of Gaza and the Left Bank and apartheid in South Africa (identical), the Jacksonian doctrine of exterminating American Indians, the spectacle of fools anywhere going into other peoples’
territory and telling them what to do while shooting them, should have taught us some time back that an occupation is an occupation and therefore sucks.
Yes, they all suck, but some occupations are even more pernicious than others. Most Americans, even those with total contempt for President Bush, probably think, when they hear of innocent civilian deaths in Iraq,
“Oh, no, another mistake, sort of another incident of friendly fire.”
In fact, the killing of innocents is entirely routine for both the American Military and the American Enterprise mercenaries. Those
fearful/devious Americans on the ground, public and private, have no better idea of who their enemies are than our president does, and so, like him, they shoot.
We should never underestimate the volatility of Iraq (again). The place is going down at 32 feet per second per second. Any hope for an improvement is post American occupation.
This as President Bush’s legacy, moron, already is known.
wildrose, are you stupid or just delusional? You said
“And in what way is this war illegal? Congress sure as heck approved it.”
They gave Bush the power to go in after they were fed phony, doctored up intelligence (illegal move number one)
by Bush and his “intelligence people”. Now it’s not even an illegal ‘war’, it’s an illegal OCCUPATION of a sovereign nation.
As to having schools near military bases….We have countless civilians living ON our military bases and schools near many so what exactly is your point?
in twenty years people in what will remain of the US and the rest of the world will wonder, «how did the US government get into this awful mess and how did the US citizens put up with it for so long?» the myth of being untouchable, vengefulness, mercenary armies, the media joining the military-industrial complex, the myth of the sole remaining superpower and «what’s good for business is good for america» will all have played a part. the greatest culprit, though, will be hopelessness and apathy. do what you can, do all you can now and share with friends and acquaintances. only the ignorant and the fanatical can’t see that life and hope are inseparable.
The very concept of military snipers is nauseating. These guys are not heroes, they are moral cripples, too young and too stupid to understand what they are doing or how they are being used by the military brass. While the entire operation stinks to high heaven, the officers are the most vile and cowardly. Those who force our young soldiers to kill innocent civilians should be tried for war crimes.
We live in the United States of Horror!
What a waste of detonators, cords and other explosive paraphernalia. Just plant an American flag and blow away those who don’t salute it. That would well in this country too.
What do you think that war is about? You kill the other guy before he kills you . . .
If you kill enough of THEM, you win . . . If they kill you . . . You lose . . .
Period . . . ’nuff said . . . .
The rest of it . . . .
Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah,
“Two Videos: Blackwater killing innocent Iraqi civilians, and an Iraqi sniper killing Americans soldiers”
http://www.chycho.com/?q=node/993
Many videos have come out of Iraq showing the results of the US invasion. Some have shown the complete brutality of the war, some the humanitarian efforts to save lives, while others show the day to day activity of Iraqi civilians and/or American troops. Two videos however have captured the true nature of this war better then any other that I have seen.
First is this video showing how Blackwater mercenaries kill innocent Iraqi civilians for sport: Blackwater killing people for sport (2:28)
http://mparent7777-2.blogspot.com/2007/09/blackwater-killing-people-for-sport-see.html
The other is this video of an “Iraqi sniper said to be responsible for the deaths of over 100 U.S. military personnel”: Juma: Iraqi Resistance Propaganda Video.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11282.htm
Both these videos are appalling and should only be watched by those mature enough to tolerate humanities complete stupidity.
MENDO CHUCK, War is hell, you shoot at any who aim to shoot you and do it first.
Then there is another type of war, where you are an a member of an invading force and sit off at a distance of up to two miles with a 50 cal, scoped, sniper rifle and blow up any whom you “think” may be the enemy with a DU round of ammo.
It matters not if they should be armed or not, or if they may be some totally innocent civilian on their way to find a loaf of bread or a potatoe for their evening meal and happen to pick up some strange looking piece of debris. __ KA-Boom!___ “Got cha”, and another grieving family, wondering why, why oh why, is there no God? So it’s not blah blah, blah, it’s MURDER, for no good reason.
Period, nuff said? Uh-uh MENDO CHUCK. There will never be enough said about this disaster in Iraq that Cheney/Bush stated with their impeachable lies.
Kristina40, Apparently I’m not the one who’s stupid or delusional. You all sit around and bitch about the Democrats and what traitors and wimps they are - a thing I’ve known for 50 years. You’ve finally all noticed that, in the end, there’s no substantial difference between the Democruds and the Republicraps. (Another thing I noticed when I was about eight years old.)
And yet, you make excuses for the Dems and how the poor babies were lied to and fooled by Bush about the circumstances surrounding our invasion of Iraq. Gee, I knew that I didn’t want us going into Iraq. The Greens were against going into Iraq. How is it that GW was able to fool all these educated, highly paid politicians?
Is it perhaps because they.. I don’t know.. are really that stupid, like yourself? Or because these sons of bitches could never be trusted in the first place?!!!
wild rose, who said I supported the dems? Great that you’ve know they’re the same for that long but that doesn’t change the illegality of this war. Nor does it change our having women and children LIVING on our military bases. You are speaking out both sides of your face. In one sentence you are talking about how bad Sadaam was for putting kids at risk and the next you are saying this war isn’t illegal, then the next the war is everybody’s fault but yours. It’s been proven the intelligence was doctored prior to being presented to Congress, that isn’t even a debate anymore. Any intelligence that pointed in any other direction was SQUASHED. The war was premeditated by Bush/Cheney and co.
Kristina40, just because I hate the war doesn’t mean that I think that it’s illegal. It’s immoral, yes, at least by my standards. Usually when people say the war is illegal I believe they are referring to the fact that the UN didn’t sanction it. I don’t give a good God damn if the UN sanctions what this country does or not.
Okay, I’m not sure about the thing with the kids and the military bases. I was told that and just fell for it, I guess.
It’s you, though that hasn’t explained how the Dems fell for the lies. They were lied to? Sure they were lied to. We all were. I didn’t believe the lies. How is it that they did?
wildrose, you said “I don’t give a good God damn if the UN sanctions what this country does or not.” So the U.S. is above International Law? We get to decide what’s right and wrong for other Countries and nobody gets to have a say so?
You don’t have to be sure about kids on military bases, I lived on one when I WAS A KID. It’s a fact.
This practice of baiting echoes the practice of shooting MAMs (military aged males) in Vietnam…
“I recall a phrase we used in the field, MAM, for military-age male. If a helo spotted a peasant in black pajamas who looked remotely suspicious, a possible MAM, the pilot would circle and fire in front of him. If he moved, his movement was judged evidence of hostile intent, and the next burst was not in front, but at him. Brutal? Maybe so. But an able battalion commander with whom I had served… was killed by enemy sniper fire while observing MAMs from a helicopter. And Pritchard was only one of many. The kill-or-be-killed nature of combat tends to dull fine perceptions of right and wrong.” - US Army Captain Colin Powell
This baiting seems very similar in that the mere act of picking up litter or even something potentially useful or something dangerous with the intent making the area safer or turning it in, marks one for death by sniper, except now there is no warning shots.
What is happening in Iraq is not war (which really ended in front of a Mission Accomplished banner), it is occupation, and despite what some violence junkies would have you believe, occupation is not about kill or be killed.
Amerika is outta kontrol!
Kristina, no, I don’t give a damn what the UN says. I think we should get the hell out of the UN, big stinking hyprocrite that it is. I want us to be a sovereign nation again, like before FDR handed our US Treasury over to foreign banks..duh, The Fed. Another wonderful thing that Congress approved. Was it legal because Congress approved it? It was down-right treasonous and they all should have been shot for treason as far as I’m concerned. The lot of them, FDR and Congress and every traitorous one of them that had anything to do with it. How’s that for betrayal of the American people?
Fuck International Law. If we had real statesmen instead of career politicians in office, we wouldn’t be the big Imperialist Fuck that we now are. Yeah, that’s been going on for a long time. Like 160 years or more.
What say so do they have anyway, anywhere? Do you really suppose that the UN has any power where these decisions are concerned. They sure had a lot to say about this mess, didn’t they? Look at who runs the UN, anyway. The G8. Well, how about that? Duh, again. It’s all bullshit. Get over it.
And Jesus, Kristina, I meant the military bases and the kids in Iraq and Saddam Hussein.
This was written after reading an interview with a sniper in one of the local papers around the time of Fallujah. (reprinted with permission)
———————————
I am a Terrorist - 2
Once I was a hunter.
My rifle and I were one.
My stealth became a legend,
I never failed to bag my game.
All through my youth,
The larder was always full.
I watch him grazing, watching over his herd
His eyes are alert, but he watches for wolves,
Panthers, coyotes, skulkers close at hand.
He doesn’t know I am watching him
From a quarter mile away.
I caress the trigger and watch him leap and sag and die.
I am still a hunter,
But now my game is man.
The army said I am a natural.
They trained me well
And gave me precision weapons.
They call me a sniper.
I look through the scope at my distant foe,
Smiling to myself at his unsuspecting face.
I watch him as he goes about his business
Then I caress the trigger and watch his expression
As the slug slams home and he realizes his death.
Just like shooting deer in the valley, it’s fun.
What will I do when there is no war or my enlistment is up?
Work in some damned office or wind up pumping gas?
Somehow, wild game has lost its luster, but I am still a hunter.
I know there will be a place for me, the right agency, the mob,
Some country that needs my skills.
All I need to do is watch the right want ads.
Sometimes I’ll gutshoot my target,
Let him scream for a while to shake up all his friends,
But then I’ll fire again and put him out of his misery.
It is not a nice thing to do, but they tell me it is war,
And all things are fair in war they say.
I know nothing about love.
I no longer care, for it is all one to me.
Right now I am a patriot, but that means nothing
I win medals for doing what I love.
Some day I may find myself the hunted
With a bounty on my head, but that makes no difference
For I am a hunter and I live to kill.
Steve Osborn
16 May 2004
————————————–
What are we doing to these kids?
Wild Rose, regardless of how much emotion you invest in your opinion, Article VI Clause 2 of the US Constitution explicitly states…
This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land
Enterik, what’s your point?
WILDROSE, Krisina40 is correct, you are not.
Our congress, our media and we the people, were told that Saddam DID have weapons of mass destruction, ready for use and was also purchasing materials to make atomic weapons. Buch/Cheney and Rumsfeld were briefed by Geroge Tenent, the Director of the CIA on Sept 6th, 2002, that all of that was absolutely false. That top secret report was snuffed and Colin Powell, Congress and we the people, were informed otherwise. It was a lie and Bush knew it was a lie.
Now, I grant you, a very few did not believe the false report, but not necessarily because they had better information, some don’t believe any governments reports and any more most of we the people don’t. Therfore, if Congress had been briefed on the true facts, some, perhaps one like you, would not have believed it either. Most did trust Powell and what he reported, why shouldn’t we? I don”t blame anyone, including Congress for believing the NIE report as given to Congress.
It turns out the NIE report was a damn lie, but by the time the truth was known, the mission was “accomplished”. Monday morning quarterbacks are never impressive ‘wildrose’, if you were so up on the subject and had the correct intelligence, why didn’t you leak the truth to the press and save us all from this horrible disaster?
Enroute to a Class A license to carry I had to take a state certified gun safety course. (I don’t love guns but I inherited some from my WWII generation Dad/uncles and want to be right with the law.) The state police lieutenant who gave the course opened with this remark, more or less quote: “Any day using or talking about guns is a good day. I’m a right wing gun nut and I’m waiting for the revolution when we take out all the liberals and left wing types who are betraying and destroying this country.” A state police Lt. this was, who trains “cadets” too as he said. I asked how he’d be able to recognize the right people to be shot and he laughed/fluffed off the question. Well folks, these guys LOVE what they do and there is indeed a fascist-state-machinery already in place with guys like this behind the badge….What we do to others (Indians, Africans, Vietnamese, oil-rich Muslims) we have always done, sooner or later, to ourselves…
My point is that regardless of the direction one assails the UN Charter and the larger body of international law to which the US is a signatory party it is the law of the land. Nothing more, nothing less. Some people actually think rule of law is a good thing…
when reports such as these come out a person realizes all the dead US terrorist soldiers are not worth one IRAQI CHILD.
LOL Jack, good thing some of us leftist, liberal types are gun nuts too. It’s sad but I see a civil war in our future,and not our too distant future at that. I stay awake at night thinking of ways for it to be averted but the “us against them” mentality has infiltrated everyone it seems…
Mendo:
loved that post
i can see maybe how you come to 8 down
am wondering how you decided on 14 across??
as an old programmer i am kind of into
the power of 2
but 14??
ken
Enterik, I think following one’s own inner truth and moral standards are a good thing, and agree with Thoreau who said, concerning law and injustice, “but if it is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law. Let your life be a counter friction to stop the machine. What I have to do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself to the wrong which I condemn.” Remember ‘Civil Disobedience’? Fuck the law, when the law is unjust or wrong I say “fuck it” The law once said that it was legal to kill millions of Indians, too.
Thomas Jefferson warned us about getting involved with foreign bodies and international treaties.
KEM PATRICK, “Krisina40 is correct, you are not.” That’s an opinion, my man, not a fact.
I remember when and how Bush lied about the WMDs, you don’t have to explain it to me. I also distinctly remember when it was becoming increasingly evident that the whole thing was a fabrication, there were no WMDs. Congress voted to go into Iraq long after it was crystal clear that there were no WMDs. There was also the huge question - why are we are we proposing to attack IRAQ? Bin Ladin was not from Iraq. He was supposedly the prime suspect in the 9/11 attacks. Why Iraq? They still voted to go into Iraq.
How is it that the Greens all knew that we shouldn’t attack Iraq? Other people I knew, as well, saw the crap that was flying. Actually, I did have stuff posted on my website, concerning anti-Iraq protests, before we went in, and stuff concerning 9/11 almost as soon as it hit.
“by the time the truth was known, the mission was “accomplished”. — bullshit (see above) Monday morning quarterbacks are never impressive ‘wildrose’, if you were so up on the subject and had the correct intelligence, why didn’t you leak the truth to the press and save us all from this horrible disaster?”
THE TRUTH WAS ALREADY IN THE PRESS! Jesus.
Hey y’all, here’s a corker for ‘ya. Check out the date. http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0331-01.htm
KEN, just out of couriosity, what was 14 across?
WILD ROSE, You are still wrong, more wrong than ever. I didn’t claim MY opinion was a fact BTW. ___ Nor are yours.
I referred to the top secret briefing George Tenent gave Bush, in Sept, 2002. The press did NOT know about that top secret briefing until Oct of 2005 and I’m certain that the Green party, or you, didn’t know about it prior to the invasion of Iraq either. If you did, I’ll ask again, why didn’t you inform the world of that top secret briefing George Tenent gave to George Bush in Sept, 2002?
The briefing given by Powell to Congress, the press and us, in Oct of 2002, was from the NIE report, which falsly stated, Saddam DID have WMDs. There is no bull shit there, that is precicely what transpired and you seem to have known otherwise. Where did you get your top secret information? Again, the press did not know of that report until 2005 and they then buried it. BTW, my name is not Jesus.
Here’s another one. http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0418-03.htm
Well articles like these sure make it hard to support the troops doesn’t it?
I just want them to come home and get help. I just don’t want anymore of them to die or anymore Iraqis to die. I don’t want anymore Americans or Iraqis injured or mentally scarred by what they’ve witnessed or done.
This war has been a crime wave and exploitation of class on a grand scale.
I will reserve my hatred for those who started the war, not those who have been forced and/or duped into fighting it. They’re the ones making a fortune while poor and working people murder each other.
KEM PATRICK, I wasn’t talking about that briefing. You were. If that’s the case, how do you know that Bush wasn’t lied to, also?..and all of them? Anyway, all I remember is the news stories that came out, one after another, that made it clear that there were no WMDs.
When did congress vote to go into Iraq? And you’re still not seeing the whole picture. It was obvious to a lot of people that it was insane to attack Iraq, which had nothing to do with 9/11. Can it be possible that you don’t remember THAT? Were you for going into Iraq, KEM PATRICK?
WILD ROSE, I do believe you do not understnd our argument. Once again, the true CIA report was sqashed in ___ Sept, 2002.___ The press, Congress, the Green Party and we the people, did NOT know the truth in 2002. In Oct of 2002, Congress was briefed on a false inteligence report, so was the press and everyone else.
Congress voted to fund the war in Oct, 2002, shortly after being briefed on a false intelligence report and Bush/Cheney/ Rumsfeld and Tenent knew it was false. Colin Powell did not know. The factual CIA report was NOT privy to the press until late 2004 or early 2005. That news report you just offered was too late to help, it was also argumenative as Rummy and Cheney so well proved. Yes, by then we knew there was a skunk in the chicken coop, but it was too late, Bush had his vote and he ran with it and no one could stop him.
I’ll ask again. If you knew of the top secret report given by Tenent in ___ September of 2002,___ why didn’t you say so at that time to the press, to the world?
That’s correct, WILD ROSE, all you knew was the news stories that came out after it was far to late to stop Bush.
Before the truths were known, Yes, I did support Bush, as did over 80% of the people. I didn’t know the truth in 2002, neither did you. I knew there were NO Iraqis involved in the hi-jackings on 9-11, but I believed at the time that Saddam had a hand in it. I believed the Pentagon, our government, as did most. Of course, I’m obviously not as smart as you are. I’m average. Do you think I should be punished for believing my president in 2002? I didn’t vote for the idiot, but I had no idea of how insane he was then. I’m pretty sure I wised up about it all about the same time you did. The argument here began when you poo-ppo’d Kristina for saying we were lied to in 2002, ____ and we were.
KEM,
I didn’t know “of the top secret report given by Tenent in ___ September of 2002,”
I said it before. I WAS NOT REFERRING TO THAT REPORT. Y O U - W E R E. I NEVER CLAIMED TO KNOW ABOUT THAT REPORT. SO THAT’S PROBABLY WHY I DIDN’T REPORT IT TO THE PRESS.
And I’ll say it again. Forget the stinking report — there was still obviously something very wrong about attacking Iraq from the gitgo. I and many others, have been saying that for a long, long time. (Like A.N.S.W.E.R., for instance.)
I remember very clearly discussing it with other Greens. It was well before we actually went into Iraq. It was 2001 that I ran for Ulster County legislator with the Greens. I was heavily involved with the Greens in ‘01 and ‘02. I remember Steve Greenfield, who ran for congressman against Maurice Hinchey, telling me that once we go into Iraq, we will be in a full dictatorship.
There were endless signs along the road. That’s all I’m saying.
Correction, my bad, Greenfield ran in 2002.
I never poo-pood Kristina for saying we were lied to. I know we were lied to. I questioned the “illegal war” comment.
BTW, your question of how did I know if Bush wasn’t lied to also? I do not understand your question or your point. Lied to about what? He was briefed that Saddam had no weapons of mass destruction was not buying uranium from Africa and was not involved in 9-11. In anger, Bush told Tenent to bury that report and Tenent buried it. Two CIA operatives leaked the story to the press in either late 2004 or early 2005. The press then buried it, but the truth came out, it sadly came out far too late. If Tenent would have leaked the report in 2002, had he addrssed Congress, he could have saved us all from this Iraqi disaster. In fact he could have insured Bush would have been subject for impeachment in 2002.
KEM, “your question of how did I know if Bush wasn’t lied to also?”
– Never mind. Just a misunderstanding on my part and I’m getting tired. peace.
this article or one similar made it to yahoo news. will it be on faux or cnn. ?
What would be wonderful to see would be the commanders ordering the troop ships close to shore, and watching the grunts toss their guns overboard as they march onto the waiting transports, right before they leave Iraq forever. And the world watches in rapt fascination as the ENTIRE Bush cabal is perp-walked to their execution for war crimes…
Hi COCO, hey you don’t say hi to me anymore. If I wrote something that offended you lately, ___ please forgive me. It would not have been intentional. Have you dug a shelter and stocked it with chocolates, beans and wine yet? Get ready, Bush is comin.
You don’t have to YELL, I can hear, it’s my eyesight that’s bad.
Forget the Sept 2002 report? Why? That is the “most important” issue concerning the war Bush started. Yes I wrote about it, thought perhaps you had never known it.
Now the reaon I wrote in the first place mentioning you and Kristina, is because of your 8:01 blog where you wrote about the poor dems being lied to etc, not because of the illegal war comment. No you did not know of the top secret briefing in Sept of 2002, only those present and those who compiled the data were aware of the truth. When you and I and the Greens andalmost everyone were aware of the truth, ___ it was too late, Congress had been decieved and they voted, based upon lies and that should make it an illegal war and that is not the fault of you, me, or any of Congress. We don’t have to play with words, legal or illegal makes little difference, it is a war that should never have happened and if Tenent had told Congress in 2002, it never would have happened. If Bush/Cheney weren’t crazy for wealth and power it never would have happened.
As long as you are looking at articles, try this one, 8 August 2003
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0809-03.htm
And so it has come to pass, but we still don’t get the picture.
how else are you going to get a medal in a hurry?
Iraq was and is no threat — so why is the same tired old lie about the military being in Iraq to “protect the freedom of Americans” still being repeated? Do they think we’re stupid?
I saw a video clip of a soldier or Blackwater mercenary with a rifle, shouting to his buddies that it was a “turkey shoot,” killing Iraqis. Apparently they consider shooting civilians, a war crime, to be fun and entertaining. It’s beyond disgusting.
KEM PATRICK
you haven’t done anything. i was just in a hurry. no shelter. i hate chocolates and sweets and we are all fasting, so no wine………..
i’ve posted some comments to you on other threads. guess you didn;t see them.
I was infantry between wars so I never saw combat but I remember an awfull lot of the “skills” that I learned and one of them was NEVER kick or pick up anything, especially if it would make a nice souvenier, ie. enemy weapon or helmet etc. It is likely to be boobytrapped or bait placed by snipers. This has been going on since at least as far back as World War II. I hope the innocents in Iraq learn this quickly and teach their children.
Remember, during the Revolutionary War, we the American Minute Men/Civilian soldiers were also labeled insurgents or something similar by the Brits. We used unorthodox methods of fighting that surprised the Brits and we won using guerrilla warefare that we learned fighting the poor Indians. We were patriots defending our country in every way possible. What makes the Iraqis any different.
We don’t belong there.
Wild Rose, I will now expand upon my basic thesis that the US should honor it’s treaty obligations as a founding member and signatory of the UN Charter.
First, Congressional Resolution Authorizing Force Against Iraq (H.J.Res. 114)…authorizes the Use of Military Force Against Iraq. The resolution expresses support for the President’s efforts to: (1) strictly enforce through the United Nations Security Council all relevant Security Council resolutions applicable to Iraq; and (2) obtain prompt and decisive action by the Security Council to ensure that Iraq abandons its strategy of delay, evasion, and noncompliance and promptly and strictly complies with all relevant Security Council resolutions.
Second, UN Security Council Resolution 1441 ends with the phrase “Decides to remain seized of the matter” which according to Article 12 of the UN Charter means…
While the Security Council is exercising in respect of any dispute or situation the functions assigned to it in the present Charter, the General Assembly shall not make any recommendation with regard to that dispute or situation unless the Security Council so requests.
…which in plain English means, no-one else can legallly do anything until the Security Council authorizes them to do so.
Take these two things together, along with Article VI Clause 2 of the US Constitution, we find a Congress that feels constrained by International Treaty law, specifically UNSC Resolution 1441, and expected the Bush Administration to limit itself to such law, as had his father before him. An invasion of Iraq was not authorized by Congress unless it was also authorized by the UN Security Council first and it was not. The goal was to pressure Iraq into compliance with the threat of force and that worked, Iraq allowed inspectors wide ranging access yet despite numerous US “intelligence leads” they failed to find evidence of the asserted WMD or programs to develop WMDs or programs to develop programs to develop WMDs…and it is precisely this lack of WMDs that ensured the Bush Administration would invade Iraq.
Of course the run-up to the war was a propaganda campaign with little substance much of which was demonstrably false. I don’t contest that point, but I do contest the assertion that any but the Bush Administration deserves blame for our illegal invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq.
lillulu: Iraq was and is no threat — so why is the same tired old lie about the military being in Iraq to “protect the freedom of Americans” still being repeated? Do they think we’re stupid?
ENTERIK: The lie is easy to say and peoplejudge it based on the emotions it stirs, not it’s accuracy. There is are three ugly truths about our invasion and occupation of Iraq that must remain unsaid in American politics. I will say them. The United States invaded Iraq in a desperate (and futile) attempt to defend the value of the US dollar. The United States occupies Iraq to ensure long term access to Iraqi oil fields for our oil pumping companies and our military. The United States will be occupying Iraq for quite some time to come due to our projected need to rapidly project force in the region. These are bitter truths that flow from our American freedom to spend money, extract resources and waste energy, it is our opulent and prodigal lifstyle that Bush defends in the twilight of American Empire…
Hey lillulu, the last sentence of your first paragraph: “do they think were stupid?”. Yes, they do. And helpless, too. The Founders apparently forgot to write in a clause in the Constitution that would deal with removing the criminally insane from Office before they could commit the rest of us to suicidal behavior.
Best hope for an intervention at the Whitehouse and K Street.
“Basically, we would put an item out there and watch it. If someone found the item, picked it up and attempted to leave with the item, we would engage [i.e. kill] the individual as I saw this as a sign they would use the item against U.S. Forces.”
How sick is that?
A. Very - B. A little - C. Not at all
—
Answer key:
A. - Still not condemning enough.
B. - Get the blinkers off.
C. - You’re a murderer. Go directly to jail - do not pass muster.
Once Upon A Time……..
Story 1:
There was a young man who learned Russian while he was in the Army.
He was then chosen to be a participant in a “Top Secret” program to have soldiers defect to the U.S.S.R. and infiltrate their society.
He married a Russian woman and returned to the United States with no punishment because he was part of the “Top Secret” program.
Then, he was recruited by the CIA to help them infiltrate Pro and Anti Castro Organizations in New Orleans and Dallas.
The young man was eventually chosen to be the “Patsy” for an assassination.
All documents pertaining to that man, Lee Harvey Oswald, were destroyed by the Army and Department of Defense.
Story 2:
There was a quiet peasant village in Viet Nam, My Lai.
A group of young soldiers had been ordered to engage “The Enemy”……While searching for “The Enemy”, some of their fellow soldiers were killed by mines and those young soldiers became fearful of their own shadows.
They entered the Village of My Lai with weapons loaded and with safeties off…..They proceeded to take the old men, women, and children out of their homes and began a massacre. Hundreds of unarmed men, women, and children were killed.
No one would have heard about this were it not for a helicopter pilot who wrote to six different congressmen who started an investigation.
By then the U.S. Army and Department of Defense, had exonerated themselves from any blame and destroyed or sealed all documents dealing with the unfortunate event.
Story 3:
There was a young man,Ali Mohammed.
Ali Mohammed was working for the U.S. Army and Department of Defense at Fort Bragg from 1987-1989. While there, he was stealing “Top Secret” documents and recruiting Islamic Militants in Brooklyn, New York.
The F.B.I. knew of this man but he was being protected by the U.S. Government.
He was linked to several terrorist attacks including the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center.
Again, documents were sealed or destroyed by the Department of Defense and U.S. Army.
Story 4:
There was a Special “Top Secret” Task Force formed called “Able Danger Group” in the Department of Defense.
Their duties were to track terrorists and to test the U.S. Army´s response to terrorist attacks.
One of the men they were either tracking or working with was Mohammed Atta, you know, the leader of the 9/11 attacks. One can not be sure because the Director of the ISI of Pakistan had visited the Department of Defense to get an additional $100,000 for one of its operatives in the United States, more than likely Mohammed Atta.
Anyway, there were three Department of Defense employees who were willing to testify before a congressional committee. They had admitted that they were ordered to destroy all documents pertaining to “Able Danger Group” and “Mohammed Atta” and were willing to say who gave the “Orders”.
The Inspector General of the Army, selected by, I lie alot, Donald Rumsfeld, said there was no such evidence and that those employees were wrong and those employee witnesses were prevented from testifying before the committee.
Story 5:
There was a young professional football player who wanted to serve his country.
Pat Tillmon was on a mission in Afghanistan with two native Afghanistan Scouts. The men of his company knew he was up front.
For some reason, his company opened fire on him and his two scouts. Some say that he was struck in the forehead from as close as 3 yards. Allegedly he was calling out his name to his fellow soldiers.
The U.S. Army reported that he had been shot by enemy fire and Karl Rove mounted the propoganda campaign to turn him into a war hero.
We now know that he was killed by “Friendly Fire”, which eliminates the suggestion that he might have been murdered.
The family of Pat Tillmon has never received the “Truth” and the Department of Defense and U.S.Army covered up their own “Cover Up”…..
We know those stories. What we don´t is how many unarmed civilians have been murdered in Afghanistan and Iraq by American Civilian Contracted Mercenaries and American Soldiers. And, those murders are in the theft of the natural resources of Afghanistan and Iraq, OIL.
Neither Iraq or Afghanistan is a threat to the security of the United States…..Iran is not a threat to the security of the United States.
A terrorist act is an act of: hate, anger, or revenge.
Next thing we know, we will use that old time-tested technique of inducing sickness in the population a la our tactics in decimating the Plains Indians in the US. A method where no soldier is even in jeopardy.
We gave blankets used by smallpox patients to the tribes who had no immune defense. The plains opened up for settlers and no opposition.
Enterik, when did I make the “assertion that any but the Bush Administration deserves blame for our illegal invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq”?
Hey……..
Did you hear about the Anthrax scare in 2001 ????
Why was there no real investigation?
It couldn´t be that those packets with Anthrax came from the Department of Defense program in Maryland?
Don´t worry we have 9,000 nuclear weapons and the missles to deliver them all over the world. When our generals decide it is time to get rid of all enemies, they will do it. Of course that will include many of us, but “That´s the Collateral Damage” thing.
Wildrose, I think your history is a little off. The Federal Reserve was approved in 1913–FDR had nothing to do with it. His only mistake was not nationalizing it when he had the chance. He had enough political clout that he called up the head of the Federal Reserve and told him what the interest rates would be, and the guy went along–knew he had to. Truman was apparently the sucker of corporate appendages, giving the Fed back over to its own devices again.
But, like you, I think we should be a soverign nation with a soverign people. WE need to put Bush and all his murderers on trial in this country. Hang them here after a fair trial.
As for these snipers, they are rather like Lon Haruchi, the FBI thug who shot Mrs. Weaver as she stood in her doorway holding a six-month old baby. A psychologist (who should also be tried) told them that if they took out the matriarch, Weaver would surrender. They murdered those people. They sure as hell won’t mind murdering you. They all received promotions. Yeah, I sure feel safer in this country when the FBI does such things, provides the bomb for the first WTC bombings, and is spot-on the scene in such places as Oklahoma–all being very supiciously linked to that one. As long as thugs and murderers run this government, we can’t be a soverign nation. We are a “soverign” nation of murderers.
Anyone who has a “support the troops” ribbon on their car can kiss my ass. The troops need to lay down their weapons and come home and quit killing people in order to rob them. They have a name for that, you know?
Of course, they now say there are as many mercenaries in Iraq as there are military–all of them are criminals. Criminals. I don’t feel sorry for any people who sign up for the military now. If you sign up, you’re either a complete moran, in which case you deserve a Darwin award, or you or a mercenary with no conscience. I can’t feel sorry for you. You get just what you deserve for invading and occupying another country. You are a fucking Nazi just like in WWII, and this article shows there is no difference whatsoever–although there may still be a few people in the JAG outfits who are trying to provide some semblence of justice.
If they ever start looking seriously into this administrations dealings it is going to be found rotting like a decaying carcus in the desert from all the corruption. I am certain that it probably never occurred to any of these sainted people that starving people will pick anything that looks like it might be useful up so they can sell it to buy food for their starving children. I have heard of some low things but this seems to top the list. Is there nothing this terrible government of Bush’s won’t do?
Here are a few links to follow concerning protests of the Iraq war before the US went in.
http://daily.stanford.edu/article/2002/10/4/studentsProtestPotentialWarInIraq
http://socialistworld.net/eng/2002/11/12italy.html
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/1102-02.htm
http://archive.oxfordmail.net/2002/9/11/33945.html
http://archive.oxfordmail.net/2002/9/11/33945.html
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/oct2002/us-o28.shtml
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/oct2002/dear-o17.shtml
http://www.ccmep.org/2002_articles/Iraq/102702_pictures_of_anti.htm
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/november2002.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protests_against_the_Iraq_War
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween_2002_anti-war_protest
There are many more. Ignore the wikipedia ones if you like. Wikipedia is not a reliable source, although they sometimes have reliable information.
To the troopers in Iraq: Go AWOL. Take a hummer, drive like hell for Syria, ditch the uniform and gun, take a left at Lebanon, drive into Israel, make a right for any port, catch a Mediterranian cruise to Italy, then fly home. Once home, let your family know you are home, then live very low profile under an assumed name, ’cause NO-ONE will want to be in the same city with you after Bush starts his attack on Iran.
The military turns good boys into cold blooded killers.
The USA is an empire of shame. The great goliath is the most evil nation in the world, and the #1 obstacle to world peace.
—————————
Martin Luther King, “Why I Am Opposed to the War in Vietnam”
The military turns good boys into cold blooded killers.
The USA is an empire of shame. The great goliath is the most evil nation in the world, and the #1 obstacle to world peace.
—————————
Things haven’t changed since MLK’s days:
Martin Luther King, “Why I Am Opposed to the War in Vietnam”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b80Bsw0UG-U
I wonder if these snipers mothers will welcome them home with open arms? Or open horror? I know I would quietly shut the door in the face of this person who is no longer my child…
A son’s mother would never believe it, so she would welcome her son. He on the other hand, would have to live with himself. A person can sell their soul, but not their conscience.
What did everyone expect to happen when we invaded? Did you honestly think that we would be greeted as liberators? Did you not expect terrible conditions for our soldiers? Where they can’t tell friend from foe and are stuck in a situation where if they shoot too soon they are murderers and if they shoot too late they lose a comrade/brother. I have heard stories of children waving at the soldiers as they entered towns and then the same child shooting at them from the roof top on their way out. This war is nothing like the ‘honorable’ wars previously fought for world freedom. Now-a-days there is no such thing as an honorable war and I hope this nation comes to realize that soon. The next time our leaders attempt to stir up support for future conflicts, just say no. (Although, I think most of us did)
That said this is a terrible tactic that should not be allowed. Don’t blame the soldiers…blame the administration, the house and the senate. Blame yourselves. This nation elected this president not once, but TWICE. The shame goes to us all for allowing our leaders to act in their interest and the interest of their financial backers rather than that of the people.
We as a nation need to make changes in our everyday lives. Our consumption drives the oil industry, without the demand their will be no supply. Become the change that you want to see in the nation. Stay positive.
Galen, I’m starting to think you may be an agent provocateur, since the things you say confirm the very worst liberal stereotypes promoted by the regressive right.
Galen’s remark seems reasonable to me. But why go to Israel? Just take a flight home out of Damascus. I’m sure the Syrian customs officials would be sympathetic to US deserters, while US stooges like Jordan, Israel or Lebanon certainly wouldn’t be.
Just occured to me… wasn’t the DC sniper of a couple years ago US Army trained?
Enterik: Nope. Wrong. Just a pissed off canuck tired of watching innocent people die at the hands of indoctrinated, ignorant, bigoted Yankees.
Oh and by the way, tha favored sniper rifle used in Iraq is the Barret Model 82. (The picture in the top of the article shows one in use) A monster .50 caliber meant to destroy light armored vehicles. There is footage on Youtube of troopers bragging about how a persons head explodes when shot from 500 yards away. It has an effective range of two miles…. Betcha feel proudern’shit now.
on a different note. just read an article by an iraqi woman. she stated that under saddam, the woman of iraq were free to be an equal with no restrictions. equal pay, no restrictions on dress, education and all the freedoms enjoyed by men. the freest of all woman in the middle east. since the great liberators moved in, they passed article 41, which says that all womens concerns were to be handled by the mullahs. essentially taking them back to the muslim dark ages, concerning women. another example of progress, that is touted by his majesty, king george. what a fxxking joke.
about whether or not bush knew there were no wmds. hello, does anyone remember PNAC. these assholes were going in as early as 1997. how much more fking obvious can it be. jesus christ!
The PNAC documents also called for a ‘new Pearl harbour’… and Bush got his 9/11. During which three buildings defied well known laws of thermodynamics and physics. And several of the ‘terrorists’ turned up VERY alive and well in Saudi Arabia. But their passports were found intact shortly after a fire which was supposedly hot enough to weaken structural steel to the point of total catastrophic collapse of the entire building.
Not saying there was a conspiracy, don’t need to go there… but they are questions that should make you go ‘hmmmmm?’
let me say it. CONSPIRACY!
Quote from the article:
“It’s our *job* out here to *lay people down* who are doing *bad things*,” Spec. Joshua L. Michaud testified in Iraq in July, discussing the unit’s numerous casualties.
“I don’t want to call it revenge, but we needed to find a way so that we could get *the bad guys* …*the right way* …*and still maintain the right military things to do*.”
1. A *job* = no different from being (eg) a nurse, a doctor, a teacher, a therapist, a bus driver. It’s just a *job* - all this murdering stuff.
2. *Lay people down* = yet another crass euphemism for MURDERING your fellow human begins, - just like your God *explicitly* told you NOT to do!
3. *Bad things* = defending your own country is bad, bad, naughty-bad, BAD! How many times we gotta tell you that thing?
4. *The bad guys* = those who are just a teeny-weeny bit upset that their country has been utterly decimated by insane devils from –(hahaha)- ‘civilised’ countries overseas.
5. etc
= = = = =
*Hello to Earth from Planet Lunacy!*
“We have invaded your planet and are now running amok amongst you! We do everything upside-down and backwards. So if you ask for peace, we will give you war. If you want order and security, we’ll bring you chaos and fear. To those who hunger and thirst, we will bring yet more pain and suffering.
“And each time we criminally invade a country, we will call our actions ~ well, anything at all, ~ except ‘treacherous murder’.
And if the rightful inhabitants of that invaded nation try to resist our murderous actions, we will call them ‘Insurgent’, or ‘Terrorist’ -or any other name, except for what they actually are, -which is just ordinary, (but now very angry) and very hurt people, who are trying to defend themselves against arrogant, murderous, out-of-control, armed-to-the-teeth, state-sponsored hooligans.
“And if anyone tries to criticise or disagree with what we are doing, we will call them ‘Unpatriotic’ or ‘Traitor’, - because we are from Planet Lunacy, and this is how we operate.
“For we are the Military, we are Might, we are Official, we are Right, we are Warfare, we are Government, we are Barbarian Savages, and we have a whole *Legion of Liars* (media cowards) at our command to ensure no glimpse of truth ever escapes out from under our iron heel…
“…Only trouble is, though we might mouth the words of some ‘god’ or ‘religion’ or other, -the truth is, we couldn’t be further from any such ‘HOLY’ being, for we are in fact the agents of Darkness and thus dark and terrible things are what we do best.
“We have utterly lost our way, - in all this darkness.
I wonder who, or what, will now help us see *The Light* ??
If not the *words* of God, then maybe his impending *ACTIONS* ……….. ??”
Well, Well, Well
Welcome to our little shop of horrors!
I wonder if those snipers shooting at children are using DU munitions? If so, they each get a personal little cloud of radioactive dust each time the weapon is discharged. The timing works good to, because a sniper has been holding his breath until the the trigger is squeezed, and then he takes a nice big breath of Uranium-235. I’d call that a little bit of Poetic Justice, aye?
It’s just amazing how callous the Bush Crime Family of arms dealers is…… sending troops into battle with no armor, no bulletproof vests, crappie haliburton food that a rat would think twice about eating…. and the pista resitiance (sp?) : so-called: Depleted Uranium rounds (bullets made from hot nuke waste) that give the shooter a nice chance of future lung cancer…..
Forget about the torture camps and the extraordinary rendition (kidnapping), this alone is a double-ended crime against humanity.
But helll, these are only the crimes we know about. How many many more are going on that haven’t popped up on our war-crimes radar?
Are we to the stage of fragging officers and throwing guys out of helicopters yet?
Let me know when the tet-offensive holy war starts, O.K?
Dam, it’s Nam
I’m sixty, arthritic, crippled up a bit in places from 40 plus years in the trades, a veteran, but I swear to god, the next Republican that chirps to me how “our boys” are brave souls fighting to protect our freedom is gonna get popped in the kisser! They LIED us into Vietnam, they LIED us into Iraq, They’ll LIE us into Iran. And their toadys, (the same ones who murdered our ancestors for striking to earn US better/safer working conditions, burned our wives and children alive, more commonly known as “our boys”) are as blind and cowardly today as they were then.
well said paschn.