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CONTACT: Media Advisory Sarah Lazare: sarah.lazare@gmail.com |
Veteran of "Collateral Murder" Company Speaks Out
WASHINGTON - April 9 - Josh Stieber, who is a former soldier of the “Collateral Murder” Company, says that the acts of brutality caught on film and recently released via Wikileaks are not isolated instances, but were commonplace during his tour of duty.
“A lot of my friends are in that video,” says Stieber. “After watching the video, I would definitely say that that is, nine times out of ten, the way things ended up. Killing was following military protocol. It was going along with the rules as they are.”
Stieber deployed to Baghdad with Bravo Company 2-16, whose members were involved in the incident captured in Wikileaks' “Collateral Murder” video, which has made international headlines by depicting a July 2007 shooting incident outside of Baghdad in which over a dozen people, including two Reuters employees, were killed. Although he was not present at the scene of the video, he knows those who were involved and is familiar with the environment. Stieber, who now works to promote peace and alternatives to war, is speaking publicly about his time in Iraq and the incident captured in this video.
“If these videos shock and revolt you, they show the reality of what war is like,” says Stieber. “If you don’t like what you see in them, it means we should be working harder towards alternatives to war.”
Stieber currently lives in Washington, D.C.
BACKGROUND ON JOSH STIEBER:
Branch of service: United States Army (USA)
Unit: 1st ID
Rank: Spc.
Home: Laytonsville, Maryland
Served in: Baghdad (Rustamiyah) 07-08 Fort Riley, KS 06-07, 08-09
10 Comments so far
Show AllDear Mr Stieber,
A very courageous statement. I wished more veterans would speak openly. One question, though :
When you say, "the rules as they are", do you mean the Rules of Engagement? I ask since the video shows clear breach of these rules.
Thank you for eventually answering the question, when you find the time
Arnd Klinkhart
arnd@klinkhart.com
PS: I am planning on a fully documented political blog article on the video, the US army investigation reports and the Rules of Engagement/Geneva Convention. Would you possibly be available for a short written interview in Q&A form?
You might get better results by reaching out to his PR agent (as per the release):
CONTACT: Media Advisory
Sarah Lazare: sarah.lazare@gmail.com
FYI: Glenn Greenwald Salon Radio interview: Spc. Josh Stieber on WikiLeaks video
http://www.salon.com/news/iraq_war/index.html?story=/opinion/greenwald/radio/2010/04/09/stieber
__________________
Hope the link works.
The soldiers have not an easy nor enviable job; as sad and as horrible as the incident is, it is something expected within the context of war.
I was just reading the "About" page on Josh's blog ( contagiousloveexperiment ) and found this excerpt which I think is very telling and shows where a huge part of the responsibility for the war horrors rests: with the war cheerleaders on the home front:
"... I didn’t mind that my country was at war. I never stopped to think of whether it was right or wrong, all I knew is that everyone was proud of my bravery and saying I was fighting for something good, and I liked that. ..."
(Note, this quote is only an excerpt, so please read in context to get his full intended message.)
Sometimes I think that our societal desire to send young men and women off to "defend their country", knowing many of them will die, is some kind of primeval human sacrifice custom, the kind of ancient ritual symbolized by such psychological horror stories as Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery." And no, I'm not kidding. Why else is the "flower of youth" of a society sent to die, often for nothing- in vain- and praised for it, when, in too many such cases, there is really no genuine necessity?
Sure, there have been times where maybe going off to war really meant defending the folks and the values of home, but the last war for which that excuse could be argued as valid ended in 1945.
The soldiers are always cheered off to war, by parents and friends and blessings from their churches, and with prayers and tears and lots and lots of fine-sounding phrases; and it all confirms, time and time again from generation to generation, the final lines of Wilfred Owen's 1917 poem:
"To children ardent for some desperate glory
The Old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro Patria mori."
"These videos....show the reality of what war is like." Although I commend Mr. Stieber for his whistle-blowing role, I would suggest that what has been going on in Iraq is not war, it is iron-fisted occupation enforced by terror. War is when the other guys can shoot back.
Tony Vodvarka
Whatever one wishes to call it, it's idiocy to keep this country over there and keep creating new enemies (by "over there", I mean Afghanistan, too). "Perpetual war" will be the ruin of this country yet, as I see it.
To all the soldiers who recognize the futility and criminality of what their leaders are telling them to do, bravo, and never give up on your desire to find a more sane way to deal with the troubles of the world. Just like a recovered alcoholic making a great counselor, the soldiers are a great source of truth, and understanding the reality of the destruction they have been forced to commit. Citizen Soldier has been helpful too in this area, as is Veterans for Peace, and the Iraq Veterans Against War. It takes more courage to fight your leaders than it does to play at war, an illegal war, the occupation of a sovereign nation by an imperialist monster... peace and justice prevails
I wonder if war isn't society's way to wean itself from the more violent elements within it, that would possibly prevent it from functioning unless a filtering process was undertaken. So the "purpose" of war is actually social protection from elements within more than elements without. To put it bluntly, "the wonderful troops" are not meant to come home. They're sent out with the express purpose to get them killed. And perhaps this is the way it's always been. The "collateral" consequence is that many innocents are killed external to the source society. It's hard to listen to the military chatter in "Collateral Murder" and not think that these are people that we really don't want to come back alive.
When are the real war criminals going to be prosecuted for starting wars and fomenting then applauding irrational acts of violence? Hague, anyone listening or are you all asleep?