BOB HERBERT: Abusing Iraqi Civilians

With no end yet in sight for the long dark night of the Iraq war, The Nation magazine is coming out this week with an article that goes into great and disturbing detail about the brutal treatment of Iraqi civilians by some U.S. soldiers and marines.

The article does not focus on the handful of atrocities that have gotten substantial press coverage, like the massacre in Haditha in November 2005. Instead, based on interviews conducted on the record with dozens of American combat veterans of the war, the authors address what they describe as frequent acts of violence in which U.S. forces have abused or killed Iraqi civilians — men, women and children — with impunity.

The combination of recklessness, wantonly destructive behavior born of panic and deliberate acts of cold-blooded violence by G.I.’s are believed to have cost the lives of thousands of innocent Iraqis, the article says. The soldiers interviewed said they believed that only a minority of U.S. troops engaged in objectionable behavior, but the toll of their actions has been huge.

The article describes soldiers and marines frustrated and fearful in an alien environment in which the enemy hides among civilians and uses acts of terror as the primary tactic. “The mounting frustration of fighting an elusive enemy and the devastating effects of roadside bombs, with their steady toll of American dead and wounded, led many troops to declare an open war on all Iraqis,” said the authors, Chris Hedges, a former Middle East bureau chief for The New York Times, and Laila al-Arian.....

http://freedemocracy.blogspot.com/2007/07/bob-herbert-abusing-iraqi-civilians.html

"chic that got in the way".

There's nothing especially evil about Iraq which has corrupted the US army. All wars are evil and all wars corrupt the men and women who fight them, of any country. We've got to stop pretending there's something noble about a uniform that transforms a license to kill into nobility and slaughter into heroism. We can't afford such barbarity as we face the devastating problems of the 21st century. We have to start thinking, not worshiping guns and violence.

because they are defending themselves against an invading army. How would we act, if another country invaded us, and acted the same way we are doing? Such arrogance. Bush is the worst disaster to ever happen in the U.S.

26%-ers are proclaiming that we are there to liberate the Iraqis and bring them the gift of democracy, and it's their fault that they aren't making better use of this wonderful opportunity we have provided.

for everyone's sake...theirs and ours. If karma is a real phenomenon Bush is due to spontaneously combust!