There's an important expose in the NYT Magazine

It's a really long piece about Sassaman, the Lt Col whose unit threw two Iraqis off a bridge.

There are a number of incidents reported in the piece not associated with any of the criminal charges. Some of the low-lights include:

-"When his men came under fire from a wheat field, Sassaman routinely retaliated by firing phosphorous shells to burn the entire field down. The ambush site would be gone, and farmers might be persuaded not to allow insurgents to use their land again." ("routinely")

-If local leaders didn't remove anti-bush graffiti from buildings, our soldiers destroyed the building

-If kids threw rocks, our soldiers threw rocks back

-"If they caught an Iraqi man out after curfew, they piled him into a Bradley, drove him miles outside of town and told him to walk home."

-"That same winter in Samarra, Sassaman's men moved through a hospital and pulled a suspected insurgent from his bed. When a doctor told the Americans to leave, a soldier spat in his face."

-"...one of Sassaman's soldiers threw a wounded man into a cell and threatened to withhold treatment unless he told them everything he knew....The man's fate was unknown."

-In search of a truck thief, but finding only women at home, the sgt gave them 15 minutes to get what they wanted out of the house..."The women wailed and shouted but ultimately complied, dragging their bed and couch and television set out the front door. Mikel's men then fired four antitank missiles into their house, blowing it to pieces and setting it afire. The women were left holding their belongings."

snip>
Among the enlisted men in Sassaman's unit, one of them, Specialist Ralph Logan, had demonstrated his misgivings about the rough tactics. Logan, 26, was sometimes chided by his peers for the delicacy with which he searched Iraqi houses, carefully pulling blankets out of closets and folding them into piles, while his comrades flung everything onto the floor. "People didn't exactly get beaten up," Logan said. "They got slapped around, roughed up, usually after they were detained. It was gratuitous. Sassaman didn't do it, but he definitely knew about it. He definitely condoned it."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/23/magazine/23sassaman.html?pagewanted=print

(Logan was the one who refused the order to put the Iraqis, one of whom was drowned, in the Tigris. It wasn't the first time this form of humiliation had been used. Soldiers used it as retaliation for things like obscene gestures)

The reporter tells us that these "non-lethal" tactics were "explicitly ordered or at least condoned by senior American officers, and many units in the Sunni Triangle were already using the same kind of tough-guy methods"

Sassaman was "reprimanded" and he retired, receiving a Bronze Star. He's "entertaining a lot of job offers"

back on American streets! It's really not hard to understand how engaging in war decays society's foundations in alot of ways.

How are these guys going to be when they get back? :\ Are their families and we as a society ready to help them? :\ So disgusting. Especially the one with the women and children. They are treating them so horribly and they've done nothing wrong. Wait until they find out the truth about Bush and war.

in numbers too big to be ignored by returning loved ones (who set off to Iraq to "protect" them) will the UNBEZAHLBAR price of "demonization of the other" begin to be fully comprehended.

With little govt support, little money to help them.
The scars of Viet Nam lasted a long time. So will this.

Whoever speaks out about these atrocities will be tarred as blaming the troops. Just like Kerry in 1971 when he spoke against the leaders doing this to the troops.

how many terrorists are in the world today, practicing ...thanks to this jerk?

right? This is how to do it. Lovely.

:shrug: Do you feel safer with this man roaming around in America?

Sick psychos destroying America abroad so they dont have to destroy it at home.

We are there to liberate the Iraqi people!:sarcasm:

douchebag

The same tactics that are used in Iraq are used in the US to search citizens.

our soldiers destroyed the building."

Freedom and democracy! Did they forget to add a First Amendment in the Iraqi Constitution we've heard so much about?

I paraphrased some things I found most offensive, but that part in full reads...

snip>
When locals scrawled graffiti on a wall, denouncing President Bush or calling on the Iraqis to kill Americans, Sassaman asked local leaders to paint it over, and if they did not, he ordered his men to destroy it.
=============

It would make sense for the soldiers to paint over some of that graffiti themselves, but burning the building down or blowing it up is just so self-defeating.

This will not stand.

This torture and abuse and bullying must end.

Impeach George Bush.

The fish rots from the head down.

Not in my name.

Restore America to a place of honor.

Yeah. Real well.

we sucked at it in Vietnam, we sucked at it in Somalia, and we suck at it now. You'd think we'd either learn how to do it right, or avoid it like the plague. This goes right to the doorstep of the policy-makers in Washington. We'll be welcomed as liberators, Cheney said. Oops.