US Sergeant in Iraq: "You want me to hit her? I can slap her right now!"

After a little confusion over copyright, I'm reposting this with the benediction of the Mod Squad. These are notes written by me about a French television report on a US unit in Iraq. I wanted to share them with DU. I've not indicated the network, the name of the program, or the US combat unit, because I don't want to expose these troops to disciplinary action or endanger reporters' access to our troops. But if you want particulars, send me a DUmail and I'll pop them off to you. With thanks to the Mods, :thumbsup: Paschall

The US sergeant's elite force was conducting the first foot patrols in this "hostile" Iraqi city since Saddam's fall. They had received a tip that there was a weapons cache in the home of a wealthy Iraqi businessman suspected of supporting "insurgents." Entering the house, they discovered that all the cabinets and closets had been emptied; the contents were neatly arranged in piles, ready for the search. Obviously the household had been expecting the US troops' visit.

The patrol confronted the wife outside, with the help of the only translator available, an American GI. (All the Iraqi translators in the city had been killed or fled.)

"We know you have weapons. Where are they?" the translator asked.
"We don't have any weapons," she answered, stroking her little great-niece's head.
The sergeant then asked the translator, "Do you want me to hit her? I can slap her right now!"

There was no slap, and the Americans returned to their quarters, an empty home they had requisitioned.

When the owner of the house unexpectedly showed up with his young son, the translator apologized and said the man and his family would have to find somewhere else to stay. The man protested and asked why the troops had removed all the furniture and appliances from the house and stacked them in the yard. The translator said they would protect his belongings if there was rain or a sandstorm. After the man insisted, the troops finally righted the upturned refrigerator and allowed him to take a space heater and VCR. Meanwhile, the troops relaxed on his living room furniture under the shade of the porch awning. Inside, other soldiers tried to get comfortable on their bedrolls in a room where they had just knocked out a portion of wall with sledge hammers.

"I lost my best friend, and three other buddies were injured in an explosion. One lost his leg. I don't care if the Iraqis die." one young soldier commented.
"If they don't stop attacking us, I say just level the place and turn it into a parking lot," commented another.

Earlier, during the patrol, the sergeant left two troops to guard an Iraqi family outside their home while others searched the house. Just as the sergeant stepped inside, the gray-bearded husband moved toward the door, asking the troops to be careful with his possessions. The sergeant whipped around with his machine gun raised, and screamed, "Get back! Get back! Soldier, if he tries that again, blow his head off! If you don't, I'll blow yours off! I don't want anyone in my back!" The young soldier stepped between the old man and the door.

These are scenes (recorded here from fallible memory) that aired on a news magazine on French television last week. The reporters, who had been in Iraq when "major combat" ended, said the atmosphere has dramatically worsened. None of the soldiers in this unit--with the exception of the sergeant--had any combat experience before arriving in Iraq. The unit's colonel is a recent officers' training graduate. As he gingerly poked the muzzle of his machine gun through the belongings of the Iraqis he said, "I try to imagine how I would feel if this were happening to me in America, if foreign troops were searching my home. So I try to treat the Iraqis with respect." Later he said, "I can't let my troops see it, but I really have my doubts about what we're doing here. I just don't know if it's right."

-- Paschall

I really am living through Vietnam again. I also wonder how survivors of the Nazi regime would feel about this.

...is the forced quartering of our troops. The US Constitution protects US citizens from this abuse by the military. But I don't know what the rules of war are. Anybody got any data?

You have to be kidding, right? Rules of war are made up on the spot at the point of a gun.

Here is a rule we had in Vietnam. If we were on guard at night and we saw someone approaching us we were to shout halt in Vietnamese 3 times and then 3 times in English. If the person did not stop we were to shoot to wound. If that did not stop them we were to shoot to kill.

In reality we went striaght to - shoot to kill. We did not want to take the chance of being killed ourselves.

We were in what was called "Free fire zones" and we didn't yell anything out. We popped a frag and if necessary then opened up with small arms. Lots of animals were killed and probably many civilians although they were not supposed to be in those areas. We found many un-armed bodies after such an incident.

when we ambushed a water buffalo herd. We were on ambush & had no idea what was threshing around out there, but boy did we start blasting. In the morning we discovered that we had created about a half acre of hamburger.

from these guys? They've been 'educated' by TV, Arnold movies, and video games. They've seen the hatred for them, and it's rare the they see how justified MOST of it is. Soldiers have NEVER been known for consideration of the niceties: it's NOT in the job description.
This situation will only get worse: the duck-anus admin is caught in a trap of their own making and our soldier-boys are victims as much as anyone.

A lot of this can really be blamed on a lack of leadership at the top. Many of these people are kids with no experience. Granted, I don't approve of how they are acting. But I have not been in such a situation, so I can't really judge.

One thing I will say is that if we actually had genuine leadership, these people would be acting in a more responsible manner.

these people wouldn't be there in the first place.

are supporting the same kind of treatment of Palestinians and supporting this monsterous behavior of our troops in Iraq. Not all...but a lot of them do...I volunteer in a nursing home where there are a number of survivors or relatives of survivors.

And as with this, not all, but there are some people, of all ethnic/religious groups, who on emerging from an abusive sitation, domestic, institutional, governmental, will grab the first chance to visit on someone else the same horrors they suffered.

It's not one of the better characteristics the species has to offer the universe.

"Just like the Nazi days, I have to listen to the BBC to get the truth! I can't trust our news!"

He, at least Bushevikism has not yet fully reached our shores (though I am well aware that it could start any time now).

""I lost my best friend, and three other buddies were injured in an explosion. One lost his leg. I don't care if the Iraqis die." one young soldier commented.
"If they don't stop attacking us, I say just level the place and turn it into a parking lot," commented another."

This is sad. We need to get the hell out of Iraq or expect to be killed.

This is what troops do during war. This is the real nature of war, it isn't some heroic hollywood movie. War is portrayed as glamorous with brave heros and medals otherwise no one would participate. It is demonization of the other, fear and vengeance. Remember that the next time you rally to support the troops who are led to believe they are fighting for a good and just cause. Think about whether you support what the troops ALWAYS do in war under the illusion of simply supporting the troops.

is what most every 'actor' in the theater - of the horrific and absurd - strives for...

unless there is munity or a little help from the rear - us - it will only get worse :'(

peace

indeed..

at least the "Iraqis are a sick people"/"we're the chemotherapy" line of thought isn't gaining in acceptance.

:(


Devastating. Confirms what so many of us already knew.

Seems we're watching 2 different wars on TV.

The war on the German news has nothing in common with what we see on MSNBC or even Intl BBC either here.

Thanks again Paschall

Found this article reposted at www.smirkingchimp.com today.

Dear American serviceperson in Iraq,

I am a retired veteran of the army, and my own son is among you, a paratrooper like I was. The changes that are happening to every one of you--some more extreme than others--are changes I know very well. So I'm going to say some things to you straight up in the language to which you are accustomed.

<snip>

I changed over there in Vietnam and they were not nice changes either. I started getting pulled into something--something that craved other peole's pain. Just to make sure I wasn't regarded as a "fucking missionary" or a possible rat, I learned how to fit myself into that group that was untouchable, people too crazy to fuck with, people who desired the rush of omnipotence that comes with setting someone's house on fire just for the pure hell of it, or who could kill anyone, man, woman, or child, with hardly a second thought. People who had the power of life and death--because they could.

It was all an act for me, a cover-up for deeper fears I couldn't name, and the reason I know that is that we had to dehumanize our victims before we did the things we did. We knew deep down that what we were doing was wrong. So they became dinks or gooks, just like Iraqis are now being transformed into ragheads or hajjis. People had to be reduced to "niggers" here before they could be lynched. No difference. We convinced ourselves we had to kill them to survive, even when that wasn't true, but something inside us told us that so long as they were human beings, with the same intrinsic value we had as human beings, we were not allowed to burn their homes and barns, kill their animals, and sometimes even kill them. So we used these words, these new names, to reduce them, to strip them of their essential humanity, and then we could do things like adjust artillery fire onto the cries of a baby.

<snip>

So here is my message to you. You will do what you have to do to survive, however you define survival, while we do what we have to do to stop this thing. But don't surrender your humanity. Not to fit in. Not to prove yourself. Not for an adrenaline rush. Not to lash out when you are angry and frustrated. Not for some ticket-punching fucking military careerist to make his bones on. Especially not for the Bush-Cheney Gas & Oil Consortium.


http://www.counterpunch.org/goff11142003.html

In fact,I've seen none better. It's true: most humans can't kill other humans (other than self-defense, of course), unless those "others" are dehumanized, sub-human.

Eloriel

before humans can be convinced to kill other humans.

It's even true of government sanctioned killing. I attended a seminar years ago on defending capital murder cases. One segment, taught by a former prosecutor, dealt with the language and images prosecutors use to dehumanize the defendant so that the jury will impose the death penalty. The main objective for the prosecutor is to make the defendant a "monster". A jury can and will kill a "monster", where they will not kill a human being.

Occupation forces and military police have--or should have--other training. These poor kids in Iraq are trained to fire on an identified enemy. They are running scared because every grandma is seen as a potential threat.

Unfortunately, we don't have any military trained to handle this situation and its showing in the toll it takes on these young men and women.

is that hatred is a two-way street.

The occupation breeds hatred of the occupiers by Iraqis. They retaliate and kill and maim coalition soldiers. This breeds hatred of the Iraqis by the soldiers, who retaliate in an escalating spiral of violence and brutality.

I feel terrible about our troops over there. They are getting pushed and pulled in every direction. They've been lied to, they've been used and abused. No one has a solution. The entire situation was created with deception and continues to be controlled with deception. A person's mind begins to compensate when the stress overload kicks in, and people do things they would never consider doing otherwise. They say things they would never say otherwise. They begin to think in terms of "friend or foe." And it all seems justified, because in war there is only the instinct for survival, the rule of the jungle.

In American cities, when there is gridlock on our streets, when we feel like we just can't take it anymore, we take it out on one another with "road rage." I guess our soldiers are experiencing "liberator rage."

will they retain when they return to the USofA? For more than a few, much TOO much

this kind of shit is happening. The fact that the troops are conducting raids is mainstream news. What do people think they do in these raids - politely knock and say, "Excuse us while we kindly search your home"? No, they knock the door down, threaten everyone, and take the place apart. Then they bag up all the male residents and load them in the truck.

No doors were knocked down. And homes were not ransacked. In fact this group's sergeant had to scream at his inexperienced troops to get them to search the place; the reporter remarked that they seemed "timid." They were obviously not accustomed to, or comfortable with, rifling through other peoples' homes and possessions.

As regards the male residents, none--except the gray-bearded man I mentioned, and perhaps a very young boy or two--were in sight. I don't think that was a coincidence.

...just an observation...

Of course, we get posts here all the time that recount horror or other stories regarding our troops that people have heard from relatives or friends. And those are almost always accepted without question. No?

And when our troops refuse to talk to them, French reporters frequently remind them that their questions are for French television. Surprisingly (?) they often seem to say things like, "Oh, well, in that case..." and then speak their minds.

is just the tip of the iceberg. There's no point in saying more as Amis in their collective consciousness are programmed to deny anything and everything that contradicts their warped vision of themselves. Let's see exactly how many of America's soldiers return alive and coherent enough to tell the tale. (What was that I read about soldiers on R&R STOMPING one of their number to death? Payback is a BITCH). It is NOT in the *regime's interest that they return to hearth and home to do so. YOU do the math. 4 dead in Jessica's detail. Brother immediately reassigned to a hot spot... :shrug:

mysteriously
http://www.propagandamatrix.com/291003lynchrescuers.html

I never said it wasnt true, just making a point about how we get out info, I guess...

...And yes- usually I am skeptical about reports from DUers- then again the mainstream media does not have such a great track record themselves, so I'm even skeptical of stories w/ links!!!

Perhaps it's just as "objective" to give DU reports at least some credibility as compared to the same Mainstream media that lied about WMDs...

In that spirit, I'm kicking it and people can make up their own minds...