Monday, December 13, 2004

Letter from a soldier in Iraq

[...]

We all saw the video on NBC of the mosque shootings of wounded and I can tell you it is a lot worse than that. We often killed the helpless, the wounded and many civilians. My own squad did. I did. And I will do whatever I am ordered to do, but it doesn’t stop me from not liking it. I didn’t join the service to kill women and children!

We do a lot worse than what you saw on the video. In Fallujah when we come to a apartment building, we shout for the people to come out. Most times because a lack of translators we couldn’t even say to come out in Arabic, and these people don’t know what an English “come out” sounds like anymore than you reading this would know it if I said it in Arabic.

A lot of people are too afraid to come out. But after we would warn them, we would go in. You know how? We would riddle the building and every window with high-caliber, armor piercing machine gun fire, then often we would throw in a grenade for good measure. If any civilians were in there they ended up either dead or wounded. (And I can tell you that over the duration of a week I myself saw at least a hundred bodies in the burned out and attacked apartments, and I only saw a little sliver of Fallujah) And what did we do with the wounded? I’ll tell you. We did nothing. We just moved on to the next building. We were fighters not medics, but there were no medics behind us. I believe the thinking is that it is better for the wounded enemy to die so they can’t fight us anymore.

I did what everyone else did, but it doesn’t mean I liked it. I am a fighting man in the tradition of my Dad and Grandfather and on back. I had a great, great, great grandfather who fought with Lee in Virginia. I am an American fighting man, not the murderer of civilians. It is true that we have to kill civilians if we are to survive because we can’t know who the enemy is, but how in the world can our leaders put us in this situation?

[...]

The people here on the streets have a name for us, they call us the Jews! At first I never understood this, but when I found out how Israeli agents in the American government like Perle and Wolfowitz were behind the war, all of it began to fall into place. You are right, it was never a war for America, it is one where thousands of Americans are being killed or maimed for life for Israel, not America.

Liberty Forum article

Number one, good on you, soldier, for telling the truth. Number two, stop doing what you know is wrong. Unlike the people you are shooting, it won't kill you. And, son, you are personally responsible, whether you are following orders or not.

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