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Bring Our Troops Home, Before They Learn to Like Killing

The best way we can support our boys (and girls) is to bring them
home and send them out to get productive jobs before they learn to
enjoy killing. 

04/08/03
By Charles E. Carlson
(who served twice in the U.S. Army)

Celebrity evangelical "Christian" Dr. James Dobson made an amazing
statement about "Operation Iraqi freedom."  It is amazing because he
has almost everything 180 degrees wrong, his is a classic parody,
with a straight face.  Here is what Dr. Dobson said: 

"The government has a 'moral obligation' to stop evil and tyranny. 
America comes (to Iraq) as a liberator not a conqueror."

Dobson further was quoted by Christian News as saying: "TO MY
KNOWLEDGE THE U.S. IS THE FIRST COUNTY IN HISTORY THAT HAD THE
WORLD'S MOST DOMINANT MILITARY POWER AND YET DID NOT USE THAT
HEGEMONY TO CONQUER, ENSLAVE, AND PLUNDER WEAKER NATIONS." 

Conquering, enslaving, and plundering is exactly what the attack on
this incredibly militarily inferior nation is all about, and annihilation and
slaughter should also be added to the list.  Dobson went on to discuss
the so-called "plans" to feed Iraq after its conquest with American's
money.  His words are intended to justify and enabled the
administration's invasion. 

Curiously, Dobson failed to mention Sadam Hussein by name and left
out "weapons of mass destruction" (WMDs).  Perhaps at the time of
this broadcast a few days ago Dobson, like many of us, thought
Hussein might already be dead.  Perhaps he could see the U.S. has all
the weapons of mass destruction.   James Dobson's statements are
worth noting only because they are so typical of what
evangelical "Christians" say about the destruction and planned
occupation of Iraq.  They deny it even as it is happening!

Mr. Dobson did hit the nail on the head twice.  The truth has a way
of leaking out through those who deny it.  The U.S. may not itself be
a "hegemony," as Dr. Dobson calls it, but it is certainly run by
one.  "Hegemony" is a polite old word for what Ted Koppel referred to
as a "cabal," which is a kosher word for conspiracy.  Dobson also
correctly states the U.S.  is the "world's most dominant military
power."  Dobson becomes one of the first Judeo-Christians to admit
Iraq is "a smaller and weaker" enemy.  The administration never told
us this.  Never were we told Iraq does not have anything with which
to fight back, for to admit this admits that we are the bloody-handed
bullies the rest of the world is screaming about.

America is indeed a "conqueror," but contrary to Dr. Dobson, we have
gone to Iraq as an occupying force every bit as much as Israel is an
occupying force in Palestine.  Most Iraqis already suspect this, and
the outpouring of gratitude for Americans will be skin deep and short
lived.  Soon, when nationalists in Iraq find out our occupying forces
are there to stay, trouble will begin.   Our occupying force will
have to sleep in their tanks, and will face resistance in the form of
so-called "suicide bombs." They are better called sacrifice bombs,
and in Palestinian they have proved to be the only effective method
of letting the world know their people are under the domination of an
American funded "hegemony."  Iraq has already signaled it will follow
the Palestinian example. 

The U.S.'s bloody conquest of Iraq by massive bombardment has again
probably killed tens of thousands of Iraqi soldiers, if we can trust
anything in the US reports.   Carpet bombs and missile attacks kill. 
Death reports trickle out in batches of a few thousands at a time. 
Our leaders report civilian deaths only when they occur right in
front of a reporter, but they are many an terrible.  

On April 3, 2003, Canadian doctors report in the Ottawa Canadian
Press, also carried in al-Jazeera on April 7th, about how the doctors
were horrified by the civilian deaths in the village of Najaf a week
before the invasion of Baghdad.  The Canadian doctors observed many
civilian patients with massive and terrible trauma injuries delivered
to the hospital at Hilla, 160 Km south of Baghdad.  Roland Huguinen,
one of six International Red Cross workers, observed a truckload of
women and children's body parts gathered up and delivered to the
hospital.  

It was in Najaf at about that same time ten women and children were
intentionally slaughtered by Americans while trying to flee, as we
will later discuss. 

EVERY "CHRISTIAN" WHO, LIKE JAMES DOBSON, PUBLICLY SUPPORT THIS
SLAUGHTER SHOULD ASK HIMSELF IF HE FEELS THE WARM BLOOD OF THESE
WOMEN AND CHILDREN ON HIS HANDS?
 
The best way we can support our boys (and girls) is to bring them
home and send them out to get productive jobs before they learn to
enjoy killing. 

If we do not do this, some of them will soon begin to fall victim to
the "sacrifice bombers" of Iraq.  Their callousness for brutality
will increase with time as they are forced to fear and oppress their
new subjects.  Meantime, the Cabal is planning how to make our stay
in Iraq as permanent as our stay in Germany and Japan have been, and
how to move forward to conquer the rest of the Mideast.  They have
already named some other countries, perhaps Syria first. 

One big obstacle in the path of occupation is those who offer the
sacrifice of their own life just to take out an American or two with
them.  This is "our boys" un-winnable war because our boys have
nothing to win.   America's military experienced its first "suicide"
bombing in Iraq when a civilian taxi driver deliberately entrapped
and killed four US soldiers on March 30th.  The same day a 19 year-
old Palestinian reportedly ran toward a group of uniformed Israeli
soldiers in front of a crowded café in Israel and detonated a hidden
body bomb before he could be stopped or shot.  He was decapitated and
ten soldiers were reported injured, one critically.  The first
American report hid the fact that the bomber targeted the military,
suggesting he sought a civilian crowd, but later reports by witnesses
made the matter quite clear.  Nonetheless, about 30 civilians were
wounded or killed in the blast. 

The two bombing acts are similar in most respects.  The U.S. is being
drawn ever closer to Israel in the conduct of war upon the Arab
people.  The administration has long ago announced that the U.S.
intends to occupy Iraq.  Some Iraqis have announced they will respond
with human bombs.  Reports of human bomber volunteers have been
numerous.  The US Cabal appears to be adopting the tactics Israel
applies toward Gaza, and the consequences will likely be the same,
but proportionately larger and more deadly--the Iraqi population is
both larger and better armed than the Palestinians.
 
As the occupation of Iraq comes near, American citizens find
themselves censored from the facts of war.  Reporters who should be
providing true accounts are being "embedded" with the military
units.  Ted Koppel and others play soldier boy and toe the official
line.  Two well-known names in war reporting are among those
dismissed and sent home for violating the rules governing an embedded
media.  A more descriptive phrase than "embedded" would be "in-bed-
with."  However, occasional accounts from the embedded media prove
revealing, when compared to the official army version of the event.

Alternative news organizations, including The Palestine Chronicle,
Yellow Times, and the Arab side of the news from al-Jazeera, have
experienced almost continuous website censoring, blocking and
interference since the war began.  The truth about what's going on in
the war on Iraq is kept from us.  A few acts of brutality do come to
our attention.  If these same acts were performed against our
servicemen or Israelis, cries of "weapons of mass destruction"
or "war crimes" would fill the air.  Our own leaders tell us over
6000 guided bombs and missiles have targeted Iraq. 

The amount of explosives exceeds the atomic bombings of Nagasaki and
Hiroshima and is more than all the saturation bombing of the deserts
during first Gulf war.  The death cost will be well beyond what we
are told; Iraqis complain about civilian casualties but rarely admit
or bemoan their military losses.

We sympathize with the parents of the dead, and that includes the
Iraqi dead.  They did not ask for this slaughter called a "war." 
About a third of the 60 odd Americans killed have been by friendly
fire.  But how can so many ignore the thousands of Iraqis who are
being hit with every kind of weapon of mass destruction known to
mankind, with the exception of atomic weapons and poisonous
gases....for the time being!  Soon, the young and the weak will begin
dying of disease and deprivation.  We will hear of it only through
alternative news sources from other countries.  Our embedded media
will not see it or tell us about it.  They, too, will be rightly
afraid of the Iraqis.

My own experience of a controlled media in the Mideast came on the
morning of March 4, 2002, in a Cairo hotel where I watched a CNN
firsthand report of a smoking Palestinian ambulance by Israeli tanks
or rockets.  All on board were killed, including a 57-year-old
doctor.  The story was shown all morning in Egypt; but it was played
late the following night on CNN International USA, so late it was
seen only in Hawaii by the few people who were still awake!  And the
story was doctored.   Mideast news that is unfavorable to Israel
disappears on that station.

The foreign press only tells us American bombs killed Iraqi civilians
in two marketplace bombings, in their homes while they sleep, and as
they picnic in their own front yards.  The cover-up is a wanton act
by our political leaders, just as painful as the acts themselves,
because it tells us they intend to hide the truth and don't care what
we think of them.  And the willingness of many "Christians" to accept
the cover-up is even worse.  In one unusual case, conflicting
versions of the same story made the press, showing the moral weakness
and dishonesty of the political military.

The systematic massacre of Iraqis, especially the women and children,
are obscured from our view by distance and by the censorship imposed
by U.S. government threats to bomb newsmen who stay in Iraq on their
own.  Without the foreign media, few facts would be heard, and we
would never know if what we heard was truth or fiction.

Several recent incidents against Iraqis have the appearance of
shocking brutality toward civilians.  Our military as much as admits
its personnel are trigger-happy because they're scared -- scared
because of two or three body bombers, now dead.  Scared even though
they are massacring Iraqis at the rate of one or two thousand per
day.  They are nervous because the life-sacrifice mentality is not
easily understood by the paid soldier.  "Our boys" are paid to
fight.  Some of them are not willing to die for the conquest of
Iraq. 

On March 30th, during the reported slaughter of civilians by air in
Najaf, a US platoon (about 40 or more men plus lots of weapons) of
the Third Infantry Division, deliberately and under orders, killed as
many as 10 women and children riding in a Toyota van.  Accidents
happen in war, but this was not in the heat of battle.  The
passengers were fleeing the besieged town of Najaf, south of Baghdad,
with their possessions crammed into the tiny white van.  By all
accounts, the van was blasted with multiple cannon rounds designed to
destroy armored vehicles, mangling the bodies inside. 

The accounts provided by the American embedded media made print and
indicate the Captain in charge panicked and ordered deadly fire.  His
team carried out the annihilation as though they had Saddam Hussein
himself in their gun sights.  It's clear the white van was targeted
far enough away from the checkpoint so those who did the killing
never saw what or who they were shooting at.  Why did they not drive
one of the big armored Bradley's out to stop the women?....probably
because "our boys" were afraid!
 
An Army TV general blandly varnished over the story for the evening
news, brazenly lying when he stated the ladies had already run a
roadblock when the soldiers opened fire on them.  But one of
the "embedded reporters" happened to be near enough to report the
incident based on first hand testimony from the soldiers involved. 
This is a rare case where the public has access to both the original
and the doctored story, and the discrepancy tells us how badly we are
being lied to every day.

Here are both versions of the story from a member of the embedded
press, Bob Roberts, for the Mirror.co.uk from US Central Command in
Qatar and Naveed Raja.  Roberts quoted the official version given to
the US evening news:

"US troops last night shot dead at least seven Iraqi women and
children at a checkpoint. The victims, in a van, were said to be
fleeing fighting at the southern city of Najaf when they came under
fire from the 3rd Infantry Division.

"American military officials, on high alert after a suicide bomber
killed four troops in Iraq, said the vehicle, carrying thirteen
people, was traveling at speed and refused to stop despite verbal
warnings and shots fired."

Note the report says it was traveling at "speed."  But any movement
is speed, how much speed?  So much for the official version, which
was doctored even more by late night war news.  Robert's continues by
quoting the version received from the military involved and
eyewitnesses:

"But Washington Post reporter William Branigan, embedded with the
military unit, gave a different version of events.  He reported that
soldiers at the checkpoint failed to fire warning shots in time."

Branigan continues his onsite report: "The Iraqi civilians were
packed inside a Toyota van along with as many of their possessions as
the jammed vehicle could hold."

And:  "Army medic Sgt. Mario Manzano said one distraught and wounded
woman refused to leave the van as she clung to the mangled bodies of
two of her children."

The following account by Branigan was confirmed by the official
government sources:

"AMERICAN SOLDIERS GAVE THE SURVIVORS TEN BODY BAGS FOR THE VICTIMS
AND OFFICIALS OFFERED MONEY AS COMPENSATION TO THE RELATIVES." (our
emphasis)

"'Fire a warning shot,' Johnson ordered as the vehicle kept coming.
Then, with increasing urgency, he told the platoon to shoot a 7.62mm
machine-gun round into its radiator.  'Stop messing around!'  Johnson
yelled into the company radio network when he still saw no action
being taken.  Finally, he shouted at the top of his voice, 'Stop him,
Red 1, stop him!'

"That order was immediately followed by the loud reports of 25mm
cannon fire from one or more of the platoon's Bradley vehicles. About
half a dozen shots were heard in all."

Branigin reported:  "Captain Ronny Johnson was quoted in the Post
telling his troops: "You just killed a family because you didn't fire
a warning soon enough."

Contrary to the smooth military media reports, the Toyota was
destroyed not after it ran a road-block but long before it got there,
and Captain Ronny Johnson could not see who the passengers were until
he looked at the destroyed van with his binoculars.

A thoughtful reading of all the reports seems to show the military
unit was panicked by a Toyota van full of women, probably because
they feared another suicide attack.  One might wonder why our men are
so fearful of a single civilian vehicle, when they are armed so
ominously.  It seems clear that the lives of the passengers in the
van were never considered when the unit commander turned loose deadly
force with WMDs.

In Arizona, a police officer is being tried for alleged manslaughter
for killing a woman who had attempted to commit a non-violent crime
and was speeding to get away.  She allegedly drove her car directly
at the officer, who claimed he thought he would be run down, and he
shot her at point blank.  Nevertheless, he is still being held
responsible because his superiors think he did not have to shoot to
carry out his job. 

It should be noted that both women had a right to be where they
were.  The police officer is a pubic servant; the army unit is an
invader.  Why is the former responsible for his act, but not the
latter?  "Christians" like Dr. Dobson should answer this.

IRAQ? WWJD
What should we do for (our boys) and girls?  BRING THEM HOME AND TURN
THEM LOOSE TO GET A JOB.  THEY ARE DOING A JOB THEY DO NOT
UNDERSTAND, THAT IS NOT GOOD FOR THEM, AND THAT WE DO NOT NEED DONE.

According to former Marine Chris White*, Marine recruits are trained
to the rhythm of little ditties like this one, which they must sing
as they march:*

Throw...some...can...dy...in the...yard
Watch...the child...ern...gather...round
Lock...un-load...your AK...forty...seven
Mow...them...lit...tle...bastards...down 

To follow: "Our Boys" The The All-professional Military, How it Has
Changed Since Vietnam.  The real cost of serial war and the risk of
the standing army.

WE HOLD THESE TRUTHS (www.whtt.org)
P.O. Box 14491
Scottsdale, AZ 85267
480 947 3329 (cecarl@whtt.org)

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