LOST OUR SOULS?

In 2007 as we were pursuing " Iraqi Freedom" there was an attack by an American helicopter where our soldiers were firing upon and killing civilians including children and two Reuters news personnel. A 17 minute video of this appeared on www. Wikileak, and later on U Tube.

The revelation of this atrocity created an outrage because of the incident and also the mindset of soldiers who would gleefully do this with no sense of wrongdoing.

Some in the media justifying this incident said "this is war" , except it is not war, but an occupation of a foreign nation which has not attacked us, so we are not even in a 'defend our country mode'.

The Army has investigated the incident and has cleared the perpetrators. Secretary Gates has spoken out saying the operation was well within the guidelines laid down for operations in the area and Rules of Engagement. The laughter before they shoot and afterwards when they view the dead was not nervous laughter, but the laughter of bullies and thugs.

There used to be an aversion and frowning upon to the use of brute force or raw power. Where have we erred to arrive at a place where atrocities are excused as necessary or justified by the term "war".

According to www.truthout article 4/13/2010 "Iraq Vets:Coverage of Atrocities Is Too Little Too Late" by Dahr Jamail,

"Josh Steiber, a former US Army specialist who was a member of the Bravo Company 2-16 whose acts of brutality made headlines with the WikiLeaks release of the video "Collateral Murder."

Steiber told Truthout during a telephone interview on Sunday that such acts were "not isolated incidents" and were "common" during his tour of duty. "After watching the video, I would definitely say that that is, nine times out of ten, the way things ended up," Steiber was quoted as saying in an earlier press release on the video, "Killing was following military protocol. It was going along with the rules as they are."

Steiber was not with his unit, who were the soldiers on the ground in the video. He was back at his base with the incident occurred. While not absolving of responsibility those who carried out the killing, Steiber blames the "larger system" of the US military, specifically how soldiers are trained to dehumanize Iraqis and the ROE".[Rules of Engagement]

Steiber was one among many Vets who have come forward to testify that these attrocites were and are commonplace.

Now as to who trained these American boys to be murderers, there is no secret here, it was the United States Army and the U.S. Marine Corp. Notice they are described in this writing as murderers, not soldiers.. Most sources call them soldiers, as was the intention of the training; but, as with most actions against "insurgents" or "terrorists"it is murder when committed by those who are given orders to kill, being thought by their commanders to be justified and permissible. Yet outside of military actions murder is a is a crime.

From "God annd Monsters"by Tom Englehardt, www.LewRockwell.com "This is the indiscriminate nature of killing, no matter how "precise" and "surgical" the weaponry, when war is made by those who command the heavens and descend, as if from Mars, into alien worlds, convinced that they have the power to sort out the good from the bad, even if they can't tell villagers from insurgents. Under these circumstances, death comes in a multitude of disguises – from a great distance via cruise missiles or Predator drones and close in at checkpoints where up-armored American troops, fingers on triggers, have no way of telling a suicide car bomber from a confused or panicked local with a couple of kids in the backseat. It comes repetitively when U.S. Special Operations forces helicopter into villages after dark looking for terror suspects based on tips from unreliable informants who may be settling local scores of which the Americans are dismally ignorant. It comes repeatedly to Afghan Police or army troops mistaken for the enemy."

So should we criticize and reorganize the military, purging all of all training to kill and destroy? Absolutely not! The military is necessary to defend us from threats from without. Undo criticism of the military is not needed here, but the politicians and elite military/industrial influences on our government, which incite and support these excursions into innocent and mostly defenseless countries deserve our scorn and rebuke.

With Love and Kindness,

THE HATMAN