The Abominations of War From My Lai to Haditha
The Abominations of War From My Lai to Haditha
By Cindy Sheehan
t r u t h o u t | Perspective
From: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/060506B.shtml
Monday 05 June 2006
This is the most difficult article that I have ever had to write, but I have to write it anyway, unfortunately.
I and just about anyone and everyone who criticizes George Bush and this war are accused of "not supporting the troops." Since my son, Casey, was killed in Iraq because of lies and to actually make that country safe for our corporate interests, I have been saying the only way we can support our troops at this point is to get them the hell out of this illegal and immoral war.
The massacre in Haditha on November 19, 2005, is just another way to underscore the fact that our troops are being turned into war criminals in what one article called: "The Worst War Crime of the Iraq War." (Sydney Morning Herald; May 28, 2006). In a stunning display of shameless hypocrisy George Bush said of the (not uncommon) butchering of innocent civilians in Haditha:
Our troops have been trained on core values throughout their training, but obviously there was an incident that took place in Iraq ...
Bush also said this following a meeting of his cabinet: The world will see a "full and complete" investigation.
Another false piece of propaganda that we are fed is that we need to support the president, especially when we are "at war." I say, "No, way!" Our kids know the difference between right and wrong before they are sucked into a military system that dehumanizes our soldiers and forces them to dehumanize the "enemy" to the point where it is apparently acceptable behavior to kill children and to cover up the murders. Can we all assume that little Georgie was never told that cold-blooded murder is wrong, seeing that his family has supported wars and their inherent crimes for at least three generations?
The double standard that our leaders have set for themselves and the troops is amoral and corrupt. I have not seen - anywhere in the discussion of this topic - acknowledgement that not only is Haditha not the worst war crime committed by American or coalition troops but that the entire war is a war crime.
The following list of
illegal, immoral, and atrocious behavior is obvious and not
all inclusive by any means:
- 12 years of devastating sanctions that were responsible for killing over 500,000 Iraqi children.
- Destroying antiquities and culture is a war crime and prohibited under Geneva Conventions.
- The invasion of Iraq is a preventive war of aggression against a country that was no threat to the USA or the world and was expressly prohibited by the Geneva Conventions.
- The invasion was not sanctioned or approved of by theUnited Nations.
- "Shock and Awe" targeted civilian centers and killed many innocent people.
- Abu Ghraib.
- Guantanamo.
- "Extreme rendition.
- Use of chemical weapons, especially white phosphorous enhanced with napalm, particularly in the second siege of Fallujah.
- Targeting hospitals, clinics, and threatening medical doctors with execution if they treat "insurgents" (which can apparently include babies and pregnant women).
- Using highly compensated mercenaries to carry out executions and torture.
- Forcing a style of government on the citizens and manipulating the outcome of the elections.
- Dishonoring the Constitution of the United States by invading Iraq without a declaration of war by Congress and by breaking our treaties with the United Nations and the ratified Geneva Conventions.
George Bush is correct. A "full and complete" investigation needs to be made into the crimes against humanity in Iraq, and if justice prevails, this would in turn lead to the trial and conviction of George and the rest of the neo-con purveyors of torture and murder, for which the maximum penalties should be applied.
The level of accountability needs to rise higher than Specialist or Private and should reach up and down the very blackest bowels of an administration that lied through its teeth to get our country into a war of aggression and occupation. The commander in chief needs to be prosecuted: NOW!
The most difficult part of this writing is in trying to reconcile the fact that our soldiers, for one example, in Haditha, could not show conscience and restraint, qualities which may have prevented a murderous rampage. When one sees the pictures of bodies burned beyond human recognition, hears of 2 year old children being killed out of revenge, women being shot for failing to stop at a checkpoint that is in the middle of THEIR country, prisoners being tortured in despicably inhumane ways, ad immoral infinitum, one should be appalled and ashamed to call oneself an American. That some of our soldiers would stoop to the level of their leaders to commit such atrocities is unspeakable. Bush says our troops have been trained in "core values," when he as a so-called born again Christian can claim that God told him to invade Iraq and it's okay to spy on American citizens like he is some kind of sick voyeur with a penchant for death and destruction.
War, under any circumstance, is not a "core value" of humanity; in fact, it is the ultimate failure of humanity. War turns our mostly normal American youth into wanton murderers who have lost their own humanity and love of others. Haditha in this war and My Lai in another disgusting war were unfortunately not aberrations. War is the abominable aberration.
Under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, our troops
are forbidden from obeying unlawful orders, and Iraq was
unlawful before it ever began. Our soldiers need to start
disobeying the unlawful order to even be deployed to Iraq,
and not raise their weapons in appeasement to the Bush
Regime, and say: "This war is the criminal, I am not.
Threaten me if you will, but I am not going to be an
accomplice in your crimes against humanity." We as
people working for peace have long held that the people of
Iraq did not deserve the treatment that they are getting
from BushCo, but it is our troops who are pulling the
triggers and pushing the buttons or flushing the Koran or
sexually abusing prisoners, and we know about it, so that
makes us accessories to the crimes, unless we are actively
trying to end the severe breach of compassion and mercy that
is being carried out in the Middle East. Yes, we have
to work to end the war and to hold everyone who commits
atrocities accountable, from private to president, but we
also have to support our soldiers who do not want to kill.
It is a tragic dichotomy in this society that one can be
executed for killing someone, but also be executed or
imprisoned for disobeying an order to go and take the life
of another human being in war. There are several ways
that our young men and women can be supported in resisting
the evil of BushCo and Iraq. The GI
Rights Hotline is there to help soldiers get out of
going to an illegal and immoral war, and the War
Resister's League in Canada needs support to help our
soldiers find sanctuary and safety. Counter-recruitment is also a powerful
tool to use to prevent our children from being sucked into
the evil war machine and being used as cannon fodder/weapons
of mass destruction for profit. Where can the people
of Iraq go to find sanctuary and safety? They have no place
to run to and they have no voice to end this war of terror
that is being waged on them by the USA. It is up to us
to be the voice of the babies of Iraq and of the other
people whose only crime was to be born in the wrong place at
the wrong time with the additional bad luck of living on top
of rich oil reserves. Support the troops? I support
only those who are NOT supporting the exploitation of the
Iraqi people, and those who do not allow the war profiteers
to carry on with their death and destruction all for the
sake of an opulent lifestyle. I do not support those who are
supporting a criminally insane and treacherous foreign
policy. However I, as the mother of a slain soldier, will do
anything I can to support all of them by working to shorten
their stay in an unwelcoming country, and bring them home
from the quagmire that their so-called commander in chief
forced them into. Also, when our troops do come home
from the war, they need all of the counseling, job training
and help they require to transition back to a life where
most people don't even recognize that there is a war being
waged. BushCo and the war machine killed my baby. They
have killed tens of thousands more. BushCo need to be
prosecuted and punished like the common criminals that they
are. We owe this to the people of Iraq, the world, and
our own soldiers. We owe it to
ourselves. Cindy Sheehan is the mother of Spc. Casey
Austin Sheehan, who was KIA in Bush's illegal and immoral
war on 04/04/04. She is the author of Not One More
Mother's Child, Dear President Bush and to be released
in the fall: Peace Mom, One Mom's Journey From Heartache to
Activism from Atria Books. Cindy is also founder and
president of Gold Star Families for
Peace.