Why American Troops
Commit Atrocities In Iraq
By Dennis Rahkonen
DissidentVoice.org
4-16-4
During the Vietnam War, we were told a steady stream of lies regarding
the rationale, conduct and outcome of Americaís intervention in
Southeast Asia.
Supposedly a battle to secure the world for democracy, the U.S. was
actually engaged in an imperialistic effort to make the regionís
natural and human resources readily, cheaply available to
profit-seeking multinational corporations.
In his memoirs, Dwight Eisenhower admitted that access to ìtin,
tungsten and rubberî was what the unfolding debacle actually entailed.
From a fabricated Tonkin Gulf incident to the myth-shattering Tet
offensive -- with numbing revelations such as My Lai in the bloody mix
-- America took heavy blows to its collective psyche...as returning
aluminum caskets piled up on airport tarmac.
Repeated promises of light at the end of the tunnel proved bleakly
false.
We sank deeper into the heart of darkness. The tallied dead formed a
legion of ghosts that would haunt us for decades.
Except for swirling sand replacing shifting elephant grass, whatís
different with Iraq?
Instead of contrived assertions that the naval vessels Maddox and L.
Turner Joy were attacked off Vietnam's coast, we have George Bush
claiming there were weapons of mass destruction where plainly none
existed at all.
Again, just as thirty-five years ago, communities across our land have
been emptied of their best and brightest, for a fundamental falsehood.
If you're too young to have learned that painful lesson through family
members' sacrifice, visit the Vietnam Memorial to become grimly
acquainted with the consequent cost.
Perhaps the most tragic parallel is the deliberate misrepresentation
of people's loyalties.
Where have we previously heard that flags and flowers would profusely
wave to welcome us as ìliberatorsî? Yes, in Vietnam, just before the
locals started rolling hand grenades under GIsí tents.
Whether Vietnam or Iraq, whatís a kid from Kansas or Ohio to do when
it turns out that everyone hates the Yankees? Very likely, shoot
everything and everybody in sight.
Civilians fleeing from Fallujah tell uniformly shocking stories of
women, children, and the elderly being attacked by advancing U.S.
Marines. Their description is validated by reports from journalists
who happened to be in the Iraqi city when the American assault began.
The dead are being buried in two soccer fields. An easy third of the
bodies are noncombatants. Confronted with evidence of even ambulances
being fired upon, Human Rights Watch is calling for a prompt,
independent investigation.
Fallujah resembles nothing so much as the smoldering aftermath of
Ariel Sharonís brutal attack on the Palestinian Jenin refugee camp two
years ago, tinged with the flowing crimson of German collective
punishment meted out on the Warsaw Ghetto.
Before saying that description is overdrawn, consider this eyewitness
account by Dahr Jamail of The New Standard:
"As I was there, an endless stream of women and children who'd been
sniped by the Americans were being raced into the dirty clinic, the
cars speeding over the curb out front as their wailing family members
carried them in."
His report continues: "One woman and small child had been shot through
the neck -- the woman was making breathy gurgling noises as the
doctors frantically worked on her amongst her muffled moaning. The
small child, his eyes glazed and staring into space, continually
vomited as the doctors raced to save his life."
The Arab satellite network Al Jazeera and other foreign outlets are
running grisly footage of the dead and dying. But the U.S. media play
deaf, dumb and blind.
Long years of being culturally attuned to a racist portrayal of Arabs
and Muslims as 'raghead' and 'camel jockey' terrorists make the
trigger pulling that much easier.
Having gone for more than a decade with demonized Saddam being equated
with Iraq per se has blurred a key, moral distinction. Is it any
wonder that a 'kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out' mentality is
obscenely taking hold, much to our nationís eternal shame?
It's disturbing enough to contemplate how a teenager who was playing
high school football and dating his pretty sweetheart just a few
months ago is now in the town cemetery because of a crazy, needless
war.
Even more soul-devouring is pondering the phenomenon we came to
stunningly first experience in connection with Vietnam:
Propaganda and deceit by those in power can make murderers -- instead
of just dutiful soldiers -- out of 'good kids' thrust into situations
where reality often totally conflicts with what they'd been duped to
expect.
Transforming innocence into the surpassingly bad and ugly -- on the
most basic human level -- is the reactionary warmongersí greatest sin.
And a monstrous crime far beyond any possible forgiveness.
Dennis Rahkonen, from Superior, Wisconsin, has been writing
progressive commentary and verse for various outlets since the 60s. He
can be reached at dennisr@cp.duluth.mn.us.
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