Give GIs support, not accusations

Early in the awarding-winning movie "Saving Private Ryan," American troops are portrayed killing German soldiers trying to surrender. The message is clear: Even in the "good war" the brutalizing experience of combat made decent men on the right side do things that were wrong.

Now the campaign against the war in Iraq is coming up with stories alleging routine cruelty, brutality and atrocities committed by U.S. forces against Iraqi civilians.

The New Republic published in its July 23 edition a "Baghdad Diarist" in which the author, described as a soldier in Iraq writing under the pseudonym Scott Thomas, details repulsive behavior by his platoon. He writes of one soldier playing with a child's skull found in a "Saddam-era dumping ground" and of the driver of a Bradley Fighting Vehicle who likes to run down dogs.

The worst act of wanton cruelty came in a dining hall where the troops ridiculed a woman whose face "had more or less melted, along with all the hair on that side of her head." Thomas wrote he took part in humiliating the woman and said he was "horrified and . . . shocked by my own cruelty."

The July 30 issue the Nation magazine carries a long article it said was based on interviews with "50 combat veterans of the Iraq War from around the United States in an effort to investigate the effects of the four-year-old occupation on average Iraqi civilians." It relates allegations of troops routinely terrorizing and killing Iraqi civilians at checkpoints, on patrols and in destructive searches of homes.

As you would expect, these allegations -- especially those by someone using a pseudonym -- have stirred up a firestorm. Influential conservatives such as the Weekly Standard, the blog Power Line and talk show host Hugh Hewitt denounced the "Baghdad Diarist" as a likely fraud. One spot-on criticism of the dining room incident is that soldiers in Iraq, all too familiar with the deaths and mutilations from roadside bombs, would never ridicule anyone so severely maimed by an explosion.

The Washington Post reported over the weekend that the New Republic has launched an investigation to corroborate the article.

Some of the incidents in the articles may turn out to be true. Our news pages frequently tell of the savagery we in the civilian world are capable of inflicting on our fellow human beings. A few of the soldiers living with a constant threat to their lives in the chaotic, terrifying and uncertain environment of warfare will succumb to the worst impulses.

The problem with these articles is that they tar all the 160,000 soldiers and Marines serving in Iraq with the brutality and cruelty alleged against a few. What's more, there's a political motive underlying them: to discredit the war in Iraq.

The Nation is explicit: "The war the vets described is a dark and even depraved enterprise, one that bears a powerful resemblance to other misguided and brutal colonial wars and occupations, from the French occupation of Algeria to the American war in Vietnam and the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory."

The horror stories recall the "Winter Soldier Investigation" of 1971 by anti-war groups that alleged U.S. atrocities in Vietnam. One Vietnam veteran, John Kerry, repeated the most outrageous charges of Americans cutting off heads, casually killing civilians and razing villages like Genghis Khan in testimony before the U.S. Senate, an event that returned to haunt him in his failed 2004 presidential bid. Then as now, unproven charges of war crimes were hyped for political purposes.

No evidence is offered that would show bad behavior by GIs in Iraq is more common than in the days of Private Ryan. American troops are fighting in a complex and unforgiving environment against an enemy who attacks from within civilian populations, a war crime under the Geneva Conventions. They are the criminals, not our men and women serving bravely far from home.

What would Patton Say?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyUX6wV1lBQ&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fhotair%2Ecom%2Farchives%2F2007%2F07%2F22%2Fvideo%2Dgen%2Dpatton%2Don%2Dthe%2Dwar%2Don%2Dterror%2Dharry%2Dreid%2F

...A few of the soldiers living with a constant threat to their lives in the chaotic, terrifying and uncertain environment of warfare will succumb to ~~the worst impulses~~ the survival instinct.

2 posted on 07/24/2007 8:50:41 AM PDT by Inquisitive1 (I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance - Socrates)

3 posted on 07/24/2007 8:52:34 AM PDT by Edgerunner (If you won't let the military fight your battles, you will have to. Keep your powder dry...)

This is easy, Patton would say “These people are fools. If you think war is pretty, join up and serve.” War is destroying things, killing people and taking control no matter the circumstances. Our problem today is our politicians who won’t allow us to win because they are afraid of letting our President even come close to looking good. Mean while, our military pays the price. We need another Patton.

Hopefully CID, NCIS, and whatever the Air Forces equivalent is are seriously looking into this collection of purported GI’s and their allegations.

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