Ash writes: "No, this is not what all American military personnel do. Many do not, would not. But that it can happen at all taints indelibly and irrevocably not only every American soldier, but every American. I was there. You were there. We were there. I am, you are, we are guilty, too."
U.S. troops conduct a night raid on a family home in Baquba, Iraq in 2007. (photo: Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)
The Mindlessness
02 September 11
ust before the 11 PM closing time on May 24, 2000, two armed robbers walked into a Wendy's fast-food restaurant in Queens, New York. They forced seven workers into a walk-in refrigerator, bound, and gagged them, and shot each one in the head."Sound horrific? Unimaginable? It came to be known as "The Wendy's Massacre". The public outcry was as swift as it was unyielding: "Justice for the victims!"
The release this week by McClatchy Newspapers of a secret U.S. diplomatic cable detailing the killing by U.S. forces of 10 Iraqi civilians - in their homes, in the dark of night - is hauntingly reminiscent of the Wendy's massacre.
Philip Alston, the U.N.'s Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions wrote in a memo dated April 6th, 2006, (12 days after the killings):
"The MNF (American) troops entered the house, handcuffed all residents and executed all of them. After the initial MNF intervention, a US air raid ensued that destroyed the house."
Yes, there was a man of military age in the house, Faiz Hratt Khalaf, a local farmer, age 28, and shots were reportedly fired from the home at the U.S. troops as they approached, but what follows is a mindless act of brutality carried out in a methodical manner normally associated with the worst mass killings in the annals of U.S. domestic crime.
Not only is everyone in the home bound at gunpoint, but each of the residents and guests then are shot in the head execution-style. And as if that weren't enough, a U.S. airstrike is conducted on the house to hide the evidence of the crime.
But it gets worse when you look at the identities of the victims. Besides Faiz Hratt Khalaf, the others in the home included: his wife Sumay'ya Abdul Razzaq Khuther (aged 24), their three children Hawra'a (aged 5), Aisha (aged 3) and Husam (5 months old), Faiz's mother Ms. Turkiya Majeed Ali (aged 74), Faiz's sister (name unknown), Faiz's nieces Asma'a Yousif Ma'arouf (aged 5 years old), and Usama Yousif Ma'arouf (aged 3 years old), and a visiting relative Ms. Iqtisad Hameed Mehdi (aged 23).
How do you bind the hands of a 5 month old child, no less fire a bullet into his or her head?
No, this is not what all American military personnel do. Many do not, would not. But that it can happen at all taints indelibly and irrevocably not only every American soldier, but every American. I was there. You were there. We were there. I am, you are, we are guilty, too.
There must be full disclosure by the Department of Defense. All of the troops involved, along with their commanders, must be subject to legal prosecution, including whoever approved the subsequent airstrike on the home, and anyone who had knowledge of the killings but did not report them.
There must be an immediate full congressional investigation into the incident, and appropriate action taken.
Right the ship. Do it now.
Additionally, it bears noting that none of this ever comes to light without the courage of Pfc. Bradley Manning, Julian Assange and the WikiLeaks organization. They are vindicated and their actions justified, once and for all.
Marc Ash was formerly the founder and Executive Director of Truthout, and is now founder and Editor of Reader Supported News.
Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.
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Comments
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Dave, you MUST know by now that "War Crimes" are something OTHER people do, NOT us. It would be laughable if it weren't so damned sad! I'd like to be a fly on the wall in twenty or thirty years when some hot, young Film Maker decides to do the definitive Story on the Middle East debacle ala "Judgement at Nuremburg", unvarnished and Truthful! I think THEN, ala "dick" Cheney, heads WOULD explode!
And how much will the mainstream news media (MSM) cover it?
Indeed Bradley Manning, Julian Assange and wikileaks, and McClatchy are helping preserve our "civilization" by uncovering it.
Thanks so much for your work, your org, and your writing.
I find this behavior of our military beyond appalling. Always have since before I refused induction into the massacre of Viet Nam. That is what people do in wars, Marc. That is why we should stop having wars, Marc.
I refuse to take responsibility for what I have always spoken out against.
With Millions I have been speaking out against this traditional behavior of the country in which I live for nearly 50 years. Our country, that in competition with the other major powers, wants full control over the earth and its treasure. Our government is a bunch of pirates in search of empire.
That you state only Bradley Manning and Wikileaks are not guilty of the murder you describe, simply because the rest of us do not have access to that kind of information so that we can have the opportunity to release it, is absurd and stupid. Bradley Manning joined the Military, for God's sake.
Marc, you are focusing on the wrong things. Trying to guilt trip us is just as manipulative and sick as the dis-information propaganda machine.
Focus on facts that will bring the bastards down and enlist our help. Use the truth, not guilt wars.
Say just what have you done but pick a fellow anti war progressive to insult?
there
as 8% of the population using 25% of the world's resources, our nation must be constantly at war to keep us in oil. our secret forces are behind every dictatorship or coop that you can think of.
then we are surprised when an attack comes from"nowhere." we say "they hate us for our freedom" but in fact, they hate us for our interference.
this military monster will one day be used against us here at home. you can count on it
Tell me again how we went into that nation to help the people.
Say it one more time...
I wish the old bast**ds who glorify war would look at what they're doing when they whip up the blood lust and jingoism of young people who will then be made eager to kill on command.
Of course, war IS good for business...
Good ol' "Joeconserve", predictable as ever! You who talk about the "real world" seem to fabricate your own and make too many assumptions, which are themselves inflammatory!
I attend meetings of Veterans for Peace and there are some real hard-cases there who were broken by things they were expected to to do and would remain broken without the help and counseling of their comrades.
You might try going to one of these gatherings (they are all over the country) and tell them the smug and self-aggrandizing tripe you just posted on RSN, or as you lower your flag (a gesture of unreality in itself), think on what it really means.
This country is NOT free while the military and multi-nationals run it to dominate the world, and is closer to Franco's Spain, Suharto's Indonesia or Stroessner's Paraguay -all of which I lived in, than what it claims to be.
And if all you can do is be patronizing at the good folks of RSN why don't you desist unless you can find some truth to share. FOX would welcome you.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=2412#.TmG-YMQoL7F.facebook
I may have not been there, but when you are raised by good parents, good faith, good educators You cannot accept murdering innocents.
The excuse they were told that these people would have killed them, that whores were killing their buddies...were in most part lies. We had no business in any of these Countries, and cannot justify murdering innocents.
Programming. We here are good militants but when the Muslims et al come, they will not know us from them
We live in a white supremist country run by the big corporations (thanks to the Supremes giving Koch brothers - etc - personhood to corporations)
I can agree with most of what the top comment said until I read "Black/Browns" in Texas get put to death quickly. That is a problem for me. Isn't the statement telling me the TX (and other states) can legally hang African Americans In CA, the war on drugs targets the African Americans while the whites aren't in jail for similar crimes.
The author's inclusion of ALL of us in the crime is that we are Americans and the actions of our soldiers (& commanders) reflects on us too. In the 70's, at least, people protested the Vietnam war instead of doing NOTHING.
I'm not African American but I know they are prosecuted unfairly in TX and other states in the USA. Next it will be the Gypsies, then the Jews, and when they come for YOU - there will be nobody to stand up for you.
Don't blame it on me! The ones to blame are all the war-mongers from the President on down. Call them out to account for these crimes against humanity since they are the only ones who can stop the killing by stopping these wars.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
BINGO, wwway, you have explained, in a nutshell, the 'casus belli' of this shameful misadventure. The motive was to do what Grover Norquist threatened to do to "our" government.
There must be an investigation into this. And while we are at it, how about investigating Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld???
"He who joyfully marches to music rank and file, has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action. It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder." Albert Einstein
I took a women's studies class this past year to see what it looked like today, especially with the Right's War on Women. Frankly, I was appalled at the apathy. I, at 70, had more passion than anyone, including the professor. Times have changed.
Children have been programmed to want things, things cost money, jobs at all cost is money
We have created the Science Fiction we watched. Or allowed Corporations and Government/Military to. We are no better than the Russia, Germany we supposedly freed. We are no better than china, Korea or any other Militant Government
Parents for 35 years have worked themselves into the 'Stuff' Generation they are now advanced Robot Yuppies and will be the Planet's demise.
Where will anyone in 10/15 years be with no clean air, water? Remember those films? the rich lived in Bubbles...but if they build the bubbles like everything they build today...they will also face one force bigger than all Mother Nature!
Military Government Bombs should be obsolete with this generation yet we are in a Nazii development because we allowed
Power Greed Bad Faith to take over.
http://www.hhs.gov/1946inoculationstudy/cdc_rept-std_inoc_study.html
and the Tuskegee Syphillus study was in full swing. Mengale was condemned, these USPHS folks just went on with their careers.
Most White people have difficulty reading history because of the massive denial automatically invoked in their brains when the reality of our casual and habitual barbaric cruelty starts to become clear and butts into the faerie tale race-image given to us as children. bush, cheny, rumsfeld were just tools. Ever notice what Iraq and Afghanistan bookend? And who stands to gain the most from destroying what is in between? There is your motivation for these wars. The rest, the oil, minerals is just gravy. We only need to thoroughly delouse America and we can go back to simply being the chronic assholes we have always been rather than this acute state we now find ourselves in. I would also like to suggest that NO PERSON who has earned a combat ribbon EVER be allowed to be a police officer here.
He who laughs last...
With many entering the military just because there is no work at home, eventually some will take out their frustrations on innocent people. Maybe in a war zone or maybe here when they return home. Perhaps it is time we got out of places we don't belong and got our youth working at home. We have no reason to be fighting these wars, only excuses. Bring our people home.
May not want our people home, if they can kill 5 mos old they will be able to kill anyone
Lets go to the Church on Sunday and read about Thou Shalt Not Kill...we kill everything that moves Today the Idaho morons went up in planes to annihilate Wolves for fear of WMD in the Dens!
OBama has left Bush regs on Pollution in effect, taking EPA down some more from his Office. They now have no help so I guess they are going down
Look at the proportion of the shallow-twit-administration's record of non-military service and see what they they have wrought!
And the likes of Oliver North is getting fat and rich with War Stories", or was.
Until MINDLESS MILITARY-WORSHIP is stopped in it's tracks, and average kids are educated out of being cannon-fodder for the Imperial war-machine, which is one of the few "things' of any substance that the US makes any more, we will witness escalations of atrocities like this and worse, which is a default setting for the "fruits" of conflict since time beyond mind, where young, mostly immature people are put in life-stress situations they don't understand and trained not to question their actions and any consequences.
It needs to start at the most basic educational level and INCLUDE addressing those with genetically-based violent tendencies in creative and productive ways instead of fostering and unleashing them on those in the path of empire.
B.t.w., the new (Private consultant) armies are made up of the scum of the earth, culled from former Fascist death squads.
The military has worked hard to learn how to train people to kill. And to dehumanize soldiers enough to kill even here. That is why we do not have a draft. soldiers rose up and stopped fighting in Vietnam because they were drafted, not professionals.
[1] See http://felsztyn.tripod.com/germaninvasion/ and think hard about the ugly face of aggression especially when it is emboldened by a belief (inevitably false) in racial superiority.
"....that it can happen at all taints indelibly and irrevocably not only every American soldier, but every American. I was there. You were there. We were there. I am, you are, we are guilty, too."
No Mr. Ash. I was not there. I and countless disenfranchised Americans - disenfranchised from healthcare, regular employment and benefits, as well as the kind of education that the rich and upper-middle-class liberals who read RSN - were not in fact there at this heinous episode. The issue is not that 'America' did this. The military in control, and the policy-makers that sanction that military - THEY ARE GUILTY!
You are right that the rich are educated to lead and the upper middle-class are educated to be the executors of their policies and financial scams but you are mistaken to think that the readers of RSN are of the same class and education as those you describe.
As long as they still allow us to read we can and will educate ourselves. We don't have to have a Harvard Law degree to know when something is illegal or unconstitutiona l. We have brains and they aren't handed out on a class basis-as is evidenced by George W. Bush.
I find it extraordinary that you think we are them. If we were we'd be class traitors. If you are that mistaken, then who are you?
Like a number of people on this site I protested Vietnam and Iraq though the media paid no attention to the millions of people who protested the Iraq war.
And yes, if you don't fight your government's evil policies and at least attempt to make your voice of opposition heard, you are guilty. You are guilty of complicity in the wars our evil leaders perpetrate on innocent people.
People speak of a spaceship to escape to another planet. THAT is not going to happen. There is already a very safe location for the billionaires and their sycophants running our country.
Look at the world on Google Earth for the one location that is the furthest from any land mass. The Hawaiian islands. The islands can be self sufficient in food and energy. They were before they were seized by the USA in the 1800s.
The billionaires and their sycophants will move to the islands. Anyone who is young and strong will be tolerated. Anyone who can produce food and solve energy problems will be needed.
Those people who permitted what is described above can do anything. Everyone on the islands who cannot serve as slaves to the new residents of the islands will be eliminated.
I fit the requirements for producing food AND solving energy problems. I will only work for "them" if my family and close friends are included with me. It is impossible to make a create person into a slave.
The mainland tribes, through their elders and visionaries, have predicted for many years that the "Wasichu" ways will destroy their very perpetrators due to spiritual bankruptcy and it looks like it is far down that well-greased imperialist path already.
So I wouldn't look on the Hawaiian Islands as a pushover for the last elite refuge, or perhaps we could analogize it with the Hitlerian bunker, as they are recovering from the shock of what has been done to them and seeking redress in the most profound way.
May I respectfully refer you to a book entitled "In the Absence of the Sacred" by Gerry Mander (real name on the jacket, no kiddin'). He does a good job of explaining what I've just made a case for.
I know that these men will not be brought to justice. America will protect them as they have protected all their war criminals. But the rest of the world knows and looks on in disgust.
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