IRAQ AS AMERICAN PSYCHOSIS

A collection of damning links about the endless and immoral war for oil and power.

First, from the London Independent courtesy of J. Orlin Grabbe:

US soldiers would kill civilians, says Marine

Jimmy Massey, 33, a staff sergeant who served in Iraq before being honourably discharged after 12 years' service, said he had seen troops shooting civilians at road blocks and in the street. A code of silence, similar to that found in organised crime gangs, prevented troops from speaking about it.

"We were shooting up people as they got out of their cars trying to put their hands up," said Mr Massey. "I don't know if the Iraqis thought we were celebrating their new democracy. I do know that we killed innocent civilians." Mr Massey said US troops in Iraq were trained to believe that all Iraqis were potential terrorists. As a result, he had watched his colleagues open fire indiscriminately. In one 48-hour period, he estimated his unit killed more than 30 civilians in the Rashid district of southern Baghdad.

Click here for the rest.

Next, from the AP via the Houston Chronicle, an article about the extraordinarily high number of maimed, disfigured, and wounded American soldiers the neo-con war has produced:

Fewer Iraq casualties die, but wounds more severe

For every American soldier killed in Iraq, nine others have been wounded and survived -- the highest rate of any war in U.S. history.

It isn't that their injuries were less serious, a new report says. Some young soldiers and Marines have had faces, arms and legs blown off and are returning home badly maimed. But they have survived, thanks in part to armorlike vests and fast treatment from doctors on the move with surgical kits in backpacks.

"This is unprecedented. People who lose not just one but two or three extremities are people who just have not survived in the past," said Dr. Atul Gawande, a surgeon at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston who researched military medicine and wrote about it in today's New England Journal of Medicine.

Click here for more.

Next, from Democracy Now, a story about what happens to US soldiers who tell the truth about American war crimes:

Intel Agent Strapped to Gurney and Flown Out of Iraq
by U.S. Army After Reporting Torture of Detainees

Well, apparently, Ford, who as you said, was stationed in Samarra, Iraq, which is about a hundred kilometers north, or so, north of Baghdad in the spring of 2003, had witnessed what he calls repeated incidents of torture and abuse over approximately two to three week period of Iraqi detainees by his fellow intelligence operatives in Samarra. After confronting the team leader several times without success, he eventually did go to his commanding officer, as you mentioned, Captain Artiga in an attempt to file a formal complaint for an investigation of these incidents. Unfortunately, according to Ford, instead of an investigation being conducted, within about a day-and-a-half later, he was, in fact, strapped to a gurney, put on a C-130, and flown initially to Kuwait and eventually to Landstuhl, Germany, where he then underwent a series of psychological evaluations in Germany and also at two bases in the United States for approximately eight months.

Click here to listen to or watch more, or to read a transcript of the report.

Finally, from the New York Times via the Houston Chronicle, a story about unrest among US troops:

Troops put Rumsfeld on the defensive

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld came here Wednesday to lead a morale-lifting town hall discussion with Iraq-bound troops. Instead, he was hit with pointed questions from soldiers complaining about aging vehicles that lacked protective armor.

Rumsfeld, seemingly caught off-guard by the sharp questioning, responded that the military was producing extra armor for Humvees and trucks as fast as possible, but that the soldiers would have to cope with equipment shortages. "You go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time," he said.

Click here for more.

As usual, Rumsfeld was lying his ass off: the military is not producing extra armor "as fast as possible." From Bloomberg courtesy of Eschaton:

Armor Holdings Inc., the sole supplier of protective plates for the Humvee military vehicles used in Iraq, said it could increase output by as much as 22 percent per month with no investment and is awaiting an order from the Army.

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said yesterday the Army was working as fast as it can and supply is dictated by "a matter of physics, not a matter of money.''

Jacksonville, Florida-based Armor Holdings last month told the Army it could add armor to as many as 550 of the trucks a month, up from 450 vehicles now, Robert Mecredy, president of the company's aerospace and defense group said in a telephone interview today.

"We're prepared to build 50 to 100 vehicles more per month,'' Mecredy said in the interview. "I've told the customer that and I stand ready to do that.''

And

"If they ordered more trucks, we'd build more trucks,'' Woodward said. "We're not close to capacity. It might take some time to ramp up but we can do it.''

Click here for the rest.

I think it's fairly obvious why Rumsfeld was lying to the troops. What I want to know is why the Pentagon hasn't ordered more armored vehicles. What's the deal?

One thing's for sure; this last story is totally typical of the entire Iraq war ordeal: death, lies, incompetence, and arrogance.

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