Wikileaks in Baghdad trash dump
There’s an article in The Nation written by Sarah Lazare and Ryan Harvey entitled “Wikileaks in Baghdad” that has really tested my strength to avoid punching my poor, innocent laptop. The article begins;
One by one, soldiers just arriving in Baghdad were taken into a room and questioned by their commanding officers. “All questions led up to the big question,” explains former Army Spc. Josh Stieber. “If someone were to pull out a weapon in a marketplace full of unarmed civilians, would you open fire on that person, even if you knew you would hurt a lot of innocent people in the process?”
It was a trick question. “Not only did you have to say yes, but you had to say yes without hesitating,” explains Stieber. “In refusing to go along with the crowd, it was not irregular for somebody to get beat up,” he adds. “They’ll take you in a room, close the door and knock you around if they didn’t like your answer,” says former Army Spc. Ray Corcoles, who deployed with Stieber.
According to these former soldiers, this was a typical moment of training for Bravo Company 2-16 (2nd Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment), the ground unit involved in the infamous “Collateral Murder” video, which captured global headlines when it was released in April by WikiLeaks….
A few points that the least bit of research would have revealed about those first paragraphs; Beating a soldier won’t change his answer to that question. Just by slamming him around in room doesn’t make him react differently in the real situation. Soldiers aren’t dogs and have their own minds.
Another point; Any “commanding officer” who took the least part in such ineffective conditioning would lose their jobs…and no such incident would go unreported. Give us the names of these “commanding officers” and watch how swiftly justice comes to them.
A third point; In the video to which they refer, the soldiers of B 2/16 Infantry didn’t do anything out of line. It’s the actions of two helicopter crewmembers which led to the killing of those insurgents and journalists on the street corner. Those helicopter crew members aren’t on the roster of B 2/16, so they wouldn’t have had this supposed conditioning that Steiber describes. The soldiers of B 2/16 are the folks who showed up later and rushed the two children to medical treatment. So even if the above story was true, what could it possibly have to do with the events which unfolded in the video?
We return to the article;
Now three former soldiers from this unit have come forward to make the case that the incident is not a matter of a few bad-apple soldiers but rather just one example of US military protocol in the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, where excessive acts of violence often stem from the chain of command.
Except that the “excessive violence” came from the helicopter crew members, not members of B 2/16 – the unit from which those three former soldiers came. And there are about a hundred men in an infantry company – where are the other 97?
The three go on to make vacuous charges against their leadership and peers without naming names, without providing dates and places. Lazare and Harvey were suckered – but I suspect it doesn’t bother either of them. Lazare writes with Dahr Jamail, the lead propagandist of the Left who completely disregards facts that get in his way and constructs mountains from molehills. Lazare also writes and works with Courage to Resist, so she’s pretty familiar with using hyperbole as facts.
Category: Antiwar crowd, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Terror War, Usual Suspects
Do I question the patriotism of the left?
Fuckin-A-dittybag.
I really get tired of shit like this. Everyone knows I’m against the war in Iraq and if any of these outlandish claims people make about the U.S. Army like above, or being trained to shoot civilians, I’d have put it into a movie.
I’m not saying I haven’t seen some messed up stuff done in my last chain of command, I did. But this stuff just goes way out on the deep end and defies simple Human nature.
Beating a Soldier, or having that Soldier live in fear of physical violence, doesn’t train said Soldier.
It is just sad that they believe their own propaganda so much that they choose to ignore common sense and believe any story that supports their message.
It is actually quite insulting that they believe all members of the military are so stupid and immoral that they would do something like this or wouldn’t report wrong doing.
Name names, or STFU.
Jonn: You have managed to gag a maggot.
Where do these cockroaches hide that say such shit? Seems that a jumbo sized can of RAID is in order. Or some size 12’s to stomp their asses flat.
Useless, coward, Phucksticks.
Uh, it was those dirty baby-killing infantrymen… even if helicopters guys actually shot up people, those infantry animals shoulda done it! (Lovely, those left/libtard f*ckers. I sure question their patriotism.)
giving aid to the enemy in a time of war is treason, is it not?
I am amazed at some of the total bullshit people make up. For our unit in Iraq, soldiers had to write so many incident reports for even firing a waring shot, that the command tried everything they could to avoid danger areas.
No “normal” human ever wants to just kill other humans for no purpose or reason.
I know the crews of the aircraft. They were in my sister BN. It was damn good shooting.
Ahhhh yes… Nothing motivates me to run around killing innocent civilians like a good beating.
What a bunch of tools
I just read that Fagboy Bradley Manning had recently broke up with his brokeback boyfriend, was planning a sex change, and was pissed at the DADT policy and took this route to get back at the military.
We should revoke his citizenship and send his faggot ass to Iran for reconstruction. They’ll give him a sex change all right. From sexable to limpdick to dried stiff old carcass.