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Opinions/Editorials Title: I Don57;t Support the Troops I57;m a military combat veteran and critic of our government57;s invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan, and I DON57;T SUPPORT THE TROOPS. I57;ll protest in the streets to end the war, and when the troops come home I57;ll do what I can to see that they get the benefits and treatment they need and deserve. That57;s my contribution to the troops. Many people "oppose the war but support the troops." Rotten war, brave soldiers. I don57;t buy this at all. Although little Johnny or Judy might have once been that nice kid next door, he or she may now be engaged in massacres and atrocities that you can57;t or won57;t believe. "The troops" are waging war against a civilian population, making little or no attempt to distinguish between "insurgents" and "collateral" innocents in the vicinity. When faced with frequent sniping, mines, ambushes and treachery by supposed local "allies," even the best-trained occupation armies soon become brutal, sadistic, cynical and demoralized. A former chief of the junior doctors in Baghdad57;s Medical City Hospital recently told the Inter Press Service, "There are many, many, many cases like Haditha that are still under cover and need to be highlighted in Iraq." Torture and atrocities happen in all wars, on both sides. None are right, but America has to accept the fact that when little Johnny or Judy enlists in one of the branches of service s/he becomes a hired killer. Now it57;s his or her choice whether or not to perform inexcusable deeds for our corporate government. People are convinced that however evil, wicked and misguided the president might have been to launch the war, the ordinary soldiers who are actually waging it are overwhelmingly dedicated and honorable. The average person thinks that "99.9 per cent of the troops" are as pure as driven snow, our "best and brightest." I don57;t buy either of those jingoistic platitudes. When I was in the military, it was composed of many different kinds of people, including was a fair share of losers, brutes and blood-thirsty thugs. I had the misfortune to be stationed in the Army in Vietnam, assisting Marines. They are a breed all their own. The first "enemy" I saw was a Viet Cong being dragged around by a bunch of Marines. By the time they were through with him he lost half his face and died. I saw torture and mistreatment of the "enemy," Vietnam civilians, South Vietnam soldiers and even our own troops, not only by the Marines, but by my own unit and other ally troops as well. I was threatened by guys in my unit because I wouldn57;t assist in their brutality and misdeeds. I believe that every one of the U.S. government57;s military and "civil" agents in Iraq are engaged in "a war of unprovoked aggression," and therefore all bear some guilt for participating in an evil enterprise. I am not suggesting that the man who drives a supply truck is as guilty as the man who shoots a baby at point blank range, but all of our forces are guilty to some degree. Doing wrong is doing wrong, be it in Gainesville or Iraq, and whether or not someone says killing in war is OK. Bush told the soldiers to go, and they chose to obey. When the Nazis at Nuremberg claimed they were "only following orders," they received no mercy, nor did they deserve any. Perhaps the enlisted men and women who merely tagged along are less culpable than Bush, but nobody involved in this huge criminal undertaking is entitled to a clean bill of moral health. The longer U.S. forces stay in Iraq, the more brutalized and undisciplined they will become, and the more hated they will be. The vast majority of the global community sees the USA as the bad guys, and rightly so. We have no moral reason for being in Iraq and the world knows it. The problem in Iraq and Afghanistan is not that the U.S. forces have a few bad apples. The barrel itself is rotten, and even a good apple placed in it absorbs its foulness. To remain morally upright, people need to steer clear of voluntary association with criminals, and they most certainly need to refrain from acting as their mercenaries. You always hear that the troops signed a contract and must obey orders. Not if they deem such orders to be illegal or beyond moral bounds. They can always refuse to obey, and if necessary in this time of grievous injustice, go to jail, go AWOL or move to another country. These are better decisions than killing innocent civilians for corporate greed. I only wish I had made one of those decisions. The mental pain of obeying orders stays with you for a very long time. The real blame for atrocities like Haditha, of course, belongs to an Administration that plunged the U.S. into an unnecessary, no-win war in Iraq, the complicit Pentagon brass, and those senior Washington officials who spit on the Geneva Conventions and the international rules of war. For each of the men and women in the military, there will be two wars: First the battle to stay alive, and then the struggle to live with what one "had to do" in order to stay alive. In war there are no winners 51; only those who lose least! Read up on the "true" history of this country, not what is shoved down citizens57; throats in propaganda centers called schools. Surf the net for the horrible deeds our military has done in the name of "national security." Begin with the genocide of native Americans, followed by our overthrow of sovereign governments in Hawaii, the Philippines, Cuba, Iran, Guatemala, and Chile (to name just a few), and now the bloodbath in Iraq and Afghanistan. The American military machine has killed and tortured millions of innocent people around the planet, and will continue to do so until made to stop. Who better to call for an end to this insanity than those who served in Vietnam, Iraq, or other unnecessary U.S. incursions in foreign lands? And so I call on my fellow vets to heed Thoreau57;s advice that we use our lives to "stop the machine" and thereby expiate the legacy of pain, suffering and death we participated in. As David Crosby so insightfully observed long ago in his song, Longtime Gone, "you got to speak out against the madness." July 10, 2006 Chas Chiodo [send him mail] lives in High Springs, Florida.
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