BillCosby

he Nation 1 hour, 4 minutes ago

The Nation -- The New York Times saw fit to mark the fifth anniversary of the US invasion by inviting nine "experts" including not one soldier to reflect on the conduct of the war and occupation of Iraq. The Times chose to listen to Richard Perle and Robert Bremer III but not one soldier. The Times has no time for troops like Camilo Mejia or Kelly Dougherty. But the public must take the time.


Mejia and Dougherty were among the hundreds of young servicemen and women who shared wrenching, infuriating, riveting eyewitness testimony over the last three days at Winter Soldier hearings in Silver Spring, Md. While the Times' "experts," include men and women who personally played a disastrous role in urging on and then conducting this war, the Winter Soldier hearings, organized by Iraq Veterans Against the War, brought the public the occupation as seen by the very young men and women at the bottom of the chain of command whose lives have forever been transformed by what we and the US government asked them to do in our name.

It is testimony you have a responsibility to watch or listen to. Some addressed broad policy issues having to do with the rules of engagement, occupation, the treatment of civilians and detainees and the treatment of troops on their return. Some related to specific violations, including rape, indiscriminate killing, torture, desecration of the dead and the apparently common practice of dropping weapons on dead civilians to make them look like combatants. More than one soldier described being told to carry "drop weapons," in their vehicles.

The IVAW say they have corroborated these stories. Reporters urgently need to follow up. As one witness, Joshua Castell put it, "Moral slippery slopes go from top to bottom." Those at the bottom cannot be the only ones to take responsibility.

After Winter Soldier 1971, the proceedings were read into the congressional record and the Senate Foreign Relations committee held hearings that gave vets an opportunity to testify. Will this Democratic-controlled Congress give these men and women the same opportunity? These soldiers are willing to take oaths. On Sunday, Former US Army Captain Luis Montalvan, who served two tour of Iraq, said he'd be grateful to have the chance. His colleagues, agreed, "on a stack of bibles."

Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan wrapped up March 16, forty years to the day after the My Lai Massacre which started the Whole Winter soldier phenomenon. As Garrett Reppenhagen, the first active duty soldier to join IVAW put it Sunday, "It's time to stop this occupation before the next Tet Offensive." As IVAW are showing loud and clear, this occupation is not winnnable, it's is destroying Iraq, tearing apart this country and breaking down our military. It has to stop now. And not just the troops need to feel the pain.

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Preventive war is not war!!!!Counter-terror is not terror

BillCosby

MARINES' TESTIMONY
Civilians Brutally Tortured in Iraq - Afghanistan
A former marine, Bryan Csler, said that his colleagues urinated on food they later gave to Iraqi children.

A few hundreds of American soldiers decided to speak up about the torture and the killing of innocent civilians in the battle area in Iraq and Afghanistan.

A four-day event in Maryland gathered the war veterans from the whole country in order to tell their experience in Iraq and Afghanistan. The event was transmitted by TV stations.

Hundreds of soldiers and marines testified at the hearing “Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan”.

Soldiers beat and dehumanised civilians

Jeffery Smith decided to tell how his military unit beat and mocked Iraqi prisoners. A former marine, Bryan Csler, said that his colleagues urinated on food they later gave to Iraqi children.

amnesty.ca-.-The hearing started on Thursday and ended on Sunday. The event was organised by the “Iraqi Veterans Against the War”, an antiwar organisation spread all over the country. Veterans told their testimony and urged the withdraw of the American army from Iraq.

Ian J. Lavallee, one of the war veterans form Boston, stated on the phone that he wished to attend the hearing although he did not plan to testify.

Innocent civilians kept in cages

- We dehumanized people. The way we spoke about them, the way we destroyed their livelihoods, their families, doing raids, manhandling them, throwing the men on the ground while their family was crying.

I became a person I never thought I would become. It really upset me that I did these things - said Lavallee, 23, who served in Iraq in 2005 and was discharged in 2006 after he attempted suicide.

Patrick Dougherty, a veteran from Cambridge who directly watched the TV transmission of the soldiers’ testimony, remembered how evil they were in the battle area. He arrived in Iraq in 2003, and there is remained 14 months.

- The way we treated our detainees like animals, kept them in cages in the hot sun all day - said Dougherty.

Soldiers in Vietnam raped, tortured and killed

www.domaci.de-.-The four-day meeting also recalled the one held almost 40 years ago, when more than a hundred veterans of the Vietnam war gathered and told their experiences.

In January 1971, the members of the “Vietnam Veterans Against the War” organisation, met in Detroit in order to talk about their experiences on war crimes they committed or they witnessed. The investigation on war crimes, which later became pumped by the media, was named “Winter Soldier”.

In three days, over a hundred Vietnam veterans described their violent behaviour towards Vietnamese civilians, including raping, torturing and killing. But despite the evidence and testimonies from the battle field, the American government still considers the massacring of civilians an exception

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Preventive war is not war!!!!Counter-terror is not terror

Kanadesaga

Too Late! It happenned in Haditha.

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"..., because hope don't park the motherfucking car."