Humint Events Online: US Soldier Refuses to Serve in 'Illegal Iraq War'

Saturday, May 17, 2008

US Soldier Refuses to Serve in 'Illegal Iraq War'

We need more soldiers with a conscience:
"I stand before you today with the strength and clarity and resolve to declare to the military, my government and the world that this soldier will not be deploying to Iraq," Chiroux said in the sun-filled rotunda of a congressional building in Washington.

"My decision is based on my desire to no longer continue violating my core values to support an illegal and unconstitutional occupation... I refuse to participate in the Iraq occupation," he said, as a dozen veterans of the five-year-old Iraq war looked on.

Minutes earlier, Chiroux had cried openly as he listened to former comrades-in-arms testify before members of Congress about the failings of the Iraq war.

The testimonies were the first before Congress by Iraq veterans who have turned against the five-year-old war.

Former army sergeant Kristofer Goldsmith told a half-dozen US lawmakers and scores of people who packed into a small hearing room of "lawless murders, looting and the abuse of countless Iraqis."

He spoke of the psychologically fragile men and women who return from Iraq, to find little help or treatment offered from official circles.

Goldsmith said he had "self-medicated" for several months to treat the wounds of the war.

Another soldier told AFP he had to boost his dosage of medication to treat anxiety and social agoraphobia -- two of many lingering mental wounds he carries since his deployments in Iraq -- before testifying.

Some 300,000 of the 1.6 million US soldiers who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan suffer from the psychological traumas of post-traumatic stress disorder, depression or both, an independent study showed last month.

A group of veterans sitting in the hearing room gazed blankly as their comrades' testimonies shattered the official version that the US effort in Iraq is succeeding.

Almost to a man, the soldiers who testified denounced serious flaws in the chain of command in Iraq.

Luis Montalvan, a former army captain, accused high-ranking US officers of numerous failures in Iraq, including turning a blind eye to massive fraud on the part of US contractors.

Ex-Marine Jason Lemieux told how a senior officer had altered a report he had written because it slammed US troops of using excessive force, firing off thousands of rounds of machine gun fire and hundreds of grenades in the face of a feeble four rounds of enemy fire.

Goldsmith accused US officials of censorship.

"Everyone who manages a blog, Facebook or Myspace out of Iraq has to register every video, picture, document of any event they do on mission," Goldsmith told AFP after the hearing.

"You're almost always denied before you are allowed to send them home."

Officials take "hard facts and slice them into small pieces to make them presentable to the secretary of state or the president -- and all with the intent of furthering the occupation of Iraq," Goldsmith added.

Chiroux is one of thousands of US soldiers who have deserted since the Iraq war began in 2003, according to figures issued last year by the US army.


What is the government's response?
A psychologist who helps lead the post-traumatic stress disorder program at a medical facility for veterans in Texas told staff members to refrain from diagnosing PTSD because so many veterans were seeking government disability payments for the condition.


The system is so sorely fucked up. We need many more people like Chiroux, Montalvan, Goldsmith and Lemieux to speak out.

Actually, I do think the American people are catching on -- it's the fucking war-criminals in the Whitehouse, in Congress and in the newsrooms that are the problem.

5 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Please let us go home. We are needed at our own neighborhood.

We have a lot of work to do at home. What are we doing in Iraq, 7000 miles away from home?

We have killed a lot of people in the Middle East and paid a price for our invasion of the land. The price is being paid by people in our great Armed Forces and our children who have to pay for the cost of our adventurisms.

Don't believe it for a minute that we are in the Middle East to give them democracy. Let us do that in our own backyard, our own hemisphere. Please travel to Mexico, our nearest neighbor. Let us spend some of our money and expertise to better the life for these people. Really if we want to do something right, spend the money and manpower in Africa among the neediest people in the world. Feed them and educate them.

We can’t even fool ourselves anymore. Middle East will do best without us; they have done it for over 4000 years.

Please let us go home.

9:56 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

DEATH MADE IN AMERICA

Way to go America.

1:12 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Anyone who joins the military knows that being sent into a combat situation is part of the deal.

If you can't stand the heat, don't join.

This message is NOT brought to you
by a Mindless CIA-droid, Nazi,
a crazed stealth right-wing scion
tist, or el Ron Hubbardite.

10:58 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

We need more soldiers with a conscience

Cowardice =/= conscience.

5:20 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Cowardice =/= conscience."

oh sword_of_truth equates the callous slaughter of innocent women and children with bravery!
that is very heroic of you sword.

6:31 PM  

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