February 7, 2007
Crimes Listed by the Nuremberg
Standard of 1947: a war of aggression, or participation in a
common plan or conspiracy for its accomplishment; murder or ill-treatment
of civilian populations in occupied territory; murder or ill-treatment
of prisoners of war; plunder of public or private property; wanton
destruction of cities, towns or villages, or devastation not
justified by military necessity; crimes against humanity such
as murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation, and other
inhumane acts committed against any civilian population, before
or during the war.
Abu Ghraib, Haditha, Fallujah,
the rape of Lebanon, the concentration camps in the West Bank
and Gaza, clandestine prisons, the Iraq embargo of the 1990s,
Halliburton, and Black Water. There are more, but these will
suffice to compare against the Nuremberg Standard. It will not
be a difficult task. For example, start with Halliburton and
the plunder of public (American taxpayers') property.
How many of you recognize the name of
Army Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson, Jr.?
I do because he and I stood
on and flew over the same ground nearly 40 years ago. Like him,
I left a little blood and a lot of sweat in a Godforsaken place
halfway around the world, earning four battle stars in 11 months.
Plus some cheap tin and ribbon medals made even cheaper by the
good friends who never came home with me. Thompson did, too.
Hugh was a helicopter pilot
who aimed his guns at American soldiers--members of my brigade
-- to keep them from slaughtering civilians in the Vietnamese
hamlet of My Lai 4. Spotting massacred civilians around My Lai,
Thompson and his two-man crew landed beside wounded civilians
to give medical help as the infantry company commander and others
present kept shooting the wounded. Thompson ordered his crew
to open fire if the slaughter continued. No more civilians were
shot.
Thompson's story is critical
because the march to a nuclear war against Iran has begun, and
YOU will the ones carrying it out. There is no way to effectively
"confront" Iran except with tactical nuclear weapons.
Tens of thousands of innocent men, women and children will die
outright or suffer lingering deaths from horrible radiation sicknesses.
It will be murder, pure and simple. Look at the suffering around
you and multiply it by hundreds.
No doubt you know that back
home, 80 per cent of the American people voted in the last election
to end the Iraq debacle, but no one in Washington listened. Our
two-faced media watchdogs are a gaggle of neocon propaganda peddlers,
corporate whores and New World Order shills who helped orchestrate
and cheerlead the slaughter, and they sneer at your patriotism
behind your backs.
Everything you've been told
about Iraq is a pack of lies, and the powers that be seem to
think we're all stupid enough to be conned again. We can't trust
our elected representatives to carry out the will of the people.
They're been bought and sold, and have just proven it. For all
practical purposes, a coup d'etat has taken place.
Meanwhile, soldiers in Iraq
and Afghanistan have problems of their own just staying alive.
After four years, why doesn't everyone have the equipment and
armored vehicles needed? The most cynical thing our government
can do is to send its soldiers into combat with defective weapons
or lacking critical equipment. To me, actions speak a lot louder
than words. Just ask the folks who lost everything to Hurricane
Katrina down along the Gulf Coast.
Keep in mind that defense contractors
like Halliburton are raking in billions, and the 100-grand-per-year
hired guns and their employers certainly aren't lacking anything
they need. Take a close look at their equipment. Whether you
realize it or not, these hired guns are making your job a lot
harder by terrorizing and humiliating the Iraqi population, accountable
to no one. I've seen it all before, only with more humidity and
less sand.
Let me tell you a little secret
about the plan to parcel you out in small groups and isolate
you in Iraqi units. This was tried in Vietnam with disastrous
results, with adjectives like suicidal. And that was before we
had really gotten serious about killing people over there. How
can you tell who the enemy is? Do you speak the Iraqi language
and understand the culture? That friendly Iraqi kid or little
girl in a burka may be taking reams of mental notes about your
unit strength, equipment, and movement patterns to relay to their
big brothers with the IEDs, RPGs and AKs. They may even be humping
bags of ammo or ordnance and running commo for insurgents.
Count your fingers for the
number of new insurgents every dead civilian creates. Rape a
girl and murder her family to cover it up, and you'll need a
computer. Don't forget to factor in the damage from 50,000 armed-to-the-teeth
mercenaries, many of whom not only don't speak Iraqi, they don't
even speak English. Always remember that none of these people
invited you there to blow their country apart. Imagine how you'd
feel if some friendly invaders and a bunch of their salaried
thugs had wasted New York City and killed the entire population.
I can tell you from experience
that it's impossible to win any kind of guerilla war without
the support of the population and while soldiering from a defensive
position. Have your missions turned from search and clear to
search and avoid like ours did? Do you have a mentality of "the
day is yours, the night is theirs"? If that's true, the
situation has disintegrated into a war of attrition and you've
lost.
Put aside from the moral conundrum
of nuking a non-nuke country that has signed the non-proliferation
treaty to keep that country from maybe getting nukes of its own,
and all on behalf of another country that already has hundreds
of nukes and refuses to sign any such treaties. An attack on
Iran means you will be trapped between a rock and a hard place.
Make no mistake: the real reason for the "surge" into
Bagdad is to reinforce security around the laptop warriors and
bureaucrats in the Green Zone. You'll find yourselves in the
curious position of playing bodyguard for the hired guns. How
ironic will that be?
Think about your families and
loved ones. A large number of you are serving multiple tours,
with many involuntarily extended. For the latter, your country
has violated the contract it signed with you, but just try breaking
your end of it. Meanwhile, military families suffer at home,
a significant number of you will not have jobs to return to,
and unbelievably, your government is doing its best to slash
or delay veteran's benefits. For those of you who come home wounded,
it will take years to get a VA disability claim processed if
you succeed at all.
Are your families are living near the poverty level? Look at
how many payday loan shark operations hover like vultures around
stateside military posts. The bottom line is that you and your
loved ones are suffering all the blood and material sacrifices
while White House and Congressional cronies get unspeakably rich.
And, you're being asked to do it over and over again by people
who are willing to spill every drop of your blood while making
sure their own children avoid wearing a uniform.
To say that combat veterans--or
anyone -- who oppose these wars are against you is an outright
lie. We would stand shoulder-to-shoulder with you to defend our
country and protect our Constitution. We want Osama bin Laden
and his cohorts dead as much as you do. Our hearts break when
another coffin comes home, or a young man or woman returns physically
or psychologically crippled. We have personally seen and felt
this pain for 30 years or more. We are outraged that it's happening
all over again, and for what?
Our anger is directed at the
people who have cynically exploited your patriotism and love
of America, people who seem to owe their allegiance to another
country, people who have been using our Constitution as toilet
paper. Turn your bullshit detectors up to full volume like we
have. Open your eyes and discover what true courage is. It's
not just facing another man in combat, it's also standing up
for what's right.
Be forewarned and forearmed:
the dogs of war never confront a man's intellectual or moral
compass, but only his body and his emotions. They count on your
blind obedience to authority. These people are not armed with
superior knowledge or competence. They have nothing but a monopoly
on violence and coercion, and a talent for exploiting our ignorance
and timidity. All of us were born free men and women, and it's
time to once again begin living like we are. It's time to show
the government where real strength of the American people lies.
The bottom line is, if you
don't think an ordinary soldier like yourself can do anything
about the situation, you're dead wrong. Remember the story of
Hugh Thompson. When the same dogs of war start barking, you start
biting like he did. You do it with two simple questions to each
officer and NCO, and ask it repeatedly: "With all due respect,
sir, why are we still here and when are we going home?"
You don't give up your Constitutional
rights when you put on the uniform, because the defense of the
Constitution is at the core of your solemn oath to serve. Anyone
who orders you to give up your morality and humanity should be
hung. My fervent prayer is that a brigade of Hugh Thompsons like
you will rise up to put a halt to this coming atrocity.
Tony Swindell can be reached at: phoenixtexoma@550access.com
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