DEATH SQUADS, AMERICAN STYLE [+] ballot by quirk99 ACTIVE Thu Jan 03, 08 - Fri Jan 02, 09 The article (below) was about the sentencing of a soldier for participating in the ad hoc execution of three Iraqi prisoners, and the bulk of the article was devoted to the intricacies of the plea bargaining among the four perpetrators of the crime. But, as is surprisingly common in the mainstream press, the reporter, Paul von Zielbauer, sneaked in the really big news towards the end of the article. The key paragraphs (introduced as the perpetrator’s rationale for the execution) are these, which discuss the orders given the soldiers by their brigade commander, Colonel Michael D. Steele: “Several soldiers in Private Clagett’s platoon have said in sworn statements that Colonel Steele told his men that they would be attacking a stronghold of Al Qaeda and ordered them to kill all men of military age they encountered during the raid. “Colonel Steele, in sworn testimony to Army investigators that has not been made public, said he had not given orders using those exact words, but had warned his soldiers to expect a fierce battle. He was reprimanded by an Army general last summer for issuing confusing rules of engagement that investigators said had contributed to the deaths of the three Iraqi men and a fourth man killed during the raid”. If we can look past Colonel Steele’s denial, which contains the concessionary point that he did not use these “exact words,” we get some real insight into the goals of American units when they are sent into “insurgent strongholds”: their job is to kill as many “men of military age” as they can. We should all be given pause by the heinous brutality of this strategy…; and by the fact that it is a violation of virtually every international law and custom meant to deter war crimes…; and by the fact that this strategy is the sin qua non of state terrorism….; and by the fact that Saddam Hussein sometimes engaged in this very strategy. But when we get past the upset and sadness and outrage from this, it is worth observing that this is exactly what the death squads in Baghdad have been doing for the last year. Like the Americans, they enter a “stronghold of Al Qaeda” searching for “terrorists,” usually under the color of law as Iraqi police or internal security personnel (many are, in fact, police or internal security special forces commanded by Iraqi or even American officials in the Ministry of the Interior). And, like the Americans, they are confident that “all men of military age” in this community are in fact active members or supporters of the insurgency; so they arrest, torture and assassinate as many as they can corral in a single foray. So what’s the difference between the Americans and the Iraqis? Only the torture part, and we can’t even be sure of that. The worst of this is that we cannot even hide behind the meager hope that Colonel Steele is an anomaly and other brigade commanders do not issue orders to “kill all men of military age.” Sadly, the best evidence strongly indicates that this is indeed a policy, and that its lethal consequences have resulted in the murder of over a hundred thousand Iraqis since the U.S. arrived. One succinct way to document its prevalence is to look at the evidence from the Lancet study of violent death in Iraq, which concluded that at least 30% of the 600,000 victims of violence since the war began were killed by bullets fire or bombs dropped by American troops. Even if we remove the deaths due to bombing (8% of the total), we are left with 150,000 or so deaths from American bullets, or about 100 day, every day for the 1500 or so days since the American invasion. Or, put another way, on their most brutal day, the Iraqi death squads kill about as many Iraqis “men of military age” as the U.S. death squads kill on an average day. And, while the Iraqi squads have been operating for only a year, and for only a few months at high levels, the Americans have been hard at work for 45 months. And, the number of American soldiers available to staff these death squads is going to increase by almost 15% in the next few months. What a nightmare. Time to impeach nah its all lies The shame has destroyed my resistance Ballot #122242 : SEE RESULTS Comment: show your vote with comment?

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