Sir! No Sir! Exposing and Debunking Military Lies from Vietnam to Iraq

This is Where we Take Our Stand - Webisode 6

No Longer a Monster from Displaced Films on Vimeo.

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You are now watching: Episode Six - No Longer a Monster
"There are no more authoritative voices to speak out about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan than the people who have been there under fire," declares singer Tom Morello (The Nightwatchman, Rage Against the Machine), as he leads an intense celebration of three days of intense, painful, and liberating testimony. And while James Gilligan reveals the deep similarities between the "bad war" (Iraq) and the "good war" (Afghanistan), Jon Turner declares for all, "I am sorry for the things that I did, I am no longer the monster that I once was."

Chicken Hawks and Critics in the Blogosphere

Critics of IVAW seem to come in a number of forms. Some of these, especially active duty GIs and some veterans oppose IVAW for principled reasons and should be respected. Still others misunderstand the goals and aspirations of the movement, viewing it as a continuation/re-run of the 1960s antiwar movement. There is, however a category which stands out from the crowd and it primarily consists of a collection of bloggers attached to and affiliated with the far right of the republican party. One of the worst of these is the aptly named Chickenhawk Express, whose work is most charitably characterized as ugly and bitter and occasionally veers toward the slanderous.
The following post includes a number of Robin's writing, about IVAW written since the Winter soldier Hearings:

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Another VFP and IVAW Stunt Ignored (4/11/08)

IVAW and VFP leaders must be banging their heads on the wall trying to figure out what they have to do to get a little mainstream media attention. They held another "Arrest Bush and Cheney" Action back on March 19th but to their chagrin, no one covered it. They are just now getting some "publicity" from the "Independent" media (aka their inner circle of comrades) including a YouTube video. VFP and IVAW had BIG plans for this stunt...
The Veterans then proceeded to the National Archives where the Constitution is housed. We had originally planned a civil resistance action inside the National Archives, in the Rotunda, where the Constitution, Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence are displayed. The plan was for a number of Veterans for Peace and Iraq Veterans Against the War to enter the Rotunda and to use plastic cuffs to secure ourselves to the massive gates at the entrance to the Rotunda. Our rationale in doing this would be that as fulfillment of the oath we took upon joining the military to uphold and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, we would now demand the arrest of those who had most grievously abused that document and all it stands for. Delivering the Warrant in the place of Constitutional housing, we would remain handcuffed to "guard" the Constitution until the aforesaid accused either surrendered themselves to us or to the appropriate authorities.
But the "crowds" waiting to enter the National Archives made the protesters change their tactics...
However, on Monday and Tuesday as we surveyed the huge lines wending around the block waiting to enter and realizing that we couldn't just cut the line and walk in, we changed our plan to an outside occupation with the same demand for a citizen's arrest. The outside plan turned out to be much better.
Yeah the new plan worked SOOOO much better...
Five veterans, Joel Kovel, Diane Wilson, Ellen Barfield, Malcolm Chaddock and Andrew Schoerky decided to handcuff themselves to the flagpole outside the Archives with a huge blowup of the Citizen's Arrest Warrant for Bush and Cheney. There was also a immense canvas replication of the Constitution that would be displayed. That morning as the Veterans gathered on the National Mall, Tarak from VFP, Adam Kokesh, Daniel Black and James Gillian from IVAW decided to climb over the 10 ft. spiked metal fence at the top of the front steps of the Archives and to occupy the 40 ft. high ledge on the front of the building with an upside down American flag (symbol of distress) and a megaphone so that they could speak to the crowd more effectively. Our assumption was that both the flagpole occupation and the Vets on the ledge would result in arrests but we felt that the Vets on the high ledge would have more time to speak to the crowd before the police would venture out to arrest them. (Thanks to VFP Pres. Elliot Adams for a leg up when we were climbing over the fence) As it turned out the Vets on the ledge were there for 90 minutes broadcasting before the Archive security ventured out to offer them safe passage if they would only leave the ledge peacefully. The police had opened the previously locked gate in the fence. After some discussion we decided to accept their offer. As we left the ledge to the cheers of the crowd below, a few of the police actually shook our hands. It seemed as if the police had made a decision not to arrest the Vets. Andrew, Ellen, Diane, Joel and Matthew decided to stay handcuffed to the flagpole, at least for a while, even though the march would move on.
Sadly there were no arrests, no scuffles with police and no street blockades. As far as the cheers of the crowd, watch the video. The only ones cheering are part of the demonstration itself. The crowd waiting to enter the National Archives looks bored.
Watch for FAIR and other organizations in the pocket of these groups to issue a demand for an explanation as to why the media failed to cover their "action". They are still whining about the lack of media coverage of Winter Soldier II. Maybe the mainstream media is smarter than I give them credit for being...

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IVAW Knows More Than General Petraeus? (4/10/08)

Talk about audacity... IVAW has issued a press release countering the testimony of General Petraeus and Amb Crocker. Here's snips from the press release...
WASHINGTON, DC - April 9 - Contrary to General Petraeus's testimony, members of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) attest that the major destabilizing force in Iraq is the ongoing U.S. occupation. What's more, U.S. troops are being commanded to perform acts that directly violate their moral codes and the rules of war, making a positive outcome exceedingly difficult to achieve.
Less than one month ago, over 100 veterans and active-duty soldiers who served in Iraq and Afghanistan shared their eyewitness accounts of the occupations at Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan. Their testimony illustrated how the ongoing occupation of Iraq is resulting in the dehumanization and abuse of the Iraqi people, the destabilization and breakdown of the U.S. military, and the emotional and physical injury and damage to thousands of U.S. troops.
Testifiers gave firsthand accounts of being ordered to raid the homes of innocent Iraqis, physically and psychologically abuse Iraqi prisoners, and indiscriminately shoot at civilians.
Dear Martha -I listened to the audio of the testimony and read the reports (from both sides) about the testimony given at WSII. Most of it was simply "war is hell and it sucks" type testimony. The "war crimes" and atrocities never materialized in the testimony. And as far as the "dehumanization" claims - give it a rest. Millard's "haji" story is as ridiculous as his claim of depleted uranium exposure. The abuse and indiscrimate shooting of civilians was mostly "I was told" testimony and no one has yet to go under oath with their claims.
"Petraeus continues to repeat the administration's talking points while ignoring what the soldiers on the ground know: the Iraq occupation is not working," said Kelly Dougherty, a former Military Police Sergeant in Iraq and Executive Director of IVAW
Frankly Kelly - IVAW keeps repeating the talking points from UFPJ, CodePink, ANSWER, Dahr Jamail, VFP and VVAW. The only ones ignoring what is happening on the ground is IVAW and those who have everything to gain by a humilating withdrawal of US forces while leaving Iraqis at the mercy of Al Qaeda. This isn't Vietnam and your retread of the same tactics will not work.
But to claim that you guys and gals know more than General Petraeus is beyond laughable.

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DC Suffers Through Another Moonbat Tsunami (3/19/08)

The five year anniversary of the start of the war in Iraq sent the moonbats into a complete and total frenzy of protest activity. According to people on the ground in DC, the city was awash in the unwashed and covered in pepto bismal pink. Jonn over at This Ain't Hell was all over the place. He went from protest site to protest site and recorded the events for posterity. He's got lots of pics and videos posted. But this scene makes me scratch my head.
What exactly does Medea flashing her goodies in a bed on the streets of DC mean? Is she protesting Eliot Spitzer? Or maybe she's looking for some hot hippie action. Weird - just freakin' weird. Of course IVAW was out in force despite the lackluster WSII performances. King Kokesh led the pack. He certainly has a way with street theater. Too bad he's not a mime.
Every time I see the American Flag flying upside down, it makes me want to vomit. Yes - I know it symbolizes a country in distress but damn it sends such a negative image around the world. Oh wait - that's the point.
TSO over at The Sniper got in on some of the protest action. He's got several posts up about today's events but my favorite is his deconstruction of the anarchists and his lunch with Suzie Rottencrotch. After suffering through WSII and now this, I hereby award Jonn and TSO the Blogger Courage Award. Sorry - not a money award but lots of hugs and my deepest respect for you two guys!

Winter Soldiers in the Press (The Indypendent)

Winter Soldier: Friday’s Rules of Engagement Panels

Posted by Erin Thompson , to the Indypendent, March 15, 2008

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From the White House on March 14 President George W. Bush spoke to U.S. soldiers during a video conference about their current deployment in Afghanistan. “I’m a little envious. If I were slightly younger and not employed here, I think it would be a fantastic experience to be on the front lines of helping this young democracy succeed. It must be exciting for you … in some ways, romantic … you know, confronting danger,” Bush said.
Romantic was not the picture painted of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan just a few miles away in Silver Spring, Maryland, during the second day of testimony by U.S. veterans during Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan , organized by the Iraq Veterans Against the War. “For those of you who don’t know, those are brains,” said Jon Turner, a former Marine, while showing a slide of the inside of man’s head who had been killed by one his friends in his platoon.
Turner and other soldiers on the Rules of Engagement panel depicted their tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan as horrifying events, in which civilians were indiscriminately killed, both accidentally and intentionally, soldiers wantonly destroyed property, including mosques, conducted house raids, planted weapons on civilians killed by the U.S. military in order to be able to classify their deaths as insurgents, and mutilated the dead.
“I want to apologize to all the people in Iraq,” said Sergio Kochergin abruptly, breaking off the end of a story about a friend who had shot himself in the shower, four days after arriving in Iraq. “I’m sorry and I hope this war is going to be over as soon as possible.”
Kochergin’s testimony helped establish how the Rules of Engagement employed by soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan lead to many of the atrocities described the soldiers. The rules, which are provided to soldiers ahead of any mission, define when and how soldiers can fire their weapons or engage in combat. Kochergin described how initially his platoon, which patrolled an Iraqi town on the Syrian border, had to radio to the command post and “if they’re doing some sort of illegal activity, we were allowed to take them out.”
After a while though, these rules were abandoned by commanders, who, at one point, told soldiers to fire at any Iraqis carrying bags and shovels, assuming that they were planting explosive devices. Finally, the soldiers were given no rules of engagement at all, “it was up to us to make the decision,” said Korchergin, who called that policy “inappropriate.”
For many soldiers in Iraq, the rules of engagement in Iraq were “broadly defined and loosely enforced, anyone who tells you different is a liar and a fool,” said Jason Lemieux, who served three tours of Iraq in the U.S. Marine Corps. While he was initially given rules of engagement that corresponded to the Geneva Conventions, “By the time we got to Baghdad that I could shoot at anyone who came close enough to make uncomfortable,” said Lemieux, who described being so traumatized by the shooting of an unarmed Iraqi man that he blocked it out, a commanding officer who shot “two old ladies carrying groceries” and fellow soldiers taking potshots at unarmed civilians in a car.
Garrett Reppenhagen, who served in Baquba Iraq in the U.S. Army, described a firefight in which U.S. soldiers began spraying bullets into several vehicles of what they thought were armed insurgents. After killing seven Iraqis in two vehicles, the soldiers discovered, to their dismay, that the men were actually body guards to the deputy governor, “All these men were not only innocent, they were our allies,” said Reppenhagen.
“This is the kind of confusion that does on every day in Iraq,” said Reppenhagen.
“Everything that we saw we engaged in,” said Jason Washburn, a Marine Corporal who did three tours in Iraq. “There was really no rule governing the amount of force we were allowed to use.”
Washburn describes members of his unit shooting an Iraqi woman carrying a large bag who was approaching U.S. soldiers, only to find out that she had been carrying grocery bags. “She had been trying to bring us food,” said Washburn. “And we blew her to pieces for it.”
Other soldiers emphasized that soldiers were not reprimanded for shooting civilians, and were encouraged by commanding officers to carry shovels and guns with them that they could plant on civilians shot by the U.S. military. “One thing we were asked to do was carry draw-up weapons, in case we did shoot a civilian, we could toss it on a body and make it look like an insurgent,” said Washburn.
“If they were carrying a shovel, heavy bag, digging anywhere, near a road, we could shoot them,” said Washburn. “We carried the tools in vehicles so that we can toss it on them – within the rules of engagement.”
Soldiers also spoke about the callous attitude many soldiers had toward the shooting of Iraqis. After shooting a man who was being pursued for planting an IED, according to one testifier, the Marines “left his body to rot in the field – it was still there two weeks later,” said Indiana resident Vincent Emanuele, who served in the Marine Corps in Iraq twice in 2003 and 2004. “His picture was on the backdrop of a laptop for a screen saver for one of our more motivated marines.”
Turner, an automatic machine gunner in the U.S. marines who served two deployments in Iraq, described intentionally killing civilians and the mutilation of the dead by marines. The blond-haired young man, with a disarming demeanor began his presentation by ripping off the dog tags around his neck. “I don’t work for you anymore,” he said.
“On April 18, 2006, I had my first confirmed killed,” said Turner. “I shot him in front of friend and his father,” describing how the man looked at him when he shot him and began screaming, “I looked at my friend who I was on post with and said ‘I can’t let that happen’, shot him again… It took seven people to carry his body away,” said Turner.
After the kill, “My company commander personally congratulated me,” Turner said. “This is the same individual that stated that whoever gets his first kill by stabbing him to death would get a four day pass.”
Turner described how when embedded reporters were around, the behavior of soldiers changed dramatically and showed video footage of Marines blowing off steam by gunning down the turret of a mosque.
Turner presented a slideshow, which included close-up shots of brains from Iraqis killed by his platoon, the inside of a young Iraqi’s skull and part of a blown off face, which soldiers had placed on the top of a Kevlar helmet. “It just goes to show you that … we had no respect for their bodies afterwards.”
He also presented photos of Iraqis bound in their living rooms during a house raid and described beating and choking men “if the men were giving us a problem.” In a grisly admission, Turner revealed that he had tattooed the words symbolizing “fuck you” on his “choking” wrist and, “anytime I felt the need to take aggression, I would use it.”
Although he began his testimony in defiance, Turner ended with plea. “I am sorry for the things that I did; I am no longer the monster that I once was,” he said to a tearful audience.
James Gilligan, a serious-looking young man with dark hair who did tours in the Marine Corps in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo, was serious and occasionally angry as he described watching unarmed fleeing Afghans being shot down by a group of “hard-charged and devil dog” Marines. He also described the looting of gold coins by soldiers in Iraq and the use of sexual humiliation and waterboarding of detainees at Abu Ghraib.
Gilligan also described how he was asked to provide targeting coordinates by his commanding officers, despite being unqualified, after his unit was hit by fire. He read the coordinates on a compass next to a large metal machine gun. “I gave the false azimuth [coordinates],” said Gilligan, who broke into tears and paused for a moment. “The top [commanders] took my azimuth as true.”
The unit fired at least six barrages of mortars at an Afghani village, which suffered considerable damage and casualties. “Through translators and interpreters, I was told that our unit had informed the Afghanis, ‘If the Taliban does it again, you let us know,’” said Gilligan.
Many of the former soldiers were clearly still traumatized by their experiences, challenged the audience of several hundred members of the media, friends and family, as well as allies in the antiwar movement to take their message as tool to end the war.
“They went to Iraq hoping to do good, hoping to do right. We found rapidly that that was not the case, that we were killing Iraqi people in horrible ways,” said Reppehagen. “And most soldiers are going through this – whether they’ve seen a true atrocity or not, the truth of the matter is that the war is the

Winter Soldiers in the Press (Alternet)

Winter Soldier: America Must Hear These Iraq Vets' Stories

By Penny Coleman, AlterNet. Posted March 15, 2008.

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I missed the Winter Soldier Investigation in 1971. At the time I was married to a vet who desperately wanted to put his war behind him -- and he wanted me to help him do it. We were supposed to pretend it had never happened. It didn't work.
Daniel refused to talk about Vietnam. "Talk to your old lady? No fucking way," his friend Bobby Lanz shot back when I said I thought that maybe Daniel wouldn't have killed himself if I had been able to get him to talk about whatever it was that was causing him such pain. "With other vets, you can say, 'shit man, I did all this horrible stuff. You're not going to believe the stuff I did', and someone who has been there will say, 'Yeah, so did I, so did we all.' But with your woman? You start to talk about having fucked some folks up bad, doing awful things, killing people, maybe, and she starts to cry and you don't go there again. You think, Fuck me, man, I don't need to hurt her. This is psychological abuse, so I am going to shut up."
Maybe I wouldn't have understood. Completely. But not knowing was far worse. For decades, I took responsibility for his death. I thought it was my fault. And even if I hadn't been able to understand exactly what he was talking about, I would have understood that he was in a kind of lethal pain. Whether it was that he thought he deserved to die or that he deserved to be put out of his misery, either way, execution or euthanasia, I would have understood that he had been injured in the war. And I would have known where to focus my grief and my rage.
What I kept thinking today, listening to all those who testified at this new Winter Soldier investigation sponsored by Iraq Veterans Against the War at the National Labor College in Washington, DC, is that so much grief and pain for the past 30 years has been mis-directed, so much energy wasted, blaming ourselves and the soldiers we loved for the injuries that we couldn't see. Joyce Lucey, the mother of a soldier who took his own life after returning from Iraq, said that when he left he gave her a coin and told her to hold it like an amulet to keep him safe. She did, but she now understands that even though her son had been returned to her, his soul had been destroyed. "I should have been holding that coin after he came home."
But, she continued, "His voice is silenced. Ours is not." And she quoted Edmund Burke: "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil in America is for good men to do nothing."
Everything I heard today spoke to that challenge, to the challenge of channeling our combined grief and rage into a focused fight that will really, finally make a difference. Clifton Hicks began his testimony by saying that all of the men he served with in Iraq were there for love: love of country, of ideals, of comrades, and "for that they are beyond judgment. I am here," he added, "to judge the war itself."
One after another, veterans told conflicted stories, some with tears, some with rigid control, some with visible shakes, but all with hard-won moral courage and deep sorrow. John Michael Turner began his testimony by telling the audience that as far as he was concerned, "Once a Marine, Always a Marine" was history. For him it is now "Eat the apple and fuck the corps." Then he tossed his dog tags into the audience saying, "Fuck you, I don't work for you no more." Turner's first confirmed kill was on April 18, 2006. He shot an Iraqi boy in front of his father. It took a second shot to kill him. He had a photograph of the boy's open skull. Turner was personally congratulated by his commanding officer, who proceeded to offer a four day pass to anyone who got a kill by stabbing one of the enemy. Turner ended with, "I am sorry for the hate and destruction that I have inflicted on innocent people. I am sorry for the things I did. I am no longer the monster that I once was."
Hart Viges told of having an insurgent, armed with a rocket-propelled grenade, in his sights during a firefight and not being able to pull the trigger. He was frozen by awareness that the fear and confusion he saw on the Iraqi kid's face was exactly what he imagined was on his own.
Adam Kokesh enlisted in the Marines not because he agreed with the war, but because he "wanted to help clean up the mess." Instead of the schools and water facilities his President had promised he would be helping to build, he found himself policing a wanton project of human and social destruction. He manned "snap" check points where Marines in camouflage at dusk shot unsuspecting drivers who had failed to see them. He described feeling "funny" when he had to decide whether or not to pose with the trophy remains. "I wasn't the one who killed this guy." Kokesh was ordered to shoot at Iraqi police and firemen who were out after curfew putting out a fire that had been started by American rounds. That one he managed to stop with his "little bit of Arabic," but Kokesh wasn't optimistic about our prospects in Iraq. "We care so the American people don't have to. As soon as you choose looking good over doing right, you lose."
Clifton Hicks talked about free fire orders in city neighborhoods and the indiscriminate, often vengeful, targeting of cars and civilians, and about riding through the gates of their compound one night, aware that the humvee in front of his had run over a civilian. No one said anything because it had been a long hard day. They had all been in country long enough to feel that the bigger deal was "being separated from your cot" for the hours it would have taken to fill out the paperwork.
Jason Hurt, a medic from East Tennessee, said, "I am a peaceful person, and I drew down on an 80 year old woman. I hate guns. They should all be melted down into jewelry." And he added, if this were happening where he lives, if some foreign occupying force came into his part of the world, "every self-respecting citizen would come out of the hills with a shotgun to defend their country."
Vincent Emanuelli was appalled by the way American soldiers treated Iraqi dead. "Standard operating procedure was to run over them or take pictures."
Sergio Corrigan said that all an Iraqi needed was a heavy bag and a shovel to become a target. And looking back, with a "clear mind and not so much anger," he wanted to "apologize to the people of Iraq."
James Gilligan struggled to tell about the night he saw a flash on a mountainside and tried to call in for fire. But he took his compass reading too close to a machine gun and the heavy metal threw he reading off. An Afghani village was decimated and he will never be the same.
As Adam Kokesh put it, they were all struggling all the time because their morals were at odds with their survival instincts.
These new Winter Soldiers look so young to me. They are my son's age. My daughter's age as well. The last time young soldiers like these tried to get Americans to listen they were ignored. And that can't be allowed to happen again. The message of Iraq Veterans Against the War came through clearly in every tortured testimony. This is an illegal war. It has cost us our peace of mind. The longer we are there, the more of us will be injured. Bring our troops home now.
It is tempting to despair, but as Logan Laituri reminded the audience, Logan who had testified that his unit unknowingly used white phosphorous for training rounds and that it had "a significant impact on the surrounding communities, what Dr. King said in 1967 is equally true for us now. He said that he opposed the War, then in Vietnam, "because I love America. I speak out against this war not in anger but with anxiety and sorrow in my heart and above all with a passionate desire to see our beloved country stand as the moral example of the world."