Read this piece in Alternet. It is a moving story of heroism that must be placed in glowing contrast with the mendacity, incompetence and hubris of Bush, Cheney, Limbaugh, Hannity and all pseudo-patriots who have never served in our military and had their lives at risk.
http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/43779/
Elizabeth de la Vega writes about Ricky Clousing in Tomdispatch. Clousing is a soldier who went AWOL to protest Bush’s Iraq catastrophe because he refused to accept the Army’s “legitimate” ways to get out of his service. Clousing witnessed what he calls the murder of a young Iraqi boy by a member of his squad while on patrol.
That Iraqi boy died on the way to the hospital. I think the boy in Ricky Clousing died that day as well, but what an extraordinary man he has since become. Deciding he would be haunted forever if he kept silent about such an egregious violation of the rules of engagement, Sgt. Clousing notified the unit’s Platoon Sergeant, who did not “take kindly” to his advice.
Clousing continued to object to American war crimes for the rest of his time in Iraq, though no one ever took kindly to his objections. When he returned to the U.S., he talked to his commanding officers, to the chaplain, to mental health workers and anyone else who would listen to his problems with the invasion and occupation of Iraq. He was told he could get out of the Army — if he said he was gay. But he couldn’t say that because he’s not gay. He was told to claim he had post-traumatic stress disorder, but he couldn’t do that because he didn’t think he had PTSD. He was told to file as a conscientious objector; but he couldn’t do that because he wasn’t against all war. He was told he could avoid going back to Iraq by taking an assignment in the United States. He couldn’t do that either
Whether or not I happen to agree with his characterization as murder or as an accident of war that happens when young men are placed in ridiculous, murderous situations by their commander in chief with no end in sight, here’s what I respect about Clousing
“I felt that my involvement in the army, whether it be directly or indirectly, whether in Iraq or training guys to go to Iraq, I was still that piece of machine in the system that was still allowing this war to take place and still supporting that. My actions, whether or not they were on the front line or back safely at home, were still part of the body of the machine that’s occupying [Iraq]. So I ultimately felt that the only thing I could do was to leave, so I packed my stuff last June and I went AWOL.”
On August 11, 2006, the day he turned himself in, Sgt. Clousing made a simple statement:
“We have found ourselves in a pivotal era where we have traded humanity for patriotism. Where we have traded our civil liberties for a sense of security. I stand here before you sharing the same idea as Henry David Thoreau: as a soldier, as an American, and as a human being, we mustn’t lend ourselves to that same evil which we condemn.”
I have a lot of respect for this young man. Ricky Clousing and I hold the same opinion of the situations we were placed in by misguided Commanders in Chief, me to a jungle and he to a desert. When I was surviving in the jungle thinking the same thoughts about what I was doing there that Clousing was thinking about what he was doing in the desert he and I made different choices. Even though I am satisfied with my choice….I stayed in and fought with my comrades-in-arms because of my loyalty to and love of them not to my country…..I am incredibly impressed by the courage of this young man.
De la Vega says it very well.
Ricky Clousing — now serving a three-month sentence in a military brig at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina — is not the only peace hero. Others are making themselves known in growing numbers and you can read about them at the Courage to Resist website. Although we have no way of assessing the numbers from here, I have no doubt that there are also soldiers trying to do the right thing in Iraq.
But when I read about a President who doesn’t know the meaning of “outrages upon human dignity” because he so clearly does not consider the very people he claims to have liberated human; when I read about a vice president who does not even have the courage to admit to the meaning of the words he uses (“dunk in the water,” “last throes”); when I read about a defense secretary who tells reporters to back off if the questions get too tough, then I think about Ricky Clousing.
I’m ashamed at the leadership of our country. They are incompent, arrogant, and too ignorant to realize it. Ricky Clousing makes me as proud to be an American as the heroes I was lucky enough to hang around 40 years ago.
By the way, this is why we have to bury these fuckers at the polls on Nov. 7th.
