At last some good news from the war of terrorism front, reports Dahr Jamail. Our troops (some? many!?) have decided to ‘search & avoid’ instead of fu*king with Iraqis.
Eli Wright (Support This Troop, Boo-yAHH!):
We’d go to the end of our patrol route and set up on top of a bridge and use it as an over-watch position. We would just sit with our binoculars and observe rather than sweep. We’d call in radio checks every hour and say we were doing sweeps.
It was a common tactic, a lot of people did that. We’d just hang out, listen to music, smoke cigarettes, and pretend.
Phil Aliff (Support this Troop, Boo-yAHH!):
We were hit by so many roadside bombs we became incredibly demoralized, so we decided the only way we wouldn’t be blown up was to avoid driving around all the time.
So we would go find an open field and park, and call our base every hour to tell them we were searching for weapons caches in the fields and doing weapons patrols and everything was going fine . . .
Geoff Millard (Support this Troop’s Boo-yAHHBuddies!):
One of my buddies is in Baghdad right now and we email all the time. He just told me that nearly each day they pull into a parking lot, drink soda and shoot at the cans. They pay Iraqi kids to bring them things and spread the word that they are not doing anything and to please just leave them alone.”
Okay, not to rain on your sunshine but we also have this news from the fronts:
‘Fragging’ Rare in Iraq, Afghanistan
American troops killed their own commanders so often during the Vietnam War that the crime earned its own name – “fragging.”
But since the start of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the military has charged only one Soldier with killing his commanding officer, a dramatic turnabout that most experts attribute to the all-volunteer military. …
Between 1969 and 1971, the Army reported 600 fragging incidents that killed 82 Americans and injured 651. In 1971 alone, there were 1.8 fraggings for every 1,000 American Soldiers serving in Vietnam, not including gun and knife assaults.
“Many [soldiers] were trying to go through the motions without getting themselves killed,” said Duke University history professor Alex Roland. “If an officer or hard-charging sergeant was in his foxhole and a grenade rolled in, you probably would never know where it came from.”
C’mon, gung-ho troops, learn from the geezer vets! You must lead us out of Iraq the same way your bros got us out of Vietnam. So far, says one of your big supporters (Ted Rall), you haven’t been up to the job:
Soldiers who want antiwar Americans to march to demand that they be brought home should take a cue from Vietnam veterans. They marched with peace protesters and threw their medals at the Capitol. Soldiers serving on the front refused orders. Some fragged their officers. Vietnam Veterans Against the War claimed more than 50,000 members by 1971. That year saw numerous dramatic acts of dissent by U.S. troops, including 50 veterans who marched to the Pentagon and demanded that they be arrested as war criminals. Fifteen vets took over and barricaded the Statue of Liberty for two days. These acts swayed opinions and helped convince lawmakers it was time to withdraw.
Some soldiers in Iraq have offered resistance. After being denied conscientious objector status, Petty Officer Third Class Pablo Paredes went AWOL in 2004. He was sentenced to two months in the brig and three months hard labor. Army First Lieutenant Ehren Watada refused to be sent to Iraq in 2006, telling the media that the war’s illegality would make him a party to war crimes. Army Specialist Darrell Anderson, faced with a second tour of duty after being wounded by a roadside bomb, deserted and fled to Canada. “I went to Iraq willingly,” said Anderson. “I wanted to die for my country. I thought I was going to go there and protect my family back home. All I was doing was killing other families there.” The Army decided not to prosecute him. Several other deserters have applied for political asylum in Canada, but they’re only a fraction of the thousands who went there during the 1960s and 1970s.
When Bill Clinton was president, Republicans said he should be afraid to speak at military bases. That should go double for Bush. The next time he shows up to use you as a TV prop, soldiers and fellow Americans, boo the crap out of him. What’s the worst he can do? Kill you?
Resist today, or tomorrow, October 27 in the marches and demos everywhere. For more information check out Iraq Veterans Against the War. For more on Vietnam era soldiers’ resistance, you could start at “Fragging” and “Combat Refusals” in Vietnam.
Also at http://politicalfleshfeast.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=962#38968
