[A-List] Iraq: a serving US soldier speaks

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

We are facing death in Iraq for no reason

A serving US soldier calls for the end of an occupation based on lies

Tim Predmore
Friday September 19, 2003
The Guardian

For the past six months, I have been participating in what I believe to be
the great modern lie: Operation Iraqi Freedom.

After the horrific events of September 11 2001, and throughout the battle in
Afghanistan, the groundwork was being laid for the invasion of Iraq. "Shock
and awe" were the words used to describe the display of power that the world
was going to view upon the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom. It was to be an
up-close, dramatic display of military strength and advanced technology from
within the arsenals of the American and British military.

But as a soldier preparing to take part in the invasion of Iraq, the words
"shock and awe" rang deep within my psyche. Even as we prepared to depart,
it seemed that these two great superpowers were about to break the very
rules that they demanded others obey. Without the consent of the United
Nations, and ignoring the pleas of their own citizens, the US and Britain
invaded Iraq.
"Shock and awe"? Yes, the words correctly described the emotional impact I
felt as we embarked on an act not of justice, but of hypocrisy.

>From the moment the first shot was fired in this so-called war of liberation
and freedom, hypocrisy reigned. After the broadcasting of recorded images of
captured and dead US soldiers on Arab television, American and British
leaders vowed revenge while verbally assaulting the networks for displaying
such vivid images. Yet within hours of the deaths of Saddam Hussein's sons,
the US government released horrific photographs of the two dead brothers for
the entire world to view. Again, a "do as we say and not as we do" scenario.

As soldiers serving in Iraq, we have been told that our purpose is to help
the people of Iraq by providing them with the necessary assistance
militarily, as well as in humanitarian efforts. Then tell me where the
humanity is in the recent account in Stars and Stripes (the newspaper of the
US military) of two young children brought to a US military camp by their
mother in search of medical care.
The two children had, unknowingly, been playing with explosive ordnance they
had found, and as a result they were severely burned. The account tells how,
after an hour-long wait, they - two children - were denied care by two US
military doctors. A soldier described the incident as one of many
"atrocities" on the part of the US military he had witnessed.

Thankfully, I have not personally been a witness to atrocities - unless, of
course, you consider, as I do, that this war in Iraq is the ultimate
atrocity.

So what is our purpose here? Was this invasion because of weapons of mass
destruction, as we have so often heard? If so, where are they? Did we invade
to dispose of a leader and his regime because they were closely associated
with Osama bin Laden? If so, where is the proof?

Or is it that our incursion is about our own economic advantage? Iraq's oil
can be refined at the lowest cost of any in the world. This looks like a
modern-day crusade not to free an oppressed people or to rid the world of a
demonic dictator relentless in his pursuit of conquest and domination, but a
crusade to control another nation's natural resource. Oil - at least to me -
seems to be the reason for our presence.

There is only one truth, and it is that Americans are dying. There are an
estimated 10 to 14 attacks every day on our servicemen and women in Iraq. As
the body count continues to grow, it would appear that there is no immediate
end in sight.

I once believed that I was serving for a cause - "to uphold and defend the
constitution of the United States". Now I no longer believe that; I have
lost my conviction, as well as my determination. I can no longer justify my
service on the basis of what I believe to be half-truths and bold lies.
With age comes wisdom, and at 36 years old I am no longer so blindly led as
to believe without question. From my arrival last November at Fort Campbell,
in Kentucky, talk of deployment was heard, and as that talk turned to actual
preparation, my heart sank and my doubts grew. My doubts have never faded;
instead, it has been my resolve and my commitment that have.

My time here is almost done, as well as that of many others with whom I have
served. We have all faced death in Iraq without reason and without
justification. How many more must die? How many more tears must be shed
before Americans awake and demand the return of the men and women whose job
it is to protect them, rather than their leader's interest?

· Tim Predmore is a US soldier on active duty with the 101st Airborne
Division, based near Mosul in northern Iraq. A version of this article
appeared in the Peoria Journal Star, Illinois

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