The Vietnam vets, spurred on by the court martial of Lt William Calley, who
had ordered the infamous My Lai massacre, wanted to turn a tide too
against public opinion, to demonstrate that the execution of hundreds of
innocent villagers in 1968 was not an isolated incident as so many believed.
The Winter Soldier event received little coverage in America, but was the
subject of an internationally acclaimed documentary of the same name.
This month, for four days in Washington, DC, beginning on March 13, there will
be a second Winter Soldier gathering 37 years after the first. Organised
by the protest group Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW), US veterans of
Iraq and Afghanistan since the 9/11 attack on New York will testify about
their experiences. They will present photographs and videos, recorded with
mobile phones and digital cameras, to back up their allegations of
brutality, torture and murder.
The veterans are not against the military and seek not to indict it instead
they seek to shine a light on the bigger picture: that the Abu Ghraib prison
regime and the Haditha massacre of innocent Iraqis are not isolated
incidents perpetrated by %26ldquo;bad seeds%26rdquo; as the military suggests, but evidence
of an endemic problem. They will say they were tasked to do terrible things
and point the finger up the chain of command, which ignores, diminishes or
covers up routine abuse and atrocities.
Some see it as their responsibility to speak out like Jason Washburn, a US
marine who did two tours in Afghanistan and one in Iraq; Logan Laituri, a US
Army forward observer in Iraq; and Perry OBrien, an army medic deployed to
Afghanistan in 2003. They believe that, as veterans, they are the most
credible sources of information. They say they were put in immoral and often
illegal positions. They will speak about what they saw, and what they were
asked to do.
Jason Washburn, 28, grew up in San Diego, California. He always wanted to do
something to make a difference, and he enlisted in the US marines in
December 2001. He wasnt itching to go into combat, but he wanted the
training.
He fought in the initial invasion of Iraq in 2003 where, he says, he met
little resistance. Most people were surrendering.
%26ldquo;There were massive amounts of artillery strikes before we even invaded. We
saw the results of that. Streets full of bodies women and children body
parts, extremely indiscriminate. Im talking about rolling through villages
here, not military encampments.%26rdquo;
He was told there was a military structure in one village. %26ldquo;I didnt see it. I
didnt see any army uniforms. Or weapons. All I saw were civilians.%26rdquo;
Washburn speaks slowly and with obvious discomfort. This was his introduction
to Iraq.
%26ldquo;I still believed everything we were force-fed: weapons of mass destruction
and possibly even a nuclear weapon. We felt, like, were going to go in,
overthrow this evil dictator and give these people some peace, finally. We
thought we were doing a good thing.%26rdquo;
Over the course of his three tours, there were more home raids than Washburn
can remember. He explains how it worked. %26ldquo;Usually it was based on a tip
were told someone in the home is an insurgent. We would pick up people who
had nothing to do with anything, keep them locked up until they came up with
something.%26rdquo;
He is glad that he didnt witness some of the techniques used to get them to
talk. %26ldquo;Thats not something I want on my conscience.%26rdquo;
It was not a scientific process. Most tips came from people with personal
grudges. Washburn and his platoon would kick down the doors in the middle of
the night. He was warned not to be complacent. There could be weapons in the
childrens beds. In all of the home raids, too many to count, he never found
children with weapons. They would take the father away and they never knew
what would happen after that.
By the time Washburn served in Haditha he was on his third combat tour. He was
there on November 19, 2005, the day of the massacre when 24 unarmed Iraqi
civilians were killed, including women and children.
%26ldquo;My squad was doing medivacs out of the town. I was not there to witness the
shooting, but I know many marines who were.%26rdquo;
It was a squad in his unit that went on the rampage after their vehicle was
hit by an improvised explosive device (IED).
%26ldquo;I have a lot of feelings about this incident. A friend of mine from my first
two tours was in that squad. He was the guy they gave immunity to to testify
against the squad leader.
%26ldquo;The people on the ground are looking at serious prison time. Like life. The
people who were giving orders were only relieved of command. And I dont
think thats right.%26rdquo;
Washburn says Haditha was not an isolated incident. %26ldquo;Its the one that just
happened to be uncovered.%26rdquo;
The establishment view is that war is hell and terrible things happen for the
greater good. That killing is necessary. That there are those individuals
acting on their own who will always smear the honourable actions of the
military men like Washburn, traumatised by war, who are emotional
casualties whose testimony is to be mistrusted. Some regard him and the
Winter Soldiers of 2008 as traitors for daring to question their commanders
and for prosecution of the war.
But there are too many like Washburn to shout down. Many of the orders that
combat soldiers were given were not written but they were understood. At
the Winter Soldier event, veterans stories will be corroborated by other
veterans; backed up by the volume of testifiers who have witnessed the same
things in different units, years apart and in different countries.
There will be up to 100 veterans and, at present, 80 of them have submitted
testimonies. Most will be enlisted men and women: privates and sergeants.
They have been made aware of the consequences of taking part. Not just that
they are likely to be denounced by their fellow veterans, but the
psychological and perhaps legal consequences they may face by admitting to
witnessing, or even perpetrating, war crimes. The National Lawyers Guild, an
organisation of civil-rights attorneys, has volunteered to offer advice.
Mental-health professionals will also be on hand to offer counselling.
Organisers stress that the goal is to hold the policy makers accountable,
not their immediate commanding officers. Nobody is permitted to name anyone
below the rank of captain.
After the hearings, all the testimonies will be entered into the congressional
record. There will be a live video stream on the web. There will also be
panels of journalists and scholars to provide context and history.
Perry O Brien, who served as a medic in Afghanistan in 2003, is one of
the Winter Soldiers on the verification team, which will ensure the
testimonies are watertight, lest falsehood undermine the message. The order
that OBriens team is hearing most from the testifiers is the %26ldquo;shovel
order%26rdquo;.
%26ldquo;Anyone carrying a shovel or any sort of implement that could be used to bury
an IED could be considered a target,%26rdquo; he says. %26ldquo;After dark, you can shoot
anyone who is outside. Or anyone who puts anything on the side of the road
can be considered a target. You wont find it in writing, but its an order
indicated to soldiers.%26rdquo;
If not in writing, how can it be proven? %26ldquo;If we have enough soldiers
testifying, it will be.%26rdquo;
Washburn says the most dangerous job in Iraq %26ldquo;has to be a taxi driver%26rdquo;. He
tells two stories of taxi drivers being shot, both innocent victims. One
driver was deaf and didnt hear the command to halt. The other was at a
checkpoint in the Haditha area.
%26ldquo;It was the mayor of one of the towns who was driving, and he was shot and
killed. They found out after they shot him. My squad had to apologise to the
family. We paid reparations. I dont know the exact amount. But lets see:
money or a dead husband and father and mayor? People werent happy about
that.%26rdquo;
During Washburns first Iraq deployment in 2003, his unit was told to capture
a %26ldquo;rabble rouser%26rdquo;. %26ldquo;We kick down the door and all we find are a few women
holding babies and a couple of kids. We were ordered to take the babies away
and put sandbags on the womens heads, tie their hands behind their backs,
put them on their knees facing the wall. Here I am zip-tying these women,
and my buddy is standing next to me holding these babies asking what do I do
with these kids? We stood there, like, oh shit, what do we do? The squad
leader came in and shouted, %26lsquo;Everybody is bagged and tagged everybody! So
we did it.%26rdquo; The babies were put down on the floor. After a few hours
everyone was untied.
Inappropriate and immoral actions werent just aimed at Iraqi civilians. There
was frequent hazing the mistreatment of soldiers by their comrades. Some
were exercises in pure humiliation, common in most military units, like
singing Im a Little Teapot while others stand around laughing. But some
were brutal physical punishments, such as callisthenics in a sleeping bag
with a gas mask on in scorching heat.
%26ldquo;Its one thing to do 20 push-ups. Its another to burn us to the point of
exhaustion in combat theatre. There were guys that tried to speak out about
it and that made it worse. That would get punished more.%26rdquo;
The futility of speaking out was bolstered by knowledge that complaints would
get as far as the commanding officer of the company and no further. %26ldquo;They
kept everything in-house.%26rdquo;
Another incident he describes was a step beyond hazing. He and another marine
had had a disagreement. The punishment was that they were tied together
and sent out on patrol.
%26ldquo;Outside of the camp, in a war zone tied together, patrolling? Insane,%26rdquo; he
says.
Washburns anger comes from a feeling of betrayal. %26ldquo;I thought I was signing up
to do something honourable.
%26ldquo;What happened at Abu Ghraib,%26rdquo; Washburn says, %26ldquo;is those orders came from the
top. If the policy makers and the commanders can dehumanise their own
troops, why wouldnt they dehumanise the Iraqi people?%26rdquo;
So far, the most vocal opposition to the Winter Soldier event has not been
from the government, but from pro-war groups such as Vets for Freedom, the
largest veterans organisation in America.
Their executive director, Pete Hegseth, a veteran who served in Baghdad and
Samarra with the 101st Airborne Division, has criticised the Winter Soldier
event. In an article in The Washington Independent, he asks:
%26ldquo;Did your company commander tell you to shoot women and children, or to
maximise casualties? No! We dont do that. To talk about systematic
brutality is essentially indicting the military as being complicit in war
crimes.%26rdquo;
But, as we shall see, there are ways to encourage illegal actions other than
direct orders.
Hegseth suggests that speaking out might have more serious consequences: homes
in the Middle East have internet access, this kind of information will reach
them and affect the attitude towards US troops still over there. But Perry
OBrien doubts that speaking out will foster more anti-American sentiment in
Afghanistan and Iraq than the killing of civilians and the dismantling of
the infrastructure. After serving in Afghanistan for eight months, there was
a slow revelation that triggered his shift.
%26ldquo;Everything that we were doing seemed almost designed to create more
terrorists. To turn people against America. I couldnt understand how we
were liberating anyone. But I could understand how an Afghan person who was
ambivalent about America could easily become an extremist based on their
interaction with American soldiers.%26rdquo;
Resolute pro-war organisations such as Gathering of Eagles are gearing up,
getting ready to make their presence felt. They are chartering bus-loads of
protesters to show up at the event to confront and harass the %26ldquo;traitors%26rdquo;.
The veterans who will be testifying at Winter Soldier are prepared for their
integrity and credibility to be called into question.
Before anyone can testify, they must go through the verification process and
be interviewed by a team of combat veterans whom they hope will be able to
instinctively detect lies. IVAW is particularly vigilant since Jesse Macbeth
joined in 2006 and represented them publicly at various events. Macbeths
accounts of military service as a veteran of Iraq were false, which he
admitted in federal court in 2007.
Since then the organisation has demanded proof of service, and every member
must have a DD-214 their Pentagon-issued personal-service record, which
proves where and with whom they have served.
Members are asked to complete a detailed questionnaire. Under the heading
Killing or Wounding Noncombatants, Prisoners or Unarmed Combatants, they are
asked: %26ldquo;Did you witness or participate in any of the following: Civilians
hurt or killed at checkpoints? Purposeful killing of civilians or unarmed
combatants? Killing or wounding of prisoners? If yes, was this unit SOP
[standard operating procedure] or common practice?%26rdquo;
Some other headings include: Mishandling and Mutilation of War Dead; Torture
or Abuse; Rape, Sexual Assault or Harassment; Theft or Fraud.
When the testimonies begin on March 13, we shall discover how damaging or
revelatory their stories will be. Perry OBrien has confidence in the
process. %26ldquo;Someone coming into our organisation and trying to pretend they
observed something they didnt they can only maintain that for so long.%26rdquo;
Once the stories are told, each is to be researched by interviewing other
members of the soldiers unit. The verification team has recently decided
that anyone fabricating their experience or pretending to be a veteran will
be handed over to the authorities and charged with violating the Stolen
Valor Act, a law signed by President Bush in 2006.
Perry OBrien admits that he had hero fantasies. He was born on March 24,
1982, and grew up on a small island off the coast of Maine. After two years
studying philosophy at university, he decided to enlist in the army as a
medic in 2001 two weeks before 9/11. It was a coming-of-age-ritual,
influenced by the movies. He had the romantic idea that he wanted to save
lives.
He did not come from a military background. His father works at a hardware
store and his mother writes and illustrates childrens books.
In January 2003, OBrien was deployed to Afghanistan for eight months. While
he was there, he had many experiences that made him uncomfortable. Several
times he witnessed an Afghan civilian die on the operating table after
treatment from a mobile military surgical unit. Rather than prepare the
corpse for the family, OBrien witnessed the surgeons and the medics use the
body to practise on.
%26ldquo;One doctor said, %26lsquo;Come up and feel his heart! This is what a heart feels
like. %26rdquo;
Half the platoon, if not more, participated. Daniel Paulsen, 27, was there and
corroborates this story. There are photographs as well. Someone had grabbed
OBriens digital camera and taken photographs of the heart and the medics
walking around and poking it. These photographs were taken for fun.
Eventually the chest of the corpse was closed up. %26ldquo;It was a total violation of
our medical oath to use a corpse for medical training,%26rdquo; says OBrien.
%26ldquo;Whats particularly terrible is that these were all doctors that had
practices back home they were familiar with the law and the Hippocratic
oath. There was such a huge disconnect between the way they treated Afghans
and the way they treated American patients.
%26ldquo;When Americans died, the corpses became these sacred objects that were
treated with tremendous care. There was this solemn funerary attitude around
them. When an Afghan died, it was [as if they were] treating them like they
werent human.
%26ldquo;My goal is to expose that these things are happening. And that they are the
result of military leadership part of an unofficial policy of
dehumanisation.%26rdquo;
In 2004, while still on active duty, OBrien attended a protest at Fort Bragg.
There he met Mike Hoffman (a founder of IVAW) and joined the organisation
shortly after leaving the army. He felt relieved. %26ldquo;Suddenly I knew that I
wasnt the only veteran who was questioning what I had seen and done.%26rdquo;
Kelly Dougherty, 29, is a co-founder and executive director of IVAW. In 1996
she enlisted in the National Guard as a medic while she read biology at the
University of Colorado.
On January 10, 2003, she received a call; she had been transferred to a
military police unit and she was being deployed to Iraq.
Dougherty was opposed to the war and surprised by her deployment.
In February 2003, she arrived in Kuwait and then moved to Iraq in March. Her
unit was stationed in the south near Nasiriyah, where she often did convoy
escorts and patrols.
%26ldquo;You put it out of your mind when youre over there. And then you get back and
reflect on it%26hellip;
%26ldquo;The soldiers and marines are just doing their jobs, doing what they were
trained for or what they were told to do when they got over there. Things
that seem really horrible just become routine and they are implicitly or
explicitly condoned, or encouraged, by the commanders and the policy-makers.%26rdquo;
The offices of IVAW in Philadelphia are humble but busy. The group now has
more than 700 members in 49 states, Washington, DC, Canada, and on military
bases overseas.
I meet Logan Laituri there one afternoon and we sit down over a soft drink to
talk. He has a gentle and sensitive manner. His enlistment wasnt a
patriotic stand, but more of a pragmatic decision. He didnt know what else
to do.
He became a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division in Fort Bragg. %26ldquo;I had no
accomplishments outside the military. I didnt feel that I would be missing
out on much.%26rdquo;
There was also a financial incentive. %26ldquo;Every soldier knows that you earn a
crap-load of money in combat. Above and beyond my pay cheque I earned $800 a
month and all thats tax-free. And everything is paid for in Iraq. You can
save every single penny. Thats a lot of money you can save for your future.%26rdquo;
He was deployed to Iraq in January 2004, having switched to the 25th Infantry
Division. When Laituri got to Samarra, they kicked down the doors of a
building and found a police officer in uniform. %26ldquo;Through his interpreter he
was telling us that hed been waiting, and he had all the records. I thought
to myself it was great initiative and it displayed insight.
%26ldquo;We handcuffed him and someone took it upon themselves to punch him in the
stomach what made me feel worse was watching it and not doing anything
about it.%26rdquo;
As he talks, Laituri seems visibly troubled that he stood by watching this man
beaten up. And he admits that so many of his feelings of being in Iraq are
wrapped up in what he didnt do: %26ldquo;What I saw happen and I didnt say or I
didnt correct. I survived at the expense of Iraqis. I could have said
something.%26rdquo;
But the fear of being isolated from the platoon prevailed. Beating up
prisoners, abusing the bodies of Afghans, innocents shot dead in the
crossfire of fear and threat these things get lost in the mayhem of war
but other acts, if they become institutionalised, can %26ldquo;try the souls of men%26rdquo;
and cannot be so easily dismissed.
Laituri was in Fort Irwin, California in May 2006 during a pep talk at the
National Training Center. He alleges that a commander made a speech to his
company, and that he %26ldquo;made it clear to us that if an innocent person was
shot he would stage a scene to protect us%26rdquo;.
The explicit message was: %26ldquo;We would make sure there was a weapon found at the
scene.%26rdquo;
Units go into combat believing that they will be protected from any
repercussions. They feel like they have a licence to kill and often they do.
In 2007, the officer was relieved of his command after a death on June 23 last
year in the vicinity of Kirkuk. He is not currently a suspect and was never
charged but two soldiers who were under his command have been charged with
premeditated murder.
Last month a top army sniper testified in military court under immunity
that he had ordered a subordinate to kill an unarmed Iraqi man, then planted
an AK-47 assault rifle near the body to back up a false claim of returned
fire.
But who is ultimately responsible: the individual or the officer? The
combatant or the culture? And why is it always the junior ranks who are
charged?
On a February morning at a cafe in Brooklyn, New York, Perry OBrien is
explaining the difference between the %26ldquo;book way%26rdquo; and the %26ldquo;real way%26rdquo;, and the
significance of the %26ldquo;three-stomp signal%26rdquo; that is used to differentiate
between the two.
%26ldquo;If someone is giving a briefing and they stomp their foot three times after
what they are saying, it means %26lsquo;disregard what I just said. For instance,
%26lsquo;Make every effort to avoid civilian property damage, stomp stomp stomp
[means] ignore that. The idea is that when you get back [from combat],
anything that you did the book way can be spoken about but not what was
done the real way.%26rdquo;
It isnt just between the book way and the real way, he says; its become
between the honourable way and the immoral way.
Perhaps even more tragic is that now, for many, these lines have blurred.
%26ldquo;People join the military wanting to be honourable. They follow a code of
conduct they have to. Its what separates them from mercenaries.%26rdquo;
The common denominator that links all of these veterans stories is a profound
disillusionment about the war. All of these soldiers signed up with a belief
that what they were doing was noble. Despite the lessons of Vietnam, or
maybe because of them, they wanted to participate.
%26ldquo;The book way was we treat everyone the same%26hellip;%26rdquo; Perry smiles and taps his foot
three times. %26ldquo;You are ordered to do things that are clear violations of our
conscience and what we know to be moral. Its not even whats prescribed by
the Geneva conventions. Its what every human being knows to be right and
wrong. Were asked to do things that violate that and told its about the
war, but you can never tell anyone because we need to protect them from
that.
%26ldquo;I think that certainly its our duty to protect American
civilians from the physical reality of wars. Thats our goal. To prevent the
American public from having to participate in war and get hurt and put their
lives at risk. Thats what we volunteer to do.
%26ldquo;But I dont think were protecting America if were not telling our stories
and keeping what we do secret.%26rdquo;
