DURHAM DISPATCH : More military injustice
Posted on Thursday, September 4, 2008
NEWS FLASH: Nazario was found not guilty by a jury. The foreman said, "... don't know what goes on in combat until you are in combat."
Hoowah ! But there may be others.
"A U. N. human rights team has found'convincing evidence' that some 90 civilians-among them 60 children-were killed"by US "air strikes on a village in western Afghanistan"after local people complained about the strikes, which took place about midnight. Houses were destroyed along with the people in and around them, who were from two tribes gathered together and preparing for a memorial ceremony.
U. S. officials said only that they are investigating. The locals blame the U. S. Special Forces for the bombing and believe their enemies gave our military false information that there were foreign fighters in the village. I don't begrudge the Troopies asking for an air strike, but mistakes like this often happen when operations are in tribal areas. A lot of tribes don't care much for other tribes. Tragedies like this don't happen frequently, but they will happen even when rival tribes aren't trying to get us to wipe each other out. They happen because we are fighting a war.
The Bushians have repeatedly changed what they call it. First it was an "invasion," then along came "struggle"and several others including "experience. "So far they've avoided using what many consider it to be-an occupation. But whatever you call it, our people are fighting a war and in wars killing happens, however wrong it may be. We've been at war now for almost 7 years, and more people watch American Idle than any war footage. Lately the Olympics and now the national political conventions are providing distractions from the fact that our people continue to die and, once in awhile, kill people, enemy or not.
A dear friend of mine is a Marine veteran of WW II. He only fought in one battle. It has been called "the hottest rock of all. "He was in the first wave on Green Beach on the volcanic island Iwo Jima. Members of his unit are the ones who raised the flag on Mt. Suribachi, and there is a photo of him and 16 members of his unit on the top smiling and waving. I asked him what they did on Iwo Jima to fight the enemy. He replied that they killed everything as often as possible. That was a different kind of battle in a different war, but then too civilians were killed. Many died in the bombings of such islands as Saipan and Okinawa. Pardon this digression but I felt it necessary to make my point about what war is and about our Troopies on the ground.
I think, as usual in the two Bushian wars, that there will be no charges filed against the pilots or those whose orders they were following for the mission in Afghanistan. I don't want charges to be filed against them. I don't believe that there should be charges against any of our people. Last week I wrote about former Sgt. Jose Luis Nazario who is being tried by a civilian court for "murder"during the battle for Fallujah. The law that permits this was passed to control the mercenary units fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, but lawmakers left a hole that leaves Iraq and Afghanistan veterans vulnerable to being tried in civil courts. So far I've not heard of mercenaries being charged, but Sgt. Nazario is on trial for his life.
His attorney told the jury pretty much what I wrote about the situation. " 'What the government is asking you to do is to dictate to every young man'in uniform that'You'd better be right. You'd better be absolutely certain, or we are going to second guess you. "The attorney also pointed out something I have long ranted against, those damnable "Rules of Engagement. "The enemy doesn't fight by those rules that tie the hands of our Warfighters. Warriors trained to kill the enemy and hopefully survive along with their Buddies.
I have asked several times in previous columns what should our Troopies do when confronted by someone who may or may not be an enemy. At Fallujah everyone was an enemy. Any Marine veterans who fought in the Battle of Fallujah could be charged and tried in civil court. I just wrote about an email from a friend who was a Marine Corporal there. I then deleted the entire paragraph. If I were to publish it, my friend might be identified and tried by civil court. A very angry Marine officer I know told me that they could have taken Fallujah with few casualties, but they were ordered to pull out because Bush was up for re-election. My friend said he didn't care about politics he cared about his Marines who were then sent back for what was the brutal, bloody battle for which Sgt. Nazario is being tried. Two other Marines face contempt of court charges for refusing to testify under the 5 th amendment protection against self-incrimination.
The judge said that after what these men have been through the threat of jail for contempt was unlikely to scare them.
And on it goes.
Question authority. It's the American Way.
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