Kill! Kill! Kill

I'm a witness, you are trained to kill, kill without mercy. That is the motto of the bayoneter.

Moon Loon....interesting and informed debate like this is very healthy.

Would you respect my personal opinion more if I told you I have spent 70% of my working life working with and for Americans............both in Ireland and England and Middle East. The other 30% of the time I was running my own business in the Middle East.................some feat for a female in Saudi Arabia I tell you.

Yes........we identify closely with Americans..............where I had many grandaunts and a granduncle...........................my granduncle was a very prominent American, but obviously on a forum like this I will not name him. I grew up to love America and I am as disgusted as any patriotic American to see a can of worms formed where once there were such high ideals.

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Information Clearing House Newsletter
News You Won't Find On CNN
February 25, 2009
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"... as all history informs us, there has been in every State & Kingdom a constant kind of warfare between the governing & governed: the one striving to obtain more for its support, and the other to pay less. And this has alone occasioned great convulsions, actual civil wars, ending either in dethroning of the Princes, or enslaving of the people. Generally indeed the ruling power carries its point, the revenues of princes constantly increasing, and we see that they are never satisfied, but always in want of more. The more the people are discontented with the oppression of taxes; the greater need the prince has of money to distribute among his partisans and pay the troops that are to suppress all resistance, and enable him to plunder at pleasure. There is scarce a king in a hundred who would not, if he could, follow the example of Pharaoh, get first all the peoples money, then all their lands, and then make them and their children servants for ever ..." -- Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) US Founding Father - Source: before the Constitutional Convention, (June 2, 1787)

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It's after one in the morning here so I'm off to bed, so I am not ignoring you if you get no response.

I can agree on many issues. The old get rich from war while the young die and suffer. Fortunes are made from the blood of the innocent. Absentee landlords starved and murdered my relatives from Ireland, during the famine, forcing us to America; where we were then purchased directly from the wharfs and shipped as cannon fodder facing our own Southern cousins rebelling against a Federal Gov't. more corrupt than the one now in existence.
However, I am astounded that so many Europeans assume that they know more about America than Americans do. This is clearly a vestige of the colonial era when we were considered to be inferior to them. Read the book, "The Decline of the British Empire" by Piers Brendan, to get a good understanding of the disrespect that they hold for Americans and their other ex -colonies.
Therefore, I have no regard or respect for their opinions in U.S. activities. Europe was corrupted by their own failures many years ago and their decline continues even now while pulling the U.S. into their age old unresolved conflicts.

In the [first] World War, a mere handful garnered the profits of the conflict. At least 21,000 new millionaires and billionaires were made in the United States during the World War. That many admitted their huge blood gains in their income tax returns. How many other war millionaires falsified their tax returns no one knows.

American soldiers are icons of respectability compared to the historical behavior of Middle Eastern, German, British, Japanese, and African troops. I am willing to compare their record of compassion and civility to non combatants, against any other nations soldiers. Most posters on current complaining against U.S. soldiers are not even natives of the U.S.

American soldiers are first class human/angels compared to the monsters generated by the military regimes of Middle Eastern and African countries!

"After the allied victory of 1918, at the end of my father's war, the victors divided up the lands of their former enemies. In the space of just seventeen months, they created the borders of Northern Ireland, Yugoslavia and most of the Middle East. And I have spent my entire career - in Belfast and Sarajevo, in Beirut and Baghdad - watching the people within those borders burn.".......................Robert Fisk

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He has been covering world events, first in Ireland and then in the Middle East since the early 70s.

''The most famous foreign correspondent in Britain."-The New York Times

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the horror of war should be washed away by the glory and admiration of your countrymen when you return thus it has always been so until Nam we fought we wallowed in that horror and we got spit on we got movie stars helping the enemy we got fools calling us baby killers and so many without the wash succumbed to depression and madness since nam our soldiers are always treated by certain sectors of the community as monsters so higher suicide rates.Have you noticed that we have no heros anymore no audy murphies no sgt Yorks only victims and survivors that is why our soldiers minds are harmed they live the horror only to be spit on

As for those on these threads who are so gung ho and self righteously all for the wars and have such hateful things to say about other commentators and those soldiers who actually have a conscience and express it, you should all be conscripted and sent to the front lines as cannon fodder. I'm sure you would all thoroughly enjoy that. Some exceedingly evil hearted fools I see here in the various threads on Current. Soon your kind of thinking will go the way of the medieval mindset which it is a leftover of. Recalcitrant warmongers.

This soldier is working through his experiences and how it affected him by bringing this into the light of day. Hopefully it was cathartic for him and he can move forward without being too haunted by what he did and witnessed.

Helped written by a french journalist....of course he didnt find an American publisher. You left wing nut jobs surprise me on a daily basis. Have any of you ever left your hometowns? God, what a bunch of sheltered sheep.

1- "War is hell" Of course war is hell especially for the people on the receiving side that had nothing to do with the Unilateral decision of the Bush administration to attack an already devastated country with a pitiful army, just to try to secure oil fields and supply to the TV audience in the US.

2- "Don't pull the soldiers into the debate over if this war was justified" And so their irrepressible actions again, on innocent people are then Justified? Are you telling me that these soldiers that NO ONE push into service did not know what they were going to do in IRAK. Please return to Planet reality!

3- "3rd-This pos should be shot for spreading propaganda against the men/women who stand a post for our country"

This war was created by the Bush administration, amongst other things because their energy policy for the US was, "Invade and take". Not one of those soldiers was compelled to serve except that they were probably sold the idea of MONEY down the road. The IRAKI govt posed NO THREAT whatsoever to the Continental US, no more than the North Koreans or the Iranians who have the capability to blow something. So these men and women are fighting for NOTHING. On top of that they as human beings have the moral responsibility to DECLARE this an UNNECESSARY WAR and walk away from it.

Now that they have destroyed, Pillaged and raped a country, they themselves through their horrific actions, have created a new enemy for the US.

I applaud the actions of soldiers that speak against these kind of actions, and those who killed innocent people are the ones in fact who should be executed.

Enough

Seriously, before criticizing the American soldiers read about what the Russians, Ossetians, and Georgians were doing during their brief conflict, or what the Ugandans, Rwandans, Congonese, Somalians, Etheopians, etc. have done during their recent military actions. I probably didn't spell the African nationalities correctly, but this is simply conversational and not formal in the first place. Doesn't change the point.

I admire his bravery for speaking out. I wish more would do the same.

First off this happens in EVERY war. There will always be sick and twisted individuals in the military that enjoy killing and brutalizing people. To think that stuff like this doesnt happen is simply naive.

However to make it sound like American soldiers are doing something bad here is wrong. American arms precision in the best in the world. Minimizing civilian casualties is one of the U.S.'s major goals. Fighting terrorism and insurgencies carries major risk to civilians however due to the fact that the enemy does not usually identify themselves with uniforms and instead dresses in civilian clothing.

well atleast he will make some cash I am glad we are in Iraq and all over the world making life a bitch for the radical islamic nutjobs thank god for George Bush he has killed more terrorist than anyone else 1million for us 8000 for them we win

The airstrikes conducted by the US military are an unfortunate byproduct of our growing dependence on a smaller force using larger weapons. We do must of our strategic attacks via airstrike. Our strongest weapons are in the air or at sea. If we are to solely use manpower we would be vastly out-manned, out-gunned, and severely vulnerable. Keep in mind that our military makes up approximately 1% of the American population. That is why we use so many contractors to supplement a military that was never meant to be a police force. It is unfortunate that there is very little oversight of the conduct of those supplementary forces.

Like using a mallet to do surgery.

There is no draft as was in the Vietnam era so there is appallingly little public outcry and in depth press coverage...

Turse's article is titled, "The Secret Air War in Iraq," and alleges "The devastation from U.S. bombing is underreported---and may be increasing." He writes, "That an occupying power regularly conducts airstrikes in or near dense population centers should have raised serious concerns in the mainstream media, unfortunately, reports on the air war are sparse and mostly confined to regurgitations of military announcements."

"..Until reporters begin bypassing official U.S. military pronouncements and locating Iraqi sources, we will remain largely in the dark regarding the secret and deadly U.S. air war in Iraq," Turse concludes.

Probably Charfman-- The suicide rate has sky rocketed in the last few months alone. It's hard to live with your self and feel deserving of a good life with your family after you've done horrible things and stood by to watch others do horrible things--to innocent people-women-children- the elderly. And if you can make it through your guilt, it will still haunt you into your old age. Ask any vet that can even talk about it. But we can't blame the troops, they are pawns in the worst kind of stale mated game

Keep in mind this is a single man's perspective coming after he had been diagnosed with PTSD and had been discharged. Also keep in mind that the people attacking our uniformed and often stationary soldiers are often indistinguishable from civilians. Is it fair to ask for our men to wait till the man next to them drops dead from a hail of gunfire before returning fire?

Is bullying allowed? Do young soldiers have any redress?
The army attracts all sorts, and many join blind to the reality of being asked to shoot at anything that moves.....womwn and children included.

I admire this chap.

Perhaps this is why the suicide rate among Iraq veterans is so high...

When you send your loved one off to WAR, you tell them to do whatever they have to do to come home safe. You don't tell them to "play nice" and be "thoughtful and considerate" of those who may/may not be trying to KILL them. Most (99+%) soldiers are simply trying to stay alive and get back home. That's their motive for following orders and putting down the ENEMY. To suggest they are sexually stimulated/motivated to kill anyone is a slap in the face to every soldier and waiting family member in the country.

1st-War is Hell. Every aspect of it. There's nothing humanitarian about kill-or-be-killed. Once the declaration is made and troops are deployed, talk and diplomacy are worthless on the battlefield.

2nd-Don't pull the soldiers into the debate over if this war was justified. They don't make policy, they were put into the situation.

3rd-This pos should be shot for spreading propaganda against the men/women who stand a post for our country. There may always be situations in which a few will cross the line, but we have a system in place to confront and punish such crimes. Running your mouth and having a book published by a foreign country may not be treason, but it does warrant a firing squad comprised of your peers.

I hate it when fuckers like this turn their back on their own, sell out and write some bull shit like this. "Killed dozens of innocent Iraqi civilians" ? That is genocide, I'm sure we would have heard something a bit more substantial than this tabloid publication. Its pretty obvious why this garbage couldn't find a publisher in America. By the way, this is the same country that published "If I did It". The fact that he is selfish enough to undermine the efforts of the thousands who put their lives on the line EVERY DAY to defend this country, to lessen the sacrifice of those who died for it, all to make a quick buck, just sickens me.

That's not even the worst part. The worst part is that people actually BELIEVE him.

This is very sad , but not a shock . There is more evidence for it than just a book . History , ask every vet you know what they think .

War Crimes Commission, ...Anyone?

Highroller this has been the mindset of the American fighting man for 35 years and is the reason why the American military has been feared for that long. In ww2
only 10% of a infantry company did the dirty deed the killing in combat. From that knowledge gained and taught to combat forces in Vietnam, Mind you draftees and that makes a big difference from people who want to be there and those who don't the % went up to 50% because of the training. It is no wonder that the machines that are produced in an all volunteer military would kill at the drop of a hat.

I would like to read SSGT Massey's book in English before commenting on it, but I'm not interested in his story enough to start learning French.

Its sad to know we have soldiers out there in this world that really think the way these men did. I'm sure this will come back and haunt them one day. since this guy wrote a book about real life events and admitted to killing innocent people wonder if he could be charged for murder.. I can see protecting your self if you have to. but to kill innocent unarmed people is nothing but cold blooded murder

This war is sad .. for all humanity.

... makes sense... they are hired thugs afterall. so shup up and kill those brown people for our american arms companies or or just shut up.

I know two, they were told to shoot anything that moves when they first got there.

This is crap. For every nut case like Jimmy there are thousands of soidiers who never experienced anything like Jimmy's claims.

Number Of Iraqis Slaughtered Since The U.S. Invaded Iraq "1,311,696"
www.justforeignpolicy.org/iraq/iraqdeaths.html
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Number of U.S. Military Personnel Sacrificed (Officially acknowledged) In America'sWar On Iraq 4,252
icasualties.org/oif/
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The War in Iraq Costs
$599,711,765,855
See the cost in your community
nationalpriorities.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=182

Every single empire in its official discourse has said that it is not like all the others, that its circumstances are special, that it has a mission to enlighten, civilize, bring order and democracy, and that it uses force only as a last resort. And, sadder still, there always is a chorus of willing intellectuals to say calming words about benign or altruistic empires: Edward W. Said - "Orientalism 25 Years Later," Counterpunch.org website, 4 August 2003.
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"If the citizens neglect their Duty and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted; laws will be made, not for the public good so much as for selfish or local purposes; corrupt or incompetent men will be appointed to execute the Laws; the public revenues will be squandered on unworthy men; and the rights of the citizen will be violated or disregarded.": Noah Webster - (1758-1843) American patriot and scholar, author of the 1806 edition of the dictionary that bears his name, the first dictionary of American English usage.

Wow, no independent American publishers anymore? How sad. 1984 here we come.

it will be nice when this book is available in english

your really spearheading this post huh

"killed dozens of unarmed Iraqi civilians because of an exaggerated sense of threat"

its my understanding that iraq militants and civilians are indistinguishable.

CONTINUED............

"It's been a healing experience," he said. "It's allowed me to close a lot of chapters and answer a lot of questions."

In the book, he claims he and a group of Marines were near Baghdad when a group of 10 Iraqi men started to protest near them, yelling out anti-US slogans. At the sound of a gunshot, he said he and his men fired on the group, killing most of them, only to find out later that none of them was armed.

He also recounts several episodes at checkpoints where civilian cars failed to stop and their unarmed occupants were shot to death.

At one point he says he told an officer that the US military campaign "resembles a genocide" and that "our only objective in Iraq is petrol and profits."

Massey, a chubby-cheeked man with short hair and glasses, said in the lobby bar of a Paris hotel that the casual violence exhibited by him and his men was the deliberate result of combat training approved by the very highest US authorities.

Later revelations of abuse by US soldiers at the Abu Ghraib prison and elsewhere were symptomatic of the breadth of the problem, Massey said.

"Overall, we have to look at the (Bush) administration in terms of responsibility for the atrocities and the murder at the checkpoints," he said, questioning "the level of brutality instilled in the Marines."

The briefings they received, he said, made US troops view "everyone as a potential terrorist -- they put fear and panic into my Marines."

Although the target of criticism from serving members of the US military -- some of whom see the book as score-settling by a disgruntled Marine forced to leave the services -- Massey has received significant interest in his book in France.
His next few days, he said, are to be spent being interviewed by media outlets.

His publisher said that, while an English language version of the book was still pending, a Spanish edition would be coming out early next year.