The Bush administration and its right wing attack dogs want the media to tell us positive stories about Iraq – the slow and steady progress they claim goes unnoticed in the coverage of murder, mayhem and impending civil war. I guess what they mean is that stories such as this should go unreported.
Would-be refugee tells of Iraq horrors
A “trigger-happy” U.S. army squad leader shot the foot off an unarmed Iraqi man and soldiers kicked a severed head around like a soccer ball, a U.S. war deserter told an Immigration and Refugee Board hearing Thursday.
Joshua Key, the first U.S. deserter with combat experience in Iraq to apply for refugee status in Canada, told the board he witnessed numerous atrocities committed by U.S. forces while serving eight months as a combat engineer.
Mr. Key, 27, said he was never trained on the Geneva Convention and was told in Iraq by superior officers that the international law guiding humanitarian standards was just a “guideline.” “It’s shoot first, ask questions later,” Mr. Key said of his squad’s guiding principles. “Everything’s justified.”
Mr. Key is one of five members of the U.S. armed forces asking for asylum in Canada. But the Oklahoma native is unique in that he is the only applicant that has combat experience in Iraq, said Mr. Key’s lawyer, Jeffry House. The other are seeking asylum in Canada to avoid being sent there, he said. “He has boots-on-the-ground experience about what the actual conduct of the war in Iraq is,” Mr. House said outside the hearing.
With visible bags under his eyes, Mr. Key told the hearing he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and frequently has nightmares over what he witnessed in Iraq. He recalled participating in almost nightly raids on homes of suspected insurgents in Ramadi and Fallujah as a member of the 43rd Combat Engineer Company. He said that while the raids seldom turned up anything of interest, he often saw soldiers ransack the homes and steal jewellery or money, while superior officers looked the other way.
He also said several Iraqis were shot dead, and that they were cases of soldiers “shooting out of fear and inventing reasons afterward.” In Ramadi, Mr. Key said he saw the beheaded bodies of four Iraqis beside a shot-up truck and witnessed several members of the Florida National Guard kick a severed head “like a soccer ball.”
Mr. Key also said he witnessed one of his “trigger happy” platoon’s squad sergeants shoot part of an unarmed Iraqi man’s foot off in Khaldia, a village between Fallujah and Ramadi. The man was sitting on a chair outside a store and had raised his foot as a sign of disrespect, he said.
Mr. Key added he was never questioned about the incident and was not aware of any charges being laid.
“The only thing we were told was how to keep them quiet,” Mr. Key said, explaining that soldiers cuffed prisoners’ hands behind their backs and put hoods over their heads.
“Could they breathe?” Mr. Brennenstuhl asked.
“I guess it wasn’t my concern,” Mr. Key responded, adding that officers said the hoods were designed “to humiliate them.”
Mr. Key, the father of four young children, told the hearing he joined the army for steady pay and medical coverage for his family. He said he initially went to Iraq as a willing participant because he believed U.S. intelligence claims that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. But Mr. Key became disillusioned with the war during his service and decided to abandon his contract with the army during a two-week leave from Iraq in November 2003. He and his family lived on the run in Philadelphia before crossing the border at Niagara Falls, N.Y., on March 3, 2005.
If returned to the United States, Mr. Key said he believed the army would “make an example” of him as a way to deter other possible deserters."
The story above explains the following – another uncomfortable fact the Bush administration would like the media to ignore:
Survey finds returning soldiers haunted by nightmares, flashbacks
CHICAGO – Nearly one in 10 American soldiers who served in Iraq were diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, most after witnessing death or participating in combat, according to a Pentagon study that could add fodder to a budget battle in Congress over veterans’ health care.
Overall, the study found more than a third of U.S. soldiers received psychological counseling soon after returning from Iraq.
Accidental Blogger 
3 responses to “Truth – Not the Only Casualty”
This makes me wonder when we’re going to see this generation’s John Kerry emerge.
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Oddly enough, not long ago, I read an interesting article about Joshua Key and other AWOLers in GQ, of all places (proving that my boyfriend may actually be telling the truth when he says he subscribes for the articles).
I worry for those returning with “hidden disablities.” Given the articles I’ve read about the increase in serious permanent injuries that’s accompanied improvements in medical care that decrease fatalities, I also worry for those returning with obvious, physical disabilities (one of the most poignant scenes in the excellent movie, Murderball, was of the stunned looking, baby-faced soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center).
These soldiers will be returning home to a country plagued with escalating health care costs, the erosion of public benefits (although the VA is still in better shape than Medicaid/ Medicare and SSI) and of rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act. When I read these articles on the way to my job at a disability rights agency, I feel like I’m bracing for a wave of casework, currently still looming in the distance.
Joe: This is something that’s captured my imagination over the past four years a great deal, too. I think that the lack of a general draft is the major impedement, as the Hawks in government well know, which is why they’d rather lower standards for military admission than implement a draft. (Kerry volunteered, but he did so in the context of a general draft and without the prior history of Vietnam.)
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Anna, I would like to draw your attention to one of my old posts.
The draft is definitely an issue. Young men and women from middle to upper middle class are more likely to speak out only because they have the confidence born of social status to challenge authority. This war is therefore an unjust one both at home and on the foreign front.
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