'We Were Told We Were Fighting Terrorists; The Real Terrorist Was Me'

'We Were Told We Were Fighting Terrorists; The Real Terrorist Was Me'

www.alternet.org...

We were told we were fighting terrorists; the real terrorist was me, and the real terrorism is this occupation. Racism within the military has long been an important tool to justify the destruction and occupation of another country. Without racism, soldiers would realize that they have more in common with the Iraqi people than they do with the billionaires who send us to war.

I threw families onto the street in Iraq, only to come home and find families thrown onto the street in this country, in this tragic and unnecessary foreclosure crisis. Our enemies are not five thousand miles away, they are right here at home, and if we organize and fight, we can stop this war, we can stop this government, and we can create a better world.

(visit the link for the full news article)



[edit on 11-10-2008 by DimensionalDetective]


Mod edit: Replaced link with direct link to the article.

[edit on 10/11/2008 by Hal9000]

Another winter soldier comes forward...

From his claims, racism and profiling seem to be a fueling factor and quite prevelant in the occupation, and also an excuse to create atrocities.

Based on his personal experiences and remorse, it's not too difficult to figure out why so many of these young men seem to be taking their own lives.

Very, very sad...

www.alternet.org...
(visit the link for the full news article)


[edit on 11-10-2008 by DimensionalDetective]

Mod edit: Replaced link with a direct link to the article.

[edit on 10/11/2008 by Hal9000]

Thanks for bringing this to our attention. I am most certain we will see more of the soldiers returning home to the same opinions. I have to admit that after 9/11 I wanted blood, but it is all too visible now that those I had disdain for are not the culprits. Soon the truth will come into the light and we will all obtain our piece of mind- whether it be found amongst the lies or taken by force.

I am not advocating violence, but I certainly will not tell others how to behave.

Yep no one should ever join the military.

Shame so much life wasted, but we live in the 21st century, and that should not be something we should be doing.

That really brought home to me the senseless pain and futility of aggressive wars. I think every country should have an army along the lines of the National Guard to be used ONLY for homeland defence, but not allowed under ANY circumstances to instigate an attack on another country. Think about it, under these parameters wars could not be fought. Your thoughts......

So very sad but so very true. I have a friend in Iraq right now. I remember when he was just about to go overseas, how he absolutely HATED the Iraqi's. His utter despise for them was sickening to me, as he was telling me about all the images and videos our government was spoon feeding him and his fellow marines. Its amazing how they (our govt) brainwash even our own troops to hate them so much.......Wonder why you see scandals involving the military on the news?? They are taught to hate!

Love the title of the article!

I'm surprised other countries aren't putting the USA on THEIR terrorist country list!

I would say the US threatens and bullies more countries than any other country on our governments "terrorist blacklist" does!

[edit on 10/11/2008 by Keyhole]

I wonder who are we gonna fight? It seems dandy and all to have some military guy saying this (and willing to act upon this situation) but who are we gonna fight? The government? Who is the government?

see and this is why the next war is a civil war.

flagged!

Thank You for this article and brining it to my attention.

If anyone is a member of another forum site, post this there too.

Perhaps I will buy this book.

thanks ,everytime I hear Bush or McCain or somebody like that say we're at war so we can have peace it literally makes me want to puke,that that could even make any sense to anyone.

wow..Interesting article..I dont mean to be a bit rude but I do not agree with everything said in the article and the title is disturbing, I have also served in overseas in a combat capacity, Three tours in Afghanistan and I have never witnessed as much racism as this soldier claimed in to in his unit and further up his chain, Racism does exist but I dont want people to think the Army is loaded with racists and un professional persons, I served with great leaders, My 1st Sgt was well educated as well as my Captain, In fact we are all very professional, Sure we have had our service dragged through the mud by delta bravos at Abu Ghraib and that whole Jessica lynch Parody but there are idiots in all the services and in the Army as well. There have been occasions where we spent days with Afghan locals and brought supplies and rendered medical attention to those in need, I never judged those as Hajis or Towelheads and I for one am not a terrorist. I was deployed to do my job I served this country for ten years and I have never heard this from a soldiers mouth atleast not any under my command or my superiors.

In my own opinion I think this Cpl possibly joined after 9/11 because he was compelled to and felt patriotic or maybe he though joining the Army Reserve as an imagery analyst would help him secure a job with some OGA. One, He is not a combat arms soldier who is knee deep in combat and has not witnessed his buddy get shot or his buddy expire because the chopper is late for extract and doesnt fully understand that once your sworn in you are expected to uphold the constitution and defend against enemies foreign and domestic. He is sitting in some climate controlled location possibly is Arizona or wherever watching war unfold in front of his eyes and Im shocked that he was horrified to hear such dispersions towards an enemy who hates us just as much even more and when the enemy may happen to capture somebody, they dont put us in jail and hold us captive, They simply cut our heads off..Did we all forget about that!!..Yes they enjoy cutting our heads off if they get their hands on us, so maybe a freudian slip is warranted on occasion but dont cry about racism because one intel unit has a potty mouth. I am really bothered by this Corporals statements and I urge you all not to judge the Army and the Military as a whole, Our job is tough enough right now.

reply to post by DimensionalDetective


War Is A Racket .
By Major General Smedley Butler.

"Here is the war as it should be reported, seeing the pain, refusing to sanitize an unprovoked attack that has killed over one million people. All over America are victims who have returned from this conflict with hideous wounds -- wounds that turn the lives of the entire family upside down. And the American people are not seeing this. Until now.

"Winter Soldier, an enormously important project of Iraq Veterans Against the War, cuts this debacle to the bone, exposing details hard to come by and even harder to believe. This is must reading for patriots who have already begun the effort to insure that this never happens again."

--Phil Donahue

Click here for more information.

*snip*

More love & peace from the nation that loves to bring the rest of us their unique brand of freedom & democracy.


Mod Edit: Removed ill-mannered quote.

[edit on 10/11/2008 by maria_stardust]

reply to post by cmd18B


While you were over there, did you witness any of this

No Morningstar, neither myself and nor my team ever witnessed any killings of innocent civilians. I cannot speak for all personnel that have been there since October of 2001 and if it did occur it has gone unreported.

I remember when my unit first got to Kuwait...We were told we would have up-armored hmmv's, they lied....We instead had to go to the "boneyard" there we cut as much scrap metal from the old junks as we could...We then attached or welded the pieces to our vehicles...Gotta love our government giving us junk and telling us to win a "War" with it...

When we first went into country, I'll admit I was scarred. All I knew was what was shown to us...the evil Iraqi on every corner....the suicide bombers...the child throwing grenades...I found something totally different, what I found was ordinary people, not terrorists...It was quite a shock to me, I had believed every piece of hate that was fed to me...

I went from "wanting to get my kill on" to doing everything I could for those people..Being a medic I have a lot of pull and was able to do many things for the children...My unit even cut through a lot of red tape and was able to send 2 Iraqi children to the US for health care. One child even asked me why we were there..Citing the fact that the "bad guys" were coming from differant countries....I didn't know what to say at that point...I do not like many of the things I experienced while there, but it was a great learning experience for me.

Iraq was able to open my eyes to what the powers that be do to innocent people, both here and abroad. I always wondered why the rest of the world hated us so much and after that I was able to see why. Now I am getting ready to leave once again...My wife is tore apart and I don't know if our marriage will be able to handle the strain...We leave for MOB Dec 1st. Even though my personal life most undoubtedly will suffer, I know that I will once again be able to help those noble people...

Originally posted by big gee
That really brought home to me the senseless pain and futility of aggressive wars. I think every country should have an army along the lines of the National Guard to be used ONLY for homeland defence, but not allowed under ANY circumstances to instigate an attack on another country. Think about it, under these parameters wars could not be fought. Your thoughts......

The problem is that you are thinking logically, but there are twisted individuals and groups of people in this world who do not consider logic to be a part of their rationale. As is, we MUST reach out and strike enemies before they can hurt us. This is a reality of this world, whether you wish it to be or not. It is the exact same reason behind why we made the greatest blunder of all in pulling out of Afghanistan in 1992, under President Clinton and the Democrat controlled Lower and Upper Houses. You had Politicians and even Citizens back then believing that if we let everyone be, things would be alright. They also believed that some "barbarians" Half-a-World away would never arrive Stateside and cause us any damage. Well, Nine Years and 3,000 American Lives later, you tell me, did that Philosophy work?

reply to post by TheAgentNineteen



And Iraq had WHAT to do with that?

Oh, that's right, absolutely zero...

This had absolutely NOTHING to do with "fighting terrorism", and EVERYTHING to do with forwarding special interests and war profiteering--Period.