Antiwar.com Blog

Oh, now I get it.

Iraqi force to provide security for first convoy to Fallujah

“In a few days we will have our first convoy go through the centre of Fallujah,” said General James Conway, commander of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force.

The US commander said that he expect the new leader of Fallujah Protective Army (FPA), Major General Jassem Mohammed Saleh, to provide security for the convoy.

So, the deal is that the Marines pull out of the town and in exchange they get a guarantee of safe passage for their convoys. I was wondering what the convoy situation was and this is a clue. You might remember that 8 soldiers were killed and 4 wounded in a convoy attack 2 days ago. Just this morning another US soldier was killed in a convoy attack. For those willing to piece together the scattered bits of information on convoy attacks, it seemed clear that, as I wrote recently, the American military has a severe logistics problem.

Could this be at least part of the reason for the astonishingly abrupt about-face of the commanders in the field, who went from saying “Submit or die” to installing an ex-Republican Guard General to run Fallujah, and pulling out?

I guess the question now is whether or not this General and his compadres in the Fallujah resistance – and make no mistake, this guy is intimately tied to the resistance, being a member of the largest tribe in Fallujah – will keep their part of the bargain, or will they turn on the Americans? It will be interesting to watch this Fallujah Protective Army. Will the Americans provide them with weapons and protective body armor and all the other superior equipment American troops have, and turn them into a real force or is this just a face saving sham deal?

Seymour Hersh, writing in the New Yorker, has an extremely detailed account of the hideous torture inflicted by American soldiers on detainees at Abu Ghraib prison.

A fifty-three-page report, obtained by The New Yorker, written by Major General Antonio M. Taguba and not meant for public release, was completed in late February. Its conclusions about the institutional failures of the Army prison system were devastating. Specifically, Taguba found that between October and December of 2003 there were numerous instances of “sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses” at Abu Ghraib. This systematic and illegal abuse of detainees, Taguba reported, was perpetrated by soldiers of the 372nd Military Police Company, and also by members of the American intelligence community. (The 372nd was attached to the 320th M.P. Battalion, which reported to Karpinski’s brigade headquarters.) Taguba’s report listed some of the wrongdoing:

Breaking chemical lights and pouring the phosphoric liquid on detainees; pouring cold water on naked detainees; beating detainees with a broom handle and a chair; threatening male detainees with rape; allowing a military police guard to stitch the wound of a detainee who was injured after being slammed against the wall in his cell; sodomizing a detainee with a chemical light and perhaps a broom stick, and using military working dogs to frighten and intimidate detainees with threats of attack, and in one instance actually biting a detainee.

There was stunning evidence to support the allegations, Taguba added—“detailed witness statements and the discovery of extremely graphic photographic evidence.” Photographs and videos taken by the soldiers as the abuses were happening were not included in his report, Taguba said, because of their “extremely sensitive nature.”

Also, see Juan Cole’s comments:

I really wonder whether, with the emergence of these photos, the game isn’t over for the Americans in Iraq. Is it realistic, after the bloody siege of Fallujah and the Shiite uprising of early April, and in the wake of these revelations, to think that the US can still win the hearts and minds of the Iraqi Arab public?

And Steve Gilliard:

The thing about the pictures of Iraqi prisoners being humiliated is that it is the result of braindead management and racism.

The whole culture of Abu Gharib was designed to control and humiliate Iraqi detainees. The photos come from a fairly wide culture of contempt. These are not the first prisoners to be abused by Americans or the first courtmartial to happen over this kind of treatment.

What is incindiary are the pictures of a woman humilating Arab men and dogs being sicced on them. These are gross violations of Arab culture and sure to assist the resistance in killing Americans. The idea of a woman humiliating men will go down poorly in the Arab world, as will the idea of dogs being used on prisoners.

Saddam didn’t take pictures of the people he tortured, and more importantly, he didn’t humiliate them for pleasure. Iraqis kept their torture secret.

The fact that the prison officials allowed contract interrogators to have supervisory roles with the prison guards is even more revolting.

Now, why did these things happen? Why would American, and now British, soldiers, seek to abuse, humiliate and then record their acts?

Because that is what you do when you have a racist contempt for those in your charge

I’ll let Riverbend tell you what she, as an Iraqi, thinks of those disgusting photos taken at Abu Ghraib prison, from her blog Baghdad Burning:

Those Pictures…
The pictures are horrific. I felt a multitude of things as I saw them… the most prominent feeling was rage, of course. I had this incredible desire to break something- like that would make things somehow better or ease the anger and humiliation. We’ve been hearing terrible stories about Abu Ghraib Prison in Baghdad for a while now, but those pictures somehow spoke like no words could.

Seeing those naked, helpless, hooded men was like being slapped in the face with an ice cold hand. I felt ashamed looking at them- like I was seeing something I shouldn’t be seeing and all I could think was, “I might know one of those faceless men…” I might have passed him in the street or worked with him. I might have bought groceries from one of them or sat through a lecture they gave in college… any of them might be a teacher, gas station attendant or engineer… any one of them might be a father or grandfather… each and every one of them is a son and possibly a brother. And people wonder at what happened in Falloojeh a few weeks ago when those Americans were killed and dragged through the streets…

All anyone can talk about today are those pictures… those terrible pictures. There is so much rage and frustration. I know the dozens of emails I’m going to get claiming that this is an ‘isolated incident’ and that they are ‘ashamed of the people who did this’ but does it matter? What about those people in Abu Ghraib? What about their families and the lives that have been forever damaged by the experience in Abu Ghraib? I know the messages that I’m going to get- the ones that say, “But this happened under Saddam…” Like somehow, that makes what happens now OK… like whatever was suffered in the past should make any mass graves, detentions and torture only minor inconveniences now. I keep thinking of M. and how she was ‘lucky’ indeed. And you know what? You won’t hear half of the atrocities and stories because Iraqis are proud, indignant people and sexual abuse is not a subject anyone is willing to come forward with. The atrocities in Abu Ghraib and other places will be hidden away and buried under all the other dirt the occupation brought with it…

It’s beyond depressing and humiliating… my blood boils at the thought of what must be happening to the female prisoners. To see those smiling soldiers with the Iraqi prisoners is horrible. I hope they are made to suffer… somehow I know they won’t be punished. They’ll be discharged from the army, at best, and made to go back home and join families and cronies who will drink to the pictures and the way “America’s finest” treated those “Dumb I-raki terrorists”. That horrible excuse of a human, Janis Karpinski, will then write a book about how her father molested her as a child and her mother drank herself into an early death- that’s why she did what she did in Abu Ghraib. It makes me sick.

Where is the Governing Council? Where are they hiding now?

I want something done about it and I want it done publicly. I want those horrible soldiers who were responsible for this to be publicly punished and humiliated. I want them to be condemned and identified as the horrible people they are. I want their children and their children’s children to carry on the story of what was done for a long time- as long as those prisoners will carry along with them the humiliation and pain of what was done and as long as the memory of those pictures remains in Iraqi hearts and minds…

British military officials confirmed Friday that they are investigating new allegations that their soldiers abused a prisoner in Iraq.

From a Sky News report:

Photographs in the Daily Mirror show an Iraqi being battered with rifle butts, threatened with execution, and urinated on by British troops.

During his eight-hour ordeal, the suspected thief had his jaw broken and teeth smashed, the Mirror reported.

The news follows the publication of images showing US troops humiliating and torturing Iraqi prisoners.

The Mirror told how the suspect was later driven away from the Army camp, still hooded, and thrown off the back of a moving wagon.

British soldiers from the Queens Lancashire Regiment handed the photos to the paper to show why Coalition forces were encountering such hostility.

They stressed that the abuse by UK forces has been carried out by rogue elements.

“We are not helping ourselves out there. We are never going to get them on our side. We are fighting a losing war,” one of the soldiers told the paper.

France struggles with the fruits of its imperial past and welfare state present.

Or, two more reasons why I’ve lost interest in the LCpl. Boudreaux case.

* Justin interprets the lighthearted hijinks at Abu Ghraib.

* That infamous hate-America rag Stars & Stripes reports on business as usual in Okinawa.

Marines sentenced for mugging of Okinawa man

NAHA, Okinawa — Two Marines found guilty of mugging a 20-year-old Okinawan man in Ginowan last October were sentenced Tuesday in Naha District Court. …

The incident took place Oct. 23 at about 5:55 a.m. following a long night of drinking, according to testimony at previous hearings. [Lance Cpl. Joshua M.] Major testified he was out looking for a fight that morning and picked on the man they saw in a supermarket in the Oyama district of Ginowan, near the base.

He admitted punching the man in the face after Mundell grabbed him from behind. …

Chief Judge Nobuyuki Yokota said there was no doubt both Marines were responsible for the attack.

“While [Cpl. Paul E.] Mundell grabbed the Japanese man from behind, Major punched him in the face for several times,” Yokota said. “Even after knocking the victim down to the ground, Major continued assaulting the man.” …

Yokota said the evidence showed Mundell, Major and another Marine, who was with them but not charged, started drinking beer at their barracks room on Oct. 22 to celebrate completing training at a range. At about 11:40 p.m., they went to a pool hall near the air station, where they stayed until 5 a.m. The trio then stopped by a nearby 24-hour supermarket.

“In the store, they saw the victim, who left after buying a boxed meal,” the judge said in his explanation for finding the two men guilty. “After they left the store, they looked for the victim and followed him for 15 minutes after spotting him again on a street.”

Then, they attacked.

“Using the money they stole, they hailed a taxi to go to Okinawa City, only to find that the bar they were planning to go [to] was closed,” Yokota said. “They then spent some more of the money on boxed meals, which they ate in a taxi on their way back to the air station.”

Imagine the fear of being beaten and robbed by foreign thugs every time you go to the supermarket, and you’ll have some idea why most Iraqis want the U.S. out now.