thedrifter
11-14-06, 09:27 AM
In Iraq
Vets warn war stress will fuel atrocities
Increase is predicted as fighting drags on
By Mark Sauer and Rick Rogers
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITERS
November 13, 2006
Angry.
Fearful.
Frustrated.
Loyal.
Proud.
Ambiguous.
Iraq war veterans say a maelstrom of emotions engulfs U.S. troops fighting in the Middle East.
The 43-month conflict – nearly as long as the United States fought in World War II – increasingly raises basic questions: Can we win? Do we have enough troops to do the job? How long will it take?
Combat veterans say tensions arising from such questions are contributing to alleged atrocities for which troops are being tried.
They and military analysts predict that more war-crime cases will emerge as the Iraq conflict drags on and U.S. combat casualties continue.
A major case is playing out at Camp Pendleton, where eight service members are accused of kidnapping and killing a civilian in Hamdaniya, Iraq, last spring.
Last week, Lance Cpl. Tyler A. Jackson became the third Hamdaniya suspect to plead guilty in exchange for a lighter sentence. He and another Marine, Pfc. John J. Jodka III, are scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday and Thursday, respectively.
The three are expected to testify against their co-defendants.
“The world may be shocked that our troops could mow down an innocent man, but I'm not. If I served on a jury, I'd feel so much the hell they and other Marines go through in Iraq that I might not convict them,” said Jay Rodriguez of San Diego, who served two combat tours in Anbar province before leaving the Marine Corps in August.
Rodriguez, 22, and other Marines said morale is low in Iraq.
“When you see more buddies getting shot up and more kids blown apart for no good reason, you start praying for an end to the war,” he added. “Not re-enlisting was the easiest decision of my life.”
Military investigators and prosecutors contend that breakdowns in discipline and moral behavior led to war crimes on the urban battlefields of Iraq this year.
“Too many people have done too many tours in a war that has lasted far too long,” said Marine reservist Tony Pham of Corona, who suffered injuries in the December 2004 suicide bombing of a mess hall near Mosul, Iraq, that killed 22 U.S. service members and wounded 70.
“It is hard to be there for a whole year and not have some sort of breakdown. It's pretty much insanity over there,” said Pham, 30, now training to become a police officer after six years in the reserves.
The latest incidents being investigated include:
The Hamdaniya killing, which took place April 26. Naval investigators accuse the eight defendants of murdering Hashim Ibrahim Awad, then trying to disguise their act as self-defense against an insurgent planting a roadside bomb.
Four soldiers accused of raping a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and then killing her and her family. The alleged crime occurred in March in Mahmudiya, a town 20 miles south of Baghdad, and involved members of the Army's elite 101st Airborne Division.
Four other soldiers from the same division being court-martialed on charges of plotting the deaths of three Iraqi detainees during a May raid on suspected insurgents near Tikrit.
A Camp Pendleton unit being probed on what, if proven true, would be the most notorious war crime in Iraq since the hostilities began with the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003. The Marines allegedly shot to death 24 civilians a year ago in Haditha, in western Iraq, after one of their own was killed in an ambush.
U.S. military personnel are exasperated by protracted guerrilla warfare in Iraq, said veterans who fought there.
“The troops get fed up. They catch a guy and (Iraqi) intelligence lets him go,” said Marine Cpl. Carlos Gomez-Perez, 24, of El Cajon. “After being there a long time, it just stresses you out, and you just want to get even.”
Gomez-Perez was injured during the first battle for Fallujah in spring 2004. He received the Silver Star, the nation's third-highest award for combat heroism.
He and other service members said people who have never experienced combat tend to have unrealistic expectations in judging wartime conduct.
“I think the grunts would sympathize,” said Gomez-Perez, referring to the Hamdaniya case. “But if a military jury is made up of support troops or officers who've never seen any fighting, they will throw the book at (the defendants) because they have no idea what happens on the other side of the wire.”
The other side of the wire.
The phrase means going from a relatively safe encampment into danger-filled territory. In Iraq today, the entire country is on the other side of the wire, Pham said.
“Random mortar fire landed on our base all the time. . . . You don't know who the enemy is, you can't see him and he is smart, constantly adapting,” he said. “If a kid with a backpack (goes by) and you tell him to stop and he keeps going, what do you do? From a Marine's point of view, you take him out. From a civilian's point of view, that's murder.”
Such circumstances differ from the Hamdaniya case, in which the suspects allegedly plotted to execute the Iraqi civilian.
“Killing people over there and making it look like a combat action is easy to do, but that is not the reason we are there,” said Robert Talley, 45, of Temecula. The former Marine staff sergeant, who also saw action in Fallujah, retired last month after 22 years of service.
As disturbing as the underlying charges may be, courts-martial for alleged war crimes can ultimately have positive effects, said Charles Moskos, professor emeritus at Northwestern University specializing in military sociology.
“If we didn't have these trials, the world would say we're no better than a bunch of Nazis,” Moskos said. “We will always have people doing evil things in combat, particularly in a place like Iraq where you don't know friend from foe. But we need people to adhere to the highest moral standards, and the military is quite correct in punishing culprits behind such atrocities.”
As the Iraq war approaches its fourth anniversary, he said, Americans should brace themselves for more cases involving detainee abuse, slayings and other atrocities.
“The blurring of the killing line gets worse in Iraq the more casualties we suffer,” Moskos said. “The threshold of what is acceptable in such a killing place gets lower the longer we are there.”
Courts-martial are good for the public but bad for military morale, said David Segal, director of the Center for Research on the Military Organization at the University of Maryland.
“They impose upon the public a sense of reality about the true nature of war,” Segal said. “We have not been getting enough of that from Iraq, so for the country this is a healthy thing. But for soldiers and Marines, it probably has a demoralizing effect.”
Segal said people should understand that while “the veneer of civilization is very thin and tends to crack in war, the overwhelming number of men and women in uniform perform honorably and well.”
Rodriguez, the former Camp Pendleton corporal, said he hopes the Iraq conflict will end with some sort of redemption.
“Hundreds of thousands of proud men and women have risked their lives in this war,” he said. “Some good has got to come out of it. We can't be remembered for war crimes.”
Mark Sauer: (619) 293-2227; mark.sauer@uniontrib.com
Ellie
Vets warn war stress will fuel atrocities
Increase is predicted as fighting drags on
By Mark Sauer and Rick Rogers
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITERS
November 13, 2006
Angry.
Fearful.
Frustrated.
Loyal.
Proud.
Ambiguous.
Iraq war veterans say a maelstrom of emotions engulfs U.S. troops fighting in the Middle East.
The 43-month conflict – nearly as long as the United States fought in World War II – increasingly raises basic questions: Can we win? Do we have enough troops to do the job? How long will it take?
Combat veterans say tensions arising from such questions are contributing to alleged atrocities for which troops are being tried.
They and military analysts predict that more war-crime cases will emerge as the Iraq conflict drags on and U.S. combat casualties continue.
A major case is playing out at Camp Pendleton, where eight service members are accused of kidnapping and killing a civilian in Hamdaniya, Iraq, last spring.
Last week, Lance Cpl. Tyler A. Jackson became the third Hamdaniya suspect to plead guilty in exchange for a lighter sentence. He and another Marine, Pfc. John J. Jodka III, are scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday and Thursday, respectively.
The three are expected to testify against their co-defendants.
“The world may be shocked that our troops could mow down an innocent man, but I'm not. If I served on a jury, I'd feel so much the hell they and other Marines go through in Iraq that I might not convict them,” said Jay Rodriguez of San Diego, who served two combat tours in Anbar province before leaving the Marine Corps in August.
Rodriguez, 22, and other Marines said morale is low in Iraq.
“When you see more buddies getting shot up and more kids blown apart for no good reason, you start praying for an end to the war,” he added. “Not re-enlisting was the easiest decision of my life.”
Military investigators and prosecutors contend that breakdowns in discipline and moral behavior led to war crimes on the urban battlefields of Iraq this year.
“Too many people have done too many tours in a war that has lasted far too long,” said Marine reservist Tony Pham of Corona, who suffered injuries in the December 2004 suicide bombing of a mess hall near Mosul, Iraq, that killed 22 U.S. service members and wounded 70.
“It is hard to be there for a whole year and not have some sort of breakdown. It's pretty much insanity over there,” said Pham, 30, now training to become a police officer after six years in the reserves.
The latest incidents being investigated include:
The Hamdaniya killing, which took place April 26. Naval investigators accuse the eight defendants of murdering Hashim Ibrahim Awad, then trying to disguise their act as self-defense against an insurgent planting a roadside bomb.
Four soldiers accused of raping a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and then killing her and her family. The alleged crime occurred in March in Mahmudiya, a town 20 miles south of Baghdad, and involved members of the Army's elite 101st Airborne Division.
Four other soldiers from the same division being court-martialed on charges of plotting the deaths of three Iraqi detainees during a May raid on suspected insurgents near Tikrit.
A Camp Pendleton unit being probed on what, if proven true, would be the most notorious war crime in Iraq since the hostilities began with the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003. The Marines allegedly shot to death 24 civilians a year ago in Haditha, in western Iraq, after one of their own was killed in an ambush.
U.S. military personnel are exasperated by protracted guerrilla warfare in Iraq, said veterans who fought there.
“The troops get fed up. They catch a guy and (Iraqi) intelligence lets him go,” said Marine Cpl. Carlos Gomez-Perez, 24, of El Cajon. “After being there a long time, it just stresses you out, and you just want to get even.”
Gomez-Perez was injured during the first battle for Fallujah in spring 2004. He received the Silver Star, the nation's third-highest award for combat heroism.
He and other service members said people who have never experienced combat tend to have unrealistic expectations in judging wartime conduct.
“I think the grunts would sympathize,” said Gomez-Perez, referring to the Hamdaniya case. “But if a military jury is made up of support troops or officers who've never seen any fighting, they will throw the book at (the defendants) because they have no idea what happens on the other side of the wire.”
The other side of the wire.
The phrase means going from a relatively safe encampment into danger-filled territory. In Iraq today, the entire country is on the other side of the wire, Pham said.
“Random mortar fire landed on our base all the time. . . . You don't know who the enemy is, you can't see him and he is smart, constantly adapting,” he said. “If a kid with a backpack (goes by) and you tell him to stop and he keeps going, what do you do? From a Marine's point of view, you take him out. From a civilian's point of view, that's murder.”
Such circumstances differ from the Hamdaniya case, in which the suspects allegedly plotted to execute the Iraqi civilian.
“Killing people over there and making it look like a combat action is easy to do, but that is not the reason we are there,” said Robert Talley, 45, of Temecula. The former Marine staff sergeant, who also saw action in Fallujah, retired last month after 22 years of service.
As disturbing as the underlying charges may be, courts-martial for alleged war crimes can ultimately have positive effects, said Charles Moskos, professor emeritus at Northwestern University specializing in military sociology.
“If we didn't have these trials, the world would say we're no better than a bunch of Nazis,” Moskos said. “We will always have people doing evil things in combat, particularly in a place like Iraq where you don't know friend from foe. But we need people to adhere to the highest moral standards, and the military is quite correct in punishing culprits behind such atrocities.”
As the Iraq war approaches its fourth anniversary, he said, Americans should brace themselves for more cases involving detainee abuse, slayings and other atrocities.
“The blurring of the killing line gets worse in Iraq the more casualties we suffer,” Moskos said. “The threshold of what is acceptable in such a killing place gets lower the longer we are there.”
Courts-martial are good for the public but bad for military morale, said David Segal, director of the Center for Research on the Military Organization at the University of Maryland.
“They impose upon the public a sense of reality about the true nature of war,” Segal said. “We have not been getting enough of that from Iraq, so for the country this is a healthy thing. But for soldiers and Marines, it probably has a demoralizing effect.”
Segal said people should understand that while “the veneer of civilization is very thin and tends to crack in war, the overwhelming number of men and women in uniform perform honorably and well.”
Rodriguez, the former Camp Pendleton corporal, said he hopes the Iraq conflict will end with some sort of redemption.
“Hundreds of thousands of proud men and women have risked their lives in this war,” he said. “Some good has got to come out of it. We can't be remembered for war crimes.”
Mark Sauer: (619) 293-2227; mark.sauer@uniontrib.com
Ellie