US
soldier asks: "How many more must die" in Iraq?
By
Kate Randall *
WSWS - 25 September 2003
A letter from a US soldier in Iraq appeared last month in the Peoria (Illinois) Journal Star, and was reprinted September 17 in the Los Angeles Times. Tim Predmore has been on active duty with the 101st Airborne near Mosul, Iraq, since March, and has served in the military for almost five years.
Predmore's
denunciation of the Bush administration's war on Iraq and the continued
occupation of the country is a sign of growing opposition to American war policy
within the ranks of the US military. His words also express the sentiments of
broader layers of the US population as the assault on Iraq enters its sixth
month—and the lies upon which it has been based continue to unravel.
"As a soldier
preparing for the invasion of Iraq," Predmore writes, "the words
'shock and awe' rang deeper within my psyche. These two great superpowers were
about to break the very rules they demand of others. Without the consent of the
United Nations, and ignoring the pleas of their own citizens, the United States
and Britain invaded Iraq."
"'Shock and
Awe'?" he continues, referring to the Pentagon's plan for the pulverization
of Iraq at the war's onset. "Yes, the words correctly described the
emotional impact I felt as we prepared to participate in what I believed not to
be an act of justice but of hypocrisy."
Predmore's
description of his thoughts as he entered into war are at odds with the
depiction promoted by America’s mainstream media of the state of mind of US
troops as the invasion began—one of blind patriotism and bullying superiority.
While such moods no doubt existed and persist, as troop casualties have steadily
built—and US soldiers have witnessed both the horrors imposed on civilians and
the resultant resistance of the Iraqi people—more of the men and women sent to
fight have undoubtedly begun to question their mission.
Predmore takes
particular aim at America’s open cynicism in its prosecution of Operation
Iraqi Freedom. "Following the broadcasting of recorded images of captured
and dead US soldiers over Arab television," he writes, "American and
British leaders vowed revenge while verbally assaulting the networks for
displaying such vivid images. Yet within hours of the deaths of Saddam’s two
sons, the American government released horrific photos of the two dead brothers
for the entire world to view."
He also exposes the
brutality and inhumanity of the colonial occupation: "As soldiers serving
in Iraq, we have been told that our purpose here is to help the people of Iraq
by providing them the necessary assistance, militarily as well as in
humanitarian efforts. Then tell me where the humanity was in the recent Stars
and Stripes account of two young children brought to a US military camp by their
mother, in search of medical care? The two children had been, unbeknown to them,
playing with explosive ordnance they had found and as a result were severely
burned. The account tells how the two children, following an hour-long wait,
were denied care by two US military doctors. The soldier described the incident
as one of many 'atrocities' he has witnessed on the part of the US
military."
"So then, what
is our purpose here?" Predmore asks, posing the questions on the minds of
millions of Americans: "Was this invasion due to weapons of mass
destruction as we so often hear? If so, where is the proof? Or is it that our
incursion is a result of our own economic advantage? Iraq’s oil can be refined
at the lowest cost of any in the world. Coincidence?"—he and many of his
fellow soldiers apparently think not.
He reasons:
"This looks like a modern-day crusade not to free an oppressed people or to
rid the world of a demonic dictator relentless in his pursuit of conquest and
domination but a crusade to control another nation’s natural resource. At
least for us here, oil seems to be the reason for our presence."
The human toll to
date of this predatory war for oil? According to US military sources, since the
invasion, 305 servicemen and women have died; 166 since George W. Bush declared
the end of "major combat" on May 1. Of the 305 dead, 106 are
classified as “non-combat” deaths—including accidents, “friendly fire”
incidents and suicides. The US military has a policy of not keeping records on
civilian casualties. But according to the Iraq Body Count web site http://www.iraqbodycount.net/, to date
between 6,131 and 7,849 civilian men, woman and children have died, and at least
20,000 have been injured. As this count only includes deaths that can be
verified by two news sources, it undoubtedly greatly underestimates the number.
It also fails to include the casualties among Iraqi soldiers, mostly teenage
conscripts, which include many thousands, if not tens of thousands, more.
These horrors of
war—justified by lies emanating from the White House and the Pentagon—prompt
Predmore to write: "I once believed that I served for a cause: ‘to uphold
and defend the Constitution of the United States.' Now I no longer believe; I
have lost my conviction, my determination. I can no longer justify my service
for what I believe to be half-truths and bold lies. My time is done as well as
that of many others with whom I serve. We have all faced death here without
reason or justification."
Such sharp
condemnation coming from within the ranks of the military for the Bush
administration’s criminal war policy can only indicate a deeper distrust
within the wider population of US working people, students and others, who not
only see the death and destruction wrought by this war, but are being asked to
sacrifice their loved ones to fight it and their jobs and social conditions to
finance it.
Tim Predmore echoes
these feelings in the concluding paragraph of his letter: "How many more
must die? How many more tears must be shed before America awakens and demands
the return of the men and women whose job it is to protect them rather than
their leader’s interest?"
* The full text of
Tim Predmore's letter can be accessed at the web site of the Peoria Journal
Star: "A U.S. soldier in Iraq wonders: "How many more must die?" http://www.pjstar.com/news/opedcolumns/b0gtbbgr059.html
* http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/sep2003/sold-s25.shtml