'A dead Iraqi is just another dead Iraqi... You know, so what?'

With the US bracing itself for a report into progress in Iraq since the infamous "surge" that has been trailed as "mixed", the Nation magazine is publishing a series of interviews with 50 combat veterans of the Iraq war from across the US who describe how they have abused or killed Iraqi men, women and children with impunity.

Their stories, recorded and typed into thousands of pages of transcripts, reveal disturbing patterns of behavior by American troops in Iraq. Dozens of those interviewed witnessed Iraqi civilians, including children, dying from American firepower. Some participated in such killings; others treated or investigated civilian casualties after the fact. Many also heard such stories, in detail, from members of their unit. The soldiers, sailors and marines emphasized that not all troops took part in indiscriminate killings. Many said that these acts were perpetrated by a minority. But they nevertheless described such acts as common and said they often go unreported -- and almost always go unpunished.

Court cases, such as the ones surrounding the massacre in Haditha and the rape and murder of a 14-year-old in Mah­mudiya, and news stories in the Washington Post, Time, the London Independent and elsewhere based on Iraqi accounts have begun to hint at the wide extent of the attacks on civilians. Human rights groups have issued reports, such as Human Rights Watch's Hearts and Minds: Post-war Civilian Deaths in Baghdad Caused by U.S. Forces, packed with detailed incidents that suggest that the killing of Iraqi civilians by occupation forces is more common than has been acknowledged by military authorities.

What's startling is the size of the lie revealed beneath the "Iraqi liberation" rhetoric that Bush and his cohorts pushed as a reason for the invasion once their initial WMD claims were found to be so bogus. An army "liberating" a people have a concern for their welfare, they certainly couldn't have their well-being in mind and make comments like this:

"I guess while I was there, the general attitude was, A dead Iraqi is just another dead Iraqi," said Spc. Jeff Englehart, 26, of Grand Junction, Colorado. Specialist Englehart served with the Third Brigade, First Infantry Division, in Baquba, about thirty-five miles northeast of Baghdad, for a year beginning in February 2004. "You know, so what?... "

Englehart then goes on to justify this attitude by stating that many soldiers genuinely wanted to liberate the Iraqis as their President had told them - meaning they bought into Bush's lie - and were horrified that some Iraqis then went on to attempt to kill US soldiers.

Of course, the distinction that Englehart is missing is that not all Iraqis are attempting to kill US soldiers, the vast majority are people who simply want order on their streets, an order that the US forces have failed to provide. But it would appear that, now that attacks on US forces have become commonplace, some soldiers are failing to see any distinction between the insurgents and ordinary Iraqis. It is as if the fact that some Iraqis are attacking them appears to have condemned the whole population in the eyes of parts of the US forces.

And, of course, many of the soldiers end up deeply disturbed by the disparity between the reality on the ground and the way the US media is selling this conflict. I really hope some of the right wingers who defend the war on here take the time to click on the title and read what these soldiers actually have to say about this "depraved" conflict that these soldiers actually have to take part in, rather than the rose-colour-spectacled battle that many on the right appear to think is taking place in Iraq.

The war the vets described is a dark and even depraved enterprise, one that bears a powerful resemblance to other misguided and brutal colonial wars and occupations, from the French occupation of Algeria to the American war in Vietnam and the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory.

"I'll tell you the point where I really turned," said Spc. Michael Harmon, 24, a medic from Brooklyn. He served a thirteen-month tour beginning in April 2003 with the 167th Armor Regiment, Fourth Infantry Division, in Al-Rashidiya, a small town near Baghdad. "I go out to the scene and [there was] this little, you know, pudgy little 2-year-old child with the cute little pudgy legs, and I look and she has a bullet through her leg.... An IED [improvised explosive device] went off, the gun-happy soldiers just started shooting anywhere and the baby got hit. And this baby looked at me, wasn't crying, wasn't anything, it just looked at me like--I know she couldn't speak. It might sound crazy, but she was like asking me why. You know, Why do I have a bullet in my leg?... I was just like, This is--this is it. This is ridiculous."

The concern felt by Michael Harmon is commendable, but unfortunately, his sentiments are not typical of the many expressed in this shocking report.

According to the survey, conducted by the Office of the Surgeon General of the US Army Medical Command, just 47 percent of soldiers and 38 percent of marines agreed that civilians should be treated with dignity and respect. Only 55 percent of soldiers and 40 percent of marines said they would report a unit member who had killed or injured "an innocent noncombatant."

Veterans described reckless firing once they left their compounds. Some shot holes into cans of gasoline being sold along the roadside and then tossed grenades into the pools of gas to set them ablaze. Others opened fire on children. These shootings often enraged Iraqi witnesses.

This report typifies why myself and others often compare the Iraq war with Vietnam and Northern Ireland. It highlights the way in which a war with a hidden enemy saps the will of the conventional forces and leads them to regard every citizen as the enemy. It is the very reason why conventional forces rarely win against this kind of enemy. Eventually the conventional forces will snap and be perceived as turning on the civilian population or, at the very least, of failing to see them as citizens. At this point, the battle for hearts and minds, which is essential for victory against an enemy who hides within the populace, is lost.

This is the story now emanating from Iraq.

We heard a few reports, in one case corroborated by photo­graphs, that some soldiers had so lost their moral compass that they'd mocked or desecrated Iraqi corpses. One photo, among dozens turned over to The Nation during the investigation, shows an American soldier acting as if he is about to eat the spilled brains of a dead Iraqi man with his brown plastic Army-issue spoon.

"Take a picture of me and this motherfucker," a soldier who had been in Sergeant Mejía's squad said as he put his arm around the corpse. Sergeant Mejía recalls that the shroud covering the body fell away, revealing that the young man was wearing only his pants. There was a bullet hole in his chest.

"Damn, they really fucked you up, didn't they?" the soldier laughed.

The scene, Sergeant Mejía said, was witnessed by the dead man's brothers and cousins.

There's really nothing to add. This war is lost. Bring the troops home.

I strongly recommend that you click on the title and read the whole 11 pages of the report. I can only give you a taster of it here.

But any notion that the US forces are "liberating" Iraqis at the moment is dispelled the instant you read it. I am sure many of these young soldiers bought into Bush's lie and went there with the best intentions in the world, but the reality on the ground has changed them and destroyed their mission. One soldier describes an almost typical daily event:

"And we were approaching this one house," he said. "In this farming area, they're, like, built up into little courtyards. So they have, like, the main house, common area. They have, like, a kitchen and then they have a storage shed-type deal. And we're approaching, and they had a family dog. And it was barking ferociously, 'cause it's doing its job. And my squad leader, just out of nowhere, just shoots it. And he didn't--mother­fucker--he shot it and it went in the jaw and exited out. So I see this dog--I'm a huge animal lover; I love animals--and this dog has, like, these eyes on it and he's running around spraying blood all over the place. And like, you know, What the hell is going on? The family is sitting right there, with three little children and a mom and a dad, horrified. And I'm at a loss for words. And so, I yell at him. I'm, like, What the fuck are you doing? And so the dog's yelping. It's crying out without a jaw. And I'm looking at the family, and they're just, you know, dead scared. And so I told them, I was like, Fucking shoot it, you know? At least kill it, because that can't be fixed...."

And neither can this war. Lets just end it and put us all out of our fucking misery.

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