Download PDF of this full issue: v38n1.pdf (23.7 MB)

Winter Soldiers of the "War on Terror"

By J. Michael Orange

My wife, Cynthia, and I witnessed the Winter Soldier Investigation (WSI2) hearings where we listened to the testimony from 72 people who had the great courage to go public with their experiences. In account after account, a common thread emerged of Iraqi families being torn apart and terrified, terrified by—not grateful for— the American soldiers and private mercenaries who occupy their country. The testifiers told of Iraqis, being without power and water, begging for food and fuel, and only wanting foreign troops to leave so they can begin to rebuild their devastated country.

We need to comprehend the enormous scale of the so-called "collateral damage" in Iraq. It is appalling to learn that over a million Iraqi civilians are estimated to have died since the US invasion. It is also striking to compare the civilian death rates for Iraq and Vietnam. For every US military death in Iraq, 250 civilians died, an average of 550 a day over the 5 years of the US invasion and occupation. The comparison for Vietnam is 80 civilian deaths for each US death even though the Vietnam war machine employed more than a decade of saturation bombing that exceeded twice the explosive tonnage during all of WWII.

The testifiers explained the shear mechanics of killing so many civilians through rules of engagement, the practice of reconnaissance by fire, and overwhelming force, for example. Those who sell the invasion and occupation as a "just war" will simply dismiss these first-hand accounts as exceptions and they will continue to entice new advocates and a never-ending stream of recruits, all made possible by a bottomless military budget, including $4 billion annually for recruiting, a gutless Congress, and a compliant media.

The testifiers at Winter Soldier went deeper than telling stories that once again confirm what we all should know—war is hell. They addressed the anguished question that naturally arises: How do you explain actions that would be criminal even in a war zone? The most important answer to this question is that, even though these soldiers joined the military to defend the Constitution with honor, they found themselves serving in an unjust invasion and occupation. We could not listen to the four days of first-hand accounts and imagine our country invaded Iraq to export the American dream of freedom and democracy any more than we could imagine, now that we have removed the impediment of Saddam Hussein, the five Western oil companies that will have free access to Iraq's resources are more interested in exporting this same American dream instead of importing a more flammable one. Even the ultraconservative former Federal Reserve chairman, Alan Greenspan, declared that "the prime motive for the war in Iraq was oil." It didn't take long for the soldiers who testified to come to the same conclusion.

The soldiers explained how trickle-down abuse starts at the top ranks of the military hierarchy with institutionalized racism, sexual harassment, and assault on the lower ranks. They testified about the complete lack of training in Iraqi culture and language. The nature of this occupation and the civil war it sparked are especially brutal for everyone. It's hard for those of us in the 99% of the population, who the Commander in Chief has tasked with shopping with yellow ribbons proudly displayed on our SUVs, to grasp the white-hot frustration, anger, and vengeful wrath that results when our soldiers have no reliable way to discern friend from foe and are under extreme duress at virtually all times in a near-country-wide combat zone. We heard how common practices of terrible abuse and killing of civilians increased with multiple redeployments, disillusionment over the injustice and impossibility of the mission, and as unit casualties grew. Similar circumstances produced similar results in the jungles of Vietnam.

The establishment media has been promoting the notion that we can "win" and that the winning part has now started with the grand success of the surge. What this argument ignores is that the recent death rates are more attributable to the fact that 4.5 million Iraqis have now fled the country as refugees and for those who stayed behind, most of the ethnic cleansing has been accomplished. The Winter Soldier testifiers knew not to be swayed by this propaganda. There is no way to win an immoral war; only ways to shorten it.