[Reader-list] From Truthout: Soldiers in Iraq write to Michael Moore

[avinash kumar]

  http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/100604Y.shtml
 >
 > Dear Mike, Iraq Sucks
 > The Guardian
 >
 > Tuesday 05 September 2004
 >
 >
 > Civilian contractors are fleecing taxpayers; US
 > troops don't have
 > proper equipment; and supposedly liberated Iraqis
 > hate them. After the
 > release of Fahrenheit 9/11, Michael Moore received a
 > flood of letters
 > and emails from disillusioned and angry American
 > soldiers serving in
 > Iraq. Here, in an exclusive extract from his new
 > book, we print a
 > selection.
 >
 >
------------------------------------------------------------------------
 >
 >
 >
 > From: RH
 > To: mike at michaelmoore.com
 > Sent: Monday, July 12, 2003 4:57 PM
 > Subject: Iraqi freedom veteran supports you
 >
 > Dear Mr Moore,
 > I went to Iraq with thoughts of killing people who I
 > thought were
 > horrible. I was like, "Fuck Iraq, fuck these people,
 > I hope we kill
 > thousands." I believed my president. He was taking
 > care of business and
 > wasn't going to let al Qaeda push us around. I was
 > with the 3rd
 > Squadron, 7th Cavalry, 3rd Infantry division out of
 > Fort Stewart,
 > Georgia. My unit was one of the first to Baghdad. I
 > was so scared.
 > Didn't know what to think. Seeing dead bodies for
 > the first time.
 > People blown in half. Little kids with no legs. It
 > was overwhelming,
 > the sights, sounds, fear. I was over there from
 > Jan'03 to Aug'03. I
 > hated every minute. It was a daily battle to keep my
 > spirits up. I hate
 > the army and my job. I am supposed to get out next
 > February but will
 > now be unable to because the asshole in the White
 > House decided that
 > now would be a great time to put a stop-loss in
 > effect for the army. So
 > I get to do a second tour in Iraq and be away from
 > those I love again
 > because some guy has the audacity to put others'
 > lives on the line for
 > his personal war. I thought we were the good guys.
 >
 >
 >
------------------------------------------------------------------------
 > From: Michael W
 > Sent: Tuesday July 13 2004 12.28pm
 > Subject: Dude, Iraq sucks
 >
 > My name is Michael W and I am a 30-year-old National
 > Guard
 > infantryman serving in southeast Baghdad. I have
 > been in Iraq since
 > March of 04 and will continue to serve here until
 > March of 05.
 >
 > In the few short months my unit has been in Iraq, we
 > have already
 > lost one man and have had many injured (including
 > me) in combat
 > operations. And for what? At the very least, the
 > government could have
 > made sure that each of our vehicles had the proper
 > armament to protect
 > us soldiers.
 >
 > In the early morning hours of May 10, one month to
 > the day from my
 > 30th birthday, I and 12 other men were attacked in a
 > well-executed
 > roadside ambush in south-east Baghdad. We were
 > attacked with small-arms
 > fire, a rocket-propelled grenade, and two
 > well-placed roadside bombs.
 > These roadside bombs nearly destroyed one of our
 > Hummers and riddled my
 > friends with shrapnel, almost killing them. They
 > would not have had a
 > scratch if they had the "Up Armour" kits on them. So
 > where was [George]
 > W [Bush] on that one?
 >
 > It's just so ridiculous, which leads me to my next
 > point. A
 > Blackwater contractor makes $15,000 [8,400] a month
 > for doing the same
 > job as my pals and me. I make about $4,000 [2,240] a
 > month over here.
 > What's up with that?
 >
 > Beyond that, the government is calling up more and
 > more troops from
 > the reserves. For what? Man, there is a huge fucking
 > scam going on
 > here! There are civilian contractors crawling all
 > over this country.
 > Blackwater, Kellogg Brown & Root, Halliburton, on
 > and on. These
 > contractors are doing everything you can think of
 > from security to
 > catering lunch!
 >
 > We are spending money out the ass for this shit, and
 > very few of the
 > projects are going to the Iraqi people. Someone's
 > back is getting
 > scratched here, and it ain't the Iraqis'!
 >
 > My life is left to chance at this point. I just hope
 > I come home
 > alive.
 >
 >
------------------------------------------------------------------------
 >
 > From: Specialist Willy
 > Sent: Tuesday March 9 2004 1.23pm
 > Subject: Thank you
 >
 > Mike, I'd like to thank you for all of the support
 > you're showing for
 > the soldiers here in Iraq. I am in Baghdad right
 > now, and it's such a
 > relief to know that people still care about the
 > lemmings who are forced
 > to fight in this conflict.
 >
 > It's hard listening to my platoon sergeant saying,
 > "If you decide you
 > want to kill a civilian that looks threatening,
 > shoot him. I'd rather
 > fill out paperwork than get one of my soldiers
 > killed by some raghead."
 > We are taught that if someone even looks threatening
 > we should do
 > something before they do something to us. I wasn't
 > brought up in fear
 > like that, and it's going to take some getting used
 > to.
 >
 > It's also very hard talking to people here about
 > this war. They don't
 > like to hear that the reason they are being torn
 > away from their
 > families is bullshit, or that their "president"
 > doesn't care about
 > them. A few people here have become quite upset with
 > me, and at one
 > point I was going to be discharged for constantly
 > inciting arguments
 > and disrespect to my commander-in-chief (Dubya).
 > It's very hard to be
 > silenced about this when I see the same 150 people
 > every day just going
 > through the motions, not sure why they are doing it.
 >
 > [ Willy sent an update in early August ]
 >
 > People's perceptions of this war have done a
 > complete 180 since we
 > got here. We had someone die in a mortar attack the
 > first week, and
 > ever since then, things have changed completely.
 > Soldiers are calling
 > their families urging them to support John Kerry. If
 > this is happening
 > elsewhere, it looks as if the overseas military vote
 > that Bush is used
 > to won't be there this time around.
 >
 >
------------------------------------------------------------------------
 >
 > From: Kyle Waldman
 > Sent: Friday February 27 2004 2.35am
 > Subject: None
 >
 > As we can all obviously see, Iraq was not and is not
 > an imminent
 > threat to the United States or the rest of the
 > world. My time in Iraq
 > has taught me a little about the Iraqi people and
 > the state of this
 > war-torn, poverty-stricken country.
 >
 > The illiteracy rate in this country is phenomenal.
 > There were some
 > farmers who didn't even know there was an Operation
 > Iraqi Freedom. This
 > was when I realised that this war was initiated by
 > the few who would
 > profit from it and not for its people. We, as the
 > coalition forces, did
 > not liberate these people; we drove them even deeper
 > into poverty. I
 > don't foresee any economic relief coming soon to
 > these people by the
 > way Bush has already diverted its oil revenues to
 > make sure there will
 > be enough oil for our SUVs.
 >
 > We are here trying to keep peace when all we have
 > been trained for is
 > to destroy. How are 200,000 soldiers supposed to
 > take control of this
 > country? Why didn't we have an effective plan to
 > rebuild Iraq's
 > infrastructure? Why aren't the American people more
 > aware of these
 > atrocities?
 >
 > My fiancee and I have seriously looked into moving
 > to Canada as
 > political refugees.
 >
 >
------------------------------------------------------------------------
 > From: Anonymous
 > Sent: Thursday April 15 2004 12.41am
 > Subject: From KBR truck driver now in Iraq
 >
 > Mike, I am a truck driver right now in Iraq. Let me
 > give you this one
 > small fact because I am right here at the heart of
 > it: since I started
 > this job several months ago, 100% (that's right, not
 > 99%) of the
 > workers I am aware of are inflating the hours they
 > claim on their time
 > sheets. There is so much more I could tell you. But
 > the fact is that
 > MILLIONS AND MILLIONS of dollars are being raped
 > from both the American
 > taxpayers and the Iraqi people because of the
 > unbelievable amount of
 > greed and abuse over here. And yes, my conscience
 > does bother me
 > because I am participating in this rip-off.
 >
 >
------------------------------------------------------------------------
 >
 > From: Andrew Balthazor
 > Sent: Friday August 27 2004 1.53pm
 > Subject: Iraqi war vet - makes me sound so old
 >
 > Mr Moore, I am an ex-military intelligence officer
 > who served 10
 > months in Baghdad; I was the senior intelligence
 > officer for the area
 > of Baghdad that included the UN HQ and Sadr City.
 >
 > Since Bush exposed my person and my friends, peers,
 > and subordinates
 > to unnecessary danger in a war apparently designed
 > to generate income
 > for a select few in the upper echelon of America, I
 > have become
 > wholeheartedly anti-Bush, to the chagrin of much of
 > my pro-Republican
 > family.
 >
 > As a "foot soldier" in the "war on terror" I can
 > personally testify
 > that Bush's administration has failed to effectively
 > fight terrorists
 > or the root causes of terror. The White House and
 > the DoD failed to
 > plan for reconstruction of Iraq. Contracts weren't
 > tendered until
 > Feb-Mar of 2003, and the Office of Reconstruction
 > and Humanitarian
 > Assistance (the original CPA) didn't even come into
 > existence until
 > January 2003. This failure to plan for the "peace"
 > is a direct cause
 > for the insecurity of Iraq today.
 >
 > Immediately after the "war" portion of the fighting
 > (which really
 > ended around April 9 2003), we should have been
 > prepared to send in a
 > massive reconstruction effort. Right away we needed
 > engineers to
 > diagnose problems, we needed contractors repairing
 > problems, we needed
 > immediate food, water, shelter, and fuel for the
 > Iraqi people, and we
 > needed more security for all of this to work - which
 > we did not have
 > because we did not have enough troops on the ground,
 > and CPA decided to
 > disband the Iraqi army. The former Iraqi police were
 > engaged far too
 > late; a plan should have existed to bring them into
 > the fold right
 > away.
 >
 > I've left the military. If there is anything I can
 > do to help get
 > Bush out of office, let me know.
 >
 >
------------------------------------------------------------------------
 >
 > From: Anthony Pietsch
 > Sent: Thursday August 5 2004 6.13pm
 > Subject: Soldier for sale
 >
 > Dear Mr Moore, my name is Tony Pietsch, and I am a
 > National Guardsman
 > who has been stationed in Kuwait and Iraq for the
 > past 15 months. Along
 > with so many other guard and reserve units, my unit
 > was put on convoy
 > escorts. We were on gun trucks running from the
 > bottom of Iraq to about
 > two hours above Baghdad.
 >
 > The Iraqi resistance was insanity. I spent many
 > nights lying awake
 > after mortar rounds had just struck areas nearby,
 > some coming close
 > enough to throw rocks against my tent. I've seen
 > roadside bombs go off
 > all over, Iraqis trying to ram the side of our
 > vehicle. Small children
 > giving us the finger and throwing rocks at the
 > soldiers in the turrets.
 > We were once lost in Baghdad and received nothing
 > but dirty looks and
 > angry gestures for hours.
 >
 > I have personally been afraid for my life more days
 > than I can count.
 > We lost our first man only a few weeks before our
 > tour was over, but it
 > seems that all is for nothing because all we see is
 > hostility and anger
 > over our being there. They are angry over the abuse
 > scandal and the
 > collateral damages that are always occurring.
 >
 > I don't know how the rest of my life will turn out,
 > but I truly
 > regret being a 16-year-old kid looking for some
 > extra pocket money and
 > a way to college.
 >
 >
------------------------------------------------------------------------
 >
 > From: Sean Huze
 > Sent: Sunday March 28 2004 7.56pm
 > Subject: "Dude, Where's My Country?"
 >
 > I am an LCPL in the US Marine Corps and veteran of
 > Operation Iraqi
 > Freedom. Mr Moore, please keep pounding away at
 > Bush. I'm not some
 > pussy when it comes to war. However, the position we
 > were put in -
 > fighting an enemy that used women, children, and
 > other civilians as
 > shields; forcing us to choose between firing at
 > "area targets" (nice
 > way of saying firing into crowds) or being killed by
 > the bastards using
 > the crowds for cover - is indescribably horrible.
 >
 > I saw more than a few dead children littering the
 > streets in
 > Nasiriyah, along with countless other civilians. And
 > through all this,
 > I held on to the belief that it had to be for some
 > greater good.
 >
 > Months have passed since I've been back home and the
 > unfortunate
 > conclusion I've come to is that Bush is a lying,
 > manipulative
 > motherfucker who cares nothing for the lives of
 > those of us who serve
 > in uniform. Hell, other than playing dress-up on
 > aircraft carriers,
 > what would he know about serving this nation in
 > uniform?
 >
 > His silence and refusal to speak under oath to the
 > 9/11 Commission
 > further mocks our country. The Patriot Act violates
 > every principle we
 > fight and die for. And all of this has been during
 > his first term. Can
 > you imagine his policies when he doesn't have to
 > worry about
 > re-election? We can't allow that to happen, and
 > there are so many like
 > me in the military who feel this way. We were lied
 > to and used. And
 > there aren't words to describe the sense of betrayal
 > I feel as a
 > result.
 >
 >
------------------------------------------------------------------------
 >
 > From: Joseph Cherwinski
 > Sent: Saturday July 3 2004 8.33pm
 > Subject: "Fahrenheit 9/11"
 >
 > I am a soldier in the United States army. I was in
 > Iraq with the
 > Fourth Infantry Division.
 >
 > I was guarding some Iraqi workers one day. Their
 > task was to fill
 > sandbags for our base. The temperature was at least
 > 120. I had to sit
 > there with full gear on and monitor them. I was
 > sitting and drinking
 > water, and I could barely tolerate the heat, so I
 > directed the workers
 > to go to the shade and sit and drink water. I let
 > them rest for about
 > 20 minutes. Then a staff sergeant told me that they
 > didn't need a
 > break, and that they were to fill sandbags until the
 > cows come home. He
 > told the Iraqis to go back to work.
 >
 > After 30 minutes, I let them have a break again,
 > thus disobeying
 > orders. If these were soldiers working, in this
 > heat, those soldiers
 > would be bound to a 10-minute work, 50-minute rest
 > cycle, to prevent
 > heat casualties. Again the staff sergeant came and
 > sent the Iraqis back
 > to work and told me I could sit in the shade. I told
 > him no, I had to
 > be out there with them so that when I started to
 > need water, then they
 > would definitely need water. He told me that wasn't
 > necessary, and that
 > they live here, and that they are used to it.
 >
 > After he left, I put the Iraqis back into the shade.
 > I could tell
 > that some were very dehydrated; most of them were
 > thin enough to be on
 > an international food aid commercial. I would not
 > treat my fellow
 > soldiers in this manner, so I did not treat the
 > Iraqi workers this way
 > either.
 >
 > This went on for eight months while I was in Iraq,
 > and going through
 > it told me that we were not there for their freedom,
 > we were not there
 > for WMD. We had no idea what we were fighting for
 > anymore.
 >
 > -------
 >
 > Jump to TO Features for Wednesday October 6, 2004
 >
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