There are two kinds of courage in war - physical courage and moral courage. Physical courage is very common on the battlefield. Men and women on both sides risk their lives, place their own bodies in harm’s way. Moral courage, however, is quite rare. According to Chris Hedges, the brilliant New York Times war correspondent who survived wars in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and the Balkans, “I rarely saw moral courage. Moral courage is harder. It requires the bearer to walk away from the warm embrace of comradeship and denounce the myth of war as a fraud, to name it as an enterprise of death and immorality, to condemn himself, and those around him, as killers. It requires the bearer to become an outcast. There are times when taking a moral stance, perhaps the highest form of patriotism, means facing down the community, even the nation.”

More and more U.S. soldiers and Marines, at great cost to their own careers and reputations, are speaking publicly about U.S. atrocities in Iraq, even about the cowardice of their own commanders, who send youth into atrocity-producing situations only to hide from the consequences of their own orders. In 2007, two brilliant war memoirs - ROAD FROM AR RAMADI by Staff Sergeant Camilo Mejia, and THE SUTRAS OF ABU GHRAIB by Army Reservist Aidan Delgado - appeared in print. In March 2008, at the Winter Soldier investigation just outside Washington D.C., hard-core U.S. Iraqi veterans, some shaking at the podium, some in tears, unburdened their souls. Jon Michael Turner described the horrific incident in which, on April 28, 2008, he shot an Iraqi boy in front of his father. His commanding officer congratulated him for “the kill.” To a stunned audience, Turner presented a photo of the boy’s skull, and said: “I am sorry for the hate and destruction I have inflicted on innocent people.”



The Winter Soldier investigation was followed by the publication of COLLATERAL DAMAGE: AMERICA’S WAR AGAINST IRAQI CIVILIANS, by Chris Hedges and Laila Al-Arian. Based on hundreds of hours of taped interviews with Iraqi combat veterans, this pioneering work on the catastrophe in Iraq includes the largest number of eyewitness accounts from U.S. military personnel on record.

The Courage to Resist

We cannot understand the psychological and moral significance of military resistance unless we recognize the social forces that stifle conscience and human individuality in military life. Gwen Dyer, historian of war, writes that ordinarily, “Men will kill under compulsion. Men will do almost anything if they know it is expected of them and they are under strong social pressure to comply.” “Only exceptional people resist atrocity,” writes psychiatrist Robert Lifton.

How much easier it is to surrender to the will of superiors, to merge into the anonymity of the group. It takes uncommon courage to resist military powers of intimidation, peer pressure, and the atmosphere of racism and hate that drives all imperial wars.

Silencing the Witnesses to War

War crimes are collective in nature. Especially in wars based on fraud, soldiers are expected to lie - to their country, to their community, even to themselves. The silencing process begins on the battlefield in the presence of officers, power-holders who seek to nullify the perceptions and personal experience of troops under their command.

In his war memoir, Aidan Delgado describes attempts of his commanders to suppress the truth about Abu Ghraib. First his captain says the Army has nothing to hide, Abu Ghraib is just a rumor. But then the captain continues: “We don’t need to air our dirty laundry in public. If you have photos that you’re not supposed to have, get rid of them. Don’t talk about this to anyone, don’t write about it to anyone back home.” In the U.S. military, the truth is seditious.



Two years ago, Marine Sergeant Jimmy Massey published his riveting autobiography (written with Natasha Saulnier) in France and Spain. How the Marine Corps - through indoctrination and intimidation - transforms a homeboy from the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina into a professional killer who murders “innocent people for his government” is the subject of Massey’s unsettling, impassioned, Jar-head raunchy, and ultimately uplifting memoir, COWBOYS FROM HELL. (No U.S. publisher has picked up the book. A Marine who speaks truth to power is not without honor save in his own country.) In Chapter 18, Jimmy describes a seemingly minor encounter with his captain. Here Massey gives us a look into the process of human denial in its early phase.



Massey has just participated in a checkpoint massacre of civilians. His sense of decency, his sanity, is still in tact. Like any normal human being, he is distraught. The carnage of the war, the imbalance of power between the biggest war machine in history and a suffering people devoid of tanks and air power - the sheer injustice of it all - begins to take its toll on Massey’s conscience.

In the wake of the horrific events of the day, his captain is cool. He walks up to Massey and asks; “Are you doing all right, Staff Sergeant?” Massey responds: “No, sir. I am not doing O.K. Today was a bad day. We killed a lot of innocent civilians.”



Fully of aware of the civilian carnage, his captain asserts: “No, today was a good day.”

Relatives wailing, cars destroyed, blood all over the ground, Marines celebrating, civilians dead, and “it was good day”!

The Massey incident goes beyond the mendacity of military life. It concerns the control, the dehumanization of the psyches of our troops.

As one Vietnam veteran put it years ago: “They kept ****ing with my mind.”

In 1994 Jonathan Shay, staff psychiatrist in the Department of Veterans Affairs, published a pioneering work on post traumatic stress – Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character. According to Shay, who recorded volumes of testimony from Vietnam veterans, commanders routinely try to efface the perceptions and the normal feelings of compassion among American troops. Military necessity, including the ever-present need for political propaganda, determines what is perceived, and how it is perceived, in war................read the rest at........ http://www.blackcommentator.com/283/283_welcome_home_shut_up_rockwell_guest.html

Right On Madman!

Another great thread!

Semper Fidelis

As a former Marine Rifleman, I can relate to the truth behind the indoctrination. This much is very true. But this is the nature of the military. You can kill for your fellows or you can die for them. But who are your fellows????????? Marines look out for Marines. Thats the way it is. The real question then is: Who indeed are my FELLOWS? Marines are. Semper Fidelis. But what about the rest of the people out there? Are you my fellows?
In 1983 a 247 Marines died in an act of war, AKA Terroist attack. Where were all the flag wavers then? Until sept 11, 2001, nobody EVER. NOT ONCE, thanked me for my service. Now I hear it all the time and frankly Im tired of it. Now people are scared. The the price Joe Suburbia pays for his "out of sight out of mind" hedonistic, narcissistic, egocentric suburban ways.

In Gods eyes, If there is a God. ALL MEN are brothers. If this is the case the nationalism is an archaic concept. The conflict then is a result of MENs cultural/religious beliefs and or percieved need to maintain their cultural/social identity. The bottom line is: GET OVER YOURSELVES. Its more important to take care of our brothers and our planet than to care about The Yankees and the Dodgers. Life doesnt always have to be about US or THEM. Cant WE all just be WE for once?

Sir, THANK YOU VERY MUCH for your bravery and service to our country. Although it is not much, on Memorial Days I pray for all of our military, past, present and future.

One can blame the left wing liberal media for not reporting properly. They only let people hear what they leftie libbers and so-called independents want you to hear. That in of itself is an atrocity!!

Lindyy

Well, sorry you are so angered. You can believe what you want. But your anger will only eat you up inside. Perhaps if you think about what you are doing to yourself..............


Lindyy

Sorry. Its a touchy subject

I think he is liveing in reality and exceptance is part of the healing process that is healthy, much healthier than liveing in denial I salute you never surrender

I served the same time as you my brother!
Army Infantry
I understand exactly what you are saying about these shake-n-bake patriots!
Where were they then?

You serve today and tomorrow when you speak out about injustices done to our brothers they tell you to move!
How easily they forget!

Did you guys enlist or were you drafted?
I served for 11 yrs in the US Army as a combat medic and then a training sgt. in an evac hospital. I know..just like you guys, what the deal is.
Gotta understand. If you havent been there you dont know what these guys actually go through, so give the civvies a break. There are a lot of patriotic people out there, and I am glad our young men and women in the service get the recognition due them. Better late than never.

SGT E-5
US Army Infantry
11B10
11C10 (OJT)

I volunteered!
Red, White, and Blue all the way Doc!

I am glad our young men and women in the service get the recognition due them also. Better late than never.

Thats a major contributing factor for not supporting McCain!!
He was against the Webb bill!

Lindyy

What does this thread have to do with madmans courage or lack of?

The article he posted at the top of the thread wasnt about him!

Besides, he has posted some pretty unpopular points of view on here in the past and even though other posters have chasitized him for his point of view he is still here! He keeps coming back for more!
That has to at least be considered moral courage!

Thanks again fanta and I have also met some verry nice people on this site despite my best efforts to post alot of views that can be considerd outside the mainstream. but as time is proveing alot of them are right on the money.

YW
Just speaking the truth man, and defending your right to do so as well!
I dont like when people attack our troops but Ive never seen you do that!!

Just a friendly reminder once again. Please stay on the Topic!

Do not attack another member for any reason we all have and opinion. If you want someone to listen to that opinion there is a correct way and a wrong way to go about it.

Believe me it is best to keep it at a debate form once you cross that line and attack another your words fall upon deaf ears. No longer do they see your point of view but only that you have attacked someone for there point of view.

No one in the world are going to see eye to eye on everything. If you keep it in a debate form though more will take notice and read it and just maybe see your side in the end.

With that said please stay on topic in a debate.

Have a great night!

Thank You
Site Mod
Kristi