Iraq War Vet: "We Were Told to Just Shoot People, and the Officers Would Take Care of Us"

Iraq War Vet: "We Were Told to Just Shoot People, and the Officers Would Take Care of Us"

Wednesday 07 April 2010

by: Dahr Jamail, t r u t h o u t | Report


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Truthout has spoken with several soldiers who shared equally horrific stories of the slaughtering of innocent Iraqis by US occupation forces.


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During the course of my three tours, the rules of engagement changed a lot," Washburn's testimony continued, "The higher the threat the more viciously we were permitted and expected to respond. Something else we were encouraged to do, almost with a wink and nudge, was to carry 'drop weapons', or by my third tour, 'drop shovels'. We would carry these weapons or shovels with us because if we accidentally shot a civilian, we could just toss the weapon on the body, and make them look like an insurgent."

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Other soldiers Truthout has interviewed have often laughed when asked about their ROE in Iraq.

Garret Reppenhagen served in Iraq from February 2004-2005 in the city of Baquba, 40 kilometers (about 25 miles) northeast of Baghdad. He said his first experience in Iraq was being on a patrol that killed two Iraqi farmers as they worked in their field at night.

"I was told they were out in the fields farming because their pumps only operated with electricity, which meant they had to go out in the dark when there was electricity," he explained, "I asked the sergeant, if he knew this, why did he fire on the men. He told me because the men were out after curfew. I was never given another ROE during my time in Iraq."

Emmanuel added: "We took fire while trying to blow up a bridge. Many of the attackers were part of the general population. This led to our squad shooting at everything and anything in order to push through the town. I remember myself emptying magazines into the town, never identifying a target."

more:
http://www.truthout.org/iraq-war-vet-we-were-told-just-shoot-people-and-officers-would-take-care-us58378

"I was told they were out in the fields farming because their pumps only operated with electricity, which meant they had to go out in the dark when there was electricity," he explained, "I asked the sergeant, if he knew this, why did he fire on the men. He told me because the men were out after curfew. I was never given another ROE during my time in Iraq."

No threat, no need for deadly force of for that matter force beyond a loud voice.

On the other hand this one is a tragedy

"We took fire while trying to blow up a bridge. Many of the attackers were part of the general population. This led to our squad shooting at everything and anything in order to push through the town. I remember myself emptying magazines into the town, never identifying a target."

Remember, they were taking fire. I know, some folks don't get it, but from the POV of Laws lf Land Warfare this is how screwy they get.

Now it also sounds like this soldier did what most troops do, in spite of combat training... never identifying a target, which meant he did not try to hit a thing.

This does not mean he didn't either.

Now the first one, that testimony alone should (will not) push for an investigation of murder... no, not a war crime, murder.

I actually tried to explain how weird this is here last night...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8102922

Not a pleasant subhect, but hell one I actually got quite well versed actually doing debriefs of refugees that feared for their lives.

Oh, yeah. Kill em all, let god sort 'em out!

"Many of the attackers were part of the general population. This led to our squad shooting at everything and anything in order to push through the town."

Wat

What am I missing here? I can understand 'drop weapons', but shovels? :shrug:

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These soldiers have made it very clear: http://ivaw.org/wintersoldier

The Winter Soldier: Iraq & Afghanistan hearing took place in 2008 at the National Labor College in Silver Springs, MD.

They are all criminals.