Support our war criminals

RE earnest at tallynet.com
Wed Mar 19 13:52:47 PST 2003


Let's not forget US soldiers who have already solidly established their war criminality in Gulf War 1, particularly Barry McCaffrey. The link below has more info, drawn from a fine piece by Seymour Hersh that appeared in the New Yorker. Hersh did a great job of portraying the wide range of responses on the part of US personnel to the fighting, from McCaffrey's search for a glorious career finale to the horror of front line soldiers ordered to open up on Iraqi troops retreating with the guns down (apparently, the Iraqi army has been told this time around that will be a sign of surrender).

I'd hope this time around the isolation of the US administration might make punishment of crimes like this a possibility. After the courtroom for Sadaam's trial clears, it could be used for assholes like this.

Randy

http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n000/a158.html?126

-- In ``Overwhelming Force,'' in the May 22, 2000, issue of The New Yorker, Seymour M. Hersh reports on the activities of the 24th Infantry Division during the 1991 Gulf War. The 24th was commanded by General Barry R. McCaffrey, who now serves as the director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. Hersh concentrates on three episodes in the campaign: the Battle of Rumaila, on March 2, 1991, which took place two days after President Bush declared a ceasefire; and two incidents, on February 27th and March 1st, in which Army personnel have been accused of wrongly shooting Iraqis who posed no threat to them and who, in the case of the February 27th incident, had already surrendered. All three of these episodes have been investigated by the Army, which found no wrongdoing, but, Hersh reports, key witnesses and information were either missed or ignored. Hersh interviewed more than two hundred past and present enlisted men and officers over the six months he spent preparing this account, including the Army's own investigators.



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