An order to ‘kill all military-age men’

July 28, 2006

After the incidents at Haditha, Ishaqi, Hamandiya, and Samarra, Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki lashed out at the American military, denouncing what he characterized as habitual attacks by troops against Iraqi civilians.

That was last month. This month we learn of Sgt. Lemuel Lemus’ decision to change an earlier account of a May 9 raid in Baghdad and explain what he says really happened.

In a lengthy sworn statement, he said he had witnessed a deliberate plot by his fellow soldiers to kill the three handcuffed Iraqis and a cover-up in which one soldier cut another to bolster their story. The squad leader threatened to kill anyone who talked. Later, one guilt-stricken soldier complained of nightmares and “couldn’t stop talking” about what happened, Sergeant Lemus said. […]

When investigators asked why he did not try to stop the other soldiers from carrying out the killings, Sergeant Lemus — who has not been charged in the case — said simply that he was afraid of being called a coward. He stayed quiet, he said, because of “peer pressure, and I have to be loyal to the squad.”

In the incident that Lemus described, four soldiers have been charged with premeditated murder. Lawyers for two of the GIs insist the troops were given orders by a colonel and a captain to “kill all military-age men” they encountered on the mission.

The colonel, Michael Steele, is the brigade commander. (He led the 1993 mission in Somalia made famous by the book and movie “Black Hawk Down.”) How does he respond?

The two lawyers say Colonel Steele has indicated that he will not testify at the Article 32 hearing — the military equivalent of a grand jury hearing — or answer any questions about the case. Calls and e-mail messages to a civilian lawyer said to be representing Colonel Steele were not returned.

It is very rare for any commanding officer to refuse to testify at any stage of a court-martial proceeding, said Gary D. Solis, a former military judge and prosecutor who teaches the law of war at Georgetown University.

It’s not a good sign.

And if stories like this one make you wonder when this nightmare will end, we’re in the same boat.

If we don’t get our Army out of that country soon we really won’t like the Army that returns.

Caeser’s veterans were as much a cause of the Roman Civil Wars as Caeser himself.

Is this Rummy’s plan, to radicalize the U.S. Armed Forces so they will do Boy George II’s bidding when he refuses to step down in 2009? After all, they already have the Air Force from their inflitration of evangelicals into the Academy in Colorado Springs.

  • This may well be but an initial symptom to the armed forces being manipulated into a very dangerous ideological mindset. It’s called “Fanaticism,” and is the logical precursor to Dominionism.

    If a small number of soldiers—even so small as to be at the force-level of a squad—can be philosophically convinced that they need to “kill any men of military age,” even though they went into the conflict knowing that such an act would be fundamentally wrong, then such a mind-bending exercise can be gradually expanded—to the platoon; the company; the entire brigade. And once that first threshhold is attained—to wantonly take the life of another, solely on the basis of that individual’s chronological age—then how difficult might it be for someone in the command structure to apply “the lesson learned” to other groups who fit a similar description? Future targets could include people of various descriptors—race, religion, sexual orientation, political affiliation—and whatever-else-have-you.

    Simply bringing the troops home will not completely alleviate this issue. It will, in the end, quite likely require a top-down examination of the command structure—and that examination, by default, must begin with the current resident of the White House….

  • If we don’t get our Army out of that country soon we really won’t like the Army that returns.

    It is already way way way too late.

    Suggestion:

    If you believe in God… pray that you won’t become a sniper or a bomb victim of one of B’s wacked-out vets.

    If you don’t believe in God… pray that “chance” and “security through anonymity” will save you from the ills that B’s Iraq mess vets will wreak.

    And if you are not sure God exists…

    The currency exchange rate into New Zealand dollars looks pretty good right now… Anybody know how global warming is going to affect that island?

    In the meanwhile… anybody know what Ann Landers or Miss Manners thinks about giving spare change to B’s vets when they panhandled on street corners? Inquiring minds… want to know.

  • I’ve given your new site structure a try, and I have to say that I do not like the way the ‘read more’ link functions now. In fact, I’m finding myself actively NOT clicking on it because I don’t want to be taken to a new page. Can I right-click and open a new window? Sure. But many times I don’t, and I used to read everything you wrote.

    I don’t know what the new functionality is doing for your bottom line, but it’s killing my interest in visiting your extended pages. If you’re doing it simply to generate more page views, I say kill the whole ‘read more’ idea and simply post your posts in full on one page.

  • Once again I recommend reading E. E. Cummings’ “I Sing of Olaf. It’s a pretty good description of at least one aspect of the military mind. There’s no doubt here who has, and who lacks, courage.

  • Hey Oy,

    at the top of the site there is a link called “Contact”. It allows you to send an email to Mr. Carpetbagger. If you really don’t like the site, send him an email.

  • The same thing happened in Srebrinica, the General’s name was Mladic. They’re still looking for him.

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