10/03/05: Iraq War, Occupation Are Corrupting GIs - Steve Burns

Iraq War, Occupation Are Corrupting GIs

The Capital Times :: EDITORIAL :: 9A

Monday, October 3, 2005
Steve Burns, Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice

Dear Editor: A recent report by Human Rights Watch on the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by members of the 82nd Airborne Division makes sobering reading for anyone who continues to believe that we need to keep U.S. troops in Iraq to help the Iraqi people reconstruct their war-ravaged country.

In the report, which can be read at www.hrw.org, three soldiers who participated in the abuse recount how U.S. soldiers beat prisoners "to vent their frustration," and how one soldier broke the leg of an Iraqi prisoner using a metal baseball bat. The soldiers also described systematic abuse and torture by U.S. military interrogators.

These stories are tragic, but hardly surprising. The pressures of participating in a military occupation of another country -- a country in which you are not wanted, and even hated -- will inevitably cause some soldiers to turn from decent human beings into violent abusers.

The soldiers who came forward to speak to Human Rights Watch did so because they felt remorse for committing these brutal acts.

Let's not give one more of our soldiers reason to feel the same remorse. Let's bring our troops home -- now.