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]]>More than 10 years, six-thousand+ body bags, and hundreds of thousands of physically and psychologically wounded veterans too late, George W. Bush may finally be feeling a twinge of something resembling regret over the deaths and injuries caused by the Iraq War–the war he created based on a lie—and the war in Afghanistan. Last week [February 2014], Bush emerged from his self-portrait-in-bathtub-painting, post-Presidential hibernation to announce that his foundation plans to help veterans who are experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder [PTSD].
About 2.5 million U.S. service members served in the Bush-initiated Iraq and Afghanistan wars since 2001, according to the Department of Defense. Nearly 7,000 U.S. military personnel were killed. More than 50,000 U.S. and coalition service members were wounded in more than a decade of war. More than 270,000 veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are thought to suffer from PTSD. To date, the Veterans Affairs Department has awarded disability benefits to more than 150,000 PTSD patients.
In a speech delivered last week, Bush outlined his plans. According to the Dallas News, he noted that “the Bush Institute hopes to create a set of best practices that can be applied to business, non-profits and other groups that are working with veterans and their families…Bush is expected to focus on three areas: the civilian-military divide; the employment prospects for post-9/11 veterans; and the stigma surrounding post-traumatic stress.”
I think it needs to be said that among the “best practices” that ought to be deployed is the practice of not sending people into unnecessary wars, and that such a “best practice” would preclude the need to deal with hundreds of thousands of people experiencing the “stigma” of post-traumatic stress.
Later, in an interview on ABC News, Bush talked more about the new initiative. He didn’t actually apologize for the physical and emotional destruction his fake war created. I doubt that he’ll ever be big enough to do that. As a person born to privilege, propped up as a puppet of a politically cynical entourage, and never really held accountable for his behavior (including ducking out on his own, cushy military tour of duty), W is not prone to introspection or regret. But he did say that helping veterans was his “duty,” and he did seem to be pursuing a positive impulse—unlike much of what he did as President. So, perhaps in the years since he left office, the boy president has finally matured enough to put some of his presidential swagger behind him, and get some perspective on the long-term effects of sending millions of soldiers into a cooked-up, bloody battle with no justification and no acceptable outcome—just years of extended suffering for its physically and emotionally scarred veterans and their families.
At least, I hope that’s what has happened. Unless this is all just convenient, empty, legacy-building baloney from a former President who never really understood–and wasn’t curious about–the world around him or the consequences of blindly following the dictates of Dick Cheney. Or maybe as he ages, Bush’s testosterone level is falling a bit…Or maybe what he really regrets is that his legacy is going to be that of an empty-headed dolt who did a shitload of harm. Or perhaps, as has been suggested to me, the Republican party is hoping to elevate Bush’s brother to presidential status and needs George to do something–anything–to clean up the family image he totaled.
As Bush talked about his plans, he choked up a bit, and a single tear coursed down his cheek in what he called a “slightly emotional” reaction. It didn’t make me like him, or respect him, or forgive him for all the damage he mindlessly and callously inflicted. It’s far too little, far too late. But it was a heckuva lot better than “Mission Accomplished.”
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]]>The post BBC documentary reveals American colonel who trained Iraqi torturers appeared first on Occasional Planet.
]]>A new documentary from the BBC (in cooperation with The Guardian newspaper) has revealed direct ties between the torture practices and death squads of the Shia militia in Iraq and an American trainer, who also is alleged to have trained Salvadoran death squads. Retired Col. James Steele was dispatched to Iraq by former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and served under/with General Petraeus in Iraq. This was not the first time Petraeus and Steele cooperated. During El Salvador’s civil war, Steele trained special police brigades that have been linked to death squads and torture, when Petraeus visited the country to learn counter-insurgency techniques
Col. Steele’s history
Col. Steele’s military service goes back to Vietnam, where General George Patton Jr. called him “the best small-unit leader in my command.” After Vietnam, Col. Steele worked his way through the ranks, until El Salvador’s civil war heated up, with Steele being sent to train local “special Police brigades.” The units that Steele trained quickly became linked to accusations of torture and death squad activity. Former senior DEA agent Celerino Castillo knew Steele during his time in El Salvador, and has stated that when he heard that Steele had been sent to Iraq that the US was implementing the “Salvadoran option” to battle the insurgency.
Col. Steele was lauded for his work in El Salvador because the insurgency was stopped in its tracks. The cost to the people of El Salvador was more than 30,000 dead at the hands of the death squads. and many more tortured and abused. Col Steele was nominated to become one of the youngest full generals in the US military, but he was caught up in the Iran-Contra scandal, and was forced to retire early. The connections that Steele had from El Salvador included Dick Cheney. who turned to the retired officer to organize Panama’s new police force after the US threw out Noriega. In the periods between counter-insurgencies, Steele worked for corporations such as Enron and Buchanan as an “energy consultant.”.Buchanan has been accused of shady business practices in Liberia when Steele was with them, and Enron’s history speaks for itself.
“Salvadorization” of Iraq
In 2005, Peter Maas of the New York Times broke the story of former Col Steele’s return to counterinsurgency. The US invaders had been met with an insurgency, rather than the “flowers and candy” promised by the Bush administration. The war was becoming increasingly unpopular, and deaths among Iraqis and American troops were escalating. Steele arrived to replace efforts to train police by western policemen and turn to a more militarized option.
The insurgents were being led by those who had served under Saddam Hussein and were mostly members of the Sunni minority, which has long acted as leaders in Iraq. The Americans therefore turned to members of the Shia majority to act as the counter-insurgent forces. Steele worked alongside Col James H. Coffman, who reported directly to General David Petraeus on their progress in training the new special police brigades. Very quickly. the new Shia special police brigades gained a fearsome reputation in the areas they operated in, with accusations of torture surfacing almost immediately. When Peter Maas was invited by Steele to visit their operations to interview a Saudi insurgent, he reported walking into an office with blood dripping off the desk and hearing screams of pain and terror in the room next door. Col. Steele walked next door to where the screams were coming from. and the screams quickly ceased, so that Maas’s interview with the insurgent could proceed uninterrupted.
The leader of the special brigades was Adnan Thabit, an Iraqi officer who had been caught plotting to overthrow Saddam Hussein but had escaped with his life. Thabit has confirmed that Steele was the American trainer of his forces and knew exactly what he was up to. Thabit has also stated that although he disapproves of torture generally, that it is necessary to get “criminals to confess.”
Iraqi former general and government minister during Steele’s time in Iraq, Muntadher al-Samari, has also confirmed Steele’s knowledge of torture in Iraq. Al-Samari describes Steele seeing a prisoner suspended from the ceiling with bruising so severe that it would have been difficult to identify the individual. Describing Steele, al-Samari indicated his belief that Steele had been exposed to so much war and torture that he was incapable of “human feelings” and felt no empathy for the tortured prisoners he saw. After resigning his post from the gGovernment due to the abuse he witnessed, al-Samari was visited by Steele in Jordan. Steele questioned al-Samari about what he had witnessed and particularly asked if he had any physical proof of Steele’s actions such as documents or photos. Al-Samari now says he would be willing to testify about Steele’s knowledge of torture before a human rights court.
Torture was only a part of the special police brigade’s activity – they have also been accused in the deaths of thousands of opponents. At one point, 3,000 bodies were turning up in the streets of Iraq every month, with the majority attributed to the sectarian violence practiced by the Shia police brigades. So many bodies were being found that they were buried in local dumps. Most were not identifiable due to the extent of abuse and were buried with only tin cans to mark their locations.
Bradley Manning and Wikileaks
The BBC and The Guardian have attributed the genesis of their investigation into the abuses to documents released by Wikileaks in 2010. As of this writing, Bradley Manning has confessed to supplying these documents to Wikileaks. Manning has described the torture that he himself underwent as a result of revealing to the world the actions of the U.S. government involving torture and the deaths of innocent civilians. It is known that Steele reported directly not just to Petraeus, but wrote memos to Donald Rumsfeld, which were passed on to Dick Cheney and the White House. Meanwhile, retired Col. Steele lives quietly in Texas and earns large sums of money in return for speaking engagements on the subject of counter-insurgency.
Further reading:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13558.htm
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]]>The post It’s time to take responsibility for the Iraq War and its moral/financial consequences appeared first on Occasional Planet.
]]>Two recent pieces in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch helped me make some connections about why Republicans can’t stand to talk about how the unnecessary Iraq war bankrupted our country. They like to blame President Obama for spending too much money despite the fact that spending has decreased and the deficit is shrinking. In a letter to the editor, Robert Specker of Wildwood asked, “Why is our government spending funds it has to borrow in the first place if the expenditures are not necessary?”
Say what? “Unnecessary” is the adjective that will be used to describe the Iraq War by future historians, and they won’t pass up a chance to mention that we cut taxes while ramping up military spending.
An excellent article by Grady Smith about the “moral wounds” of combat shines some light on why Republicans are going to such great lengths to avoid taking responsibility for driving the nation into debt. Smith quotes a 30-year-old article by Peter Marin to explain how terribly difficult it is for humans to come to terms with the damage they do to others when “the dead remain dead, the maimed are forever maimed, and there is no way to deny one’s responsibility or culpability.”
Over 4,000 Americans were killed in Iraq and tens of thousands have physical and emotional scars that our society will have to take care of for decades to come. Estimates are that over 100,000 Iraqis, including women and children, died in the war of choice by the George W. Bush administration. As more details emerge about how the intelligence was massaged to give the desired result about Iraq’s threat to its neighbors and to us, those who supported the war must be facing some pretty difficult self-analysis.
Psychologists use the term “projection” to describe how humans blame others for something they can’t face about themselves. I think we’re on to something here. I hope Republicans who supported President Bush’s ill-conceived war accept partial responsibility for the physical, emotional and fiscal damage done to everyone involved. Maybe then they can start making amends rather than looking for others to blame.
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