- Here are my notes (so far, not quite done) typed up from the Iraqi Vets against the War that 101-T class members provided an audience for last Thursday.
- At the beginning I have listed sources that were mentioned within the 3 ex-soldiers' talks. Anything in [brackets] shows my additions, changes or interpretations; the rest is straight from my notes
Sources mentioned by the speakers:
Bulletproofme.com
Iraq for Sale documentary
Juancole.com middle east news blog
Antiwar.com
Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States (book)
Catch 22 classic book
1984 classic book
First speaker: Harvey Tharp
Joined Air Force @ 19 yrs old
Arabic linguist, in Saudi Arabia 5 times; flew over and monitored Southern Iraq
Earned a BA while enlisted through Ohio State
Later joined the Navy as a judge advocate [like a lawyer]
JAG [?] 2002
Studied Arabic;] had to take DLPT [test]; to his shock it was the same version of the Air Force test, exactly, so he aced the test. "Damn, I'm going to Iraq." However, wasn't called, even after Bush's "dance on the deck."
U.S. Plan A: No plan to occupy, we're going to turn it over to [didn't catch]
Plan B: Fell through after 3 weeks
Plan C: Team had no presence outside of Bagdhad—contractors had to make the plan! A high-level diplomat [and other roles] were needed in each region
"Foreign area experts" needed, so he was sent. 5 staff officers grew up in Lebanon, 2 linguists [including him]
"The were surprised to see us," bcause they didn't have all the stuff needed [body armour to stop AK47 only, not the bombs that were common]
A Navy dentist became Tikrit political officer
He became the policy officer [in a different city?], and was handed 144,000 to rebuild the city [after U.S. attack]
Coalition Policy A____:
They staffed CPA with young Republicans, aka "Children Playing Adults," "Can't Produce Anything." In one year, support from Iraqis [for Americans] disappeared.
Bulletproofme.com
Hotmail or Yahoo email accounts were used for official communications w/ headquarters
Iraq for Sale documentary
Rules for leaving base: 2 vehicles, 2 dedicated shooters (not the driver), communication btween vehicle and base and an intinerary known by destination: had to break rules to go anywhere and get anything done, so went in his white SUV w/ no map, no radio: a real target.
Halifburton/KPR
Employees could be hired as support staff, so they had that in their back pocket
Hired as HB subcontractors
He left Iraq in 2004 and then Abu Gharaib photos hit the media. He couldn't deal with knowing people who treated him as a friend were seeing those pictures, which they would take to heart.
Juancole.com middle east news blog
Antiwar.com
British officials wrote an article saying that the biggest problem was [U.S. soldiers ?] treating Iraqis as less than human
43% of Iraqis supported U.S. involvement in the beginning; [within a few years, CPA support was 2-5%]
An excess of judge advocates in the Navy required him to transfer to a new job or leave the Navy. They transferred hi mto National Security Agency, which would mean he would need to basically be a combatant, in a new role.
In November 2004, the Fallejuh mission destroyed the city.
Our reasons for going [to Iraq] turned out to be lies.
March 2005 honorably discharged. Came back with PTSD, mild, but with flashbacks. Stress can trigger, if you have a genetic predisposition too mental disorders, such as bipolar, and this is what happened to him—extreme bipolar response.
2nd speaker: Damon Murphy
On Navy submarine 4 yrs.
Change in attitude towards Muslim people is what caused him to be here [w/ Veterans against the War] today
Use of words like Hajid[?] Raghead…show this shift.
The face of terrorism became stereotyped, whereas before [we knew it to be] universal.
When he left the service, he began hanging out with Iraqi vets who had been "burned" by their service
3rd Speaker: Jeff Englehart
Joined Army pre-9-11, thinking he was joining a peace-time army.
He had dropped out of college and didn't see himself going back. He is from a conservative family, in which joining the service was always accepted as Plan B. He joined and said he wanted to go to Germany, make money, and the recruiter said, "No problem, you just need to choose whether you want to be a "calvary scout" or a "tanker." He thought driving a tank didn't sound fun, so chose to be a calvary scout.
He gets asked why he is anti-war when he joined [voluntarily]—for him, the army was humbling and educational. The army owns you, controls you.
His "re-educatin" [my words] began with Catch 22 and 1984, which his brother sent him, and Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States made a big impact on him. He got interested in Worker's movements, read Noam Chomsky, Emma Goldman [?]. Then when he saw Bush talking about Sadaam and Iraq [he realized the missing information that] "this has been going on for hundreds of years."
Army authority is held together by fear…
He and his buddies had AWOL bags packed, but came to the point of "You know what? We're going…"
When his unit went to Iraq, they took the trucks they'd driven in Germany.
There were 500 guys w/ 5 shower heads. His point: they weren't ready for this. (Kuwait, training)
Special Forces Officer had a video game mentality about when/whom to shoot.
2 oil fields secured first by Marine forces, named after Shell, Exxon
"We were occupiers," performing house raids like storm troopers; it was degrading. People were arrested, then lost to Abu Gharaib. Things happen like this every day.
[Bakuiva?] 2004
If we could [have] ever "w[o]n a war…." "w[o]n hearts and minds" [that chance is over]
Transfer of sovereignty was a show; there were no changes; "we," military, made all the decisions.
Westerners don't understand the culture.
Fallujah "could go down in history as one of the worst war crimes ever;" they "obliterated" Fallujah.
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