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<font size=3><br>
</font><font size=4><b>US Soldier In WikiLeaks Massacre Video: “I Relive
This Every Day”<br><br>
</font><font size=3>By Bill Van Auken <br><br>
</b>29 April, 2010<br>
<b>
<a href="http://wsws.org/articles/2010/apr2010/emcc-a28.shtml" eudora="autourl">
http://wsws.org/articles/2010/apr2010/emcc-a28.shtml<br><br>
</a></b>Iraq war veteran Ethan McCord, who is seen running with an Iraqi
child in his arms in the video posted by WikiLeaks of a July 2007
massacre of civilians in Baghdad, talked to the World Socialist Web Site
about the impact of this and similar experiences in Iraq.<br><br>
The video, which records the shocking deaths of at least 12 individuals,
including two Iraqi journalists employed by Reuters, has been viewed more
than 6 million times on the Internet.<br><br>
McCord, together with another former member of the company, Josh Stieber,
have addressed an open “Letter of Reconciliation” to the Iraqi people
taking responsibility for their role in this incident and other acts of
violence. Both soldiers deployed to Iraq in 2007 and left the Army last
year.<br><br>
In the letter, McCord and Stieber said, “…we acknowledge our part in the
deaths and injuries of your loved ones.” They insisted that “the acts
depicted in this video are everyday occurrences of this war: this is the
nature of how US-led wars are carried out in this region.”<br><br>
The night before speaking to the WSWS, Ethan McCord had learned that the
widow of one of the dozen men killedthe father of the two children he
tried to rescuehad forgiven him and Stieber for their role in the
incident.<br><br>
Ahlam Abdelhussein Tuman, 33, told the Times of London: “I can accept
their apology, because they saved my children and if it were not for
them, maybe my two little children would be dead.”<br><br>
Her husband, Saleh Mutashar Tuman, had arrived on the scene of the
carnage caused by a US Apache helicopter firing into a crowd and
attempted to aid the wounded. The helicopter opened fire again, killing
him and at least one wounded man and wounding his two children, who were
sitting in his van.<br><br>
The widow urged the two former soldiers to continue to speak out. “I
would like the American people and the whole world to understand what
happened here in Iraq. We lost our country and our lives were
destroyed.”<br><br>
<b>Can you explain why you and Josh Stieber wrote the “Letter of
Reconciliation” to the Iraqi people?<br><br>
</b>We originally wanted it to go to the family members of those involved
that day in the WikiLeaks video. Then in turn we wanted it to be more
along the lines of to all Iraqi people as well. We wanted the Iraqi
people to know that not everybody sees them as being dehumanized and that
there are plenty of Americans and other people who care for them as human
beings and wish for them to live long and happy lives and don’t agree
with the war and the policies behind it.<br><br>
I just found out last night that the letter was shown to the family, the
children and the mother as well. She has forgiven myself and Josh and is
very happy to see the work that Josh and I are doing. There was a London
Times reporter who went there to see what they felt about the letter. And
there is one comment from the mother that she could forgive me because if
it wasn’t for me her children might be dead.<br><br>
<b>That must make you feel pretty good.<br><br>
</b>Definitely, but it doesn’t stop there for me or for Josh. We are
definitely going to continue speaking out on this and do everything we
can to have our voices heard about the policies, the rules of engagement
and the war. As well, we are hoping to set up a trust fund for the
children, as we know that they've had a pretty rough life afterward due
to the injuries and whatnot. Hopefully, it will get them some medical
care.<br><br>
<b>Could you describe the events of that day and what your platoon was
doing?<br><br>
</b>It was much like many of the days in Iraq. The neighborhood we were
in was pretty volatile; at least it was on the rise, with IED
emplacements and with our platoons being shot at with RPGs and sniper
fire. We didn’t know who was attacking us. It was never actually really
clear, at least in my eyes, who the supposed “enemy” was.<br><br>
We were conducting what were called knock-and-searches, where we would
knock on the doors of the homes and search for documents pertaining to
militias or any weapons they weren't supposed to have or any bomb-making
materials. We didn’t really find anything at all.<br><br>
We were getting ready to wrap up at about one o’clock in the afternoon.
We started to funnel into an alleyway and started to take small arms fire
from rooftops from AK-47s. We didn’t know what was happening with the
Apache helicopters. They were attached to us from another unit to watch
over us for this mission, which was called “Ranger Dominance.”<br><br>
We could hear them open fire, but those of us who were on the ground,
outside of the vehicles, had no idea what was taking place. We couldn’t
hear the radio chatter and we were pretty caught up in our own
situation.<br><br>
When that situation was neutralized, we were told to walk up onto the
scene. I was one of about six soldiers who were dismounted to first
arrive on the scene.<br><br>
<b>What did you see when you got there?<br><br>
</b>It was pretty much absolute carnage. I had never seen anybody shot by
a 30-millimeter round before, and frankly don’t ever want to see that
again. It almost seemed unreal, like something out of a bad B-horror
movie. When these rounds hit you they kind of explodepeople with their
heads half-off, their insides hanging out of their bodies, limbs missing.
I did see two RPGs on the scene as well as a few AK-47s.<br><br>
But then I heard the cries of a child. They weren't necessarily cries of
agony, but more like the cries of a small child who was scared out of her
mind. So I ran up to the van where the cries were coming from. You can
actually see in the scenes from the video where another soldier and I
come up to the driver and the passenger sides of the van.<br><br>
The soldier I was with, as soon as he saw the children, turned around,
started vomiting and ran. He didn’t want any part of that scene with the
children anymore.<br><br>
What I saw when I looked inside the van was a small girl, about three or
four years old. She had a belly wound and glass in her hair and eyes.
Next to her was a boy about seven or eight years old who had a wound to
the right side of the head. He was laying half on the floorboard and half
on the bench. I presumed he was dead; he wasn’t moving.<br><br>
Next to him was who I presumed was the father. He was hunched over
sideways, almost in a protective way, trying to protect his children. And
you could tell that he had taken a 30-millimeter round to the chest. I
pretty much knew that he was deceased.<br><br>
I grabbed the little girl and yelled for a medic. Me and the medic ran
into the houses behind where the van crashed to check whether there were
any other wounds. I was trying to take as much glass out of her eyes as I
could. We dressed the wound and then the medic ran the girl to the
Bradley. You can hear in the video where he says, “there’s nothing else I
can do here; we need to evacuate the child.”<br><br>
I then went back outside and went to the van. I don’t know why. I thought
both of them were dead, but something told me to go back. That’s when I
saw the boy move with what appeared to be a labored breath. So I stated
screaming, “The boy’s alive.” I grabbed him and cradled him in my arms
and kept telling him, “Don’t die, don’t die.” He opened his eyes, looked
up at me. I told him, “It’s OK, I have you.” His eyes rolled back into
his head, and I kept telling him, “It’s OK, I’ve got you.” I ran up to
the Bradley and placed him inside.<br><br>
My platoon leader was standing there at the time, and he yelled at me for
doing what I did. He told me to “stop worrying about these motherfucking
kids and start worrying about pulling security.” So after that I went up
and pulled security on a rooftop.<br><br>
<b>Did you face further repercussions for what you did that day?<br><br>
</b>After coming back to the FOB [forward operating base], nobody really
talked about what had happened that day. Everybody went to their rooms;
they were tired. Some of them went to make phone calls. And I was in my
room because I had to clean the blood off of my IBA [body armor] and my
uniformthe blood from these children. And I was having a flood of
emotions and having a real hard time dealing with having seen children
this way, as I’m sure most caring human beings would.<br><br>
So I went to see a staff sergeant who was in my chain of command and told
him I needed to see mental health about what was going on in my head. He
told me to “quit being a pussy” and to “suck it up and be a soldier.” He
told me that if I wanted to go to mental health, there would be
repercussions, one of them being labeled a “malingerer,” which is
actually a crime in the US Army.<br><br>
For fear of that happening to me, I in turn went back to my room and
tried to bottle up as much emotion as I could and pretty much just suck
it up and drive on.<br><br>
<b>You had another nine months or more still to go in your tour
then?<br><br>
</b>That’s right. It was a pretty long time with having to deal with the
emotions, not only of that, but of many other days. What happened then
was not an isolated incident. Stuff like that happens on a daily basis in
Iraq.<br><br>
<b>Are there other incidents that took place in the following months of
your tour that bear this out?<br><br>
</b>Yes. Our rules of engagement were changing on an almost daily basis.
But we had a pretty gung-ho commander, who decided that because we were
getting hit by IEDs a lot, there would be a new battalion SOP [standard
operating procedure].<br><br>
He goes, “If someone in your line gets hit with an IED, 360 rotational
fire. You kill every motherfucker on the street.” Myself and Josh and a
lot of other soldiers were just sitting there looking at each other like,
“Are you kidding me? You want us to kill women and children on the
street?”<br><br>
And you couldn’t just disobey orders to shoot, because they could just
make your life hell in Iraq. So like with myself, I would shoot up into
the roof of a building instead of down on the ground toward civilians.
But I’ve seen it many times, where people are just walking down the
street and an IED goes off and the troops open fire and kill
them.<br><br>
<b>During this period were you conscious that you were suffering from
post-traumatic stress?<br><br>
</b>Yes I knew, because I would be angry at everyone and everything and
at myself even more. I would watch movies and listen to music as much as
possible just to escape reality. I didn’t really talk to many
people.<br><br>
The other problem I had is that before the incident shown in the
WikiLeaks video, I was the gung-ho soldier. I thought I was going over
there to do the greater good. I thought my job over there was to protect
the Iraqi people and that this was a job with honor and courage and
duty.<br><br>
I was hit by an IED within two weeks of my being in Iraq. And I didn’t
understand why people were throwing rocks at us, why I was being shot at
and why we’re being blown up, when I have it in my head that I was here
to help these people.<br><br>
But the first real serious doubt, where I could no longer justify to
myself being in Iraq or serving in the Army, was on that day in July
2007.<br><br>
<b>How did you come to join the military?<br><br>
</b>I had always wanted to be in the military, even as a child. My
grandfather and my uncles were military. Then September 11 happened, and
I decided it was my duty as an American to join the military, so that’s
what I did in 2002. I joined the Navy. In 2005, when the Army had what
they called “Operation Blue to Green,” pulling sailors and airmen into
the Army with bigger bonuses, I made a lateral transfer.<br><br>
I had pretty much had it in my head that I was going to make a career out
of the military. But going to Iraq and dealing with the Army completely
changed my outlook.<br><br>
<b>What was your reaction when you saw the WikiLeaks video?<br><br>
</b>Shock. I had dropped my children off at school one morning, came home
and turned on MSNBC, and there I am running across the screen carrying a
child.<br><br>
I knew immediately it was me. I know the scene. It is burned into my
head. I relive it almost every day. It was just a shock that it was up
there, and it angered me. I was angry because it was in my face
again.<br><br>
I had actually started to get a little bit better before the tape was
released. I wasn’t thinking about it as often; it was getting a little
bit easier to go to sleep. But then everything that I had buried and
pushed away came bubbling back to the surface. And the nightmares began
again, the anger, the feeling of being used. It all came back. It wasn’t
a good feeling; it was like a huge slap in the face.<br><br>
<b>Do you think that the way you were told to forget about the kids and
suck it up is indicative of the general culture in the military?<br><br>
</b>Yes, there is such a stigma placed on soldiers seeking mental health.
It’s like you’re showing a huge sign of weakness for needing to speak
about things or for seeking help even for getting to sleep. There’s fear
of being chastised or being made fun of. So you end up self-medicating on
alcohol. And as you probably know, alcohol is a depressant and just makes
it worse.<br><br>
I was self-medicating when I came home, and I was hospitalized in a
mental institute by the Army because of my problems with PTSD and
self-medication.<br><br>
There were many times when I felt that I could no longer take what was
going on in my head and the best thing for me to do would be to put a
bullet in my head. But each time I thought about that, I would look at
the pictures of my children and think back on that day and how the father
of those children was taken away and how horrible it must be for them.
And if I were to do that, I would be putting my children in the same
position.<br><br>
<b>Do you think that the pressure to bury these problems is driven by a
fear that if you are allowed to question your own experiences, it can
call into question the nature of the war itself?<br><br>
</b>I was not able to talk about it, not able to get answers to like how
I was feeling about this, why were we doing this, what are we doing here?
It was just straight up, “You’re going to do this, and you’re going to
shut up about it.”<br><br>
Soldiers aren’t mindless drones. They have feelings. They have emotions.
You can’t just make them go out and do something without telling them,
this is why we’re doing it. And the pressure just builds up.<br><br>
You hear in the video the Apache helicopter crew saying some things that
are pretty heart-wrenching and cold. I’m guilty of it too. We all are.
It’s kind of a coping mechanism. You feel bad at the time for what you
did and you take those emotions and push them down. That’s what the Army
teaches you to do, just push them down. And in a sense it works. It helps
you get through the hard times. But unfortunately, there’s no outlet for
that anymore, once you get out of the Army. When you get back home,
there’s no one to joke around with, nobody you can talk to about these
instances.<br><br>
What happens to that soldier? He’s going to blow up. And when he blows
up, more than likely it’s going to be on his family, his close friends or
on himself. So I think that’s why soldiers end up killing
themselves.<br><br>
<b>So a terrible price is being paid for this war in the US
itself?<br><br>
</b>Yes, I feel that just as the Iraqis, the soldiers are victims of this
war as well. Like we say in our letter to the Iraqis, the government is
ignoring them and it is also ignoring us. Instead of people being upset
at a few soldiers in a video who were doing what they were trained to do,
I think people need to be more upset at the system that trained these
soldiers. They are doing exactly what the Army wants them to do. Getting
angry and calling these soldiers names and saying how callous and
cold-hearted they are isn’t going to change the system.<br><br>
<b>What do you think drives this system? Why are they sent to do
this?<br><br>
</b>As far as the hidden agenda behind the war, I couldn’t even begin to
guess what that is. I do know that the system is being driven by some
people with pretty low morals and values, and they attempt to instill
those values in the soldiers.<br><br>
But the people who are driving the system don’t have to deal with the
repercussions. It’s the American people who have to deal with them.
They’re the ones who have to deal with all of these soldiers who come
back from war, have no outlets and blow up.<br><br>
I still live with this every day. When I close my eyes I see what
happened that day and many other days like a slide show in my head. The
smells come back to me. The cries of the children come back to me. The
people driving this big war machine, they don’t have to deal with this.
They live in their $36 million mansions and sleep well at night.<br><br>
<b>Were you hopeful that with the 2008 election these kinds of things
would be brought to a halt. Were you disappointed that they have
continued and escalated?<br><br>
</b>I am not part of any party. Was I hopeful? Yes. Was I surprised that
we are still there? No. I’m not surprised at all. There’s something else
lying underneath there. It’s not Republican or Democrat; it’s money.
There’s something else lying underneath it where Republicans and
Democrats together want to keep us in Iraq and Afghanistan.<br><br>
I am hopeful that the video and our speaking out will help. There’s the
old adage that war is hell, but I don’t think people really understand
just what a hell war is. Until you see it first-hand, you don’t really
know what’s going on. Like I said, this video shows you an every-day
occurrence in Iraq, and I can only assume, in Afghanistan. So I hope
people wake up and see the actual hells of war.<br><br>
<br><br>
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