From another Iraqi Vet

Here is an email I received in response to one of my essays.

From another Iraq War Vet : skip mrosss : mross_skip@hotmail.com : 2005-11-21

He is writing about my essay 17 Reasons Not to Enlist.

I would like to help you improve your website. I am an Iraq War veteran and I stumbled upon your website by accident. I was very offended by it and I cannot figure out where you got your information from. Here are a few suggestions.

I always feel a chill getting an email from an Iraq war vet, knowing the man I am communicating with may well have murdered a child, or a civilian or is covering up for someone else’s torture, rape or murder. It is a bit like the devil suddenly appearing and attempting to defend his actions.

If you are puzzled about where I got the information, let me introduce you to the technology. They are called links. Click the underlined text anywhere on my website and it will take you to the sources for the information. In particular, look in the books section. Try it now.

1. joining the military is not like joining the mafia or plotting to kill a child. The military is a profesional institution sworn to protect the nation and defend the constitution. It is the the reason this country still exists as a free nation.

   That is what you swore to do, but that is not what you did. You joined in an illegal war and, unprovoked, preemptively invaded a country on false pretences. You murdered over 100,000 civilians who were no threat to American freedom or security. That makes you a Nazi hitman, not a defender of the constitution. Despite what you have been brainwashed to believe in boot camp, the reason you were in Iraq was to control the oil. You were a hired thug for a $13.5 trillion oil heist.

2. You will not be spit on or disgraced by the citizens of this country. Most people appreciate what the military does for the coutry.

   Straw man argument. Granted not everyone realises what you did and will foolishly honour you, but a growing percentage of people see you as an immoral hired killer and will give you a rough time, as I do. If you leave the USA, you will find nearly everyone considers your actions depraved.

3. You will not be killing civilians, mostly children a fact most U.S. servicemen/women won’t even fire a shot in Iraq.

   But you aided and abetted those actions. Even if you just peeled potatoes, without your contribution, the kids could not have been killed. And don’t give me that bullshit about Americans not killing kids. I have seen you do it live on CNN (Cable News Network) and in videos. Further, the most prestigious medical magazine, Lancet says you Yanks killed over 100,000 civilians.

4. Enlisted pay is actually higher than $14,000 per year when you add in the special pay and allowances that service members are given. Service members also get medical benifits free of charge.

   Do you have a source for how much those benefits are? From what I’m reading, wounded vets are being stuck with medical bills and supporting themselves.

5. Rape and torture are not permitted or allowed by the UCMJ (Universal Code of Military Justice) and any sailor, soldier, airmen, or marine doing so is subject to punishment and prison time at Ft. Levenworth. You will never be asked or forced to rape or torture.

   Of course, not officially. Cheney-Bush still deny the torture and rape even after the convictions. You probably did not notice the news item about Judge Hellerstein forcing Bush to release the rape videos. You may not personally have been involved, but there is no doubt now it happens.

6. Not everyone gets exposed to D.U. Everyone is warned of the dangers of D.U. and how to avoid being exposed to it.

   I should hope not, but some exposure is pretty well unavoidable if you use DU (Depleted Uranium) for armour. Did you wear a radiation badge? I strongly doubt it, so you know bugger all about your exposure. You are an idiot to trust the military after all the health problems vets of Gulf War I are having. It takes just a tiny DU particle to lodge in the lung to seed a cancer decades later. It is not just raw radiation damage. Have you even heard what the Pentagon’s experts have to say about DU? featuring Pulitzer prize winner John Hanchette and Pentagon DU expert Dr. Doug Rokke, a serving officer for 30 years.

I believe your website is full of errors and bad logic. The fact is that most of what is on your website is trash except for pt.13 Iraq is a hot, pestilent, fly-blown, stinking, hell hole which is true. 90% of it is pure crap and should be deleted.

You have delusions of grandeur if you think would trust some unknown person who claims to be an Iraq war vet over hundreds of reputable sources. You have not been specific as to what is wrong, or provided any evidence that it is, or suggested what truth I should have said in its place, or provided any backup for that truth. You are not only arrogant, you are deadbeat lazy.

My suggestion is to enlist in the military, become a leader and change the system from within if you don’t like it.

Have you read the essay by Major General Smedley Butler, USMC (United States Marine Corps). Smedley Butler is one of only 19 people in the entire history of the US military to have been awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor twice. The Medal of Honor is the highest award given by the US military. He did not realise what a patsy he was being until after he retired.

p.s. maybe you should just delete you website alltogether and do something constructive with your time. just my .02

But we have not even begun to look at the real issue, why you think you had a right to go to Iraq and kill people. All your objections to my website are picky trivialities in comparison. Further, you were too lazy to substantiate even one of your objections, not even the pay niggle. You made bald assertions as if your word were the final authority.

You are a thug and murderer and an international war criminal. It is not just me labeling you a war criminal. It is Kofi Annan and Boutros Boutros-Ghali of the United Nations.

The invasion and occupation of Iraq is illegal.
~ Kofi Annan (1938-04-08 age:80)Secretary General and Boutros Boutros-Ghali (1922-11-14 2016-02-16 age:93) former Secretary General of the U.N.

I think in this case international law stood in the way of doing the right thing.
~ Richard Perle (1941-09-16 age:76), 2003-11-20, Pentagon hawk, cat-stroking, Ernst Stavro Blofeld, James Bond villain pasty lookalike, admitting the Iraq war is illegal.

Perhaps you are too small a fish to ever bother with. Perhaps someday international justice will catch up with you and punish you appropriately for your part in the Iraq war. It took until some of the Nazis were in their 90s before they were brought to justice.

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