I've been talking about dehumanization a lot recently, as it pertains to race versus a sense of ascendancy and entitlement among some of our fellow citizens, how the latter allows one to do things one wouldn't otherwise if he considered someone different to be human versus Other.

Senator John Kerry was a young Navy Lieutenant when he attended the first Winter Soldier gathering of Vietnam Veterans in 1971. Afterwards he testified to the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee and asked: "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die in Vietnam? How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?"

Listen to excerpt's of Kerry's testimony here.

Former US Army Sergeant Logan Laituri served a tour in Iraq before returning home and filing to be discharged as a conscientious objector. At the Winter Soldier gathering later this month, he'll describe how the rules of engagement he operated under lead to the approved killings of innocent civilians and the destruction of ancient landmarks.

Former US Army Medic Perry O'Brienserved a tour in Afghanistan before returning home and filing to be discharged as a conscientious objector. He describes how the corpses of dead civilians were used as medical teaching tools in Afghanistan without the consent of the dead. He says this shows how war is inherently dehumanizing and hopes Winter Soldierwill change the conversation in America about the morality of war and the orders that soldiers are asked to follow.

From March 14th to 16th, KPFAwill suspend regular programming to broadcast the historic Winter Soldier hearings in Washington, DC. The three day live broadcast will be co-hosted by myselfand former Army medic and KPFA Morning Show host Aimee Allison. A live web-stream of the broadcast will be available through the War Comes Home website.

Once Again, Our Country Needs Winter Soldiers

This morning's sermon comes from something written after seeing an article in Vanity Fair with accompanying photos of the accused, excruciatingly young (to my old eyes) men involved in the Haditha incident.

There is a brutal occupation going on in Iraq, and we are the occupiers.

With that in mind, let's strike up some suitable music and let's jump straightaway.

As reported on Countdown  Last Night.

Apparently Bill O'Reilly, who seems still completely unable to seperate fact and the numerous fictions in his own mind feels that Dallas Maverick's owner Mark Cuban should be arrested for making a movie which among other things tells the true story of Moumoudiya, where U.S. soldiers raped a 14-year-old girl then set her and her entire family on fire to cover up the crime.

The fun part is that Cuban, who has a history of not backing down when the facts are on his side, seems to be literally enjoying the entire thing.

One of the snipers charged with placing "bait" out to draw Iraqis into their killzone is quoted as saying

"If you've never been outside the wire, you really have no basis -- you don't have a basis to judge what I do or what I don't do. You've never been in a life-or-death situation, where you've had to count on the guy to your left and right,"Hand said.

"People who stay back here, in my opinion, are not mentally in the game. They've never been out there."

The problem is what happens "outside the wire" has become a freezone. Free from accountability for anything a Soldier does. We have seen over and over when brought up on charges for things like murder and rape, the punishment is a slap on the wrist if that. There is too pat a pattern not to believe the same thing that is happening in Washington, is happening in Iraq.

I'm really surprised this hasn't gotten more traffic

A Marine Corps sergeant is suing the 18-term congressman for making the charge, which the soldier claims is false. Murtha, who opposes the Iraq war, made the comment during a May, 2006 Capitol Hill news conference in which he predicted that a Pentagon war crimes investigation will show Marines killed dozens of innocent Iraqi civilians in Haditha in 2005.

seriously, this is bad stuff

Some of you may see a promotion to a fourth star and a cushy planning post as a reward, but the reality can be far different.

An article about an ongoing in the Haditha massacre case wants us to believe this:

Does a U.S. Marine serving in Iraq have the right to shoot first and ask questions later if hostile forces could be nearby?

The question is at the heart of the case against Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, 27, the U.S. Marine accused of leading a November 19, 2005, massacre of 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha.

Witnesses who were on patrol with Wuterich in Iraq have testified that he told them to "shoot first and ask questions later" as they followed up the killing of a popular Marine in their unit.

"This is not what we do," Wuterich's former commanding officer, Capt. Alfonso Capers, testified on Wednesday when asked about the "shoot first" remark attributed to Wuterich that day. "It says everybody is expendable."

I apologize beforehand for any incoherence of this essay. I am outraged, shocked and disgusted all at once. I don’t know any other way of dealing with these feelings right now except to write. But, as cathartic as writing usually is for me, I doubt it will even come close to purging the shame and disgust that overwhelms me at this moment.

I never thought it could get this bad in Iraq. I never thought it could ever get to this point, and I certainly never thought I could feel such a deep sense of foreboding about what our troops are [being ordered to do] while supposedly protecting the Iraqi people. To think that this kind of sanctioned ghoulish behavior could EVER be attributed to our troops’ just makes me physically ill.

This type of abhorrent behavior can never be allowed again. Not under our flag. Not in our names.

From Schmitz Blitz: schmitzblitz.wordpress.com

I decided to do a little more investigation into my earlier piece on gays and firefighters. I learned the Thomas More Law Center is representing the firemen who are apparently suffering deep emotional trauma from having to be around a bunch of gays for a couple of hours against their will.

Two threats

There are many threats in this world which kill people, but two get the most press these days - global warming, and terrorism. But with the release of the latest National Intelligence [sic] Estimate, it's interesting to compare the standards employed in both cases. When it comes to global warming, even abundant scientific data, and the consensus of the overwhelming majority of the world's scientists, isn't enough to convince some people and to produce much in the way of real action to halt the threat. We need "absolute proof," don't you know, and even then we have to be assured that any solution can be done without affecting profits.

The other day Marine Captain Jeffrey Dinsmore made a startling admission in the Haditha massacre trial, which mustn't go unnoticed on Memorial Day.

When asked why commanders never followed up reports from the Haditha town council that dozens of civilians -- including women, children, elderly, and bystanders offering to surrender -- had been brutally murdered (followed by a lengthy coverup and multiple false reports), Dinsmore explained that the Marines never follow up reports of massacres against civilians by US troops, and that in Haditha alone they had been receiving and ignoring such reports about twice a week.

That's why it took several months, video secretly shot by Iraqi witnesses, and public intervention by Time Magazine and Rep Murtha before any action was taken.  To this day, the Marines insist they were following their standard rules of engagement: if you feel threatened, you can kill everyone with impunity.

In honor of Memorial Day and of Al Gore's "The Assault on Reason", I beg readers to resist reactions like "Freiheit hates the troops!  Attack him or ignore this diary!"  Our whole goal is to rescue the troops.  Please read on.

Audiovisual accompaniment for this post courtesy of Deify by Disturbed (with Slideshow)

Sometimes I'm completely dumbstruck at what this President has so nonchalantly wrought, how he has destroyed American credibility, broken our military and destroyed Iraq while time and time again letting those who attacked us off Scott Free and criminally neglecting the needs of nation at home.

The full depth of Bush's bullshit is truly staggering if you even try to recount it all, or even the half of it that we know about.