ONE OF THE WORST MILITARY OCCUPATIONS MONEY HAS EVER BOUGHT—ONE TESTIMONYAS TO WHY GENERAL PATREAUS AND OTHERS NEED TO BE COURTMARTIALED FOR DERELICTION OF DUTY
By Winter Soldiers Testifying this week on Capital Hill by America ’s Finest
I, Kevin Anthony Stoda, who have relatives, and children of friends of mine in Iraq conducting the U.S. military occupation this Thanksgiving 2008 feel the need to reprint one of many charges made by several of America’s finest soldiers and officers now testifying in Washington D.C.
I have chosen this particular narration and sets of charges against various U.S. Generals by Army Captain Luis Montalvan, who has worked extensively with General David Petraeus over many months in Iraq .
CAPTAIN MONTALVAN’S OWN WORDS ABOUT GRADE F GENERALS
“I wrote countless memoranda to my superiors requesting more resources and personnel, but they went unanswered. In Iraq , I witnessed many disturbing things. I witnessed waterboarding. I was given unlawful orders by superiors to not offer humanitarian assistance to refugees caught between Syrian and Iraqi borders. I disobeyed those orders. I witnessed and participated in countless massive operations led by American commanders whose metrics for success were numbers of detainees apprehended without regard to the real effects: tribal, ethnic, sectarian strife conducted by American taxpayer-uniformed and–equipped militias the US military calls Iraqi Security Forces.
Most reprehensible was that we have never had close to the amount of troops we needed in Iraq . Yet from 2003 until today, General Sanchez, Casey and Petraeus, among others, did not heed the requests of their subordinate officers for more resources and more troops. Instead, they perpetually painted a rosy picture of the situation to the country, while the country fell into civil war. These generals consistently overstated the strength and number of Iraqi Security Forces to Congress and still do. The misrepresentation of the facts should be grounds for courts-martial and criminal indictments.
I lost many friends in Iraq , American and Iraqi. Many Iraqi friends continue to suffer as refugees inside and outside of Iraq . As a matter of fact, an Iraqi friend, whom I consider a brother, named Ali, is meeting with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees office in Jordan today to process his application for asylum under the United States Refugee Admissions Program. Recently, Ali contacted me through my website asking for help. As a result, a few of my comrades in the US Army sent him letters of support, since he frequently risked his life to help us in 2003 and 2004. I pray that Ali and many others are quickly helped.
I wish to focus this letter, Ted, on things we struggled—we both struggled with enormously: negligence, dereliction of duty and corruption. You believe Generals Joseph Fil and David Petraeus were negligent and committed dereliction of duty. So do I. In the note you addressed to Generals Petraeus and Fil found by your body that the Army says is your, quote, “suicide note,” you stated, quote, “You are only interested in your careers and provide no support to your staff, no mission support, and you don’t care. I cannot support a mission that leads to corruption, human rights abuses and liars. I am sullied no more. I didn’t volunteer to support corrupt, money-grubbing contractors, nor work for commanders only interested in themselves.” The members of your family believe this note is a part of a journal entry that was removed and placed near your body. Moreover, they told me that they have not received your journal, among other personal effects.
While at the port of entry at Al Waleed in 2003, among the many memoranda I submitted to my superiors was a report expressing the need for an automated tracking system for immigration and emigration. General Ricardo Sanchez and Paul Bremer sent a delegation to Al Waleed to assess the port of entry for installation of the Personal Identification Secure Comparison and Evaluation System, known as the PISCES, to provide tracking of transnational movement of immigration and emigration. When the team departed, they informed me that the facilities would support installation of the PISCES. By the time my unit, the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, left in March 2004, PISCES had not been emplaced.
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