Because I cannot guarantee you will simply be able to click on the site below, to reach it, and it is imperative, for the reasons outlined, that you and as many others as possible see the brief video, please take these steps:
- Anchor your mouse at either the beginning or end of the address. Left click and drag your mouse right or left over the address to highlight it.
- Hit Ctrl C. This will copy what you have highlighted.
- Anchor your mouse in the browser rectangle.
- Hit Ctrl V to paste the address. Can also hit ‘Paste’.
- Click on ‘Go.’
http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/79865/
What this is, is a 6-7 minute video of Iraq veterans testifying about their experiences in theater, dehumanizing the ‘detainees’ via racial and religious slurs. Two serious difficulties arise as a consequence. First, ostensibly the purpose for the US being in Iraq is to stabilize social conditions to an acceptable level so that we can leave. This in turn demands that we secure the willing assistance of the Iraqis; Sunnis and Shiites. And that means winning their hearts and minds. These are made exponentially more difficult, if not impossible, and absolutely more perilous, when our behaviors treat all Iraqis, regardless whether they may actually be guilty of anything other than being Iraqi, as our guilty enemy. Second, as the video clearly demonstrates, like it or not, the racial and ethnic and religious slurs begin as approved policy from the shiniest brass at the topmost reaches, and travels down to the lowest ranks.
My exigent fears here are, first, that not all who receive this request will take the time from their busy schedules to actually view it. Even those who protest how they care about what’s going on “over there” — the tragedies involving our military and the Iraqi population — limit the expression of their concern to precisely that: like George Bush, a vocalizing of their concern.
My second fear is that even those who do take the less than 10 minutes out of their day, and are emotionally troubled by what they see, are of insufficient courage to bring the matter to the attention of their so-called friends, family members, and associates whom they either know or strongly suspect do not share their views.
But as this video clearly demonstrates, what we are doing to both the Iraqis and our soldiers is without redemption. Reading about it, or suspecting it are not enough. You must see and hear what these veterans have to say!
However the distillation that follows is an effort to explain how and why all military units, from whatever country and locale, work to dehumanize both their own troops and their potential adversaries, most important, it’s essential that the video be viewed, then forwarded to as many as possible.
— Ed Tubbs
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