Winter Soldiers Speak at UVM

Published March 4, 2008

By Charles Winkleman

It is hard to understand what’s happening to our troops in Iraq. The only information we get is from the media, and they tell us that we should get our troops out of Iraq before it all turns to hell. But to many, especially the brave men and women on the ground in Iraq, they already are and have been fighting their own personal hell.

The Winter Soldiers came to UVM last Thursday to talk about the issues and crimes occurring in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Winter Soldiers were originally a group sponsored by the Vietnam Vets Against the War in the 70s. They brought to light the war crimes that were being committed by the American Army during the Vietnam War. The problem then, as we all know, is that the returning troops were called ‘baby killers’ among other things and were discriminated against in many walks of life. Many returned with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) among other problems, and were then shunned by society for following their commanders’ orders.
One of the Winter Soldiers, John Turner, was a marine in Iraq in 2006. Aside from the constant threat of being killed, he had to cope when his friends were shot or murdered by hostile combatants. And in such a situation, when there is little if any break in this stress, he and many other soldiers needed a way to vent their anger and frustration.

The easiest way to do that was to attack the people and places around them, i.e. the civilians. When Turner and his battalion would go searching through houses (usually at 3 in the morning because they were ordered to do so) they regularly beat the man of the household if they didn’t like him. Many times they would destroy everything and take the man as a detainee, and would occasionally burn the house down with an incendiary grenade. All because they wereangry and maybe because the man looked at them the wrong way.

One time Turner killed an innocent man biking down the street because he looked suspicious. The man was shot in the back, and afterwards Turner and his friends had to drag the corpse and bike into an alleyway so that they would not get court marshaled. Collateral damage was not an issue, and many times they would fire at mosques or test weapons on villages and homes, leading to untold damage and horror. Turner, honorably discharged, apologized for the way he had acted, for the men he had killed, and for the countless lives he had destroyed. War and the army had turned Turner into a killer, into a monster.

But what would any of us do in that situation?

Who are we to judge these young men and women living in a hell on earth? They were brainwashed by the military to be heartless killing machines, and that is what they have become. Only when they return to civilization can they understand what the Marine Corps has done to them.

In a bit of irony, recently after a U.S Sergeant in Japan was accused of rape (charges eventually dropped), the U.S. and Japan promised to crack down on crimes involving U.S troops (just in Japan, of course). Maybe this happened because Japan is a westernized country, or maybe because it was on peaceful soil. Maybe it was just the media being the media, and they found the rape accusations to be sensational news. Regardless, the Marines are curbing military crimes there. In Iraq and Afghanistan, in a battleground on foreign “uncivilized” soil, little is being done.

When 5,000 British troops left Basra in early September, attacks towards British and Iraqi soldiers dropped 90%. British officials expected local militias to increase fighting among themselves after they moved out, but the opposite has happened. This makes me wonder whether we are helping in Iraq in any positive way at all. I’d like to naively believe that the psychological and physical price that has affected our own troops in Iraq would be a worthy sacrifice.

There were other Iraqi veterans at the Winter Soldier Forum, yet I focus on Turner because his situation is similar to thousands of men and women in the armed forces stationed in Iraq. The Winter Soldiers talked about being threatened to not blow whistles on their own troops regardless of the crime, and the horrible missiles used which had depleted uranium in their tips. Many troops were near this radiation, and it has already been shown to effect the Iraqi population. In certain parts of Iraq the rate of leukemia is up towards 400%, and many other birth defects are on the rise. Sadly I’m reminded of Agent Orange and the devastating effect it had on our soldiers in Vietnam.

From March 13-16, over 100 members of Iraqi Veterans will be gathering in DC to testify about the war crimes. I encourage all to stay updated on this topic, for these are the undeniable results of this unnecessary war.

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