bracelets, rummy's brain, and a conscientious object-or

A teaching day, and so a  post I'll update later, but ....

Last night, for the first time,  I learned (in comments on Body and Soul) about Rummy's Diary Page. It's not for those sick of hearing about or knowing about torture: it's a  page I wish I'd had the time and initiative to do myself. Reading it stopped my sleep though, but: go look and bookmark it. If anti-torture folks have to use blogs as our samizdat,  we all have to get purple fingers.  (I found the page through a comments discussion on Jeanne's idea, over at Body and Soul, about anti-torture bracelets in the shape of a flexicuff. Check it out and  join in, if you have an opinion, here or there..)

Meanwhile, Bob Herbert does brilliantly today by both honorable GIs and those of us fighting torture, by giving voice to  Aidan Delgado, a young, Arabic-speaking MP horrified at  his fellow soldiers' racism:

"Guys in my unit, particularly the younger guys, would drive by in their Humvee and shatter bottles over the heads of Iraqi civilians passing by. They'd keep a bunch of empty Coke bottles in the Humvee to break over people's heads."  

He said he had confronted guys who were his friends about this practice. "I said to them: 'What the hell are you doing? Like, what does this accomplish?' And they responded just completely openly. They said: 'Look, I hate being in Iraq. I hate being stuck here. And I hate being surrounded by hajis.' "

"Haji" is the troops' term of choice for an Iraqi. It's used the way "gook" or "Charlie" was used in Vietnam.  

Mr. Delgado said he had witnessed incidents in which an Army sergeant lashed a group of children with a steel Humvee antenna, and a Marine corporal planted a vicious kick in the chest of a kid about 6 years old. There were many occasions, he said, when soldiers or marines would yell and curse and point their guns at Iraqis who had done nothing wrong.

He said he believes that the absence of any real understanding of Arab or Muslim culture by most G.I.'s, combined with a lack of proper training and the unrelieved tension of life in a war zone, contributes to levels of fear and rage that lead to frequent instances of unnecessary violence.  

Mr. Delgado, an extremely thoughtful and serious young man, balked at the entire scene. "It drove me into a moral quagmire," he said. "I walked up to my commander and gave him my weapon. I said: 'I'm not going to fight. I'm not going to kill anyone. This war is wrong. I'll stay. I'll finish my job as a mechanic. But I'm not going to hurt anyone. And I want to be processed as a conscientious objector.' "

He stayed with his unit and endured a fair amount of ostracism. "People would say I was a traitor or a coward," he said. "The stuff you would expect."  

In November 2003, after several months in Nasiriya in southern Iraq, the 320th was redeployed to Abu Ghraib. The violence there was sickening, Mr. Delgado said. Some inmates were beaten nearly to death. The G.I.'s at Abu Ghraib lived in cells while most of the detainees were housed in large overcrowded tents set up in outdoor compounds that were vulnerable to mortars fired by insurgents. The Army acknowledges that at least 32 Abu Ghraib detainees were killed by mortar fire.
 

Delgado eventually was discharged, with the proud badge of the  CO.  Any US presence overseas, Army or ne, needs 1000 like him, but not this brutal machine. Update, 5/4: On the radio this morning, he sounded as young as I'd forgotten he  must  be -- and even more brilliant than Herbert presented. Most  impressive, he's processed his trauma well: I didn't hear that dead voice, fhe lost voice, that you hear from many relatively well adjusted young veterans. I'd like to think support from those who share his beliefs - and the  beliefs themselves, that  free him of cognitive dissonance -- is part of the health in his voice.

I sing of Aidan glad and big -- and quite alive.

Comments

[carla]

This is a lovely and very thoughtful post.

Thanks for joining the Progressive Women Bloggers webring. We're glad to have you with us.

[elendil]

Hi Chris. Thanks for the link and your comments on Rummy's Diaries. I've been procrastinating replying to you, because I'm not sure what to say. Yes, I do want people losing sleep over it, but it occurs to me that the sorts of people who will lose sleep over it probably don't need to. You seem like a good, thoughtful person. People like you don't need to lose sleep over it, but invariably you do, because that's what made you good and thoughtful in the first place.

WRT activism, it seems to me that the problem is deeper than one of information. The information is out there. Americans, Brits and Aussies, the ones mostly responsible for this mess, have access to it. With a little effort, they would know what the deal was. I guess it's related to what I said above. Those who put in the effort don't need to, and those who need to, won't.

[D. Anthony]

Aidan Delgado has tremendous courage. He is still in college yet takes time to make speaking engagements all across America. I think speaking out is part of the healing process and hopefully his message will keep many others from enlisting in this stupid war. There are many, well-organized groups bl;ogging against him so he needs our help and support.