‘The Other War’ is an article by Chris Hedges, former New York Times reporter, based on the Human Rights Watch’s report ‘Hearts and Minds’, news stories from the Washington Post and Time magazine, and the Taguba Report, the Army’s official investigation of Abu Ghraib. Published in the July 30/August 6 edition of Nation it focuses on statements by some fifty “military veterans (who) speak on the record about attacks on Iraqi civilians”. Here are two excerpts:

Spc. Michael Harmon, age 24, Brooklyn, NY: “… there was this pudgy little 2-year old child, gun-happy soldiers just started shooting anywhere and the baby got hit. And this baby looked at me, wasn’t crying, wasn’t anything …  she was like asking me why, why do I have a bullet in my leg?”

Staff Sgt. Camilo Mejia, age 31, Miami, FLA: “ ‘Take a picture of me and this… ’ a soldier said. The American soldier was acting as if he was about to eat the spilled brains of a dead Iraqi man with his brown plastic Army-issue spoon.”

In a recent talk given in my community by a local veteran of the invasion of Iraq, he told us, “We built a school. I’m proud of that. The everyday Islamic guy is a pretty good Joe.” But his experience is only a small part of the story — the Nation article tells the rest: “The killing of unarmed Iraqis was so common, many troops said it became an accepted part of the landscape.”

Even with military censorship, we’ve come to know about American atrocities at Mahmudiya and Hadithay — the rapes of 14-year olds and murders of their families ‘punished’ only by dishonourable discharges. And now Blackwater, confirming many people’s earlier suspicions of their free-reign activities has been found knee-deep in murder. A dozen of the soldiers interviewed in Nation pointed to the open, widespread, and blatantly racist ridiculing of Iraq’s ancient culture, its customs and identity. ‘Good Joe’ might be a few American soldiers’ take on Iraqis, but I fear ‘camel jockey’ and ‘sand nigger’ are the more common assessments.