Thursday, November 20, 2008
The Bush Legacy II
George W. Bush:0 comments
Nothing. Is. Ever. Our. Fault. Or. Responsibility.
Ever.
This sad tale is a Two-for-One Shot of Bush-led ugly. And of what America has been reduced to in GeorgeBushWorld.
If their Commander-In-Chief can tell lies, and happily tell jokes and dance around and cover his ass, and make everything everybody else's fault, why shouldn't the entire Officer and Noncom Corps of the U.S. Military do the same? You follow your leader, period. Right?
This seems to cover friendly fire situations, as well.
With possible negligent homicide, dereliction of duty or assault charges hanging in the air, and facing possible jail time, certain demotion or separation from service penalties—depending on the outcome of any judicial review that might have taken place if things were reported correctly at the time—the command structure overseeing the friendly fire attack that befell 2nd Platoon in Ramadi, Anbar Provence, Iraq, in Dec. 2006, had every motive in the world to lie out their asses and simply say, too bad, kids, you're already dead, my getting screwed won't bring you back now.
This horrific saga appears before us now in Two Acts:
First, here is last month's original report, released on October 14, 2008 by Salon's Mark Benjamin (who should easily walk away with a Pulitzer for his effort to get this story out):
Salon: Friendly fire in Iraq—and a cover up
WARNING: Whether reading the story above, or watching Benjamin's video evidence of the events below, be prepared to have your heart broken. And your fury unleashed. [This video is an edited 12 minutes; Benjamin offers this, plus a full, unedited 52-minute version on the Salon site.]
It is important to note that these events may well have been fully and totally accidental—stemming from mis-identification of the men in "building #2" in the heat of a confusing and terrifying full fire fight. If these events had been allowed a full judicial hearing, it's possible we may have been left with two dead soldiers, and a tank crew and any number of possible commanders who would be haunted by this for the rest of their lives, but who may not actually have been criminally negligent. If so, it might well have been chalked up to: That's warfare. That is the risk you take when you enlist. Shit happens, and so on.
But, no. Even in the chaos, while trying to get the info of his wounded and dead to HQ over his radio, the Sergeant was being told the Official Story of what had just happened. Even if no one there saw that at all, THAT is what happened. Got it? There was NO tank shell, OK? Two insurgent rockets came from two entirely different directions and, as Tinkerbelle guided them, just happened to land together at the EXACT SAME SPOT at the EXACT SAME SECOND on the roof of "building #2" and blew up a number of GIs, killing two. OK? Got it? THIS IS THE STORY. And we're sticking to it.
All official records following the incident follow the Tinkerbelle theory.
Now, here's where Act I turns truly ugly. In expert Bush/Cheney fashion, the lies told to the mother of Pfc. Mark Nelson of Philadelphia about her son's death explain why Americans no longer believe a frickin' thing anyone in Bush's government tells us, about anything, at any time.
But, of course, you knew it wouldn't end there.
As Richard Nixon found out, it's never the crime, it's the cover-up that really fucks people up. And, like any poison, it spreads.
Now, in today's Salon, we have this:
Salon: New friendly fire cover up: Army shreds files on dead soldiers
So disgusting.
On the day the Benjamin piece appeared in Salon last month, 2nd Platoon's battalion commanders met at Fort Carson, Colorado, to discuss Benjamin's exposé. They basically agreed to panic. Their first reaction, as with any criminal conspiracy, is to go through the ranks, fruitlessly attempting to ferret out the rat who talked to the press.
Gosh! And no one copped to it. I'm amazed!
Later that day, coincidentally mind you, all the files containing any and all info on the two soldiers killed by U.S. tank fire in Ramadi on Dec. 6, 2006 (along with those of anyone with similar names, just to be sure) were pulled from the base's files, boxed up and slated for destruction.
They're now covering up the cover up. The scenario which proves the Nixon point.
Now, there is a clear number of noncoms and officers who can be targeted in the original cover-up. But, now two years later, back on the platoon's base in Colorado, any number of additional officers and noncoms who were not privy to the initial cover up, some of whom may have had no idea the original events ever occurred, are trying to step in and help out their comrades who were involved on the battlefield but who are now long removed from that unit. So now they, themselves, are implicated in malfeasance. And at risk of prosecution.
As we said above, "like any poison, it spreads."
As one of the soldiers who were ordered to shred the evidence realized that night:"People go to jail for this kind of shit."
Also, as with most people who go to jail on merit, it's usually one thoughtless moment or gesture that trips them up, and exposes them to prosecution.
With this second cover up, Gotham wonders who had the bright idea to assign three soldiers to perform the actual shredding that night—two of whom were on-site during the original friendly fire incident, were friends of the two killed Americans and were eyewitnesses to events there. Or, even worse in terms of exposing the ineptitude of command forces in George Bush's Army today, why did no one who wanted these explosive, incriminating files to disappear think of the simple step of assuring that no witness connected with the original crime was assigned to the file shredding.
It's mind-boggling that no one had this simple thought:Assigning two soldiers who were eyewitnesses to the original events—and who, along with the rest of the platoon, had been bullied and ordered into accepting an official cover up that ran counter to the facts of their friends' deaths as they knew them—to destroy the evidence that would confirm for the world the horror that these men had lived with for two years, might conceivably pose a problem.
And yes, the "people go to jail" quote came from one of the eyewitnesses as he realized what they'd bee instructed to do.
I'm not certain these commanders are the people I'd want ordering around men with large guns. Or tanks.
Aside from the fools at the very top who should stand to account before a World Court for all of this mess, this entire affair is heart wrenching in the extreme. A Greek Tragedy for our time.
But everyone here is simply following Bush's lead.
Nothing. Is. Ever. Our. Fault. Or. Responsibility.
Ever.
Pass it on.
posted by Gotham 3:21 PM
0 Comments:
