"Open Season in Iraq" - Stan Goff on the wedding massacre and My Lai

[enough]

http://www.counterpunch.org/

This is a powerful and passionate article, important to read for the links it draws back into the history of Viet Nam (including Colin Powell's role in the cover-up), and for Goff's personal knowledge of the ways of the military.

It covers a lot of ground, but here are a couple of snips.


OPEN SEASON IN IRAQ

MAMs (Military-Age Males) Are Back

By STAN GOFF

In 1963, well before the American public generally understood where Vietnam was, a young Army captain led a South Vietnamese unit through the A Shau Valley to systematically burn villages to the ground. This was to deprive the so-called Vietcong of any base of support, and was called "draining the sea," a reference to Mao's dictum that the guerrilla is the fish and the population is the sea.

That captain would later write, "I recall a phrase we used in the field, MAM, for military-age male. If a helo spotted a peasant in black pajamas who looked remotely suspicious, a possible MAM, the pilot would circle and fire in front of him. If he moved, his movement was judged evidence of hostile intent, and the next burst was not in front, but at him. Brutal? Maybe so. But an able battalion commander with whom I had served... was killed by enemy sniper fire while observing MAMs from a helicopter. And Pritchard was only one of many. The kill-or-be-killed nature of combat tends to dull fine perceptions of right and wrong."

snip>

Meanwhile, back in Iraq, the MAMs are back.

Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, the rat-faced boy of CENTCOM, with help from a Marine moron named Mattis, has resurrected the MAM to justify coordinated air-land attacks against weddings.

At 3 AM, on May 19th, 2004, the Rakat family of Makr al-Deeb--a village in western Iraq--were winding down after an all night party celebrating a double wedding, when American war planes suddenly screamed in from over the dark horizon and dumped a fiery axis of bombs across the village. In the wake of the bombing "prep," ground troops equipped with night vision equipment, explosives, and expensive aimpoint sights on their weapons, swept over the shattered ruins and through the terrified and fleeing wedding guests delivering a kind of close-up coup.

much more>

[kainah]

1. I guess he hasn't heard the latest talking points

"Even terrorists get married," according to Dan Senor. (I think it was Senor....)

[bemildred]

2. I think Goff is pissed.

It is amazing to realize that after all the work the
military had to do to rebuild after VietNam, they STILL
haven't learned shit about Guerilla war and the worse than
Guerilla sort of conflict we have instigated in Iraq.

[enough]

3. There is now a permanent link to the article.

http://www.counterpunch.org/goff05242004.html