Iraq Soldier Discusses His "Kills" (VIDEO)

In the spring of 2007, a conference was held on the outskirts of Washington, DC. Entitled Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan, it hearkened back to the Winter Soldier testimonies held three decades ago during the Vietnam War. Of the testimonies we filmed, this one, by Iraq War vet Jon Michael Turner, was the most compelling and intense.

Watch the video below:

Find more stories and video from the American News Project here.

Comments

[nekeb]

Please. PLEASE! God. Bring those boys home.

[Driver125]

Pretty shocking stuff. No doubt that these people who reported these things will have to be smeared and countered. I wonder how the powers that be will go about it?

[TheraP]

For people with PTSD, the memory of killing is one of the worst things to deal with.

[jkonen]

Wow that was intense

[TylerStMark]

When Bush ordered our troops to invade Iraq in 2003, I was shocked and distraught. I simply could not believe we had forgotten the abject trials and tribulations of the Vietnam conflict so soon and so easily.
It seemed like only yesterday we were mired down in the same horrific debacle, shipping over our young, courageous men and women over to a place we had no business in, and returning their shattered remains home in body bag after body bag. Like a voice crying out in the wilderness, I wrote and emailed every mature friend and colleague I knew to say, “This is madness; don’t you remember?”
And like the German people during the Third Reich, the majority of our citizens simply turned away or remained silent, never speaking out against this needless genocide until it was too late and the carnage and destruction had been done.
“When will we ever learn? When will we ever learn.”

[HighPlainsJoker]

I need not post more than to totally agree with you, your feelings were exactly mine in 2003. The stories coming out of Winter Soldier are almost deja vu. We knew this would happen. I tried to explain what I knew of war in VietNam to my liberal hawk friends, but was ridiculed. As the war proved to be what we expected, the hawks stopped emailing. I take it as vindication.

This is a powerful thread, has gripped me, as obviously many others. Would that it will make a difference when America looks for another war.

[LiamR]

It takes a lot of courage to admit to a simple mistake; just imagine the courage it takes to admit to committing acts that will haunt you for the rest of your life. In my book, these young men are true heroes because there are putting themselves out there in an effort to make a psychic course correction from the self-destructive path that America is now following. The entire nation should be listening to them.

[RaraAvis17]

This is gut wrenching to me. There is no way these young men and women can come home and live normal lives after being in Iraq. That is why the suicide rate is astronomical and we never hear about it. Sad for the innocent people of Iraq caught up in this unwarranted war. When is someone besides our soldiers and innocent people going to pay for this?

[TunnelRat]

Wasn't the first Winter Soldier where speakers "...had been instructed by organizers to "publicly state that I had witnessed incidents of rape, brutality, atrocities and racism, knowing that such statements would necessarily be untrue". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_Soldier_Investigationn)

Careful, America-haters, this too may blow up in your face, like MacBeth http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Macbethh)

And please stop using the few disgruntled troops to paint the entire military as "invaders" and "rapists."

[munkii]

none said that they are ALL "rapists" or cold-blooded murderers, but even if a small percent of all recruits are so, that's still HUGE!

[krol]

Listen, you are taking a snippet from that Wikipedia article and not putting it into context. You say, "speakers" when in fact it was one person who claimed he was pressured to testify.

Look at the response of people on this board. Does it sound like people hate Americans or America by the comments in the article? No. People are sympathetic to the serious trials of war. That does not mean that people cannot disagree with American policy. That is not hating on America; that is being American.

Until this is honestly refuted, as in, THIS particular soldier's testimony, why would you not believe it?

You are blind to the facts, my friend.

[hominidx]

That's hardly what's happening here. It seems fairly non-partisan to highlight "war is hell."

[drumz]

espousing reality is hardly unamerican troll.

[AlyoshaKaramazov]

disgruntled?

Did you watch the video? This man wasn't getting his revenge on. He was publicly admitting to illegal acts. How on EARTH would you think that someone would do this to score political points? I'm flabbergasted.

What goes through your mind?

[nerakami]

2,100 Iraqi soldiers committed suicide last year.... 120 per month this year. We don't have to wonder why.... they cannot reconcile with their souls. This is a national disgrace. We need to stop this madness !

[RaraAvis17]

Nera - I stumbled upon this yesterday. This states 120 per week...

http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/commentary/hc-commentarymargolis0525.artmay25,0,4610803.story

[CitizenLegislatorCC]

Just to clarify, of course that's 2,100 AMERICAN soldiers (and Marines) returned from the carnage of Iraq, who killed themselves last year though "safely" home in America...

[Gumby69]

Who didn't see this coming? This war Americans thought this would be a 1 nite stand easy pickings. When will you learn? There will another war in 15 years just the same with same deaths and atrocities etc.

[Robert59]

I'll go out on a limb here. I don't know your company commander but I'll bet he never told you it's okay to commit war crimes, to violate the laws of armed conflict. What you did you did on your own. And now you want us to forgive you.

I don't know if you're a full blown socipath or one with sociopathic tendencies. Either way you let you're using your company commander as an excuse for your savagery.

Why did you shoot the Fat Man and the Cyclist? Boredom? Pissed off because you were in Iraq?

I put in 24 years in the military. What people don't understand is we're a reflection of society. And yes, I've encountered men who I suspect were deep down sociopaths. On the outside I wondered if we would end up reading about them as serial killers.

You claim to be there to speak for those who can't (the four thousand plus who died), but let's be real. Your actions don't honor their service; they do just the opposite.

[BluesDogLefty]

Atrocities are the norm in a political war. Vietnam was a political war -- so is Iraq. Meaning we are trying to exert political power -- i.e. rule and dominate a people indefinitely -- by using military force.

The American people need to end the inane and narcissistic discussion about "America never surrenders" and all that other crap and end this war because it is the morally right thing to do.

It sickens me to see my beloved America become just another militarist aggressor.

There has been only one reason to stay in Iraq: the Republicans need to dump its failure on the Democrat that gets elected in Nov. That is the reason some US soldier in Iraq is getting killed today--and why his/her family will have to mourn their loss---because to admit Iraq invasion was a mistake would be politically bad to the Republican party. Disgusting.

[Moshe]

War is evil.

And it creates a climate in which evil flourishes.

When we condone war, we condone evil.

So why do we have war?

We have a war in Iraq, so that there will be a war in Iraq, shifting power to the Commander-in-Chief and the MIC, and making war profiteers filthy rich.

The names, places, and faces change, but the theme is always the same: 99% of humanity suffers as the sheep that fall prey to the 1% or wolves that seek to draw power and profit from the human suffering of war. These evil wolves value their power and blood money far more than they value the lives of other human beings, and seem to take a psychotic pleasure in the suffering of others. They are walking among humans, but they are not really human.

War is not necessary to resolving our differences, and it never does, instead creating only the seeds of the next war, and a tide of indescribable human suffering caused by the predictable evils of war.

The only way to stop this evil is to stop war, which we could do, if only the 99% would become wise enough, and courageous enough, to tell the 1% to go straight to hell with their wars.

[lesterfreeman]

I saw this a while ago... I think in March. It's about time Huffington Post put up this powerful testimony. I encourage people to investigate the winter soldier testimonials further as I did. They are moving and terrifying. Watching men describe horrible acts they took part in during this war while at the same time attempting to begin cleansing their souls and minds is emotional and I believe, moving forward, a necessary process as this conflict in the world continues.

[PuffAndStuff]

Wow ... firstly, the audio on this video is really screwed-up: it's extremely choppy.

I don't know if it's just because too many people are trying to watch it at the same time and it's temporarily like that, or if it's just poor quality audio/video. I did watch the entire video - but it was difficult to get through because of the inability to hear clearly.

But, form what I was able to hear to say these guys should be going through therapy is an understatement. They were encouraged and congratuled for their 'kills'. Sick! It's as if their superiors had turned killing human beings into a damned video game.

I had difficultly hearing John Turner, the one speaking in this video, but was able to understand his '3rd kill' was a man riding a bike. And this appeared to be an innocent civilian just riding a bike down the street.. ? If this is correct, WHY were they instructed to kill civilians like this? ...

Even without hearing the entire video clearly, it's clear to assess that Turner is obviously very sad and emotionally tormented by his experiences in Iraq: his experiences in killing for sport. God, I feel so sorry for these guys ... how they will ever be able to mentally reconcile this is unimaginable.

This ENTIRE situation (WAR) is absolutely barbaric.