Soldiers Discuss Using "Drop Weapons" To Cover Up Killing Innocent Iraqi Civilians

Several soldiers who have returned from combat zones talk with the American News Project about what they say is the widespread practice of using "drop weapons" to cover up the killing of innocent civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan. We feature five veterans and current members of Iraq Veterans Against the War, plus retired Lieutenant Colonel Gary Solis, a Vietnam War veteran and legal scholar who taught "Law of War" at West Point. Watch the video from ANP below:

Read and watch more from ANP here.

Comments

[Chavez08]

Do we really think the world is going to wait too long before they team up and destroy us for what we are doing?

How stupid is the Pentagon to think that we are not subject to a world-wide campaign to marginalize U.S. influence. The DOD is doing nothing but making China stronger (and our masters)

This country is being purposely destroyed by corrupt Corporatist politicians who wish to create a global serfdom and any high-ranking military officers NOT fighting AGAINST this treason at this point should be considered stupid or turn-coats.

The real enemy is within. Grow a pair!

[Meggie]

good point. several countries in the area are talking together and coming up with their own regional solutions that leave us completely out. we look like ignorant bullies butting in and causing trouble while places like syria are talking with israel and come out looking like rational decent people intent on civilized solutions. next, they'll have to "deal with us" so they can get their region settled down. if we don't smarten up and leave on our own, we'll be the outcasts of the world.

[SwingingFromCenter]

What's funny is everybody has an eye on China, ignoring the fact that.....

With the EU, Europe is officially more of a superpower than we are, economically, militarily, socially, and dynamically.

[Voodude]

Exactly! In some ways we do NOT matter to them any more.

[Chavez08]

Serious question:

Is it possible the Neocons *wanted* to do this much damage to the U.S. global standing?

[OverIt]

OMG! This is despicable. This is not who we are as Americans. I am deeply saddened.

[robXdion]

Blacks have gone thru this for years, while those not involved lived in blissful denial. THIS is who Americans are.

[BluesDogLefty]

This is the result of Americans being passive consumers---we consume whatever the White House pukes out with the same habit of passive consumption that we deploy at the mall.

Asking questions and demanding the truth is too much work. Sad.

[Paul]

Sounds like an old trick lifted from the LAPD.

I guess that's why they are called "suspected militants" in the news reports.

[Darthwave]

Funny that was the first thing I thought also. LAPD has been doing that for years to make a shoot look clean.

[Paul]

Yeah. For a while they were planting plastic guns that looked real enough to justify a shooting. I remember once when they shot a homeless guy who was naked on a street corner aiming a TV remote at people.

[Chavez08]

Bad enough when it was done by the LAPD but we are spreading this vile crap all over the world.

The U.S. government is the sole propagator of "Terrorism", period. "Terrorists" in their definition is anyone who stands in the way of unchecked Capitalism. If you oppress *anyone* long enough, they will fight back. "......" 101.

Soon enough, the Corporate empire will categorize 90% of Americans as terrorists and apply the same treatment to us...and Blackwater will be more than happy to pick-up THAT contract.

The U.S. is now the worst nation on the planet when, just 8 years ago, it was the best. Where are the heroes?

[robXdion]

When minorities were the only targets it didn't matter or people denied it really happened. I'm loving the comeuppance. Storms from global warming, $4.50 gas and this madness has shown (some) Americans exactly who they are. And some are still in denial. There has to be a reckoning.

[SwingingFromCenter]

I'm not one to usually advocate "not revealing" what's going on out there on the premise that it might end up resulting in the deaths of other soldiers out there, but I do believe this would be one of the instances where I would be on that side of the fence.

[hayesserves]

Well News Flash: it couldn't get any more dangerous for our soldiers. And that is a morally bankrupt excuse for being morally bankrupt. In other words you don't have a problem with American soldiers MURDERING Iraqi citizens and then covering it up illegally, but you're worried about their safety if people find out about it? Is an American soldier's life ultimately more valuable than an innocent Iraqi's? And since you're so worried about American soldiers, how about their SOULS?? Are you worried about that? Because the harsh reality of any war is that you are sending human beings to do some horrible, vile things. At BEST one can say "well, I did some horrible things that will haunt me forever, but at least we defeated the Nazis." Of course in this war (as with most wars) there isn't such a clear enemy and noble purpose. But that is why we should ALWAYS consider sending out troops to war as an ABSOLUTE LAST RESORT. Because this kind of behavior is not really surprising. We're torturing people. We're murdering people. But that's what happens to soldiers. Even American soldiers. We're human. We're fallible. And when you put human beings in a war, these are the consequences.

[BluesDogLefty]

We are in their country---you know someone else's country---­uninvited-­--killing civilians????

This is shameful.

[NewAmericanCenturySucks]

...and the innocent lives which may in the future be saved by bringing such practices to light - and their perpetrators to justice - gets approximately what weight in your calculatio­ns...?

Americans "SwingingF­romCenter" tend to conveniently forget that the Iraq invasion only became unpopular in your country after American troop deaths accelerated. It is this disgustingly bigoted value system that sustains everything from the specific atrocities related in this story to the general atrocity of the entire PNAC world order, in all its greasy glory.

But I do take the point you and others make about this invasion having placed U.S. soldiers onto slippery slopes, and into no-win situations. Please factor this in the next time war profiteers try to wrap YOUR flag around THEIR craven agenda.

[BarryChamplain]

Why do I get the feeling when reading these self-righteous critics of us, from around the world, that if they ever got their act together and came over here to conquer the USA and similarly "liberate" us from our traitorous, anti-Constitutional regime, WE'D be the first people they'd round-up and shoot?

That's right, we, who have always tried to stop it all from happening.­.. and the Bush Crime Family and all its corporate tentacles would find refuge in Paraguay with all the money they've embezzled from us now-dead taxpayers.

You flaming asses don't know the first thing about Americans.­.. well, here's the first thing about Americans: THERE ARE 301+ MILLION OF US SONS OF BITCHES!

That's a whole lotta people, Fred! Even when those who opposed this war were in the so-called "minority", that meant about a quarter of a million absolute dissenters in the streets of New York City ALONE... and millions more elsewhere. Our friggin' MINORITIES are larger than your entire republic!

So go ahead. Paint all 301+ million of us with your broad, bigoted brush. Shows YOUR ignorance, not ours, pal.

[sugarmoes]

charge bush, cheney, rumsfeld, rice, rove, libby, etc with war crimes.

[MrKINOKO]

Sounds like NYPD

[cdzrom]

New York City is actually one of the safest metropolises in the world (as I'm a resident in one)... so I'd watch your accusations, as "planted weapons and drugs" are more figments of the media's rating-proned imagination, than actual reality.

[robXdion]

They'll make great cops on America's streets. These are the same tactics.

[serialcoma]

The only thing that surprises me about this is that no one has blamed it on the Clinton campaign yet....