Marine Officer Condemns Iraq Policy
by Andrew Bieszad
The Recorder
Sept 28, 2004

For the past two years, the United States has been waging a war in Iraq. Unfortunately, many Americans are asking questions about the situation and not receiving any new information. The same questions remain- "What are we doing in Iraq?" "Who is winning?" And, "When will this war be over?" In addition to these questions, many people are concemed about the view that is being given to. us by the military; are we receiving an accurate portrayal of events in Iraq from the military and Bush administration?

On Friday, September 24, the CCSU Progressive Students Alliance invited former US Marine Corps Staff Sgt. James Massey to come and speak at the university about his experience in Iraq. Massey, a 12 year veteran of the USMC who spent three years training recruits and three more years' actively recruiting new Marines in Wayneslboro, NC, was discharged from his duties Iraq nine months ago. Since then, he has emerged as a strong force speaking out against the war.

"To them, I'm a threat," said Massey, who has allegedly received harassing phone calls from the USMC after his discharge "They don't want me to speak about what happened there." Massey, who participated in the capture of the Ramallah oil fields, took part in the storming of Salman Pock (where Saddam's Republican Guard was said to have been situated), painted a picture of deceit, lies, and corruption on the part of the upper ranks of our military.

"We were told in our intelligence briefings that large numbers of fighters from Southem Turkey, Syria, and Iran were flooding into the nation." said Massey "The information we received On the ground portrayed every Iraqi as being a terrorist. "To the contrary, Massey said they encountered little to no resisiting, taking Iraq.

"They (The Iraqis) had enough machine-guns, RPG's and weapons to put up a good fight. InStead, we found these weapons (fully armed and ready to go) abandoned at their firing posts in the sand. It's not they were afraid of us; they wanted to let us in." Massey also spoke about the many positive experiences he had with the Iraqi people. "When we stormed the oil fields at Ramallah, we entered into one of the plants and were greeted with a smile and a 'Hi!'. All this time, we were running about, guns blazing, securing the plant while the Iraqis just kept on working. In fact, some of them even approached us and began to converse."

In another instance, Massey described the kind- ness of the Iraqi people toward Massey and his fellow Marines. "They would come up to us and give us food and drinks. One man even handed his grand- son to me as a gesture of thanks. It doesn't matter who you are; when people show such humane kind- ness toward you, it just touches your heart." Unfortunately, US soldiers received little to no cultural training on how to deal with the Iraqis.

According to Massey, this made it very difficult for the military to effectively deal with the people. "In Iraq, holding your hand up means 'hello', while in the USMC it means 'stop,"' said Massey, "Also, firing one shot in the USMC is referred to as a 'warning shot', while in Iraq it means 'celebrate'. We had no idea of this, and the effects were disastrous."

Because of this lack of cultural understanding, Massey and his unit shot an oncoming car and killing two innocent people. "The third man in the car (who was uninjured) ran out of the car and began rolling on the ground, screaming 'Why did you kill my brother?' I'll never forget his face; it was just so awful." Within the next 48 hours, his soldiers killed 27 more Iraqis.

None were armed nor showed any signs (alive or dead) as being terrorists. There were other incidents throughout the war that Massey referred to as a "dog-and-pony show" (USMC term for "image maintenance"). "All of the humanitarian aid, MRE distributions, that was all just for the press" said Massey "There was one incident where I was in Baghdad and a little boy (about five years old) approached me, holding something. A man that was with him told me the little boy needed insulin and quickly. I phoned my commander and asked him for aid to this child.

The commander told me there was nothing he could do, and they couldn't get him the medicine. Do you mean to tell me you can truck thousands of bombs, desert vehicles, sol- diers, heavy weaponry across the desert and you don't have the resources to help this little boy? The humanitarian mission was all for the press, folks." After the incident involving the man whose brother was killed, the days and weeks that followed so disturbed Sgt. Massey that he began to show signs of depression and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD; a common syndrome of people who have been through horrific events).

"I asked to see a military psychiatrist, and he put me on 100mg of Zoloft a day." Massey also describe the hassle with military commanders he received for seeking help, which encompassed constant verbal taunts with sayings like "conscientious objector, .... baby," "are you still in you mother's womb?" and others. In the following months, Massey was bullied by military command that forced him to resign (over losing a military canvas), nearly had him courtmartialed and almost labeled a 'conscientious objector' (which would result in a loss of all his veteran's benefits). It was not until he was fmally discharged that Massey would begin to speak out against the war.

"Eight months before we invaded kaq, we were reviewing detailed plans of how to take down and secure the Ramallah oil fields. My commander even referred to it as the 'prize jewel' of the war. The fires that broke out after were from USMC troops who, in celebrating our victory, accidentally fired into the pipelines and caused them to ignite," said Massey.

"In fact, many of the firefights when you would see Marines rushing into a building, there would be no 'terrorists' inside. It was just a dog-and-pony show." The situation is Iraq is not improving according to Massey, and is bound to worsen. "If I killed your brother in cold blood, how would you feel?" asked Massey to the audience "That is what we are doing to the Iraqis; we haven't helped them." He also described the affect of the war on other USMC personnel as well "The affect on the morale of our troops is devastating. Our troops are being left men- tally and physically scarred, and nothing is being done by the military to help them through the war, lel alone ease them back into society". Massey's wife, Jenny, said that it has been very hard living with her husband after his return hgme.

"He can't sleep at night, because he wakes up screaming about the car incident (where Massey's troops shot that man's brother). He can't watch cer- tain types of TV any more, and even the slightest noises cause him to jump through his skin." Sgt. Massey continues to speak out against the war and encourage people to demand the truth about what is happening.

"Underneath the spit-and-polish of every Marine is the heart of a warrior," said Massey. "The job of the Marines is to meet the enemy on the battlefield and desti'oy him. I don't kill innocent civilians; but I did." Regarding Iraq, Massey noted that "The way in which we are currently waging the war in Iraq is huge mistake that will have major negative ramifications long after we are gone, both at home and abroad."
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