(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich was sentenced to a demotion to the rank of private over his leading of the massacre of two dozen Iraqi civilians in the town of Haditha. This comes after Wuterich pleaded guilty to one count of dereliction from duty.
As part of a deal with military prosecutors, two charges of involuntary manslaughter and aggravated assault were dismissed. The sentence has triggered outrage among Iraqis. Relatives of the victims say the ruling is an insult to all Iraqis. They have pledged to appeal the verdict at a US court.
In an interview, Michael Prysner, Iraq war veteran, shares his thoughts on the issue. What follows is the transcription of the interview:
Q: As a war veteran, what's your reaction to this court ruling?
Prysner: I think, to many, this ruling, especially to the Iraqi people, probably comes as a big surprise because this was one of the most famous war crimes of the world and one of those famous atrocities and what is undeniably an act of murder and an act of terrorism against innocent people.
But for me, I am not surprised and I do not think people are surprised who recognize the colonial and imperial nature of the US war machine.
I mean, how classic is it that an aggressor, a foreign aggressor, an invading army bombs and invades in unprovoked war of aggression in a pressed country and then those soldiers, those occupying invading soldiers, are allowed to just run around the country killing people at will and committing atrocities.
And then for some reason those things are not considered crimes and that is because the US government does not consider the victims people and does not consider them human.
Q: What do you think the case would be if it were the other way round - an Iraqi killing 24 US servicemen?
Prysner: They would likely be executed and if that marine, the act that he committed in Iraq, if he committed that in the United States, if he walked down the street in the United States in retaliation to somebody attacking him and then randomly murdered women and children in their beds, executed them, then he would get the death penalty here in the United States.
I mean, I think we need to be clear about what happened here and I think the public record shows what happened. I mean, these marines decided in a premeditated way that the next time they got hit, led by this marine who was the main [compere] in the case, when next time they got hit, they were going to murder innocent people in an act of retaliation.
When they were hit this time, they walked through houses; they pulled women and children out of their beds; they put a gun to the back of their heads and they shot them in the head and made sure that all of them were dead.
I mean, this is a great crime; this is an atrocity and I think the fact that these people got no jail time and in fact, are not even kicked out of the military is a total mockery of Iraqi life and it exposes completely the racism associated with this war and the lie that this war has anything to do with helping the Iraqi people.
I think of justice were to really be done that these marines who took part in this act should be in Iraq and be tried by Iraqis in Iraqi court and not just these marines who committed this act, the other corporates of war crimes and atrocities in Iraq; the politicians and the generals, they too committed atrocities; they too committed war crimes that has resulted in over 1.3 [million] dead innocent people in that country.
Q: With regards to this case and adding to that the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, in general what legacy has the US left behind in Iraq and adding to that Afghanistan?
Prysner: I do not think you can really overstate the death and destruction and the ashes and rubble that is now what was once a beautiful modern and ascending country in the world.
Iraq today is in shambles and I do not think any Iraqi in the entire country will tell you that the US occupation and the war did anything good for them and it is going to be many years before the people can begin to rise from the ashes of the great crime that was done to them.
And I think just looking at that as a microcosm view of US foreign policy and looking just not too far away in Afghanistan where these marines that committed this act in Haditha, they will go to Afghanistan as US marines because the US military does not think that people who committed this act are unfit for a service in Afghanistan.
They will go there and I think it shows quite clearly there is a laundry list of massacres and war crimes in addition to the big crime itself which is these wars in general which should never be going on at all but I think this shows quite clearly and someone as a veteran, someone who saw and witnessed the suffering of the Iraqi people and like so many just like me who went there and saw the suffering of the people that were sent to occupy.
That was what turned me against the war; that is what caused countless others like me, soldiers in uniform, to turn against the war and that is what turned the people of those countries into rebellion against the occupation because the reality is, as these are colonial wars, these are wars for empire and the reality on the ground is a catastrophe for the people there which is why so many people have turned against it.
/106
