© Ronald L. Haeberle/ US ArmyThe bodies of Vietnamese men, women and children piled along a road in My Lai after a U.S. Army massacre on March 16, 1968.
In late 2002, just prior to the launch of the U.S. "shock and awe" campaign against Iraq, I was invited to join a gathering of intelligence analysts at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, to participate in an Iraq "war games" exercise. We were assigned specific roles and asked to "play out" various political and diplomatic scenarios that might unfold in the wake of a U.S. attack on Iraq.
A tall, heavy-set Iraqi-American, who was present as an observer and seated beside me on the final day, remarked quietly: "All these people are talking about strategic, political and military issues; no one here is talking about the hundreds of thousands of people - my people - that are going to die."
His words struck me as profoundly tragic, and the tears welling up behind his dark glasses made me feel suddenly ashamed to be there, aware of the complete absence of consideration for Iraqis. I struggled to find something to say that would console the man, but found myself at a loss.
All these years later, that incident has come back to haunt me as we approach the precipice of yet another deadly war. Will we allow ourselves to be blinded again?
Comment: Like Ernest Hemingway said addressing war soldiers, "there is nothing sweet nor fitting in your dying. You will die like a dog for no good reason".
The article did not even mention the Afghan civilian casualties of this useless war, which reached close to 15,000 by the end of 2011, and they are the unarmed innocent true victims of the insanity that Bush Jr started and Obama continues, against his pre-election promises four years ago.
And despite the loss of life of the US troops in Afghanistan (or Iraq, or wherever the US stations its pawns to execute its fabricated "war on terror") there's hell awaiting those who return alive back home:
Army Suicides: The Most Alarming and Tragically Hidden Secret in America
More U.S. Soldiers Take Their Own Lives than are Killed in Action
Programmed to Kill