- Mar 29, 2004
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Part1
Part2
an Arabic-speaking former soldier, Aidan Delgado, who faced abuse and attacks after filing for Conscientious Objector status. His compassionate and powerful talk includes detailed Geneva Convention violations and shockingly personal accounts of the inhumanity he witnessed and experienced, all of which, surprise surprise, is available for TV and print journalists in the Taguba Report, Red Cross reports or the stories of brave young men like him. A couple of samples are below, but the video is well worth your time.
On the classic phenomenon of dehumanizing the enemy via language. beloved patriot:
"In English, or in army usage it has the exact same meaning or connotation as 'g0ok' or 'charlie' or 'n1gger.' it's very very prevalent in the military. only on a handful of occasions did i every hear iraqis referred to as iraqis. The rest of the time it was beloved patriot this and beloved patriot that...and all of this contributed to an atmosphere that brutalizes civilians and ultimately brutalized the prisoners that we had under our thumb at Abu Ghraib."
On Abu Ghraib:
"when i arrived there i kind've had the opinion that most guys did; you know, that these are the most dangerous people in Iraq, the most deadly criminals...they deserve all this harsh treatment they're receiving. That's what i thought when i got there. but serving at Abu Ghraib i got a chance to find out differently."
As a result of the duty he'd been put on as punishment for filing for Conscientious Objector status he was privy to prisoner paperwork even guards hadn't seen:
"What i found was absolutely stunning. I found that the majority of prisoners at Abu Ghraib hadn't committed any crimes against the coalition -- they hadn't committed violent crimes. They were at Abu Ghraib for petty theft, public drunkenness, forged coalition documents, impersonating a coalition officer, petty nonviolent offenses and they were inside Abu Ghraib with real murderers, real rapists, real insurgents. In addition, a large percentage of those at Abu Ghraib hadn't committed any offense at all. The military had a policy of random sweeps..."
You get a whole different story from the real people..He is right , the misinformation americans are getting is shameful from our media here...