Woody Powell, Executive Director
Veterans For Peace
438 No. Skinker
St. Louis,. MO 63130

314-725-6005
vfp@igc.org
www.veteransforpeace.org


VETERANS FOR PEACE STATEMENT ON THE  PRISONER ABUSE SCANDAL

WE'VE BEEN HERE BEFORE

Veterans For Peace believes that the recent allegations of abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib Prison, and other places, by U.S. military personnel and civilian contractors  should not come as a surprise to anyone who has been to war.

In his Article 15-6 Investigation of the 800th Military Police Brigade, Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba  wrote: "… numerous incidents of sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses were inflicted on several detainees.  This systemic and illegal abuse of detainees was intentionally perpetrated by several  members of the military police guard force"

Some of our members served in Military Intelligence, Military Police. We were part of a culture that gives lip service to the Geneva Conventions in training; but encourages psychological and physical brutality in the pursuit of intelligence. In other words, the problem has been and is systemic.

For most of our veterans the painful feeling that we have been here before is overwhelming. We recall that such brutalities were commonplace in Korea and Vietnam, wars fought, as is Iraq, in the midst of a civilian populace, where combatants blend into and disappear among communities of non-combatants. 

Operating in a foreign land, hostile to our presence, coupled with our administration's demonstrated disdain for the restraints imposed by the Geneva Convention on prisoner treatment has led, inevitably, to these abuses.

The abuse at military prisons is the latest step in the shameful course that our nation has been following in Iraq. It began with an invasion for reasons that have proven to be falsehoods and lies. This is more than the criminal activity of a few "bad apples", it is the brutal, systemically embedded result of a misguided national
policy.

Veterans For Peace believes it is obvious, by the widespread incidence of reported abuses, that there has been a failure of command responsibility up to and including the Commander In Chief.

Call for action

The United States government must admit to the unjust nature of this war, the disastrous miscalculations of the response of the Iraqi people to invasion and occupation (not liberation), begin the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq and restore real self rule.

There must be a full and public Congressional investigation and those all the way up the chain of command to General Myers and Defense Secretary Rumsfeld should be held accountable. 

A token head or two will undoubtedly roll. However, we must not hang on to the policies that have led to these horrors, have further compromised our nation's security and lost us the respect of the world. They must be excised, swiftly and thoroughly.

That is the only way to restore dignity and honor to our military and to our country.

David Cline – President
Woody Powell – Executive Director