On September 16th, Sgt. Ricky Clousing spoke on his witnessing of US war crimes in Iraq and why he became a resister to this war. The transcript, with the Q and A session, is available at
https://www.traprockpeace.org
"Like I told commanders that their soldiers are creating the insurgency. The behavior that the U.S. is inflicting upon the Iraqi population is creating the same people that we're trying to stop. It's a cycle of nonsense that nobody seems to understand how it's happening. And so it's this crazy, mindless cycle of violence and death and killing and wasted money, and nobody seems to understand the big picture." - Sgt. Ricky Clousing, 9/16/06
He is facing court martial on a charge of desertion. He spoke at Camp Democracy's encampment at the National Mall in Washington, DC. before an overflow audience that included activists from across the nation as well as many tourists.
More excerpts:
"I've never seen anybody die. I've never seen a dead body before in my whole life. But I was looking down at this kid, this young boy who was trying to just drive around town and took a wrong turn and tried to go the other direction, was shot at and killed, and I'm looking down at him now. And we made eye contact for about five seconds, and he just looked at me with the most empty, terrified, confused look in his face that will never leave me in my whole life I'm sure. There was no dialogue traded between us, but I could just feel the words inside of his head, just wondering 'why did this happen and what's going on? Why does this hurt so bad? What did I do? What's happening now? I don't understand what is going on right now.' Really just put me in shock, and I was glued standing there."
"I'm freaking out, like what? I look out the window, and we're slamming into vehicles on the side of the road. I looked up at the vehicle in front of us, and they're driving normally in the middle of the road, no problems, in the other lane. And then the driver swerves back in the road, and they're laughing in the front seat. And then the guy in the ... passenger rolls the window down, extends his baton, the driver smashes back into the vehicle, side-swiping them, and they're smashing out windows as they're driving by. And I just could not believe this was happening. So I yelled at the people in the vehicle, like what the hell are you doing? Not only is that wrong, and they were harassing people, but, from your own safety, they could have bombs in their car, and you're totally pissing them off, and I don't understand why. So I yelled at the guys, and we kept driving. And then, later on in that trip, it didn't even stop there, later on in that trip, the guys I was with, there are four people in a Humvee and one of them on the turret standing up on the top of the vehicle. We came to a point just before the base where there was an Iraqi man walking his herd of sheep across the road. And I heard a couple rounds pop off from the turret. I just heard *pop pop pop*, like two or three rounds. And then the soldier standing in the turret ducks down and kind of says jokingly that he just shot a couple of the guy's sheep, and I was livid. I could not believe that this was happening."
The audio recording of his talk may also be downloaded at
https://www.traprockpeace.org The audio is 1:09:54 in length (with Q and A) and recorded at 64 kbps mono and may be replayed by radio and website. Attribution only is requested, with notice of its airplay.
In a stunning video clip (4:12 minutes), in high quality Quicktime format, Sgt. Clousing describes a war crime - the gunning down of an innocent Iraqi teenager. The video is available at
https://www.traprockpeace.org
Learn more about Sgt. Ricky Clousing and his impending court martial at
https://www.sdmcc.org/rickyclousing/
Informant: Charles Jenks
From ufpj-news
