Topic: Gulf War

Torture Advocates have set the U.S. Military back for generations

May 3, 2009 |

Know what these photos are?

These are Iraqi troops surrendering by the thousand to U.S. forces during the first Gulf War in 1991.  These drafted Iraqi fighters chose to turn themselves over to Americans in droves because they knew they’d be treated better by U.S. troops than by their own government.  They had faith in us that we wouldn’t execute them, that we’d feed them and give them water, and that we’d provide them with shelter.  To them, facing capture was a much better option than either retreating back to the care of Saddam and his sadistic sons or of fighting to the death.

This worked out well, because it meant that we, as Americans, wouldn’t have to face a determined, cornered enemy that could’ve drawn out the war and inflicted unnecessary casualties on our side.  It was seen as a great victory.

(Warning: This article contains images which depict torture, and may be considered graphic)
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Lugo on the military: No draft, no way!

By Chris Lugo | April 20, 2008 |

My father is a Vietnam Veteran. He was an officer in ROTC in 1968 while he was in college and went to Vietnam as a Lieutenant the year I was born. My father felt an obligation to his country and a duty to serve when called. I was born in a snowstorm in rural Minnesota while my father was halfway around the world in the jungles of Vietnam. I am proud of my father and his service to my country.

When I was a teenager, going to private Catholic school, I was approached by military recruiters. I was encouraged to join the military and to enlist in the ROTC program, much like my father had been. For whatever reason, I declined. I was not yet a peace activist like I became after the first Gulf War, but something in my instincts told me that I could not serve in the military the way my father had served.

In 1990, while I was enrolled at the University of Minnesota, George Bush Sr. began beating the drums of war. I was enrolled in the selective service program at that time in order to get student loans to go to college. I remember clearly the night the bombs began to drop in Iraq for the first time. I was living in the student district of Minneapolis and there had been anti-war activity on campus leading up to the invasion. Students were busy organizing against the campus military center, sometimes called the stockade, holding demonstrations and putting anti-war material in front of the recruiting and training center. «Read the rest of this article»

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