'Army Times' Article Describes U.S. Troop 'Mutiny' in Iraq

[ProSense]

'Army Times' Article Describes U.S. Troop 'Mutiny' in Iraq

By Greg Mitchell

Published: December 16, 2007 8:20 PM ET

NEW YORK While violence is down in Iraq, Americans continue to die and fall badly wounded, and suffer severe stress and trauma caused by 15-month tours of duty. A remarkable article on Friday in the Army Times is titled: "Not us. We’re not going: Soldiers in 2nd Platoon, Charlie 1-26 stage a ‘mutiny’ that pulls the unit apart."

Here are two excerpts. The first describes only one of several incidents that drove many soldiers to "stand down." The second looks at how some responded. The entire lengthy piece by staff writer Kelly Kennedy can be found at:

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/12/bloodbrothers3/
*

Lt. Col. John Reynolds replaced Lt. Col. Eric Schacht as battalion commander July 8. Schacht left after his son died of a heart condition in Germany, the same day Charlie Company lost five men in the Bradley. Even with the high operations tempo and the loss of so many men, Reynolds called the changeover “easy.”

“It was the best transition you could get,” he said.

But within days, he would lose five men, including a respected senior non-commissioned officer. Master Sgt. Jeffrey McKinney, Alpha Company’s first sergeant, was known as a family man and as a good leader because he was intelligent and could explain things well. But Staff Sgt. Jeremy Rausch of Charlie Company’s 1st Platoon, a good friend of McKinney’s, said McKinney told him he felt he was letting his men down in Adhamiya.

<...>

.... 2nd Platoon had gathered for a meeting and determined they could no longer function professionally in Adhamiya — that several platoon members were afraid their anger could set loose a massacre.

“We said, ‘No.’ If you make us go there, we’re going to light up everything,” DeNardi said. “There’s a thousand platoons. Not us. We’re not going.”

They decided as a platoon that they were done, DeNardi and Cardenas said, as did several other members of 2nd Platoon. At mental health, guys had told the therapist, “I’m going to murder someone.” And the therapist said, “There comes a time when you have to stand up,” 2nd Platoon members remembered. For the sake of not going to jail, the platoon decided they had to be “unplugged.”

<...>

more

Link: Not us. We're not going

[ColbertWatcher]

1. Re:Army Times link has gone "AWOL" (their words) n/t

[Cerridwen]

3. Make sure to include the forward slash "/" in the url - DU software cut it off

which broke the link.

[CT_Progressive]

add the "/" to the end, that fixes it

[HCE SuiGeneris]

2. Hey fuckwad in the WH. Is this what you call "supporting the troops"?

Pushing them to the breaking point... heckuva job BushCo. :grr:

[treestar]

4. I was just thinking that the military might be in a better position than

Congress to put an end to the war by indirect means.

People want Congress not to fund it, but the Decider can still run his war without the funding. To be perfectly correct, the thing to do is pass that bill Hillary introducted about ending the war - but the Decider will veto that. So there is really no way out of the war until 1-20-09 except for the military just deciding to go on strike. It would have to start near the top, and the Administration could through treason charges at the top generals, but with the support of the People it might prove political infeasible.

[Radical Activist]

7. That had a big role in ending the Vietnam war.

There were entire divisions that would not fight. Nixon didn't really have the option of invading north vietnam. Half of the Army wouldn't have followed orders.

[CT_Progressive]

5. More body armor, less patrols = less deaths. Duh? Totally misleading.

Less deaths, more injuries = same level of violence, and failed policy!!!!

[Rex]

6. When you lose the chain of command, no one is in control.

Thanks George. You showed how you felt during Vietnam.

[flashl]

8. The hidden war

Vietnam: The Soldier's Revolt

Our army that now remains in Vietnam is in a state approaching collapse, with individual units avoiding or having refused combat, murdering their officers and noncommissioned officers, drug-ridden, and dispirited where not near-mutinous onditions among American forces in Vietnam that have only been exceeded in this century by...the collapse of the Tsarist armies in 1916 and 1917.

Colonel Robert D. Heinl, Jr., "The Collapse of the Armed Forces,"
Armed Forces Journal, June 7, 1971, reprinted in Marvin Gettleman, et al., Vietnam and America: A Documented History (New York: Grove Press, 1995), p. 327.