As Trump Talks of Pardoning More U.S. War Criminals

Revolutionary Vets Condemn U.S. War Crimes—
“It's about all the people of the planet”

May 27, 2019 | revcom.us

As we post this, Donald Trump is reportedly considering issuing presidential pardons for several U.S. soldiers and military contractors convicted or accused of committing war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. Earlier this month, he already pardoned one war criminal, an Army lieutenant who tortured and executed an Iraqi detainee. There have been only a few American troops convicted of war crimes, even as the U.S. military has carried out murder, torture, and other crimes on a massive scale in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere. But the moves to exonerate even those few convicted war criminals are a part of how the Trump/Pence regime is shattering the previous “norms” of U.S. imperialism—and setting new fascist norms with blanket condoning of war crimes that would give an official green light for U.S. forces to carry out horrors against the people of the world on a whole other level.

In light of this, we are running the following letter from a member of the Revolution Club, Los Angeles, and reposting a piece from a Vietnam War vet.

From a member of the Revolution Club, LA:
Breaking with Patriotism and Revenge

I recently learned that Trump had pardoned a prior U.S. military member. This pardonee was convicted for the murder of an Iraqi, who was suspected of killing U.S. military members. This got me thinking, because I was in the same military unit at the same time as all of this took place.

I remember thinking (around the time the killing of the Iraqi came to light): that myself and others should be upholding this execution. My reasoning was: that the death was justified (by getting revenge). I now think about this and realize: how that kind of thinking can only serve to keep things the way they are.

I ask myself why I took up those ideas and understand: that this was part of the us versus them mentality that is necessary in order to justify all of these wars for empire. I write this to let others who are trying to process all that comes along with having been part of the U.S. war machine, that there is a way to get back on the right path. The first step is to get into this website, then start asking questions from those who are associated with the work being done through it, and then put yourself to the task of getting involved as well. Because: it is not just about you, but about all the people of the planet. There is much more to lay out in order to better understand, but you have to begin and go from there.

From a Vietnam War Vet:
We Were Baby Killers for U.S. Imperialism

I am writing to revcom.us/Revolution because this is the one place that consistently stands with the people of the world against all forms of oppression and for a radically different and far better world. The reason for this letter is the current wave of patriotism, using America’s soldiers and veterans to justify every conceivable crime and atrocity being carried out by the “troops,” i.e., the U.S. military.

I speak from a whole lot of experience—from both sides of the political battles—supporting and defending U.S. wars and then serving in Vietnam, where I began to learn the truth about America’s bloody, genocidal history.

Right now there is a major campaign to raise millions of dollars in the Wounded Warrior Campaign, for medical care for the wounded veterans of America’s current wars around the globe. Now, let’s set something straight first—they are not heroes but murderers and baby killers. Nowhere in American mainstream media and culture do you find the people we are killing, torturing, droning, raping—the people of the world do not matter in the path of America’s march across the earth. There is no honor in being a soldier in the U.S. military that has invaded every corner of the world and nearly every country on the planet. There is no pride in torturing people across the globe, invading people’s homes and beating up the occupants in the name of the “War on Terror.” The U.S. is actually carrying out a “War OF Terror” against the people of the world. In fact, it can be said with historical certainty that the wholesale slaughter of tens of millions of people is “The American Way” and that, except for the Civil War, there has never been anything honorable about serving in the U.S. military. As I tell youth when I go into high schools as part of the We Are Not Your Soldiers Campaign, you are going to be part of a military that is about killing the people of the world for profit and empire!

You can be sure that whenever there is a stepped-up campaign of patriotism and flag waving, there are also stepped-up military actions that need to be supported by the unthinking and the privileged, while the rest of us are supposed to shrink back, and not speak the truth, as atrocities are carried out in our names. Right now all over Africa and the Middle East there are and have been hundreds of secret military operations, assassinations, kidnappings, and murders galore by special operations teams, while the myth is promoted that “there are no ground forces” in those places. These are American “death squads,” all with the story that this is what is needed to protect “us from the terrorists” when the truth is that the United States is the biggest terrorist on the planet.

What I am saying here is not my opinion, but history and, yes, science....

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Revolutionary Vets Condemn U.S. War Crimes— “It's about all the people of the planet”

Join the Revolution Club

Revolutionary Vets Condemn U.S. War Crimes—
“It's about all the people of the planet”