Hans Rustad Joshua Keys bok «Desertørens fortelling» har fått stor omtale i norske medier. Hvis det han forteller er sant, er det nok et bevis på at noe er galt med amerikanernes krigføring. Ikke bare politisk, men også moralsk.
Norske forlag utgir de USA-negative bøkene om Irak: Som Riverbend, en anonym irakers blogg fra Bagdad. Selv om det har vært reist tvil om ektheten. Ingen i rekken av seriøse, kritiske fagbøker om Irak er utgitt på norsk. Det sier noe om innstillingen.
VG trykket historien om en hus-razzia, og den var helt forferdelig. Jeg har lest lignende, men da som overtramp, hvor ting kom ut av kontroll. Joshua Key sier det var normalen. Han sier det begynte i treningsleiren hjemme i USA. Jeg har vanskelig for å fatte at man der drev innpoding av generelt hat mot muslimer, som fikk utløp i Irak, uten at overordnede reagerte. Men det er det han sier, og vi må ta det alvorlig.
Key may have grown up rough, but he insists he knows right from wrong. Yet even during basic training, he says a drill sergeant ordered him and a few others to beat up fellow recruits who had fallen behind in their duties or hadn’t obeyed orders, beatings for which he says he’s now deeply ashamed. «[T]hey used me to do their dirty work, and I, stupidly, felt honored to do exactly as they said.» He adds that the attitudes he believes led to the atrocities he witnessed in Iraq — which motivated him to desert — were apparent in boot camp: Soldiers were told to visualize the dummies in bayonet practice as Muslims, and that racial epithets and chants («One shot / One kill / One Arab / One Asian») were a way of life.
Once in Iraq, the book makes clear, a culture of hate was endemic among the U.S. occupation forces he served with. Key gives graphic accounts of soldiers gratuitously beating Iraqis and firing on civilians who annoyed them or made them nervous. He offers this devastating conclusion:
«Some people will say that the terrible things I have described seeing in Iraq were exceptions to the rule. That might be comforting, but it would be naive. Because I saw fundamental violations of basic human rights every day or two … and since I never saw one soldier or officer criticized or disciplined for carrying out such violations, I tend to fear the opposite. I fear, and believe, that what I saw was only the tip of the iceberg in Iraq.»
One of the book’s great pleasures is in seeing the author’s personal development, the journey he has taken, turning away from violence and destruction to become more humane. «One’s first obligation,» Key says, «is to the moral truth buried deep inside our own souls.» He understands a soldier’s obligations under the Geneva Conventions and the Nuremberg doctrine not to participate in atrocities. He has paid a stiff price for his desertion: exiled in Canada (where he may not be able to remain) and shunned by much of his family.
Near the end of his tale, Key insists that he is «neither a coward or a traitor.» He is believable, as he has been from the outset, and through his words and the actions he describes, he conveys hard-earned honesty and integrity. In this testament of his experience in military service in Iraq he is making a substantial contribution to history.
fra anmeldelsen i LA Times.
Key har gitt et intervju til australsk radio der han blir spurt om de samme tingene:
TONY JONES: We’ll talk about some of the details in a moment, but let me take you back to your account of basic training. Because it’s here you argue your minds were poisoned. Could you describe to us just how you were taught, what people were saying to you about Iraqis and Muslims?
JOSHUA KEY: You know of course they were never called Iraqis or Muslims, they were always used in derogatory terms as hajis, habibs and so on. I would say it was definitely a form of dehumanising. I mean, if you see something – that effect all the time – they were never referred to as civilians or Iraqis or Muslims.
TONY JONES: You say of the training that you were told that all Muslims were terrorists, that all Muslims were responsible for September 11. Were people actually saying that to you specifically?
JOSHUA KEY: Yes, and then I got it to the term that instead of being, what would you say, not guilty until proven guilty, I would say to us it’s «they’re guilty till they’re proven innocent», to us all Muslims were terrorists. That’s the way we were taught and it’s the way we conducted our business.
TONY JONES: You say it’s the way you conducted business. Did you actually see soldiers in Iraq behaving as if they actually believed this?
JOSHUA KEY: Very much so, very much so. Even in our actions from raiding homes to traffic control points to every day manoeuvres in Iraq. It was very systematic. It was never referred, as civilians are people. It was always derogatory terms, always something to dehumanise them, to put them beneath us.
TONY JONES: Did you see or feel this in your own behaviour?
JOSHUA KEY: Of course in my own behaviour at first, I’ve seen it and I did it. Of course I changed after the months went but, no, at first I was one of them. Yes.
TONY JONES: Did you abuse Iraqi civilians yourself?
JOSHUA KEY: Yes, I did, yes.
TONY JONES: Now of the numerous raids and other incidents you participated in you’ve written, «It struck me that the American soldiers themselves were the terrorists.» Now people back home, your own family, are going to be horrified to hear you say that.
JOSHUA KEY: I’m sure they will be, but the way I look at it, that was the truth. We had no justification after all them homes that I raided, there was no justification. I felt that we were more antagonising, causing in my picture to myself, we had become the terrorists. I wasn’t getting terrorised. I was more doing the terrorising.
TONY JONES: In what regard? What do you mean by that?
JOSHUA KEY: Raiding the homes, taking their sons and their husbands. If they were over five foot tall they were sent off regardless of whether anything was found in that house or not. Through everyday night raids, of course, illumination rounds – used to do the rounds all night long, complete patrolling of the streets non-stop. It was more antagonising. We weren’t – we would go out on a patrol it’s not – we would be saying derogatory names even to the Iraqi women. We antagonised, we brought it – we made it the way it was.
Overgrep skjer i alle kriger, men Key sier at dette var regelen og at overordnede ikke reagerte. Det er alvorlig, og reiser en rekke spørsmål som må besvares.
Tony Jones talks to US soldier about Iraq war publication
Australian Broadcasting Corporation – Broadcast: 03/08/2007 – Reporter: Tony Jones
