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Families
of the American soldiers demand them back
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Additional
Reporting By Mustafa Abdel-Halim, IOL Staff
CAIRO,
September 3 (IslamOnline.net) - The U.S. administration is showing
complete apathy with respect to American troops who were tricked into
attacking and occupying Iraq, family members of a U.S. soldier currently
serving in the oil-rich Arab country charged in a three-hour life
dialogue with IslamOnline.net audience Tuesday, September 2.
"My
son was under the complete control of the Army. There were many young
people who attempted to refuse to participate; they were simply sent
anyway," said Jeri L. Leed.
"At
the present time, there is not a way for my son to refuse. We tried to
find a way for him to refuse to go as he was being deployed, but this
was simply not possible," she said, only giving her son’s name as
Cody.
"I
knew that although there would be U.S. casualties, more Iraqis would be
hurt or killed, and would suffer the destruction of their country. My
son was very opposed to being part of this as well," asserted Reed.
She
told IOL audience
that American soldiers were even sent to Iraq, without knowing they
would be engaged in an overall invasion and an ensuing occupation now in
its sixth month.
"The
soldiers were also led to believe that they would simply go to Kuwait
for a couple of months and go home. Many people did not believe that
George Bush would continue with this invasion," noted the grieving
mother.
Out
of concern for the safety of their sons and daughters, scores of parents
have repeatedly called for the return of U.S. troops from Iraq.
They
recently initiated a national campaign called Bring Them Home Now, in
tandem with some veterans' groups, which pressed for pulling out all
U.S. troops from Iraq, ending the American occupation and handing
sovereignty to the Iraqi people.
Suffering
law morale
and burdened by their equipment and armor in the searing summer heat and
anti-American fury prevalent among Iraqis, U.S. soldiers felt dismayed
over their presence in the country.
With
almost daily attacks,
several U.S. soldiers were reported to have tried sneaking
out from the country through borders with neighboring states.
‘Terrible
Recruitment’
Leed,
a PhD candidate in history at the University of Oklahoma, said most of
the said-to-be American soldiers in Iraq are from various parts of Latin
America and have lived in the U.S. for many years without, perhaps,
citizenship papers.
She
underlined that the U.S. military has allowed non-citizens to join for a
long time.
"It
is normal for non-citizen immigrants have served in the U.S. Army at
least since WWI. By doing so they receive special treatment in receiving
citizenship. This is not new; it is a normal practice," she said.
Some
media reports have said that more than 35,000 of the U.S. frontline
soldiers do not have U.S. citizenship, prompting accusations of using
green card troops as cannon fodder.
"I
find the whole military recruitment process here terrible, waving
citizenship papers in front of young people to get them to join, "
Leed charged.
No
WMDs
The
hear-stricken mother contended that the U.S. occupation forces would
find not weapons of mass destruction, Washington’s main justification
for invading Iraq, in the oil-rich country.
"The
Bush Administration used fear to continue this horrible action -- using
all kinds of things to terrify people into believing that Iraq was a
threat to the United States, and that scary biological and chemical
agents would be unleashed on the world if the U.S. took no action,
" she said.
Leed
added that as Iraq proved no threat to the U.S., most Americans
"are realizing that they were wrong in supporting this action and
feel betrayed by the lies of George Bush and other leaders".
"I
believe that the Bush Administration has been completely imcompetent in
this situation, and perhaps now does not have a good plan," she
said.
Her
testimony coincides with a secret report
for top U.S. generals saying that U.S planning process on Iraq was
flawed, rushed and deficient.
For
Sarah, the wife of the American soldier in Iraq, voting for Bush in next
year’s presidential election is out of question.
"I
never, never voted for George Bush and certainly would not even consider
it," she said.
A
Newsweek poll released Saturday, August 23 found that a growing
number of Americans don't want
to see Bush re-elected next year, and fear U.S. troops will be drawn
into a long, costly occupation of Iraq.
‘Alarming’
The
American soldier’s mother said that Bush struck an
"alarming" patriotic tone to convince Americans of the Iraq
invasion - a task she found was made easier after the September 11
attacks.
"Most
of the things that have been portrayed as patriotism since September 11,
I believe, are quite shallow. I am much more concerned with being a
citizen of the world; I think we are all in this together, and it is
this kind of patriotism that allows for such terrible attacks on
innocent people," she said.
Washington
had accused Iraq of having links to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network
- the group Washington blames for the September 11 hijack attacks which
still have indelible impact on most of Americans.
But
U.S. officials later retracted the alleged links Bush repeatedly
referred to in his speeches to make the case for the Iraq invasion.
"I
do not support terrorism against anyone in any form, but I also
understand the amount of anger directed against the United States due to
its foreign relations," said Leed.
The
PhD candidate in history said the way to end terrorism is through true
and honest international relations that consider the situation of all
the world's people important.
"I
do not believe that choosing various scapegoats to attack - Bush's
alleged Axis of Evil - prevents further attacks on the United States. It
just makes more people want to attack us," she contended.
