 |
|
Massey foresaw a "black scenario" facing the US forces in Iraq.
|
By Hadi Yahmid, IOL Correspondent
PARIS,
October 12, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – A former US Marine has urged
the Iraqi people and Muslims around the globe to forgive the US
"war crimes" in Iraq, and said that the Bush administration
has sunk deeper into the Iraqi quagmire and will lose the war at the
end of the day.
"I
ask the Iraqis and Muslims to forgive US practices in Iraq, especially
during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan," Jimmy Massey told
IslamOnline.net in an exclusive interview on Wednesday, October 12.
Massey,
who is currently on a visit to Paris to mark the publishing of his
first book " Kill! Kill! Kill!", said there is
widespread discontent in the United States at the policies of the Bush
Massey's
book was published by a French publishing house after it had been
apparently rejected by American publishers.
Massey,
who left Iraq in May 2003, wrote the book after being discharged from
the Marines with a diagnosed case of post-trauma stress syndrome.
"I
spent long hours speechless and looking at the wall, seeing nothing
but only images of the killed Iraqis," he said.
On
his book, he said "It's been a healing experience. It's allowed
me to close a lot of chapters and answer a lot of questions."
In
December of last year, Massey along with his paratrooper Jeremy
Hinzman applied for political asylum in Canada in protest at the
"atrocities" committed by the US army in Iraq and
Afghanistan.
In
graphic testimonies to a Canadian tribunal, the former Marine Sergeant
and Hinzman have argued that they could not tolerate killing innocent
civilians in Iraq.
"War
Crimes"
The
US forces in Iraq are committing "war crimes" against the
innocent Iraqi people, said the ex-Marine.
He
said he himself had Iraqi blood on his hands, when he killed innocent
Iraqis at the start of the US invasion of the Arab country.
He
regretted that the victims were not soldiers, but unarmed and posed no
threat to the US forces.
Citing
a horrific incident against Iraqi civilians at the time, Massey said
that he gunned down a number of Iraqi demonstrators during a protest
in Baghdad's neighborhood of Al-Rashid in April of 2003, the month
when US tanks rolled into Baghdad streets in a heartbreaking scene for
the Arabs and Muslims.
The
demonstrators were civilian people, however, a US commander ordered
his unit soldiers to open fire at the crowd, killing a number of
protesters in cold blood.
He
said some of the victims were shot directly in the head, citing a CIA
memo that brainwashed servicemen in Iraq into thinking that al Iraqis
were potential terrorists.
In
his book, Massey writes that at one point he told an officer that the
US military campaign "resembles a genocide" and that
"our only objective in Iraq is petrol and profits."
British
medical weekly, Lancet, said last year that over 100,000 Iraqi
civilians -- half of whom women and children -- have lost their lives
since the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003.
Late
last year, the International Committee for Red Cross (ICRC), the
guardian of the Geneva Conventions governing conduct in warfare,
lambasted "utter contempt" for humanity in US-occupied Iraq.
The
international group also described the US abuses against detainees as
"war crimes."
Bush
Should Leave
Massey
foresaw a "black scenario" facing the US forces in Iraq.
He
admired the resolve displayed by the Iraqi resistance fighters, who
fight US soldiers.
He
said the unabated Iraqi resistance doomed the US mission in Iraq to
failure.
Massey
reserved an "open message" to US President George W. Bush.
"I
call on you (Bush) to leave as you are bring disgrace to the American
people and sadness to mothers who lose their sons in Iraq."
Late
September, tens of thousands of American demonstrators took to the
streets in several major cities to protest the US-led invasion of Iraq
and demand the withdrawal of American troops of whom at least 2,000
soldiers were killed since March 2003.
A
congressionally mandated panel concluded in September that Bush is
seen in the Arab world as a greater threat than Al-Qaeda leader Osama
Bin Laden.
A
2004 pentagon report said the US administration was alienating Muslims
worldwide and losing the "the war of ideas" because of
adopting faulty policies and what is perceived as "self-serving
hypocrisy".
Bush
has recently appointed Karen Hughes as Undersecretary of State for
Diplomacy to shine up America’s image in the Arab world, which is
described by pundits as mission impossible.