PARIS, March 15, 2006 (IslamOnline.net) – Anti-Iraq war France has become a favorite destination to US Iraq war "refuseniks," who resorted to the western European country to start a new lease of life.

Hart Viges was the last ex-US Marine who found peace of mind and heart in Paris, hoping that he might lay to rest painful memories and the nightmarish Iraq experience.

"The US military is committing war crimes in Iraq," Viges told an anti-Iraq war Paris gathering organized by French rights groups Movement for Peace, Action Against War and Anti-War Call Alliance.

The groups launch Thursday, March 16, a multi-leg French tour during which anti-war activists will hold seminars on the illegal US-led war on the Arab country.

Viges will lead Iraq war refuseniks in delivering their hands-on experiences in the war-torn country.

The tour is aimed at marking the third anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq, which falls on March 21.

The trio has appealed to the European and French parliaments to support and provide for US soldiers refusing to serve in Iraq or those fired for defying overseas orders.

US President George W. Bush invaded Iraq three years ago on the pretext that ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had WMD.

A recent US presidential report revealed that the United States was "dead wrong" on Iraq’s alleged WMD and its officials made the case for invading the oil-rich country despite intelligence doubts and strong voices of dissent.

A wide-ranging poll of US troops in Iraq conducted by Le Moyne College and Zogby International found earlier this month that the vast majority of US troops in Iraq wanted to end occupation of the Arab country and return home within a year.

A US medical study revealed on March 1 that US troops returning from Iraq have the highest rate of mental health consultation and psychological problems compared to other troops returning from Afghanistan and other trouble spots.

In his testimony, Viges said that the US army adopted a shoot-to-kill policy in Iraq.

The traumatized ex-Marine said that shooting civilians has become the rule in occupied Iraq.

He said was ordered by officers higher up the chain of command to shoot at any taxi in Baghdad as a potential target.

He said some soldiers did not buy it and mocked the commander's justification as "April Fool's Day."

Viges said similar incidents have convinced him of the absurdity of the US war on Iraq.

Jimmy Massey, a former US Marine, took the lid off the US rights violations in Iraq in his book "Kill! Kill! Kill!", issued in the French capital, Paris.

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."

"I ask the Iraqis and Muslims to forgive US practices in Iraq, especially during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan," Massey told IslamOnline.net in an exclusive interview last October.

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.

In the first such case, a British soldier has quit the army in disgust of the "illegal and immoral" practices of the US-led forces in Iraq.

Returning for a week-long leave in London in March 2005, Ben Griffin, a trooper in the Special Air Service's counter-terrorist team, told the Telegraph on Sunday that he was no longer prepared to go back to Iraq to fight alongside with the US forces.

A new poll showed Tuesday, March 15, that the approval ratings of Bush, his deputy Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld have fallen below 40 percent.