In Abuse, a Portrayal of Ill-Prepared, Overwhelmed G.I.'s

[CShine]

The orders that sent most of the 320th Military Police Battalion to Iraq came on Feb. 5, 2003, as part of the tide of two-week-a-year soldiers being called up from the National Guard and the Army Reserve in preparation for war. In theory, the battalion's specialty was guarding enemy prisoners of war, a task that was expected to be a major logistical problem. In fact, an Army report said few of the 1,000 reservists of the 320th had been trained to do that, and fewer still knew how to run a prison. They were deployed so quickly from the mid-Atlantic region that there was no time to get new lessons.

"You're a person who works at McDonald's one day; the next day you're standing in front of hundreds of prisoners, and half are saying they're sick and half are saying they're hungry," remembered Sgt. First Class Paul Shaffer, 35, a metalworker from Pennsylvania. "We were hit with so much so fast, I don't think we were prepared."

The battalion — including insurance agents, checkout clerks, sales people and others — ultimately would follow a grim trajectory into the episodes of prisoner abuse that have shocked the nation. The soldiers found themselves in charge of Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq at a time when the increasing rage of the anti-American insurgency, along with the desperation of American commanders to glean intelligence, magnified the pressures on the unit. This account of the troubled battalion is based on interviews with soldiers, their relatives, military commanders and Army reports. Within days of the American invasion of Iraq, the 320th was in Kuwait, and the unit moved swiftly into southern Iraq, first to a prisoner of war camp overseen by British troops and then to a sprawling barbed-wire American camp in the desert. Known as Camp Bucca, the American camp was home to a legion of Iraqi prisoners.

"We were supposed to be the experts on this, but all we knew is what we learned in our summer camp," said Scott McKenzie, 38, of Clearwater, Pa., a sergeant first class who has since been discharged from the service. "We never learned how to deal with a riot, what to do when we were being assaulted."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/09/international/middleeast/09PRIS.html

[Erika]

1. Bush didn't Care

The bodies is what the Bush needed.
You notice that Governor Holden of Missouri at least had the guts to
send the Bush a letter demanding Bush to explain why the Army Guard was used to transport Halliburton and their employees. Some one should raise hell about this. Most of us know that Bush's only interest in Iraq was the oil. The fact that he is using our troops to higher Halliburton profits is evil, or criminal, plain and simple.

[Erika]

2. Contact your legislators!

I have contacted my D.C. Reps to state that our military should not be free labor given to Bush donors. I am apalled. Please contact your legislators. He's sacrificing our kids for the corporate buck. We should fight like hell to keep this from happenning.