Veterano della guerra in Iraq si uccide dopo aver ricevuto l'ordine di commettere "crimini di guerra"
"Queste cose vanno ben oltre di quanto si possa immaginare"
Il veterano della guerra in Iraq Daniel Somers si è suicidato dopo una ardua battaglia contro il disordine da stress post-traumatico (PTSD) a seguito del suo ruolo nel commettere "crimini contro l'umanità" secondo quanto scritto dallo stesso nella sua lettera di addio. Somers era assegnato alla squadra tattica a Baghdad e che lo ha coinvolto in più di 400 missioni di combattimento come addetto alla mitragliatrice nella torretta dell'Humvee, oltre al suo ruolo nel condurre interrogatori.
La lettera lasciata da Somers costituisce un atto di accusa molto forte dell'invasione, di come ha rovinato le vite di milioni di iracheni così come quelle di innumerevoli soldati mandati a fare il lavoro sporco per conto del complesso industriale militare.
"La semplice verità è questa: Durante il mio primo schieramento (incarico) sono stato partecipe di cose, la cui enormità è difficile da descrivere. Crimini di guerra, crimini contro l'umanità" ha scritto Somers. " Anche se non vi ho preso parte per mia volontà, ed ho fatto quanto in mio potere per fermare questi eventi, queste sono cose dalle quali semplicemente una persona non recupera. Ho provato orgoglio nell'andare avanti nella vita dopo aver preso parte di qualcosa che sembra essere come il segno di un sociopatico nella mia mente. Queste cose vanno ben oltre di quanti molti possano immaginare".
Somers denuncia anche il modo in cui è stato costretto a partecipare alle operazioni di cover-up di tali crimini. La morte di Somers deve servire a riportare l'attenzione sul fatto che i veterani di guerra si suicidano a frotte, vittime del disordine post-traumatico causato direttamente per aver commesso atrocità in combattimento. Come sottolinea Somers nella sua nota, 22 veterani AL GIORNO si suicidano. Tra i soldati in servizio, più di uno al giorno commette suicidio, un numero che ha sorpassato quello dei soldati uccisi durante i combattimenti in Afghanistan.
"E secondo alcuni esperti, le autorità militari sottostimano il problema a causa del modo in cui viene calcolato il tasso dei suicidi," scrive il New York Times, aggiungendo che gli esperti non comprendono "le radici di fondo che spiegano come mai tra i militari i suicidi aumentino così rapidamente"
Ad ogni modo, le cause di fondo sono svelate nella lettera di addio di Somers. Alle truppe statunitensi è stato ordinato di commettere atrocità così vili che l'unico modo nel quale molti di loro riescono a superare l'orrore di quanto hanno fatto è di uccidersi. Esempi di atrocità commesse direttamente o indirettamente dalle truppe americane in Iraq includono;
- ordini di massacrare durante le missioni di tutti gli uomini in età idonea per combattere;
- torturare i detenuti - molti dei quali non erano impegnati in combattimenti ed erano totalmente innocenti - nei macabri campi di prigionia sparsi nel paese;
- stuprare e torturare bambini con luci chimiche e manici di scope al famoso centro di detenzione Aby Ghraib mentre urlavano terrorizzati. Le donne erano costrette a guardare mentre pregavano di essere uccise.
- sodomizzare detenuti con luci chimiche e manici di scopa
- uccisioni indiscriminate dall'alto di giornalisti e bambini
- massacrare interi gruppi di persone disarmate, inclusi bambini ed anziani in Hadith
"Questo è ciò che mi ha condotto alla mia missione finale. Non il suicidio, ma una morte misericordiosa," ha scritto Somers, aggiungendo che la sua vita " ogni tipo di esistenza ordinaria è un insulto nei confronti di coloro che sono morti per mia mano"
Leggere la lettera completa di Somers, ottenuta da Gawker e pubblicata con il permesso della famiglia
Traduzione di Barbara da Infowars.com
Sotto articolo originale con la lettera di Daniel Somers
“These things go far beyond what most are even aware of”
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
June 24, 2013
Daniel Somers. Image: Facebook
Iraq war veteran Daniel Somers committed suicide following an arduous battle with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) that was caused by his role in committing “crimes against humanity,” according to the soldier’s suicide note.
Somers was assigned to a Tactical Human-Intelligence Team (THT) in Baghdad which saw him involved in more than 400 combat missions as a machine gunner in the turret of a Humvee, in addition to his role in conducting interrogations.
Somers’ suicide note is a powerful indictment of the invasion of Iraq and how it ruined the lives of both countless millions of Iraqis as well as innumerable US troops sent in to do the dirty work of the military-industrial complex.
“The simple truth is this: During my first deployment, I was made to participate in things, the enormity of which is hard to describe. War crimes, crimes against humanity,” wrote Somers. “Though I did not participate willingly, and made what I thought was my best effort to stop these events, there are some things that a person simply can not come back from. I take some pride in that, actually, as to move on in life after being part of such a thing would be the mark of a sociopath in my mind. These things go far beyond what most are even aware of.”
Somers also complains about how he was forced to “participate in the ensuing coverup” of such crimes.
Somers’ death serves to refocus attention on the fact that military veterans are committing suicide in droves after being afflicted with PTSD as a direct result of committing atrocities while in combat.
As Somers highlights in his note, 22 military veterans commit suicide every single day. Amongst active-duty soldiers, more than one a day commit suicide, a figure that surpassed the number of US troops killed in combat in Afghanistan.
“And according to some experts, the military may be undercounting the problem because of the way it calculates its suicide rate,” reports the New York Times, adding that experts cannot understand “the root causes of why military suicide is rising so fast.”
However, the root causes are laid bare in Somers’ suicide note. US troops are being ordered to commit atrocities so vile that the only way many of them can cope with the horror of what they have done is by killing themselves.
Examples of atrocities aided directly or indirectly by US troops in Iraq include;
- Orders to slaughter “all military age men” during some operations;
- Torturing detainees – many of whom had never engaged in combat and were totally innocent - at grisly prison camps across the country;
- Raping and torturing children at the infamous Abu Ghraib detention facility while they shrieked in terror. Women forced to watch later begged to be killed.
- Sodomizing detainees with chemical lights and broom sticks;
- Indiscriminately firing upon and killing journalists and children from the air;
- Massacring entire groups of unarmed Iraqis, including children and the elderly in Hadith.
“This is what brought me to my actual final mission. Not suicide, but a mercy killing,” wrote Somers, adding that him living “any kind of ordinary life is an insult to those who died at my hand.”
Read Somers’ full suicide note below, obtained by Gawker and published with his family’s permission.
———————————————————–
I am sorry that it has come to this.
The fact is, for as long as I can remember my motivation for getting up every day has been so that you would not have to bury me. As things have continued to get worse, it has become clear that this alone is not a sufficient reason to carry on. The fact is, I am not getting better, I am not going to get better, and I will most certainly deteriorate further as time goes on. From a logical standpoint, it is better to simply end things quickly and let any repercussions from that play out in the short term than to drag things out into the long term.
You will perhaps be sad for a time, but over time you will forget and begin to carry on. Far better that than to inflict my growing misery upon you for years and decades to come, dragging you down with me. It is because I love you that I can not do this to you. You will come to see that it is a far better thing as one day after another passes during which you do not have to worry about me or even give me a second thought. You will find that your world is better without me in it.
I really have been trying to hang on, for more than a decade now. Each day has been a testament to the extent to which I cared, suffering unspeakable horror as quietly as possible so that you could feel as though I was still here for you. In truth, I was nothing more than a prop, filling space so that my absence would not be noted. In truth, I have already been absent for a long, long time.
My body has become nothing but a cage, a source of pain and constant problems. The illness I have has caused me pain that not even the strongest medicines could dull, and there is no cure. All day, every day a screaming agony in every nerve ending in my body. It is nothing short of torture. My mind is a wasteland, filled with visions of incredible horror, unceasing depression, and crippling anxiety, even with all of the medications the doctors dare give. Simple things that everyone else takes for granted are nearly impossible for me. I can not laugh or cry. I can barely leave the house. I derive no pleasure from any activity. Everything simply comes down to passing time until I can sleep again. Now, to sleep forever seems to be the most merciful thing.
You must not blame yourself. The simple truth is this: During my first deployment, I was made to participate in things, the enormity of which is hard to describe. War crimes, crimes against humanity. Though I did not participate willingly, and made what I thought was my best effort to stop these events, there are some things that a person simply can not come back from. I take some pride in that, actually, as to move on in life after being part of such a thing would be the mark of a sociopath in my mind. These things go far beyond what most are even aware of.
To force me to do these things and then participate in the ensuing coverup is more than any government has the right to demand. Then, the same government has turned around and abandoned me. They offer no help, and actively block the pursuit of gaining outside help via their corrupt agents at the DEA. Any blame rests with them.
Beyond that, there are the host of physical illnesses that have struck me down again and again, for which they also offer no help. There might be some progress by now if they had not spent nearly twenty years denying the illness that I and so many others were exposed to. Further complicating matters is the repeated and severe brain injuries to which I was subjected, which they also seem to be expending no effort into understanding. What is known is that each of these should have been cause enough for immediate medical attention, which was not rendered.
Lastly, the DEA enters the picture again as they have now managed to create such a culture of fear in the medical community that doctors are too scared to even take the necessary steps to control the symptoms. All under the guise of a completely manufactured “overprescribing epidemic,” which stands in stark relief to all of the legitimate research, which shows the opposite to be true. Perhaps, with the right medication at the right doses, I could have bought a couple of decent years, but even that is too much to ask from a regime built upon the idea that suffering is noble and relief is just for the weak.
However, when the challenges facing a person are already so great that all but the weakest would give up, these extra factors are enough to push a person over the edge.
Is it any wonder then that the latest figures show 22 veterans killing themselves each day? That is more veterans than children killed at Sandy Hook, every single day. Where are the huge policy initiatives? Why isn’t the president standing with those families at the state of the union? Perhaps because we were not killed by a single lunatic, but rather by his own system of dehumanization, neglect, and indifference.
It leaves us to where all we have to look forward to is constant pain, misery, poverty, and dishonor. I assure you that, when the numbers do finally drop, it will merely be because those who were pushed the farthest are all already dead.
And for what? Bush’s religious lunacy? Cheney’s ever growing fortune and that of his corporate friends? Is this what we destroy lives for?
Since then, I have tried everything to fill the void. I tried to move into a position of greater power and influence to try and right some of the wrongs. I deployed again, where I put a huge emphasis on saving lives. The fact of the matter, though, is that any new lives saved do not replace those who were murdered. It is an exercise in futility.
Then, I pursued replacing destruction with creation. For a time this provided a distraction, but it could not last. The fact is that any kind of ordinary life is an insult to those who died at my hand. How can I possibly go around like everyone else while the widows and orphans I created continue to struggle? If they could see me sitting here in suburbia, in my comfortable home working on some music project they would be outraged, and rightfully so.
I thought perhaps I could make some headway with this film project, maybe even directly appealing to those I had wronged and exposing a greater truth, but that is also now being taken away from me. I fear that, just as with everything else that requires the involvement of people who can not understand by virtue of never having been there, it is going to fall apart as careers get in the way.
The last thought that has occurred to me is one of some kind of final mission. It is true that I have found that I am capable of finding some kind of reprieve by doing things that are worthwhile on the scale of life and death. While it is a nice thought to consider doing some good with my skills, experience, and killer instinct, the truth is that it isn’t realistic. First, there are the logistics of financing and equipping my own operation, then there is the near certainty of a grisly death, international incidents, and being branded a terrorist in the media that would follow. What is really stopping me, though, is that I simply am too sick to be effective in the field anymore. That, too, has been taken from me.
Thus, I am left with basically nothing. Too trapped in a war to be at peace, too damaged to be at war. Abandoned by those who would take the easy route, and a liability to those who stick it out—and thus deserve better. So you see, not only am I better off dead, but the world is better without me in it.
This is what brought me to my actual final mission. Not suicide, but a mercy killing. I know how to kill, and I know how to do it so that there is no pain whatsoever. It was quick, and I did not suffer. And above all, now I am free. I feel no more pain. I have no more nightmares or flashbacks or hallucinations. I am no longer constantly depressed or afraid or worried
I am free.
I ask that you be happy for me for that. It is perhaps the best break I could have hoped for. Please accept this and be glad for me.
*********************
Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Infowars.com and Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a host for Infowars Nightly News.
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