A site called “The Invisible American” contains links to four disturbing slideshows (about 8 to 10 minutes long each) documenting “the other side of the American Military in Iraq.” As indicated by The Invisible American, these images tell a dark and troubling story.
I sat down to watch one of these slideshows, but I felt utterly compelled to view all four. The slideshows consist of images gathered “from a wide array of sources including soldier blogs, photo-sharing websites, right-wing apparel websites, video game forums and other sites.”
By placing the link to these four slideshows on this site, I am not suggesting that these slideshows present the full story. I sincerely believe that many thousands of our troops have always acted with dignity and as professionals throughout the Iraq occupation. But I am also aware that the Bush Administration has put the members of our military into a situation that was horribly ill-thought-out, making much of the outcome entirely predictable.
These images need to be viewed to understand the full story of America in Iraq. These images illustrate the attitude and behavior of members of our President and our military that are “far too seldom told by the mainstream media and its embedded reporters.” They also tell the story of the disproportionate and harsh burden of the Iraq occupation that has fallen on our military families.
I find these images abominable. The actions were enabled by the usual suspects: self-designated elitists who never left an air conditioned office. Ultimately Bush holds responsibility, but there is a great deal of blame to go around.The great irony is that I was privy to credible reports that we had won the Iraq War before October 2008. The aftermath reminded me of my first instinct to list as cause of death on a death certificate: Shit happens. The lady was 98.
The second greatest irony was that the elitists could delay and sometimes shade, but never stop nor change intelligence. Thus, we knew what was happening until 2009. That’s when intelligence reporting was politicized. People subject to political pressure intercepted and delayed intelligence reports, often changing them. The political appointees at the top went along with it, with one notable exception. Commanding General of the Defense Intelligence Agency, Mike Flynn, refused to endorse the conclusion that ISIS was a JV. He went around the censors and talked with the collectors. If it was a JV, it was headed for the Final Four. That didn’t sit well with the desired narrative, and Flynn was fired.