Kill Everybody?
Posted on May 28th, 2008
by 
Sandra
Sandra
This video is called: Kill Everybody: US Soldier Tells the Truth
It is a film of a soldier, Darrell Anderson, who refused his third tour in Iraq and is now speaking out about the war; about the lack of support soldiers get, and how 9/11 was a 'lie' and more.
It's worth going to the YouTube version and clicking on the 'more info' link.
In case you don't have a fast line, this is a quote from what he says:
"I joined in '03," 'cause I was broke, I needed money, but I was a young American kid, I wanted to fight in a war. I joined up. [A] month out of training I arrived in Baghdad, Iraq, January '04. Saddam's been captured. And I get there and the guys I'm serving with have been there for six months already; they were there in '03. And I go, "Well, you know what, I think it's come out that, you know, these people had nothing to do with 9/11, there was no Iraqi on those planes. We can see around here there's no Al Qaida, there's no terrorist syndicates in Baghdad, or Iraq. Saddam had stamped 'em out." And I asked my buddies, "Well, you know, we're here to find 'weapons of mass destruction'." And they laughed at me. And I said, "Well, you know, we're here to 'help the people.'" And they laughed at me. And I said, "What's our mission? What's our goal?"...They're like, "All we're trying to do is make it home alive..." Anderson describes the escalation of violence against unarmed civilians: "In April, they told us, "In a crowded area, if one person shoots at you, kill everybody." Anderson explains the rationale from the officers: "They [members of the crowd of people] are letting them [the person or persons firing at the U.S. military] attack you. They're no longer innocent if they're there at the time of the crime..." (9/11 conference, Chandler AZ Feb 23-25, 2007) 911TV.org / snowshoefilms post-production/ 9:46
It is a film of a soldier, Darrell Anderson, who refused his third tour in Iraq and is now speaking out about the war; about the lack of support soldiers get, and how 9/11 was a 'lie' and more.
It's worth going to the YouTube version and clicking on the 'more info' link.
KILL EVERYBODY: American soldier exposes US policy in Iraq
In case you don't have a fast line, this is a quote from what he says:
"I joined in '03," 'cause I was broke, I needed money, but I was a young American kid, I wanted to fight in a war. I joined up. [A] month out of training I arrived in Baghdad, Iraq, January '04. Saddam's been captured. And I get there and the guys I'm serving with have been there for six months already; they were there in '03. And I go, "Well, you know what, I think it's come out that, you know, these people had nothing to do with 9/11, there was no Iraqi on those planes. We can see around here there's no Al Qaida, there's no terrorist syndicates in Baghdad, or Iraq. Saddam had stamped 'em out." And I asked my buddies, "Well, you know, we're here to find 'weapons of mass destruction'." And they laughed at me. And I said, "Well, you know, we're here to 'help the people.'" And they laughed at me. And I said, "What's our mission? What's our goal?"...They're like, "All we're trying to do is make it home alive..." Anderson describes the escalation of violence against unarmed civilians: "In April, they told us, "In a crowded area, if one person shoots at you, kill everybody." Anderson explains the rationale from the officers: "They [members of the crowd of people] are letting them [the person or persons firing at the U.S. military] attack you. They're no longer innocent if they're there at the time of the crime..." (9/11 conference, Chandler AZ Feb 23-25, 2007) 911TV.org / snowshoefilms post-production/ 9:46
Access: Public
9 11
August 2008 
thanks for sharing this. will definitely check this out!
never forget, whatever he is saying - it's his impression of the war…
war, often, is a state of mind.
so happy, we're priviledged to not choose sides but meet those that are suffering from participating in war.
there's a whole lot of healing wanting to happen…
The product of war is no population and stealing property.
There is a book coming out by Scott McClellencalled “What Happened”. I hope Darrell gets justice too.It is the right timing to put out a book or video and thatmay help remunerate some of their loss.
Thanks so much for sharing this.
C4, Mushin, ~Kes, thanks for visiting.
i was touched by this video – something where Darrell is coming from. Perhaps it is the mention of PTSD, something I have personal experience of and am curious about.
And yes, where he is coming from is not the only story, or 'the' only way to look at the situation.
I seem to resonate with the people/teachers who say that if we see/ experience war outside, it is inside of ourselves.
And, I watch myself make judgments about what is 'right' and what is 'wrong', do I know?
I am interested in people's experience of their lives, the specific details - more and more it seems, as I develop as a writer. There is something very personal about how Darrell shares his story. I like this.
I was surprised I posted this video actually - I haven't posted much on the 'world' situation; but there must be something here for me. I think I'm touched by someone who 'has been there' and who chooses to step outside of 'being there' and speak about their experience. eg as you did, in your own blog, Mushin, Beyond the Enlightenment Disease :-)
Love,
Sandra
Dear Sandra; well, “being there” is a strange thing - as long as what later becomes being there” is actually here now there is no 'being there' that matters at all.
So a fond memory of “being there” or a more neutral or, mind you, possible negative one wraps whatever 'being there' was into a form, easily to be confused with what being in any kind of reality actually is.
Actually that whole topic - sketched in the lines above - is the fall-out from a significant war inside. It's the mental residue produced by people that choose (or are chosen) to live a life looking out for the 'highest' or enlightenment or what have you. The war between the different voices/motivators/I's we have inside to hopefully in the end “be there” and in peace, a peace that 'passeth understanding'..
War in meat-space, like the one in Iraque (which is really not a war anymore as the enemy has been defeated years ago; it's lots and lots of small and bigger skirmishes against a very diffuse enemy that is right there in among 'the people') is of a deadly difference in degree to the 'inner war' mentioned above.
In ancient Rome the Field of Mars, dedicated to the God of War, was outside the city - unlike the temples and playgrounds for all other gods. He was thought of as too dangerous to worship in the city.
My father was in WW2 - first soldier than deserter and then in the underground against the facist regime in Germany. These are his 'glorious days' that him and me have been speaking about more and more as he gets older. There is indeed this “terrible love of war” and the “amazing glory of war” that is experienced by many soldiers in combat, the love for comrades, the deep bonds created that last a lifetime…
Recently I saw a documentary about the child-soldiers in Africa. I was deeply moved by the stories these children told about their experiences. And I was touched by how their parents and grandparents reacted upon their return: they were afraid of what they had become 'in the bush', and the children just wanted to be in their family…
War is not a monster or a god anymore: war is the activity of men (and sometimes women) that believe they can get what they want this way. Or at least stop someone they do not respect from getting what they want.
And both happens: men get what they want, and can even leave it as an inheritance to their clans after passing away (Idi Amin as a most atrocious example of this), and they also manage to stop others from getting what they want (like Kosovo wanted by Slovania for instance).
War is a high risk activity where usually the ones that wage it carry far less risk then the soldiers at the front. And it is a very human activity - even though the geat apes, especially the chimpansees do wage wars as well.
But war as heroic struggle for what is right is entirely human. And it eats everybody who is more than peripherally involved, and deeply wounds or even destroys their soul.
So when you get touched by Mars - and who can truly avoid it? - beware! Only when you look through the eyes of Venus can you stand and not be eaten by it…
Love,
Mushin
Sweet to read you, Mushin.
I wonder if what I meant by 'being there' was a sense of someone willing to fully experience the present. Could be a war, could be digging potatoes. Listening to someone talk about digging potatoes can be a totally boring experience or a totally engrossing one… and yes, so easy for me to make anything 'special' — 'better' ' more real'.
Actually I don't care what is 'real' but I do seem to care about caring.. in the sense that the pieces I post up here, for example, or the writing that I feel most pulled by, are the ones which touch me on a feeling, experiencial level. I was just listening to Jill Bolte Taylor again ( I finally found the videos of her on Oprah on YouTube - have a look) – something in her voice that would make me sit up and listen no matter what she was talking about. An aliveness, perhaps.
I was looking at how I titled this blog – for some reason I left out the second part to the title of the video: US Soldier Tells the Truth.
I remember sitting there, copying and pasting and unpasting etc and not really thinking about it noticing I didn't want to put the full title up there. “Truth”. Well. It's not that I think what Darrell is saying is a lie, absolutely not, but it has something to do with what you write:
The war between the different voices/motivators/I's we have inside to hopefully in the end “be there” and in peace, a peace that 'passeth understanding'..
(and I can't quite make a logical connection here… maybe it makes sense to you?)
I remember telling you that I used to fantasise about living in a war. I felt it would be a time where everything that is superficial would drop away, that it does create a kind of forced “presence”. Perhaps in the same realm ( bizarrely) to the highs of a satori experience, No time for lies. (But of course I'm speaking about being in a war, at the front, as opposed to the people who, as you say, carry less risk and yet are more directly responsible for what happens.)
And to quote you from your Beyond the Enlightenment Disease blog:
Experience taught me that even states of consciousness in which I saw as clear as clear can be or in which I was at one with everything that is, in which I was flooded by transparent joy, in which the subtly profound delight of the cosmos was looking through my eyes to behold the human frenzy – that all of these states come and go. So whatever I experienced in these states couldn’t have been enlightenment because the “holy” scriptures all seem to speak of something that lasts forever.
As you said, perhaps the drive for war is simply another form of a drive for perfection, a desire to end suffering, to be 'enlightened', free….. in peace….
The forms our desire takes to be 'better' are truly remarkable. I see George Bush's face right now, his yearning, it seems to me, to do it right, like a small boy.
Love,
Sandra
It's amazing, Sandra, how the end of your comment above seems to touch deeply on the topic of war, and conflict.
“Conflict is the father of all things”, is a famous quote from Heraclit - and who is the mother, you might ask? (Holding it all in Her Arms, I'd answer.)
War has been with humans as long as we exist, and probably even before. War is one answer to the scarcity of goods and immaterial important things like honor, revenge, etc.
So, as you say, it is intrinsic part of wanting to make things “better”, whatever that means to the ones defining that term.
From the point of view of the anti-Israel camp (the present Iranian president trying to take the lead) it would be much better for all, if Israel was erased from the map. From the point of view of Al-Quaida it would be better if all of us infidels would vanish from the face of the earth. From the point of view of Birmese dictators it would be better if the rest of the world just let their population die.
We have several wars in which we, yes, Sandra, you and me are caught up in: There is the war on terror, the war on poverty and several others. There are informal wars waged by Monsato, for instance, one of the most cynical firms of all times waging war on farmers, consumers and everybody that stops them from maximizing their profits.
So back to 'hot wars' where people officially shoot at each other according to the rules laid down in Geneva… Oops, there are hardly any conflicts like that anymore! Most 'hot wars' are wars between militias and civilians, state armies and “illegal insurgents”, official soldiers and 'terrorists'.
It's all the same shame and disaster…
Criticize by doing - that has become one of my favorite quotes. This to me means: Get clarity on the conflicts of interests, be utterly honest about my own, find a way to 'place' the conflict in an ecology where it can even help the whole to flourish.
Love,
Mushin