1-03-07, 9:53 am

The parallels between the Iraqi war and the Vietnam war are evident: no clear mission, escalating casualties and no exit strategy. Another parallel is the growing number of veterans who are speaking out against this war after having fought in it, as many Vietnam veterans did after serving in that tragic war. Some of these brave men and women are deserting.

Several soldiers who deserted after a tour of duty in Iraq have stated that cruelty towards Iraqi citizens was a factor in their desertions. One of them, Lance Corporal Ivan Brobeck, witnessed the abuse of Iraqi detainees and the killing of Iraqi civilians. Another, Sgt. Ricky Clousing, had similar experiences. His allegations of systematic abuse of Iraqi detainees are now being investigated by the military.

Sadly, what these soldiers and others like them witnessed in Iraq is not unique in American history. While most Americans were shocked when the abuses at Abu Ghraib were first exposed, and at the charges filed against some American soldiers for the murder of Iraqi civilians, these behaviors are only ‘business as usual’ when the U.S. embarks on one of its imperial adventures. A look at just a few of America’s past wars is instructive.

In 1846 America declared war on Mexico. During this war, General Winfield Scott’s troops engaged in unspeakable crimes against civilians, including assaults against women, and the bombing and looting of churches. Prior to invading Veracruz, Scott bombed the city for six days, sending over 1,300 shells onto the city each day. Foreign consuls and the bishop begged for a short reprieve so that women and children could flee to safety; Scott ignored these pleas. As a result, of the 1,100 Mexicans killed, nearly half of them were civilians. Scott, the author of this atrocity, is considered by many to be a hero.

At the close of the nineteenth century the U.S. was at war with the Philippines. At the start of the Samar campaign, Brigadier General Jacob Smith gave his troops these instructions: “Kill and burn, kill and burn, the more you kill and the more you burn the more you please me.” His instructions included sparing no one over the age of 10. One soldier reported orders of “Kill all we could find.”

Another soldier fought in the village of Maypaja, which had a population of about 5,000. He reported that after the battle, “not one stone remain[ed] upon top of another. You can only faintly imagine this terrible scene of desolation. War is worse than hell.”

Although Smith was eventually court-martialed and convicted, his sentenced was reduced by Theodore Roosevelt. His assistant was charged with murder, but acquitted.

As the war in Vietnam dragged on and soldiers had little or no understanding of the language or customs of the people, civilian casualties grew. In 1968, in the obscure village of My Lai, about 200 people were killed by American soldiers. Only one person, Lt. William Calley, was convicted. Yet Mr. Calley, like the soldiers at Veracruz, Samar and Abu Gharib, was most likely a victim of circumstances himself. The conditions that contributed to this massacre – whether brutalization of American soldiers by the American military, the lack of understanding by the American soldiers of the difference between ‘enemy’ and ‘ally,’ or orders given by ‘superior’ officers who have never been named – were never under consideration. As in the circumstances surrounding crimes committed by Americans in Iraq, Mr. Calley was given all the blame, with none going to any personnel higher up the chain of command.

In Vietnam, over 50,000 Americans, and between 1,000,000 and 2,000.000 Vietnamese lost their lives, yet no one was ever charged for this genocide. American Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard M. Nixon both continued and/or escalated the war. Their advisers, including Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Maxwell Davenport Taylor, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, suppressed news coming out of Vietnam in order to maintain some level of support within America for the war. They retired to write books and live comfortably, despite their roles in the deaths of countless people.

In late 2006, one credible estimate of Iraqi deaths since the U.S. invasion of that country exceeded 600,000. Over 3,000 Americans have died. Countless Iraqis and Americans have been wounded. Millions of Iraqis are homeless, orphaned or have lost spouses or children. President George Bush, who authorized the obscene invasion of Iraq with the complicity of the American Congress, blames this on 'insurgents.' Saddam Hussein has been convicted of killing 148 Iraqis, and was recently executed. This number pales against the number of deaths for which Bush is responsible. Based on history, Americans will wait in vain for him to be held accountable.

--Robert Fantina is the author of Desertion and the American Soldier: 1776-2006.