Illinois Valley News, Cave Junction, OR Wednesday, September 29, 2004
Page 5
The following is a statement by Richard Murphy, a U.S. Army Reservist of Scotia, Pa.
This page is sponsored by Cave Junction resident Catherine J. Austin.
The U.S. must face the monster it created
SPC Murphy was stationed in Iraq for 15
months, including several months as an
MP (Military Police) at Abu Ghraib Prison.
Visit ‘Operation Truth’ at www.optruth.org/main.cfm
I feel uneasy returning this month to
American soil after my 15-month tour in
Iraq. This dreadful feeling is inescapable.
Every day I must look in the mirror and
face the fact that I served in a war based
on flawed premises. I was told that Iraq
was an imminent threat, that Saddam
had weapons of mass destruction. There
were no WMD. I was told that Saddam
had collaborated with Al Qaeda. He had
not. Later I was told that we had invaded
Iraq to bring its people freedom and de-
mocracy. In my time in Iraq I witnessed
the security situation deteriorate daily,
and elections have yet to be held.
(Incidentally, before the war I believed in
the humanitarian cause of liberating the
Iraqi people from the evil of Saddam, and
I still believe in that cause.) My personal
experiences on the ground epitomize
broader, and sometimes troubling, issues
in the war.
not administering prisoner-of-war camps.
My unit was desperately under-manned,
so I was assigned to run an entire tier at
the ‘hard site’. Even as a junior-enlisted
soldier, I was personally responsible for
320 prisoners and a staff of four or five ill-
disciplined Iraqi police. At Abu Ghraib, we
were not afforded basic necessities such
as cleaning supplies, instead prisoners
cleaned their cells with water alone.
Worst of all, nobody ever knew for sure
who was actually in charge of the prison:
military police, military intelligence or ci-
vilian contractors. All the while, insur-
gents’ mortars rained down on a near-
daily basis, killing and wounding scores
of soldiers and prisoners alike.
After being promised one year ‘boots on
ground’, and in Kuwait just days from fly-
ing home, my unit’s tour was extended by
three months. We headed back to Iraq.
Our new mission was to guard Hallibur-
ton truck drivers, civilian contractors who
made three and four times my $20,000
When my company landed in theatre in
salary. I wondered what on earth civilian
May, I was one of the few soldiers
truck drivers were doing in a combat
equipped with body armor effective at
stopping powerful AK-47 ammunition. My zone. Riding with Halliburton on long
mother, an elementary school art teacher, convoys, we faced roadside bombs,
shipped the bullet-proof ceramic plates to rocket-propelled grenades and small
me from the States. Other soldiers were- arms fire to protect these high-paid con-
tractors. Finally, we were sent home in
n’t so lucky, having to raid buildings and
August.
patrol dangerous streets while wearing
inferior Vietnam-era flak jackets. Later I
learned that 40,000 troops had been sent I enlisted in the Army Reserve following
into Iraq without effective body armor. We September 11, 2001, one of the hardest
and best decisions I have made in my
rode in ‘soft-shell’ Humvees, equipped
with flimsy fiber-glass doors. A Volvo has life. I love the United States, the Army
and my unit. Out of this deep love, I ask
more protection. I saw the blood of
American soldiers spilled because of the that we as Americans take a long look in
the mirror. We must ask ourselves who
lack of ‘up-armored’ Humvees.
we are and what we stand for. We as a
nation must face the monster we have
After training 2,000 police, and bringing
created in Iraq, sooner rather than later.
law and order to the city of Al Hilla, my
unit was tasked to run Abu Ghraib prison, We must find a way out of the mess in
a mission for which we had no prior train- Iraq with minimal loss of American and
ing. We were combat support military po- Iraqi life. We owe it to the soldiers on the
lice, ideal for conducting convoy security, ground and the embattled Iraqi people.