2 items re: torture & propaganda

The questions are: who should take the fall for torture; and are LTEs & guest columns to local newspapers by members of the military supporting the surge a form of organized, institutional propaganda? My answers are: those high up who ordered, condoned, supervised, or ignored torture are to be held legally accountable; and LTEs and guest columns to local newspapers supporting the current mission and strategy are definitely coercive and/or clearly propaganda.

Who Should Take the Heat for Torture? By Spencer Ackerman [The Washington Independent]03/13/2008

Area soldier in Iraq: Surge working

Steve Timko (STIMKO@RGJ.COM)
RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL
March 14, 2008

U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Jeff McArthur, a 2002 Hug High School graduate, wants Nevadans to know the surge by the U.S. military has reduced violence in the area of Iraq in which he is serving.

"Since I've been deployed in Iraq, I've seen a good decrease in activity of attacks on coalition forces," McArthur said.

In an interview by satellite telephone coordinated by the military, McArthur said more Iraqis are walking in the open, and more are greeting U.S. troops.

McArthur is with a unit doing police work guarding prisoners at Forward Operating Base Hammer, about 20 miles east of Baghdad. It's predominantly Sunni, the branch of Islam of executed dictator Saddam Hussein but a minority in Iraq.

He said he has seen more children go to school since the surge and seen more marketplaces open with people selling goods and food.

This is his second deployment to Iraq. The first was from January 2005 to January 2006, and the change has been dramatic, especially since the surge announced by President Bush in January 2007 that sent 21,500 extra troops to fight insurgents and establish a U.S. presence.

One of the unit's jobs has been to restore the flow of water to farming areas. Pumps that were supposed to deliver water were not working. Getting the pumps to work and water to flow have helped reduce insurgent attacks, McArthur said.

"Once we started the water flow operation, they had less time on their hands to do that stuff. They had to farm their crops," the sergeant said.

One of the goals is to get life back to normal in Iraq, McArthur said.

"Keep them on their toes as far as not starting to rise back up and start with the IEDs (improvised explosive devices), the bombs and all of that stuff," McArthur said.

He said his fellow soldiers don't have a problem with prisoners, who "for the most part are adults. Some children, but not very often," he said. "Once in apprehension, they don't resist at all."