Written by Miguel Jimenez   

As the mass media continues reporting on service men and women who have returned and those still in Iraq eagerly expecting to be reunited with family and loved ones, along with the stories of Iraqis who await an uncertain future, I have continuously found myself reflecting about my own participation in the Iraq War. Although I have plenty of bad memories about the war, I also recall instances where, despite the circumstances, we found time to have some level of joy. Nevertheless, the Iraq War will always be a bitter memory for me because when I think of it, I am reminded of the late historian, Howard Zinn, when he stated that even though just causes for going to war do exist, there has never been or will ever be a just war. This is not to say that I believed the invasion of Iraq constituted a just cause, on the contrary, it was nothing more than a crime against humanity. But given my experience in the combat zone, Zinn’s statement will forever resonate with me because it was often innocent civilians who paid the price for our government’s imperial endeavors.

If I remember correctly, the first city where we expected significant enemy resistance, was supposed to be in Al-Nasariyah which is located in southern Iraq. About several hours before we arrived at the city limits, we had received a report that a Marine convoy was ambushed in the same city we were heading to. As a result, many of them were killed or wounded. Prior to receiving this report, many of us thought that the war was going to be over within a matter of weeks; it had been about a week—since the invasion began—and we still had not encountered any enemy resistance. However, we soon realized that our wishful thinking was not going to be our reality.

At first, we were informed that we were going to enter the city sometime in the afternoon, but then our command decided to enter at night, given the fact that we were equipped with night vision devices and the enemy would have limited visibility—the city did not have any power due to artillery shelling.

Prior to entering the city, our company commander informed us that we were supposed to “kill anything that moved.” This order had apparently come from a hire echelon, but it was supposed to be reasonable because an interpreter, using a loudspeaker, had informed the city’s residence to evacuate the city or face potential death. I found the order somewhat extreme and absurd because, after all, why would these people trust us when we had spent the majority of our day trying to kill them with artillery shells? Regardless, of the moral dilemma, we entered the city in Wild West fashion—with the exception that nobody ever fired back at us. Although my unit’s relentless firing lasted roughly about 20 to 30 minutes, sporadic firing lasted for a good six to seven hours. From what I perceived, the firing was caused more by fear and a desire to shoot someone or something, than an actual threat because as I previously mentioned, I never saw or heard any Iraqis fire at us. As we prepared ourselves to depart from the city limits, I did not hear anything about any enemy casualties, but I did eventually learn that a kid had been wounded and not killed because he was able to get away from a couple of Marines who considered the kid’s curiosity—he was peeking over a wall—to be a legitimate threat, and one of our mortar team’s killed several civilians, who were mistakenly suspected of being insurgents, with a mortar round. When we finally left the city, I began to to reflect on what had occurred, and I thought about how many more times we would be responsible for civilian casualties. Given the guerrilla tactics that the enemy was implementing, I knew that this scenario would continue to be an inevitable consequence of the war.

Unfortunately for the Iraqi people, my grim predictions became their reality. In our northbound journey to Baghdad—we never reached this destination—we had to pass through a myriad of towns and cities. It was in these communities, where further atrocities were committed against Iraqi civilians. In one occasion, I recall that I was positioned next to a Humvee that was equipped with a 50 caliber machine gun. The next thing I remember is that I saw an Iraqi man walking along a creek. Eventually I heard the Marines in the Humvee laughing and then one of them fired the machine gun. The only thing that saved this man’s life was his distance—he was about 200 to 300 meters away from our position. When the man realized that he was being shot at, he jumped for cover. What made this moment even more unforgettable was that these Marines thought that this incident was hilarious—they were unable to control their laughter.

In other instances, I recall that an innocent woman was killed by a sniper’s 50 caliber rifle, and we almost killed an entire family. In regard to the former incident, I remember that while the rest of my company—many of these Marines were my friends—was running through the town, my mortar squad and a sniper team, were positioned on the town’s outskirts. As I saw my company make their way into the town, I began using the scope attached to my M-16 to get a better visual of a lady who was nervously pacing back and forth on her balcony. After keeping a visual on her for several minutes, I realized that she did not pose any threat; she was just rattled by the large contingent of foreign troops running through her town. However, the sniper who killed this lady, was not going to let this mere technicality—her innocence—interfere with adding another victim to his list—I often heard Marine snipers brag about the amount of people they killed, even Iraqis whom they knew were innocent—so about a split second after I took my eye off her, a sniper killed this lady. As soon as heard the gun shot, I knew what had occurred, so I used my scope to find the lady, but it was to no avail because what remained of her was splattered against a wall. Furthermore, in another incident, I was surprised that my unit did not kill a family with the amount of fire power that they unleashed on their home. Apparently, what had occurred was that some of the children were peeking through one of their home’s second story windows, and as a result, some Marines began using the house for target practice. About five minutes after they ceased fire, a woman came out of the home, pleading to us not to shoot her. We used our interpreter to communicate with her and that is how we discovered that there was an entire family inside the house. I was eventually ordered, along with another Marine, to deliver a box of MREs (meals ready to eat) to the family; I do not think that I have ever experience such a shameful moment in my life. The order left me dumbfounded because how was a box of food supposed to make up for destroying their home and almost killing their entire family. As I headed back to our position—it was about a 100 meters away—my squad leader began yelling at me and the other Marine who accompanied me; he wanted us to face the house as we proceeded back. However,I chose to ignore my squad leaders order because I was infuriated with the Marines who began the attack. I truly believe that it was not so much fear, but the desire to shoot someone that motivated these Marines to commence firing—they were merely trigger-happy.

I believe that the war still lingers in my memory—it has been eight years since I served in Iraq—because I never supported the invasion of Iraq. The fact that I willingly participated in such a gross act of injustice, could probably be the reason why these memory’s still lurk in my conscious. Maybe it is much easier to accept the carnage of war when you know that it was fought for a just cause. But, then again, who really knows.

All I know is that the war destroyed a lot of lives. According to a Los Angeles Times’ report, “4,484 U.S. service members had died in the war, and 32,200 had been wounded.” A mere fraction when compared with the 104,000 Iraqis who lost their lives during the conflict. Furthermore, the Associated Press reported that many Iraqi civilians were not pleased with the U.S. occupation. One such Iraqi was Mariam Khazim who explicitly stated her disapproval,“The Americans are leaving behind them a destroyed country. [They] did not leave modern schools or big factories behind them. Instead, they left thousands of widows and orphans.”

Although the Iraqi people have a legitimate reason for being upset, many of the Marines that I served with supported the mission or never believed that the invasion of Iraq was unjust. Watching the news reports of the returning service men and women, this also seems to be the case because many have stated that they were proud of their accomplishment in Iraq. As a war veteran, I believe that war veterans are entitled to their own perspectives—they have definitely earned it. I definitely would not appreciate a pro-war veteran challenging my anti-war views.

Overall, I still remember the June morning of 2003 when I was honorably discharged from the Marine Corps. On this day, my platoon commander and one of my senior sergeants, awarded me with a plaque, and then asked me if there was anything that I wanted to say, before I departed, to the Jr. Marines in my platoon. As I looked at them, I really wanted to tell them that they had survived the storm and that everything was going to be alright. However, in my heart, I knew that the war was not over, so I did not lie to them and merely told them to take care of themselves. Unfortunately, it took nearly nine years for the storm to end.

By Miguel Jimenez