General McChrystal’s history of death:
the future of Afghanistan
War criminal and torturer in charge of U.S. occupation
By James Circello
The author is a member of March Forward!, an organization of veterans and service members who stand against war and racism.
The U.S. ruling class appointed General Stanley McChrystal as the top commander in Afghanistan in June. Simultaneously, the Obama administration increased troop levels in Afghanistan while pledging more increases in the future. We can expect the civilian casualties to continue to grow.
McChrystal has been in the news on many occasions since the criminal invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003. In April of that year, while delivering a nationally televised Pentagon briefing on the operations in Iraq, McChrystal announced, “I would anticipate that the major combat engagements are over.” He, like the rest of the U.S. ruling class, underestimated the heroic struggle the Iraqi people would wage against colonial occupation.
‘No Blood, No Foul’
In preparation for the U.S. invasion of Iraq, the people of the United States were incessantly indoctrinated with propaganda about the brutal policies of Saddam Hussein’s regime. Yet the same deadly tactics used to demonize Saddam were implemented systematically by the U.S. military and the CIA, with explicit direction from the White House and the Pentagon.
According to a July 22, 2006, Human Rights Watch report, Camp Nama, a military base inside Baghdad International Airport, housed an elite U.S. unit known as Task Force 6-26, commanded by McChrsytal. Under his supervision, several prisoners held at the facility were tortured and later found dead in an area known as the “Black Room.”
An interrogator assigned to Camp Nama described the horrible conditions and torture prisoners were subjected to, including being locked inside shipping containers in extreme heat for 24 hours at a time; exposure to extreme cold while being doused in cold water; the constant bombardment of bright lights and loud music; sleep deprivation and extreme beatings.
When he and other interrogators told their commander of their concern that the treatment of prisoners was illegal and about possible investigations by the military’s Criminal Investigation Division or the International Committee of the Red Cross, the colonel told them he had “this directly from General McChrystal and the Pentagon that there’s no way that the Red Cross could get in.”
When the story broke in 2006, the New York Times reported that placards posted at the detention area read, “NO BLOOD, NO FOUL.” A Defense Department official explained, that this slogan reflected an adage adopted by Task Force 6-26: “If you don’t make them bleed, they can’t prosecute for it.”
According to the N.Y. Times and Pentagon specialists who worked with the unit, prisoners at Camp Nama often disappeared into a detention black hole, barred from access to lawyers or relatives and confined for weeks without charges. “The reality is, there were no rules there,” another Pentagon official was quoted as saying.
McChrystal was one of eight officers who were recommended for discipline. The Army took no actions against him and today he is one of the Army’s highest commanders.
The International Committee of the Red Cross is the international body charged under international law with monitoring compliance with the Geneva Conventions. The ICRI has the legal right to inspect all facilities where people are detained in a country that is at war or under military occupation. To hide prisoners or facilities from the ICRC or to deny access to them is a serious war crime, as is the torture and murder of prisoners of war,
March Forward! demands that General McChrystal be immediately removed from his command and be held accountable for the perpetration of these heinous crimes.
‘In the line of devastating enemy fire’
During McChrystal’s confirmation hearing, like any politician, he attempted to sidestep all accusations of wrongdoing, particularly in the case of Pat Tillman—a former NFL football player who enlisted in the U.S. Army and was a victim of U.S. friendly fire in Afghanistan.
Hours after Tillman’s murder, a sergeant in his unit was ordered to burn his bloody uniform, body armor, socks and gloves. All circumstances of Tillman’s death were kept from the public, even Tillman’s own family. McChrystal, despite knowing that Tillman was killed by friendly fire, cynically approved a Silver Star citation that gave a detailed account of Tillman’s death, including the phrase “in the line of devastating enemy fire.” The next day, McChrystal sent a P4 memo warning senior government members that Tillman might actually have been killed by friendly fire.
“If I had it to do it all over again,” he said that he would allow an investigation to go forward establishing the cause of Tillman’s death before informing his chain of command about whether or not Tillman was killed by enemy fire. While he said he and his chain of command acted with good intentions, “It still produced confusion at a very tragic time” for Tillman’s family, “And I am very sorry for that.”
The Tillman family has suffered like hundreds of thousands of families of soldiers that have been forced to take part in the most recent imperialist wars. March Forward! stands in solidarity with the Tillman family as it continues to seek justice for the tragic death of their son—and the cover-up initiated by not only the officer corps of the 75th Ranger Regiment and the U.S. Army, but the Pentagon brass as well.
Let the rich fight their own war!
The U.S. ruling class has no qualms about promoting a war criminal to one of the most powerful positions of command —a war criminal who has ordered the torture and murder of prisoners of war. He has not only lied to a single family of a U.S. soldier, but to families of every soldier, to families of every sailor, to families of all airmen and marines. This promotion is totally in line with the class nature of the U.S. ruling class.
March Forward! openly calls for all U.S. troops to throw down their rifles and desert. The killing of innocent Arabs and Muslims and others in the name of corporate profit is not in our interest and only serves to make the rich even richer.
Let McChrystal and all his Pentagon cronies patrol the mountains of Afghanistan! Let the U.S. senators, representatives and the president try to raid Iraqi homes!
We will not fight for the torturers and war criminals!
This is not our war!
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