[billwagnon]

I heard some of the Winter Soldier testimony on "free speech radio" while on the road Monday.

The stories being told in public were of atrocities committed with full knowledge of the chain of command, things like being offered a four-day pass for being the first to kill by stabbing. Things like murder of obvious non-combatants as a way to ameliorate the horror of losing fellow soldiers.

This is the military - aren't you trained from day 1 NOT to push back against orders? Where is the accountability for the leadership? This goes all the way to the top.

I agree war is hell and I know there a lot of good men who are soldiers over there, but some of our actions are stupid and evil and a lot of what we are doing there is breeding more terrorists, and we will be paying for that, and for the mental problems of our soldiers, for the rest of my life. Our country has a lousy record on supporting the returning troops medically and psychologically.

Some members of our military are trained thugs and they were trained and directed under my flag with my taxes. But my disgust is written off by "oh you aren't an American if you don't support the troops".

It takes a lot of guts first of all to live through something like that, and then to come clean about it. Oh, but we should carry on the murder and kill the guy who speaks the truth about the evil we have done. That is just wonderful. Doesn't thinking like that make you feel even a little bit dirty?