The Claims Of Aidan Delgado
polipundit.com
When a Polipundit reader, and self-described “Army brat” read this Bob Herbert column in the New York Times about conscientious objector, Aidan Delgado, and his claims of brutality by U.S. soldiers, the story just didn’t sound quite right to him. When I read the story, it just didn’t sound quite right to me, either. I realize that there are bad people in all walks of life, and that includes the military, but I find it difficult to believe that the allegations of brutality and abuse by U.S. soldiers against the Iraqi people could be as widespread and commonplace as Delgado claims.
Delgado relates accounts of soldiers’ extreme racism, brutality against Iraqi prisoners, violent crimes against Iraqi civilians in the streets, crimes against Iraqi children, and many other disgusting stories of brutality against both the innocent and guilty in Iraq. The allegations Delgado makes are disturbing, but what is also disturbing to me is that he never reported any of the incidents he describes, even though he has some photographs he presents as evidence of misconduct by soldiers. He now travels around and gives speeches and slide shows about alleged abuses commited by U.S. soldiers against the Iraqi people, but he did nothing to report these alleged activities at the time.
Over the past six months or so, there have been quite a few interviews with and articles about Aidan Delgado and his claims – most covering the same material that the Bob Herbert column does. All the stories I read include a reference to the slide show that Delgado shows to groups illustrating the horrors of the Iraqi War. A few of these stories can be found here, here and here . While much of the material is the same, not all the accounts are identical. Rich Lowry points out one such instance at The Corner. Yet another account of the incident posted by Rich Lowry can be found in In Motion Magazine.
The worst incident that I was privy to was in late November. The prisoners were protesting nightly because of their living conditions. They protested the cold, the lack of clothing, the rotting food that was causing dysentery. And they wanted cigarettes. They tore up pieces of clothing, made banners and signs. One demonstration became intense and got unruly. The prisoners picked up stones, pieces of wood, and threw them at the guards. One of my buddies got hit in the face. He got a bloody nose. But he wasn’t hurt. The guards asked permission to use lethal force. They got it. They opened fire on the prisoners with the machine guns. They shot twelve and killed three. I know because I talked to the guy who did the killing. He showed me these grisly photographs, and he bragged about the results. “Oh,” he said, “I shot this guy in the face. See, his head is split open.” He talked like the Terminator. He shot this guy in the groin, he took three days to bleed to death.” I was shocked. This was the nicest guy you would ever want to meet. He was a family man, a really courteous guy, a devout Christian. I was stunned and said to him: “You shot an unarmed man behind barbed wire for throwing a stone.” He said, “Well, I knelt down. I said a prayer, stood up and gunned them all down.” There was a complete disconnect between what he had done and his own morality.
The In Motion Magazine piece also included some claims of abuse not mentioned in the other articles. I will continue to look into Aidan Delgado’s claims and update with any additional information I locate.
UPDATE: I am very interested in hearing the accounts of the incidents Delgado speaks about from the perspective of those he served with, especially those in the 320th MP Company, St. Petersburg, FL.
There are a few things that occur to me from reading the various stories written about Aidan Delgado. One is that the most recent articles I read contain much more detail of outrageous abuses. Delgado seems to embellish his stories more and more as time goes on. It is not clear to me how much of this is the result of his story changing or if it is due to the level of detail in the information the individual reporters choose to report.
Another thing I noticed, which may seem contradictory to the last observation I just made, is that the accounts of the stories are remarkably similar in many respects. While additional, more outrageous information appears in some of the more recent articles, the original accounts of the abuse are almost too similar, especially considering that the articles are written by a number of different reporters. It makes me wonder if the stories being related are from Delgado’s memory and obtained through interviews, or if the bulk of the content of the articles is taken from the speech that Delgado gives along with his slide presentation.
Another thing that is obvious is that Delgado has a definite agenda. The following was found at Random Lengths News:
Three and a half years later, both his parents are “really proud of me,” Delgado says. Not so much because he went to war—serving a year in Iraq—but because he fought for and won status as a conscientious objector (CO), and is now speaking out against the war, the way his grandfather had spoken out against the wars in Korea and Vietnam, when his father had not.
In other articles he describes himself as a liberal and notes early reluctance to want to fight, even prior to his negative experiences in the military, and especially at Abu Ghraib. If the example of the Left was followed when it came to allegations made by anyone with a possible agenda or political affiliation, then Delgado’s claims would already have been discredited by the media. (Just think about how many times allegations against Bill Clinton or John Kerry were dismissed out of hand because those making the allegations were either registered Republicans or had any affiliation whatsoever with anyone on the Right.) I do not believe that just because someone has an affiliation or agenda that his or her claims should be ignored, but those facts should obviously be taken into consideration, and I wanted to point out the media’s double standard when it comes to these things. |
