Bin Laden, Cop Killer
Jimmy Breslin
Herewith is the latest list of American soldiers killed in Iraq. The Pentagon stresses that they were killed in "Operation Iraqi Freedom." We are giving Iraqis the freedom to kill us. This list of 13 is for less than two weeks, ending Oct. 21. As I fail to find these names in other public prints, I run them here on the notion that if they have died for your country, the least we all should do is read them and perhaps even remember some of them.
The names today raise anger on two levels, because they died so young, and for so useless a reason. "Operation Iraqi Freedom" is another preposterous lie by the Bush government. Why not say the facts: "Iraqi Oil."
And our troops should be out there enforcing a New York custom that we have lived by for generations.
The patrol guide for the police department of the City of New York has the code 1013. "Officer needs assistance." When this call goes out, the police of the city stop. There ensues a large rush to a hospital to give blood, and a sprawling, frantic search for the person or persons who committed the assaults or killing of a cop in the city.
The search is of such intensity and the cops involved so widespread that comparisons are drawn with the investigation of assaults on normal citizens, which show the thinnest of blue, a detective or two.
Back in March, detectives Rodney Andrews and James Nemorin were shot to death on Staten Island. A 1013 went out. Within minutes, the Island was covered with a layer of blue. They caught the shooters.
That is the way the police of this city always have worked.
Today, we have 23 dead police from the World Trade Center bombing. There is no 1013.
The actual killers are dead, including 15 Saudi Arabians.
But the master of the attack is loose. He is Osama bin Laden and he lives on the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
If we know where he is, why haven't we caught bin Laden, the cop killer?
Why haven't they followed the New York tradition and put all the men you need, tens of thousands, tens of thousands more if needed, and nobody stops until bin Laden, the New York cop killer, is caught.
If you want to fight terrorism, then fight terrorists. Get bin Laden. Bin Laden is not in Iraq where the soldiers on this list were sent.
George Bush stood in the World Trade Center ruins and said he would get bin Laden. Get bin Laden as a sheriff would, smoke him out, shoot him cold dead. All the poor cops cheered. What a thrill to have a good tough guy as president! That was over two years ago. Now you never hear bin Laden mentioned.
And the cops who have lost their own do nothing. They are the most extraordinarily gullible of people. They support with all fervor the idea of our president sending troops to Iraq and not where they could capture bin Laden. The cops say nothing about their dead. They are afraid to demand that their government honor the tradition of the 1013 and catch this common cop killer, bin Laden. They are afraid of anybody in authority. They have their dead bodies and they don't have the guts to shout. If they yelled with the emotion used when pushing around a peace demonstration, or anything made up of blacks, their prep school hero, Bush, would quiver and I say he makes bin Laden the goal again.
What is this, bin Laden has killed cops and we don't even catch him, but now we have to listen to tapes of bin Laden threatening to attack us again? Why do we put up with this?
And we are left with these young dead, lost while in the wrong place, and whose names we might try to memorize:
Army Spc. James E. Powell, 26, B Company, lst Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Hood Texas. Home, Radliff, Ky. Killed on Oct. 12 in Baji, Iraq, when his military vehicle struck an enemy anti-tank mine.
Army Pfc. Stephen E. Wyatt, 19, C Battery, lst Battalion, 173rd Field Artillery Regiment, Fort Sill, Okla. Home, Kilgore, Texas. Killed on Oct. 13 in Baladad, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device and small-arms fire struck his convoy.
Army Spc. Douglas J. Wheeler, 22, A Company, lst Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Hood, Texas. Home, Concord, Mich. Killed on Oct. 13 in Tikrit, Iraq, when his unit came under attack from a rocket-propelled grenade while searching for a possible improvised explosive device.
Army Spc. Douglas J. Weismantle, 28, Headquarters and Headquarters Company, lst Battalion, 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne, Fort Bragg, N.C. Home, Pittsburgh. Killed in Baghdad on Oct. 13 when an Iraqi dump truck swerved and rolled over on top of his military vehicle.
Army Pvt. Benjamin L. Freeman, 19, K Troop, 3rd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, Fort Carson, Colo. Drowned near Al Asad, Iraq, on Oct. 13. Home, Valdosta, Ga.
Army Pfc. Jose Casanova, 23, Headquarters and Headquarters Company, lst Battalion, 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne, Fort Bragg, N.C. Home, El Monte, Calif. Died Oct. 13 in Baghdad when an Iraqi dump truck swerved and rolled over on top of his military vehicle.
Army Lt. Col. Kim S. Orlando, 43, 716th Military Police Battalion, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) Fort Campbell, Ky. Home, Tennessee. Killed Oct. 16 in Karbala, Iraq, while attempting to negotiate with armed men who were congregating on a road near a mosque after the curfew and the Iraqis opened fire.
Army Cpl. Sean R. Grilley, 24, 716th Military Police Battalion, 101st Airborne, Fort Campbell, Ky. Home, San Bernardino, Calif. Killed on Oct. 16 while attempting to negotiate with armed men who were on a road near a mosque after curfew and the Iraqis opened fire.
Army Staff Sgt. Joseph P. Bellevia, 28, 716th Military Police Battalion, 101st Airborne, Fort Campbell, Ky. Home, Wakefield, Mass. Killed while attempting to negotiate with armed men who were on a road Oct. 16 near a mosque after curfew and the Iraqis opened fire.
Army Spc. Michael L. Williams, 46, 105th Military Police Company, Army National Guard, New York. Killed Oct. 17 near Baghdad when his vehicle ran over an improvised explosive device. Home, Buffalo, N.Y.
Army Pfc. John Hart, 20, 1st Battalion (Airborne), 508th Infantry Battalion, 173rd Infantry Brigade, Camp Ederle, Italy. Home, Bedford, Mass. One of two soldiers who died in a guerilla attack Oct. 18 in a clash outside the northern city of Kirkuk.
One soldier from the Army's 377 Theater Support Group was killed Oct. 21 in a maintenance accident on Oct. 21 north of Baghdad. The accident occurred at Camp Anaconda in in the town of Balad. (Name unavailable as yet.)
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