Irregular Army: How the US Military Recruited Neo-Nazis, Gang Members, and Criminals to Fight the War on Terror

267 Pages·2012·3.98 MB·English

by  Matt Kennard

IRREGULAR
ARMY
How the US Military Recruited Neo-Nazis, Gang
Members and Criminals to Fight the War on Terror
Matt Kennard
First published by Verso 2012
© Matt Kennard 2012
All rights reserved
The moral rights of the author have been asserted
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
Verso
UK: 6 Meard Street, London W1F 0EG
US: 20 Jay Street, Suite 1010, Brooklyn, NY 11201
www.versobooks.com
Verso is the imprint of New Left Books
Ebook ISBN: 978-1-84467-905-8
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kennard, Matt.
Irregular army : how the US military recruited Neo-Nazis, gangs, and criminals to fight the war on terror / Matt Kennard.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-1-84467-880-8 (hbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-84467-905-8 (ebook)
1. United States—Armed Forces—Enlisting, recruiting, etc.—Standards. 2. United States—Armed Forces—Enlisting, recruiting, etc.—Corrupt practices. 3. Soldiers—Health and hygiene
—United States—Standards. 4. Physical fitness—United
States—Standards. 5. Soldiers—Alcohol use—United States. 6. Soldiers—Drug
use—United States. 7. Gang members—United States. I. Title.
UB333K46 2012
956.7044’34—dc23
2012018558
For all the people whose lives have been ended
or brutalized by these wars
An Army raised without proper regard to the choice of its recruits was never yet made good by length
of time; and we are now convinced by fatal experience that this is the source of all our misfortunes.
Flavius Vegetius Renatus, in his military manual
De Re Militari, fifth century, as the decline
of the Roman Empire began in earnest
He served up our great military a huge bowl of chicken feces, and ever since then, our military and
our country have been trying to turn this bowl into chicken salad.
Retired General John Batiste, former
commander of the First Infantry division in
Iraq, on Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, 2006
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Breaking Down
1 The Other “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”
Hitler in Iraq
Straight Outta Baghdad
War Criminals
2 Sick, Addicted, and Forsaken
Sippin’ on Gin and Hajji Juice
Collateral Damage Comes Home
3 Plump, Young, Dumb—and Ready to Serve
The Baghdad Bulge
Intelligence Ops
Child Soldiers
Grandpa Goes to War
4 Outsiders
Green Card Soldiers
Ask, Tell
Epilogue: Indiscriminate Trust
Notes
Index
Photo insert
Acknowledgments
T
his is my first book and it spent a long time germinating before it was finally
written. Because of that there are lots of people all over the world who helped
me make it real as I worked to focus the issues involved. There are two people
particularly without whom this book would have been impossible. Jason Yarn
helped me put the idea together from its tentative beginnings with great patience
and kindness, while Max Ajl gave his time and skills selflessly at the start of the
project. Lionel Barber, David Crouch, and Jo Rollo at the Financial Times were
generous and understanding when I needed time to write.
Most thanks and love to my parents, Judy and Peter, for teaching me always to
stand up for what you believe in and in turn believing in both this project and
me. In their own different ways, they have dedicated their whole lives to trying
to make the world a better place—they are my inspiration. Ana for her love,
being the best editor and kindest person too, and more than anyone else making
this book what it is. Thanks to my brother Daniel for his unwavering belief that I
could do anything I set out to do. My grandma Mary has been steadfast in her
support and love all my life—I couldn’t have done this without her. Thanks,
Nan. Back when this was a seed of an idea Gizem helped me nurture it and was a
voice I turned to throughout for sound advice.
Many thanks also to Andrew Hsiao at Verso for his insights into the topic and
support throughout the process. Tariq Ali likewise showed faith in the project
early on, while Tim Clark improved the final product immeasurably with his
stellar editing. The guidance and wisdom of Beech was a constant support the
whole way, alongside Rab whose intellectual truculence has taught me a lot over
the years. The project started at Columbia University Journalism School where I
was taught by Sheila Coronel, who afforded me the financial and intellectual
support at the beginning when I was still staring at a blank page. The Nation
Institute deserve huge thanks for giving me the financial and moral support
needed to continue the initial story—democracy and journalism around the
world would be hugely improved if every country could have an institution like
the Institute. Salon published the first short story which gave birth to this book,
so thanks to them and in particular Kevin Berger. There are also those who have
kept me sane and laughing while writing, so thanks to: Tom, Nick T., Dave,
Jake, Pilar, Steve, Frankie, Patrick, Declan, Billy, Whybrow, Al D., Shane, Ivor,
Adam, Lex, Summer, Eugene, Jack, Laurence, Harry, Charlie, Chris, Leah,
Ralph, Camilla, Hugh, Lucy, Suey, William, and Shannon.
War is the most traumatic event a human being can experience. That goes for
those attacked and for those individuals sent to do the attacking. I would like to
thank all the veterans who have come home and dedicated their post-combat
lives to stopping these wars and fighting for the health and educational benefits
that are rightfully theirs. This book is not an indictment of all US service
members; it is an indictment of the people who sent them to war on the basis of a
lie and knowingly allowed the whole institution to unravel.
It goes without saying none of the people above are responsible for what I
have written.
Introduction: Breaking Down
I just can’t imagine someone looking at the United States armed forces today and suggesting that
they are close to breaking.
1
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, 2006
O
n September 10, 2001, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld stood in front
of the assembled great and good of the Pentagon and delivered an expansive
lecture entitled Bureaucracy to Battlefield.2 Its prescriptions were extremely
radical—among the most portentous in US military history—but thanks to the
terrorist atrocities the following day his words remain buried deep in the
memory hole, while their consequences are buried under the sands of Iraq and
Afghanistan. “The topic today is an adversary that poses a threat, a serious
threat, to the security of the United States of America,” Rumsfeld began, before
revealing the threat to be not Al-Qaeda, but the “Pentagon bureaucracy.” “Not
the people, but the processes,” he added reassuringly. “Not the civilians, but the
systems. Not the men and women in uniform, but the uniformity of thought and
action that we too often impose on them.” In essence, Rumsfeld’s speech that
day was designed to lay the ground and soften up his workers for a massive
privatization of the Department of Defense’s services. It was the realization of a
long-held dream for Republican politicians and their corporate allies in
Washington—who would now be presented with a sweet shop full of lucrative
government contracts to chew on. With the tragic events of the next day and the
ensuing two-front ground war in the Middle East, Rumsfeld was gifted the
perfect opportunity to enact his program with minimal opposition. The results
were clear eight years into the War on Terror when the DOD (Department of
Defense) had 95,461 private contractors working for them in Iraq compared to
95,900 US military personnel.3 The use of private contractors was by then so
embedded that Barack Obama’s initial skepticism about their use displayed
while a senator became one more item in a long list of policy climbdowns. But
while the privatization of the war effort is a topic that has been explored
extensively by a number of journalists, notably Jeremy Scahill,4 one aspect of
the program has received little coverage—namely Rumsfeld’s plan for soldiers