Winter Soldier Project - Iraq

Winter Soldier by Iraq Veterans Against the War, 2008, Excerpts

Overt, institutionalized racism from the command plays an important role in distancing soldiers and marines from the people they kill. This system did not begin with the occupation of Iraq or inside the U.S. military. It is as old as war itself. In the 1930s Nazi propaganda films depicted Jews as rodents. During the Rwandan genocide, ethnic Tutsis referred to the Hutus they slaughtered as “insects” or cockroaches. In the 1960s and ‘70s, American soldiers dehumanized the Vietnamese people by calling them “gooks.” Today, members of the U.S. Armed Forces regularly refer to Iraqi and Afghan civilians as “hajis” and “towel-heads.”

When I got to Iraq in 2002, I learned a new word, “haji.” Haji was the enemy. Haji was every Iraqi. He was not a person, a father, a teacher, or a worker. It’s important to understand where this word came from. To Muslims, the most important thing is to take a pilgrimage to Mecca, the Hajj. Someone who has taken this pilgrimage is a haji. It’s something that, in traditional Islam, is the highest calling in the religion. We took the best thing from Islam and made it into the worst thing. So haji was the word we used.

We were told we were fighting terrorists; the real terrorism is this occupation. Racism within the military has long been an important tool to justify the destruction and occupation of another country. Without racism, soldiers would realize that they have more in common with the Iraqi people than they do with the billionaires who send us to war.

Racism Dehumanization of Vietnamese