360 Degrees of Rotational Fire

Ethan McCord

When we deployed we were told that the only way for us to effectively maintain control over our AO (area of operation) was to, in a sense, out-terrorize the terrorists. We were to make the people of Iraq fear us and the repercussions from us more so than the insurgents. We were getting hit with IEDs sometimes daily. The fear of losing your life on a daily basis was wearing the soldiers down. It was in June that our Battalion Commander came to our COP (combat out post) where my platoon was. He walked past us into the office where the 1st Sgt. and company commander were. After about 20 minutes the Battalion commander walked into the weight room where 3rd platoon was at, yelled out “Listen up, new battalion SOP (standard operating procedure) from now on:

"Anytime your convoy gets hit by an IED, I want 360 degree rotational fire. You kill every motherfucker in the street!”

Some of the soldiers were happy to hear this, they were tired of having their hands tied behind their backs. Others like myself couldn’t believe what we had just been told to do. The words I heard were kill them all, fuck em, they don’t deserve to live! I knew that there was no way I could kill women and children or even unarmed men.

This policy was placed into effect immediately. Soldiers who wouldn’t fire their weapons were chastised and ridiculed by NCOs who took it upon themselves to enforce this policy. I witnessed soldiers being smoked for hours because they wouldn’t fire their weapons into unarmed civilians in the street. After seeing the way the soldiers who didn’t fire were treated as a result I chose to fire my weapon, but like other soldiers we fired our weapons into rooftops or abandoned vehicles to escape the wrath of trigger happy NCOs.

As far as the policy went, and soldiers following them, we weren't trained to know an unlawful order. We watched other units carrying the same thing out, so to us the word was that of law. Nobody in a leadership position was stepping up to say, 'hey, this is wrong, we shouldn’t do this.' But those of us who knew it was morally wrong spoke between ourselves and figured a way of escaping the shooting of innocents and the enforcement from the NCOs: By firing our weapons, but not at people, giving the effect that we were following procedure.

I speak out about this because I want the American people to know whats happening in Iraq and Afghanistan, in their names. The WikiLeaks video “collateral murder,” as I've stated before, only begins to depict the suffering that we have caused in the name of freedom and democracy.

So what happens from here? Many soldiers, including myself, have been attempting to be heard by congress. Unfortunately it seems that congress is not concerned with the Wars anymore, placing most of its concern on domestic or personal issues. Many veterans are at the point of feeling that speaking out about the atrocities they’ve witnessed is falling on deaf ears. I have not yet reached that point, however I sometimes feel that in general I am being ignored. “Just another veteran, blah, blah.” But I refuse to fall away into the shadows. As long as I still have a voice, I will continue to speak out. There are so many veterans that it's going to become impossible to ignore us for much longer. I say instead of listening to the talking head “war analysts” that have never seen war first-hand, listen to the soldiers who lived it, who know the tragedies, and the horrible costs of war.
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Published here: http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mike-friends-blog/360-degrees-rotational-fire
URL: http://www.a-w-i-p.com/index.php/2011/07/11/360-degrees-of-rotational-fire