The Lie of Patriotism

�I was in the Iraq invasion,� Hanes said. �We pushed up into Baghdad and things [became] very real for me when we began to kick in doors, place charges in doors and rush into these homes and terrorize these people.�

�Probably about 50 percent or more of the intel that we got was just dead wrong,� he went on. �Busting in these doors you come into a family�s house and there�s elderly women, young little girls, 3, 4 years old, just screaming and horrific, just terrified to where they literally soil themselves. They pee their pants. You�re taking Grandma and throwing her up against the wall and interrogating her. That hits you right here. It hits you really hard. I began to ask myself, what the hell am I doing? If you happen to be a young man [in a raided home], in your early 20s or anywhere in that range where you can carry a weapon, then by mere association of being a young male, a possible insurgent, [Fedayeen Saddam] loyalist, whatever the case may be, you were taken out of the home to be interrogated. Who knows what happened to them. ... I know [Marines] were there all night interrogating them. Who knows if they even made it back to their family.

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_lie_of_patriotism_20160403