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U.S. Town Sees GIs as Real Victims
Posted by Tony (Guest) - Saturday, May 8 2004, 20:15:48 (CEST)
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U.S. Town Sees GIs as Real Victims in Iraq Abuse

Sat May 8, 8:04 AM ET

By Cyrille Cartier

CUMBERLAND, Md. (Reuters) - For many in the sleepy town of
Cumberland, home of the military company at the heart of the Iraqi
prisoner abuse scandal, the U.S. soldiers are the real victims and
the Iraqis had it coming.

In bars, shops and throughout the town of 21,000 people, residents
gathered on Friday to watch Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld testify
to Congress about the abuses that involved soldiers from their local
372nd Military Policy company.

For some, shock mingled with embarrassment over their hometown's
sudden and unwelcome notoriety. For many others, sympathy for the
soldiers far outweighed their concerns.

"Excuse me, if I see somebody dragging my people through the streets
and hung up on a bridge -- I mean, the bible even says an eye for an
eye," said retired Vietnam War veteran Robert Zalewski, 56, drinking
a beer at Pete's Parkview Tavern and Grill.

"People are trying to kill you. You got to protect yourself," he
said, adding the abuse by the soldiers was "half what they (Iraqis)
have done to us."

Jamey Hill, a local postal worker, said the photos of naked prisoners
in sexual positions, in a pile or on a leash, were nothing compared
to the images of murdered Americans dangling from a bridge in the
town of Falluja in March.

"I'm not happy about it (the prison abuse). I'm not very happy about
having the pictures of us on the bridge either," Hill said.

Tanya Vargas, 29, who said she knew two of the soldiers linked to the
scandal, said it had been hard to believe her friends were involved.

"What were they thinking to do this, and then to take pictures of
it?" she said. "When they come home, it's not going to be the welcome
home the soldiers usually get," she said.

Many local residents were eager to point to the sacrifices made by
U.S. soldiers seeking to bring stability to a country halfway around
the world. Faced with daily attacks and a rising military death toll,
residents say hard-working soldiers may just have snapped.

"What they did was wrong. Maybe they kind of regret it. But maybe
they just kind of lost it," said Glenn Rice, 55, another Vietnam War
veteran who is a bartender in a local club. "Maybe somebody got hurt
they knew."

Helen Forbeck, 36, a receptionist at a Cumberland insurance agency,
said the military was partly to blame for keeping the soldiers in
Iraq (news - web sites) far longer than they had initially been told.

"Don't you think it has something to do with the fact they've been
told three different times they're coming home and three different
times it's been pushed back?" she said.

Zalewski said he was worried the soldiers in the photos would be
prosecuted, taking the fall as scapegoats while their superiors
washed their hands of the affair.

"They're going to hang the little man, not the big guy," he said.

Jessica Buzzard, a 24-year-old college student and mother of two,
said she was among the few in her town who were appalled by the abuse.

"I don't care what background they're from and what culture, but to
treat them like animals, that's not right," she said.



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