US-Deserteur: Soldaten im Irak benehmen sich wie Terroristen

Der amerikanische Soldat Joshua Key war im Irakkrieg eingesetzt. Jetzt hat er, wie man so sagt, Fahnenflucht begangen und über seine Erfahrungen ein Buch geschrieben: The Deserter´s Tale (deutsch ab April bei Hoffmann und Campe als Ich bin ein Deserteur). Der australische Journalist Tony Jones stellt es mit folgenden Worten vor:

The book details basic training techniques in which, if the author is to be believed, Iraqis, Afghanis and all Muslims, in fact, are systematically demonised. Key was just a private soldier but examines his own reactions to Iraqi civilians and those of his fellow soldiers during his tour of duty and concludes that American soldiers were behaving like terrorists. It's a staggering conclusion and we should bear in mind that Joshua Key is still seeking asylum in Canada, having deserted the army rather than returning to Iraq.

Tony Jones hat Joshua Key im Interview. Key berichtet:

You know of course they were never called Iraqis or Muslims, they were always used in derogatory terms as hajis, habibs and so on. I would say it was definitely a form of dehumanising. I mean, if you see something - that effect all the time - they were never referred to as civilians or Iraqis or Muslims. (…) Yes, and then I got it to the term that instead of being, what would you say, not guilty until proven guilty, I would say to us it's “they're guilty till they're proven innocent”, to us all Muslims were terrorists. That's the way we were taught and it's the way we conducted our business.

Key erklärt, der Wendepunkt sei für ihn persönlich erreicht gewesen, als er andere Soldaten mit dem Kopf eines enthaupteten Irakers Fußball spielen sah:

When I got out of the back of my truck I heard one American soldier screaming that we had lost it. I mean, I looked to the other side and I seen American soldiers kicking the head around like a soccer ball. I got back inside of my APC, which is an armoured personnel carrier, said I wouldn't have no involvement. Of course the next day I asked if anything had been filed for that, because to me that was completely unacceptable.

Das Interview ist in Gänze lesenswert.