A US Marines tale of Iraq.."Kill,Kill,Kill!!"

Staff Sergeant, Jimmy Massey a former U.S. Marine with 12 years experience, alleges in his book, "Kill! Kill! Kill!" written with the French journalist Natasha Saulnier and published in Paris, France, that his battalion committed atrocities against Iraqi civilians during the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, including shooting unarmed protesters. He charges that US military training has created troops so desensitized to violence that battleground brutality in Iraq is rampant and has helped fuel the resistance seen there today.

He writes that he and other Marines in his unit killed dozens of unarmed Iraqi civilians because of an exaggerated sense of threat, and that they often experienced sexual-type thrills doing so. See stories about site where US soldiers exchange pics of violent death for porn.

In the book, Massey writes that at one point he told an officer that the US military campaign "resembles a genocide" and that

"our only objective in Iraq is petrol and profits."

He recalls that he and a group of Marines were near Baghdad when a group of 10 Iraqi men started to protest near them, yelling out anti-US slogans.

At the sound of a gunshot, , Massey said he and his men fired on the group, killing most of them, only to find out later that none of them was armed.

He also recounts several episodes at checkpoints where civilian cars failed to stop and their unarmed occupants were shot to death.

"Overall, we have to look at the (Bush) administration in terms of responsibility for the atrocities and the murder at the checkpoints," Massey said.

Massey said his book, (originally called 'Cowboys From Hell') was being released first in French, in France because he "didn't find an American publisher."

Natasha Saulnier, (links) a French journalist who helped him write the book, said she believed the US publishers were reluctant to touch the book because of its "controversial" nature threatened commercial interests and the US public's image of their fighting forces.(Not available on Amazon) Natasha is a freelance reporter whose articles appear in The Independent (UK), Liberation and L'Humanite among other newspapers as well as on web based left wing sites such as Common Dreams.

His publisher said an English language version of the book was still pending, a Spanish edition will be published early next year.

Several US newspapers / TV stations report Maj. Gabrielle Chapin, a spokeswoman at Marine Corps headquarters in the Pentagon, say the Marines are committed to investigating all allegations of violations of “law of war or rules of engagement.” “Mr. Massey made allegations of genocide by members of his command, 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines, resulting in an investigation,” she said. The investigation was completed in June 2004, “and these allegations were found to be unsubstantiated in regards to law or rules of engagement violations,” Chapin said.She didn't say they didn't happen.

Massey left Iraq in May 2003 after 3 months service, and was discharged from the Marines with a diagnosed case of post-trauma stress syndrome.

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