Fragging in Iraq. posted by Richard Seymour

This story , about a US soldier killing two of his commanders in Iraq, has some suggesting that this represents a return to Vietnam. Fragging , the assassination of superior officers, was a relatively widespread practise during that sunny little war from 1969 onward. It was one of the various manifestations of mutiny that caused the collapse of the US army in Vietnam.

Two things, though. First of all, memories are short: this has happened before . A staff sergeant killed an officer, as well as wounding several others, in a grenade attack on a military command centre in Kuwait during the invasion. Secondly, the difference between Vietnam and Iraq in this context is that it was a drafted citizen's army fighting the former, while this is a professional army. One would expect discipline to hold much firmer in a professional army, and the tolerance for extreme brutality to be higher. It is interesting that in a war that has not yet exhibited the extremity of violence that the cataclysm in Indochina did, fragging has made its appearance much earlier. This suggests that many soldiers don't believe in the war they're fighting and don't accept the reasons for it that they have been given.

Anyway, the US officer class has less to worry about than your average Iraqi schoolteacher if this is anything to go by.

By the way, the Defence Minister Adam Ingram has suggested that he was lied to by the US over the use of napalm in Iraq. When they tell their own reporters horse shit like this , who can be surprised?