Standing in the middle of the desert is the main U.S. prison [detention center] of Iraq. Camp Bucca is "significantly over [its] intended maximum capacity while the guard force is undermanned and under resourced". Thousands of suspected 'insurgents' are locked up in the facility, many having been transferred from Abu Ghraib.It is a breeding ground of hatred for Americans and does little to enhance our image as 'liberators' rather than occupiers.
Interestingly [and cunningly] 'Bucca' is the name of a NYC Fire Marshal who died in the September 11, 2001 attacks. No doubt the name is part of the Cheney attempt to link Iraq with 9-11. He and Bush know how to play the politics of war.
Drawing guard duty at this facility is perhaps the worst lot of our military. Of course, as with most aspects of this contrived 'war,' many things here were badly botched. The facility is under-staffed according to reports and is extremely volatile due to both the nature of the men incarcerated there as well as the circumstances of their arrest. They must find it odd that they are imprisoned in their own nation while fighting to drive out to occupying forces running the prison.
The numbers and kind of units deployed to the prison indicate the difficulty the U.S. Military faces in maintaining it: Security Forces squadrons, Military Police companies, infantry regiments, field artillery units, signal battalions, as well as National Guard units from several states. Although we will likely never know the exact figures, many American military suicides have resulted from men stationed at this facility. PTSD is a frequent outcome of having served duty here. A few of the suicides have resulted from having been re-deployed to this facility.
PTSD is a plague on this nation and we've only seen the tip of this iceberg; it will continue to haunt our society for decades. The now-infamous remark made by Donald Rumsfeld is a harbinger of the problem military men and their families are facing: "As you know, you go to war with the Army you have. They’re not the Army you might want or wish to have at a later time."
This is the later time. Five years later and re-deployment is the name of the Rumsfeld-Cheney-Bush game. It was the wrong war at the wrong time with the wrong plan. And we as a nation will reap the disasters of this political war for a long, long time.
