Marine Renounces
Killing of Civilians

by Paul Rockwell

Marine Staff Sergeant Jimmy Massey was at first proud to serve in Iraq , but is now one of a growing number of soldiers who are speaking out against the war.

For nearly 12 years, Staff Sergeant Jimmy Massey was a hard-core, some say "gung-ho," Marine. But the brutality, the sheer carnage of the U.S. invasion of Iraq , touched his conscience and changed him forever. He spoke to me from his home in Waynesville, North Carolina.

Q: What does the public need to know about your experiences in Iraq ?

The cause of the Iraqi revolt against the U.S. occupation---what they need to know is [that] we killed a lot of innocent people.

Q: What experiences turned you against the war and made you leave the Marines?

There was this one particular incident that really pushed me over the edge. It involved a car with Iraqi civilians. From all the intelligence reports we were getting, the cars were loaded down with suicide bombs or material. They came upon our checkpoint. We fired some warning shots. They didn't slow down. So we lit them up.

Q: Lit up? You mean you fired machine guns?

Right. Every car that we lit up we were expecting ammunition to go off. But we never heard any. Well this particular vehicle we didn't destroy completely, and one gentleman looked up at me and said: 'Why did you kill my brother? We didn't do anything wrong.' That hit me like a ton of bricks.

Q: Baghdad was being bombed. The civilians were trying to get out, right? You got to see the bodies and casualties?

Yeah, first hand. I helped throw them in a ditch.

Q: How many times were you involved in checkpoint "light-ups"?

Five times.

Q: The reports said the cars were loaded with explosives. In all the incidents did you find that to be the case?

Never. Not once. There were no secondary explosions. As a matter of fact, we lit up a rally.

Q: A demonstration? Where?

On the outskirts of Baghdad . Near a military compound. There were demonstrators at the end of the street. They were young and they had no weapons. They were only holding a demonstration.

Q: Who gave the order to wipe the demonstrators out?

The order to shoot the demonstrators, I believe, came from senior government officials including intelligence communities within the military and the U.S. government.

Q: What happened with your commanding officers? How did you deal with them?

There was an incident. It was right after the fall of Baghdad . On the outskirts of Karbala . All these things were going through my head--about what we were doing over there. My lieutenant and I got into a conversation. The conversation was striking me wrong. And I lashed out. I looked at him and told him: 'You know, I honestly feel that what we're doing is wrong over here. We're committing genocide. ' He asked me something and I said that with the killing of civilians and the depleted uranium we're leaving over here, we're not going to have to worry about terrorists. He got up and stormed off.

It's starting to leak out about the civilian casualties that are taking place. The Iraqis know. The military is scrambling right now to keep the wraps on that. My understanding is Fallujah is just littered with civilian bodies.

Q: Your feelings changed during the invasion. What was your state of mind before the invasion?

I was like every other troop. My president told me they got weapons of mass destruction, that Saddam threatened the free world, that he had all this might and could reach us anywhere. I just bought into the whole thing.

Q: What changed you?

The civilian casualties taking place. That was what made the difference. I killed innocent people for our government. For what? Where is the good coming out of it? I feel like I've had a hand in some sort of evil lie at the hands of our government. I just feel embarrassed, ashamed about it.

Paul Rockwell (rockyspad@hotmail.com) is a writer in Oakland , Calif. This article first appeared in the Sacramento Bee on May 16. For the full interview, go to www.inmotionmagazine.com.

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