'It's fun to shoot some people'

"Actually it's quite fun to fight them, you know. It's a hell of a hoot," Marine Lt. Gen. James Mattis, who commanded U.S. Marine actions in Afghanistan and Iraq, told those gathered at a San Diego panel discussion on Feb. 1. He added, "It's fun to shoot some people. I'll be right up there with you. I like brawling."

While the Marine brass chided Mattis for speaking so frankly, they still consider him one of their own. The Marine commandant, Gen. Michael Hagee, defended Mattis, calling him "one of this country's bravest and most experienced military leaders" and a "superb leader."

Mattis's horrific statement doesn't clarify the underlying reasons U.S. bankers, oil magnates and military contractors were overjoyed that Bush ordered the Pentagon to invade and seize Iraq.

But it does go a long way toward explaining the racist, sadistic mentality rampant in the Marine Corps officer caste and the rest of the Pentagon brass. This is the same attitude they try to inculcate in U.S. youths who they are trying to train as troops.

Fewer are joining

If January was any indication, fewer youths are volunteering for the Marines. The Corps missed its self-imposed recruiting goal for the first time in years, falling 84 recruits short. Some of the brass think it might have something to do with the war in Iraq.

Despite this early warning, the Marines were still doing better than the National Guard. About 43 percent of the 155,000 troops in Iraq are National Guard members or reservists. According to the Feb. 7 Oregonian, the "Army National Guard reported earlier this month that it missed its recruiting goals for the second straight quarter. The Guard has added recruiters this fiscal year in an effort to reach its full-year goal of 350,000 recruits.

"'I have a feeling a lot of guys won't re-enlist,' said Master Sergeant Steve Little of Eugene, Ore. 'We know we're going to be deployed in the next three years.'"

Both the Guard and the Army Reserves had been selling themselves over the past 20 years as a way to earn extra money or put oneself through college. But now, everyone knows that if you join one of these outfits it means more than spending a few weekends camping out and doing a little marching. It means you can be sent to occupy a country, and its citizens could be quite unhappy about being occupied.

Little said many National Guard recruits sent to Iraq "got more than they bargained for."

The resistance continues

The Iraqi resistance fighters have not yet set up a centralized, national leadership. Still they continue to fight, have brought vast areas of central Iraq out of the control of the occupying armies and have wreaked havoc on any attempt to create a puppet military force.

On Feb. 8, a suicide bomber set off an explosion in the midst of recruits for the U.S.-trained and controlled Iraqi Army, killing 16 recruits and five others.

In the period from the so-called elections on Jan. 30 to Feb. 8, some 153 Iraqis were reported killed by guerrilla forces. Of them, 106 were soldiers, police officers or army and police recruits, according to figures released by the U.S. military and Iraqi authorities.

In addition, 15 U.S. soldiers were killed.

In all, about 1,450 U.S. troops have been killed and somewhere between 10,000 and 20,000 injured since the March 20 U.S. invasion of Iraq.

While the Jan. 30 election has been a temporary propaganda victory for Wash ington, it has done nothing to reduce the human cost of the occupation of Iraq.