Truthout Interview

Interview by Matt Renner of Truthout on the occasion of Winter Soldier: Iraq & Afghanistan in March 2008.

AI Generated Transcript

this is Matt Renner reporting from Winter Soldier in Silver Spring Maryland today I sat down with Logan Latorre to speak with him about his faith and how it affected his experience in Iraq and as a veteran I told myself I was Christian basically basically my whole life and I came to see that that faith obligates me to non-violence I applied to be a conscientious objector I asked my my unit my commanders specifically that to return to Iraq without a weapon I asked to be a noncombatant and through the process of being a co and having an interview with the psychiatrist I was labeled or I was given diagnosis with maladjustment disorder because every soldier is trained to be an infantryman first so the idea of a soldier going to battle without a weapon is incomprehensible you testified on a panel about the rules of engagement during your testimony you spoke about your faith can you tell me more about that a lot of my discomfort going into Iraq because I called myself a Christian was the religious language that was used to justify the war I never quite felt on board with that and as I began to study the Bible a lot more intimately and personally I realized that that isn't what the Bible is talking about I've always told people that to me my co application wasn't an application there was a declaration this is who I was and this is what I believe and the federal government recognized it or they may not but that won't change who I am and you actually wanted to serve in combat but that's correct as an unarmed noncombatant that's correct it was that point that I was told that I'd lied to my psychiatrist that I had some grand scheme to get out of the army even though I was clear in my in my packet and to the psychiatrist I don't want to leave my unit at all and I was told that I quote gotten what I had wanted I was immediately reassigned to another unit your unit then redeployed without you is that right I watched from the balcony of staff duty as guys were saying goodbye to their family the buses had come and I remember looking out my first Hardin and wishing more than anything that he'd understood what I really wanted so it's really it was a conundrum for me because I felt very strongly that Christians can't serve their country but they've first and foremost must serve the God that they worship and the God that I worship is nonviolent he's grace exceeds justice at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin my battalion commander after three weeks in the box at Fort Irwin sat at my company down for a pep talk and he made it explicitly clear that if there's a problem than the wrong person went down we would plant weapons to ensure that you guys are protected in your testimony you talked about your commander briefing your unit and saying that your unit would cover up civilian deaths by using drop weapons can you tell me about that yeah the terminology wasn't used but he did make it expressly clear that if the wrong person went down that he would make sure that he had our best interest in mind and was couched in language that was very much you know I'm here to protect you I'm here for you but the reality was that he was willing to commit a crime in order to give his own soldiers immunity essentially is what we're talking about that we are immune to the moral ramifications of what we're doing but how did this play out actually on the street norick I didn't end up deploying with that commander that was the commander that I would have had my second deployment under in June of June or July of Oh seven just recently after he'd given that speech at the National Training Center two of his his unit members came under article 32 charges which are similar to a grand jury they were charged with premeditated murder in an instance where a sergeant first class or an e7 were shot a detainee and in order to me for specialist to do the same and I think that case is still pending but the significance to me for that is that the atmosphere existed signal shall show shall shoot and that was the extent of what RR we was on a running basis the the Golden Rule one that we could always count on was that if you feel threatened don't hesitate to use a weapon if you feel it's necessary because that was our license if something occurred we could always say that we were threatened I think that I observed that couple of times with other members of my unit well a lot of people on the panel talked about the general attitude towards the civilian population of Iraq what would you say the general attitude was and how did this affect the interactions between the US forces and the civilian population I lived with our platoon interpreter for about a month and a half I think during the time that we were in Kirkuk for a while and it was the first time that really understood Iraqis as human beings like oh these guys have lives he was a graduate of Missoula University at an engineering degree it served in the Iraqi National Guard or the the Republican Guard he was working with Americans who were seen as an occupying force by the time we left when we'd immediately gotten there I don't think that that sentiment really would had solidified yet I think there was still very friendly and sympathetic towards us but by the time we left we you know they were collaborators with the enemy I began wondering what must have felt like to walk through one's own country and watch foreigners shoot and kill or run over my own countrymen and the significant emotional turmoil that that probably brought him and knowing that as his family was still living there and they couldn't tell their neighbors that he he was working yet to tell me he was dead and he was promised extradition when he when he was done working with the Americans I think after a certain period of time when we were in a sitting position or if we were if we visited a forward operating base that had artillery or mortars they'd been in a sitting position for more than several day of weeks you have to register the guns to the weather conditions to all different things so every now and then forward observers were tasked to sit on an Opie and watts rounds being fired if you call it training because we definitely utilized it to train up some of our younger Joes and essentially what we're doing is firing rounds into Iraq while we were bored I didn't understand till recently the white phosphorus is not supposed to be fired you know it's not supposed to be used against civilian targets or in civilian you know cetera that's what we used as our training rounds in what were hasty impact areas and I during your testimony you talked about the use of white phosphorus around mortar rounds yeah it's not to be used as a weapon Swizz Beatz from marketing and incendiary and to me the the words were they're like incendiary non-personnel but there's something that didn't quite connect so when I called for fire for Willie Pete and we were just registering the guns and keeping them current so it wasn't like I was calling on people there's a disconnect you know a cognitive dissonance that this weapon is not supposed to be being used except for specific purposes and this there's it's no fault of my own but the training was not facilitated or if stood in a way that there was an awareness that there is a weight to what you're doing and so I think a lot of that people kind of stumbled upon themselves when they had their first kill or when they had to run over even animals possibly children I think that's that's where that moral awareness kind of snaps into focus is you know after you've done something that was too much I think that's where I was at during your testimony you quoted Martin Luther King in a speech he made about the Vietnam War why did those words resonate with you Martin Luther King was man of faith in my mind he was a prophet of the highest degree he called our country to account on several occasions it began with the civil rights but as a Vietnam War grew he began to speak out on that as well and he said I can't speak to the violence in our streets unless I unless I address the greatest purveyor of violence in the world and it's our own government and he did it because he loved America I'm not an enemy of America I grew up here there's no amount of anything that can get the American out of me and that involves a certain amount of pain for me as well because I don't want to be doing what we're doing in Iraq oh I'm for peace and security in Iraq but unfortunately the longer we stay there the longer we withhold that from a sovereign country I understand and realize the threat of us pulling out but what we're doing has not worked for five years and we need to try something different from Winter Soldier in Silver Spring Maryland this has been Matt Renner reporting for truth out.