by James Glaser
October 18, 2004

If you are veteran you know there has been no bigger story out of Iraq than the one this week about soldiers from the 343rd Quartermaster Company refusing to go out on a Mission. It takes a lot of guts for one man to defy an order, but when a whole unit decides to disobey one, that is an organized mutiny. It is a revolt against the Commanders of a unit.

Now the Army is keeping this whole thing real low key. Even though some soldiers were able to call home on cell phones or use e-mail and tell loved ones that they were under arrest with armed guards, the Army is saying that never happened.

Lt. Col. Dave Rogers, a spokesman for the 81st Regional Support Readiness Command of the US Army Reserves in Birmingham, Alabama, said in an interview Friday, "No soldier has been arrested, charged, confined, or detained as a result of this incident."

Spc.Amber McClenny, 21 sneaked away as the detained soldiers were being taken to the mess hall. She phoned her mother and recorded these words on her answering machine. "Hey, Mom, This is Amber, Real real big emergency, " "I need you to contact someone, I mean. Raise pure hell. We had broken down trucks. No armored vehicles. Get somebody on this. I need you now. Mom. I need you so bad. Just please help me. It's urgent. They are holding us against our will. We are now prisoners."

If soldiers are being held against their will and consider themselves prisoners, then Lt. Col. Rogers is giving us some good old Army "spin."

Beverly Dobbs of Vandiver, Alabama, got a call from her son, SPC. Joseph Dobbs and he said, "Momma, were in a lot of trouble" "we had some contaminated fuel. We went out on this mission and they turned us back, and our captain got mad and was gonna send us out on another mission. We refused to go because our vehicles were in awful shape. The place they wanted to send us was dangerous. We had to go without guns. All of us refused to go. We're not risking our lives like that."

President Bush in the last debate told the American people that things were going just fine in Iraq. He said the troops had the equipment they needed, but that appears to be untrue now. The 343rd has been in Iraq since February and they are stationed in Tallil about 190 miles southeast of Baghdad. They supply fuel all over Iraq and drive in convoys.

Pam Sullivan of Charlotte said that her husband called, "He said they were out of jail. He said if they would have done it (delivered fuel in creaky trucks without armed escort), it would have been like a death sentence." She said her husband told her he requested a lawyer, but was denied one.

Lt Col Rogers said there was a wide gulf between the family's perception that their loved ones had been arrested and the Army's categorical denial that anyone had been detained. Rogers said, Well, I don't know where the families got that information from." When he was told that they got it from detained sons, daughters, and husbands, Rodgers said, "I have been in touch with the coalition information center in Baghdad. I was told the soldiers are not under arrest and they have not been detained."

In an official statement, the Army said that "soldiers scheduled for the convoy raised some valid concerns and the command is addressing them." Spc Amber McClenny's mother said about her daughter, she was already scared to death of everyone else over there (in Iraq) and now she's scared of her own People."

Washington can not let this incident be called a mutiny nor can they admit that convoys in Iraq are running without armed escorts. That only happens when there are not enough troops to do the job correctly.

Think about driving a bulk fuel truck in a war zone like Iraq. Think about doing that in substandard trucks with no armor or escort. Washington has put our troops into this mess and they have no idea of how to get them out. This could very well be the way the troops are going to tell Washington that it is time to leave.