You turn to us for voices you won't hear anywhere else.

Sign up for Democracy Now!'s Daily Digest to get our latest headlines and stories delivered to your inbox every day.

What Do the Washington-Area Sniper, the University Ofarizona Killer and Timothy Mcveigh Have in Common? They Were All Gulf War Vets. We Talk with Gulf Warveteran Charles Sheehan-Miles, Author of the A

Listen
Media Options
Listen

Related

    On Friday, the Washington Post published the firstextended interview with Mildred Muhammad. MildredMuhammad is the former wife of suspected sniper JohnMuhammad. She talked about how John had come from theGulf War a changed man.

    Mildred Muhammad told the Post. “When he got back, hewas a very angry man. I didn’t know this man. The oneI knew stayed in Saudi. He didn’t want anyone tobecome close to him. He became so quiet.”

    Just days after Muhammad was caught, another Gulf Warveteran Robert Flores made headlines for killing threeprofessors in Arizona.

    In response to these incidences a fellow Gulf Warveteran Charles Sheehan-Miles wrote an article postedon the internet magazine Alternet.org called AnotherGulf War Vet Opens Fire.

    The article begins:

    “Are you okay?

    “My wife asked the question after we learned thatRobert Stewart Flores, who killed three professors atthe University of Arizona before shooting himself, wasa Gulf War veteran.

    “She asked me the same thing last week, when welearned John Allen Muhammed, better known as theWashington D.C. sniper, is also a Gulf War veteran.Not to mention British Gulf War vet Paul Delaney, whostabbed his ex-girlfriend and mother of two, ColleenChudley, 30 or 40 times. Or Staff Sergeant FrankRonghi, a Gulf War vet who murdered and sodomized an11-year old girl in Kosovo. Or Jeffrey GlennHutchinson, also a Gulf vet, who murdered hisgirlfriend and her three children on Sept. 11, 1998.Or Joseph Ludlam, who murdered his former manager inNovember 2000. And then there’s the most famous GulfWar veteran of all, Timothy McVeigh, who killedhundreds of people in a homegrown terrorist attack inOklahoma City.”

    Sheehan-Miles ended the article by writing:”Remember, when you go to the gas pump to buy yourMiddle Eastern oil, secured by the blood of Americansoldiers, this too is part of the price you pay. Notjust being party to killings halfway around the world,which our society seems to tolerate with a glib “Let’schange the channel” attitude, but also the lives tornapart back home.

    “You may decide it’s okay — your chances of beingmurdered by a combat veteran are still less than therisk of being killed in a highway accident. But as wesend another few hundred thousand young men and womenoff to war, the odds are about to get worse.”

    Guest:

    • Charles Sheehan-Miles, Gulf War veteranand writer. He is the author of Prayer at Rumayla.He is a former president of the National Gulf WarResource Center and is a founder of Veterans forCommon Sense.

    Related links:

    Related Story

    StoryMar 22, 2024U.S. Said It Was Calling for a Gaza Ceasefire, But Its U.N. Resolution Didn’t Say That: Phyllis Bennis
    The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.

    Non-commercial news needs your support

    We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work.
    Please do your part today.
    Make a donation
    Top