The “gulf wars”, as westerners call them, of the early 1990’s were downplayed drastically in American media. They were called “surgical wars” and were largely considered a kind of precision extraction, that required only a “skirmish”, to remove the bad guys like a tumor. In the new 24-hour news cycle, it all appeared orderly and efficient and righteous. It hinted at a whole new way to insert democracy into locations around the globe where the people were yearning to be free.
Veterans of these wars came back with egregious traumas from horrific events that the US government kept quiet, and the media didn’t report, and the homecoming celebrations didn’t address. The mental damage is enormous and compounded by the ongoing trials of dealing with physical issues that are chalked up to hypochondria. Of course, we know now that those injuries were caused by contact with chemical warfare waged by their own employers.
In February of 1991, 500k US Troops are stationed at the Iraq-Kuwait border with more on the way. The ground war is about to be started with Gen. Schwarzkopf at the helm. It is considered the “largest logistical move in history”. What comes next, of course, is hell.
Timothy McVeigh has been made the gunner of a Bradley Fighting Vehicle, he names it “Bad Company” which is subsequently painted on the side. The Bradley had the capacity to house one infantry squad consisting of a vehicle commander, a driver, gunner, and up to seven additional soldiers.
It was in one of these highly controversial (for many reasons) tanks that McVeigh, the gunner, was assigned the job of breaching the front line and trailblazing for 64 tanks to flow in behind him. According to Wendy Painting, the commander of one Bradley told reporters that theirs was a destruction mission that would result in extensive American causalities. McVeigh put it another way, he said they were “sacrificial lambs” meant to draw enemy fire.
For most of these troops, this was tantamount to a suicide mission. McVeigh would later write in a letter that his squad were just used to test the artillery on the other side, that they were not really advanced forces at all. A chaplain would later admit that no more than 10% of them had been expected to return alive.
Timothy McVeigh will be subjected to psychological warfare from his own military, and he will inflict that same type of warfare on others. He will be asked to lie about the behavior of the United States during those wars. Timothy McVeigh will notice the high numbers of death by friendly fire among his fellow troops. In general, the future American terrorist will perform and endure plenty of terror from the very country that eventually puts him to death.
Or, supposedly anyway.
“Behind a gun I’ll make my final stand/ That’s why they call me bad company and I can’t deny/ Bad company until the day I die” – Bad Company
READ: Aberration in the Heartland of the Real: The Secret Lives of Timothy McVeigh
by Dr. Wendy Painting, PHD
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