Iraq war comes home to the USA as murders of Louisiana policemen

This 3 August 2013 video from the USA says about itself:

Caught on Tape: NFL Cheerleader Allegedly Drunk and Abusive

Iraq war vet turned cheerleader, Megan Welter, is at the center of a domestic violence case.

Another video from the USA used to say about itself:

NFL Cheerleader Arrested for Domestic Violence

5 August 2013

Scottsdale, Ariz. — Megan Welter, 29, an Iraq War veteran turned NFL cheerleader was arrested for aggravated assault, destroying property and disorderly conduct after she allegedly attacked her boyfriend, who captured the incident on his cell phone. Welter, 29, of Scottsdale, Ariz., is seen on the cell phone video obtained by media sources angrily questioning her boyfriend about text messages between him and a female friend. “Who is she!” Welter is heard screaming in the footage as her boyfriend, who has not been identified, tries to calm her down.

After many other cases of veterans of British wars, or United States wars returning with PTSD or other mental illnesses, and then sometimes reacting to those illnesses with domestic violence or other violence, now this.

From the Daily Beast in the USA today:

Gavin Long ID’d as Alleged Baton Rouge Cop-Killer; Deployed to Iraq

CBS News and NBC News report Gavin Long, 29, of Kansas City, Missouri has been identified by law enforcement as the man who killed three officers and wounded three others in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on Sunday. CBS News notes today was Long’s birthday. Authorities say Long is the only suspected gunman. …

President Obama said the killer’s motive is unknown.

Military records obtained by The Daily Beast show that Long served in the United States Marine Corps from 2005 to 2010 as a data network specialist. He deployed to Japan and spent seven months in Iraq. He attened the Marine Corps’ school of infantry at Camp Pendleton, California. Which means he was trained in small-arms combat—particularly, how to shoot.

Missouri court records show that he got divorced after he left the military.

By Patrick Martin in the USA:

Ex-Marine guns down three police in Baton Rouge, Louisiana

18 July 2016

For the second time in 10 days, a gunman has opened fire on police in an American city, causing mass casualties. Sunday’s attack took place in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, with three police officers shot to death and three wounded, one severely.

The gunman, 29-year-old Gavin Long from Kansas City, Missouri was an African-American ex-Marine. He was shot to death at the scene of the attack. …

Two of the murdered policemen were Baton Rouge city officers, while the third was a sheriff’s deputy from East Baton Rouge Parish (county). As of this writing, only one of the three officers had been identified: 32-year-old Montrell Jackson, himself an African-American, a 10-year veteran of the Baton Rouge police and the new father of a two-month-old boy. …

Very little information has yet been released by police about the circumstances of the shooting, which followed a 911 call at 8:45 a.m. reporting a gunman outside the convenience store. It is not clear who placed that call, whether it was part of a deliberate ambush, or what happened when the first police officers arrived and encountered Long. …

As in the case of the July 7 killing of five police officers in Dallas, Texas, the Baton Rouge gunman was a former soldier and veteran of US wars in the Middle East. Long, who turned 29 on the day of the shootings, was in the Marines from 2005 to 2010 and served a tour of duty in Iraq. He reportedly engaged in counterterrorist operations, for which he was awarded a medal and rose to the rank of sergeant.

There were numerous conflicting and largely unverified reports about Long’s political views and motivation. NBC News reported that he had ties to an ultra-right group known as the Sovereign Citizens, who reject most government authority. The Wall Street Journal reported a connection to an otherwise unheard-of “New Freedom Group,” which it described as “anti-government.” …

Whatever the specific motivation of the attack, political or otherwise, the murderous assault on individual policemen is completely reactionary. It does not “avenge” the killing of Alton Sterling. Such acts politically disorient the working class and youth, and serve to strengthen the forces of police violence and repression directed against working people of all races.

This is demonstrated by the political reaction that followed, as Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards, President Obama and the two main candidates to succeed him, Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton, all issued statements calling for even more resources to strengthen the police. …

Trump sought to connect the killing to Islamic terrorism, although the killer was a Marine veteran of the US military intervention in Iraq. “We are trying to fight ISIS, and now our own people are killing our police,” he said. “Our country is divided and out of control. The world is watching.” He added, “We demand law and order.” …

The immediate political impact of the Baton Rouge shootings will be to intensify the police-state atmosphere surrounding the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, which opens Monday morning. There were widespread reports of stepped-up police patrols, new restrictions on anti-Trump demonstrators, and increased FBI visits to the homes of protest organizers.

Related articles

• US Military Ordered to Ignore Child Sexual Abuse in Afghanistan
• Bush on Iraq echoes LBJ on Vietnam | Dear Kitty. Some blog
• Japanese taxpayers’ money to militarism, not to Fukushima survivors | Dear Kitty. Some blog
• Trillion-dollar F-35 stealth fighter, latest disaster | Dear Kitty. Some blog
• Bloodthirsty US General Mattis promoted
• The looting of Iraq’s museums, helped by the US Bush administration