US should leave Iraq, says soldier

A US servicewoman who recently returned from in Iraq joined protesters in Dublin yesterday to try to help mobilise a fresh anti-war campaign.

Kelly Dougherty (26), who spent eight years in the Colorado Army National Guard, said the longer she spent in Iraq the more convinced she became that American troops should be withdrawn.

"It seemed like many of the things we were doing were either counterproductive to bringing peace and stability or an obstacle to progress.

"For nine out of 10 months in Iraq, our military unit did not have a translator. Communications were restricted to pantomimes and a lot of misunderstandings arose from that.

"People were getting shot, or arrested. Their houses were getting searched and their property confiscated when we didn't really know what was going on," Ms Dougherty, a biology graduate with Irish roots, who enlisted as a medic, added.

"Before the war started, I was opposed to it but I had an obligation with the military to serve. What I saw there turned me even more against the war."

One of her duties, she said, was to escort convoys of fuel trucks. When these broke down and could not be be repaired, "we would have to destroy the vehicle, even though it had fuel or food or equipment in it. That caused a lot of confusion and frustration among Iraqis because they did not have any of these things and we were destroying them in front of them."

Ms Dougherty said morale among her colleagues fluctuated during her tour between April 2003 and February 2004.

While in Dublin, Ms Dougherty met activists who are organising a rally next weekend as part of an international day of protest against the war. She also expressed her support for the five protesters facing trial before the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court for damaging a US aircraft at Shannon airport.

She rejected claims that conditions had improved in Iraq since the elections.

"The responsible and right thing to do is to withdraw our troops and funnel all that money which is keeping our troops there to the Iraqi people," Ms Dougherty said.