Ethan McCord: Well that's to be expected sometimes ________ [laughs]
Cindy Sheehan: Yeah. Well, Ethan, tell us about your experience. Like I introduced you and I told my listeners that you're actually in the Collateral Murder WikiLeaks video. I've only been able to watch bits and pieces of it. I haven't been able to watch the whole thing. But can you tell my listeners about your experience and, you know, exactly what you were doing that day, and what happened, and what you were going through? I think people have seen the video and they can see what you're going through physically, but what was your mental state and the emotions that you were feeling when it was happening?
Ethan McCord: Sure. Well, you know, to start it off, basically-- I joined the military, you know, to provide freedom and democracy. I bought into the whole, "Now what we're going to do is we're going to help people. We're going to go help the Iraqis from the so-called insurgents that are there, and the terrorists, and--"
Cindy Sheehan: When did you join the military?
Ethan McCord: Well, I joined the military, which was the Navy, in 2002, and then in 2006 I switched over to the Army infantry.
Cindy Sheehan: Okay. So sorry for interrupting you, but--
Ethan McCord: Oh no, that's okay.
Cindy Sheehan: Go on.
Ethan McCord: We got to Iraq and you know one of the first things I noticed was that we were unwanted there. We were getting rocks thrown at us and people chanting and, you know, protests against us being there, which went against everything that I had thought I was going over there to do. You know, I thought they would be happy that I was there, you know, since I'm going to be providing the so-called freedom for them. And I quickly learned that, you know, we were unwanted. So, you know, that began to shift my personal feelings about the war, being there, within the first couple of months. Now when this incident happened in July 2007, I had just gotten there in April of 2007. So we were actually getting blown up by IEDs pretty much every day. It was a pretty volatile area.
Cindy Sheehan: Wasn't that right after the surge? Wasn't that the surge?
Ethan McCord: Yeah, we were a part of the surge.
Cindy Sheehan: Right. And tell me ________ what division did you belong to, or whatever they call that?
Ethan McCord: Yeah, I was in First Infantry Division and I was a part of Second Battalion 16th Infantry Rangers.
Cindy Sheehan: Okay. And your group was part of George Bush's surge that the Democrats supported and paid for.
Ethan McCord: Right. Yes. And originally we weren't even supposed to go to Iraq. We were supposed to be a training battalion, and our battalion commander decided that, "No, in order for me to make general I need war." So he talked to the Pentagon and ended up getting us to be part of the surge.
Cindy Sheehan: And, has he become a general?
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