Iraq war veterans speak out about atrocities.

Antiwar veterans of the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan took their case to Capitol Hill Thursday, baring their souls with stories of killings of innocent civilians, torture, and wrongful detentions.

“On several occasions our convoys came upon bodies that had been lying on the road, sometimes for weeks,” said Marine Corps veteran Vincent Emanuele, who served in al-Qaim near the Syrian border in 2004 and 2005.

“When encountering these bodies standard procedure was to run over the corpses, sometimes even stopping and taking pictures, which was also standard practice when encountering the dead in Iraq,” he told the Congressional Progressive Caucus, which organized the hearing.

Emanuele also said that U.S. military personnel often took “pot shots” at cars passing by.

“Our rules of engagement stated that we should first fire warning shots into the ground in front of the car, then the engine block, and the windshield. That is if the car was even moving in the first place,” he said. “Many times cars that actually had pulled off to the side of the road were also shot at.”

With the heat coming from this political season we often seem to forget that there are Americans who are over in Iraq being placed in situations that steal their very humanity.

And every day they are in that place the rest of the world is losing more and more respect for our great nation. We may still be having a debate in this county about whether the war was necessary or not, but in the rest of the world the verdict is already in and we are seen as invaders.

So having a choice between John McCain who mistakenly believes that this conflict can still be won militarily and then be justified to the world, or Barack Obama who recognizes it was always a mistake and we can only start the international healing after removing our troops, I think the choice is pretty clear for the educated voter.

Only Obama can send a message to the Middle East that things have really changed in Washington. His very appearance and demeanor will allow many to see America through fresh eyes.

And by the way as long as we have our military in Iraq, under fire, we will continue to have more stories like this trickling out. We will never convince the Iraqis that we can be their friends as long as we continue to serve as their conquerors and demonstrate this level of disrespect.