A group called Iraq Veterans Against the War launched a four-day conference called Winter Soldier and told their experiences witnessing or participating directly in atrocities.

The event’s speakers presented photos, videos and documents that detailed their allegations of brutalities and possible war crimes in the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.

“This man was innocent. I don't know his name; I called him the fat man,” marine Jon Turner said. “He was walking back to his house and I shot him in front of his friend and his father. My company commander personally congratulated me. This is the same individual who said that whoever gets their first kill by stabbing them to death will get a four-day [leave] after we return from Iraq.”

Veteran Jason Hurd joined Turner and others who described similar stories.

“That happened every day in Iraq. We react out of fear, fear for our lives, and we cause complete [and] utter destruction,” Hurd said, after describing an incident of indiscriminate shooting.

One veteran directed anger at the policy makers in Washington, D.C., who placed him and his comrades in what he described as a situation that put their survival at odds with their morality.

“Until people hear what is going on, this is going to continue,” Turner said.

Opposition to the hearings comes from the group Vets for Freedom, which started a month-long tour to highlight stories of heroism from Iraq and to encourage communities to continue their support, according to Stars and Stripes.

“Did your company commander tell you to shoot women and children, or to maximize casualties?” asked Pete Hegseth, executive director and veteran of Iraq with the 101st Airborne Division. “No. We don’t do that. To talk about systematic brutality is essentially indicting the military as being complicit in war crimes.”

Perry O’Brien, a former philosophy student from Maine and army medic in Iraq, told the Times of London that he and fellow service members joined to protect the American public from facing the horrors of war.

“But I don’t think we’re protecting America if we’re not telling our stories and keeping what we do secret,” O’Brien said.

Despite worldwide coverage of the event in the United Kingdom, Australia, Croatia and other nations, no major U.S. newspaper has reported on the hearings except as local interest stories. None of the major broadcast TV networks (ABC, CBS and NBC) have mentioned the testimonies, either.

Iraq Veterans Against the War joined others, like Lt. Gen. William Odom, former director of the National Security Agency who testified to Congress last week and advocated for an immediate, fast and total withdrawal from Iraq. They also pressed for complete care for returning vets and reparations for the Iraqi people.

The veterans did not seek to condemn the military; instead, they directed the most responsibility at the chain of command and policymakers in Washington who ignored or covered up the atrocities.

Meanwhile, from the Shangri-La resort and spa in Oman Vice President Cheney spoke to ABC’s Martha Raddatz and conveyed the White House’s position on the war.

“Two-thirds of Americans say it’s not worth fighting, and they’re looking at the value gain versus the cost in American lives, certainly, and Iraqi lives,” Raddatz said.

Cheney remained indifferent at this statistic, and when Raddatz asked whether he cared about the American people, Cheney said, “No, I think you cannot be blown off course by the fluctuations in the public opinion polls.”

The issue of public opinion polls surfaced again when veteran press correspondent Helen Thomas spoke with White House press secretary Dana Perino.

“The American people are being asked to die and pay for this, and you’re saying they have no say in this war?” Thomas asked.

Eighty-one percent of Americans said that government leaders should pay attention to public opinion polls because this will help them get a sense of the public’s views, according to a new poll conducted by the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland.

“The American people have input every four years, and that’s the way our system is set up,” Perino said.

[Reach reporter Aditya Ganapathiraju at news@thedaily.washington.edu.]