I am posting a very gruesome picture which is but one of the photos that every citizen of the USA should see. Then every decent (and there are indeed very many who are not) USA citizen should demand that the perpetrators, along Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and the rest of those who lied the country into an illegal war and tried to cover up the atrocities, be tried for war crimes. (I of course understand that justice will never be visited upon Bush et al, at least through traditional means, and they will no doubt enjoy a comfortable retirement.) What could possibly motivate a USA military personnel, and human being, to bind children as young as seven months, shoot them in the head, then burn the building in which the atrocity was committed in attempt to hide the evidence?
I believe the answer is that there are a significant number of bigoted USA troops who think of Iraqis as rag headed Muslims and who believe they are doing their Christian duty in killing Muslims.
There are now reports of four such atrocities committed by USA a troops. No wonder the Muslim world hates us.The photo above was copied from the Raw Story web site.
7 comments:
To blame the soldiers for what happened in Iraq is as bad as blaming them and spitting on them when they returned from Viet Nam. Atrocities like this are a part of war. That is why it is important to understand what happens in war - before you declare it!
When soldiers go into war they are brain fed to hate. If they are not, they get killed on a hesitating moment. Sometimes this hate ingrains more in one soldier than another - and bad things happen. .......There is also a brotherhood that developes between soldiers - almost a weird love. That too is an absolute requirement. This brotherhood has dire consequences at times when one of the brothers is killed. Sometimes these kids - and make no mistake they are kids as those are the formidable ones - react in ways that they will have to live with for the rest of their lives.
I hate this war with a passion very few people have because it has so many terrible consequences; you mentioned one, but the consequences to Americans and their families is equally as awful. To start blaming soldiers as "bigoted USA troops........who believe they are doing their Christian duty in killing Musims" accomplishes nothing but to foster hate. Some 75% of American troops think we need to get out of Iraq. Place the blame where it deserves. Those butthead idealoges in the White House who are foaming at the mouth!!
NL
NL,
Nice to hear from you. I assure you that I do blame the “chicken hawk” New American Centurions, within and without the Bush administration, who got what they wanted after agitating for years for the conquering of Iraq. As I’ve repeatedly stated, I think they should be tried in an international court for their war crimes.
However, I also blame any human, whether a soldier or not, who wantonly murders children and other noncombatants and believe each who does should be held to account. There is no excuse. Many of the soldiers are indeed “children” but they are children who are old enough to know it is always wrong to intentionally kill noncombatants; and, if they don’t know that, they most assuredly know that one does not shoot children. The only explanation is that those who shoot children consider those children to be less than human.
Just like during the Vietnam war our less enlightened military personnel, including commanders, called the Vietnamese gooks; soldiers during WWII refers to the Japanese as Nips; and soldiers during our various Latin American campaigns referred to the locals as monkeys; our more unenlightened US troops in Iraq refer to Iraqis as hajis. And let’s not forget that upon the founding of our nation neither Native Americans nor African Americans were considered to be humans under the Constitution.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/frontpage/story/0,,1790550,00.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1789986,00.html
I understand and sympathize with the point you make but I honestly believe that many US troops are bigots, probably in higher proportion bigots represent in the population at large. And I believe that there are significant numbers of troops who view their work in Iraq as a holy war. But each US colonial war has been a holy war, from the Pilgrims desire to establish a “City on the Hill” to the Indian and Banana wars driven by the concept that European Christian were manifestly destined to civilize the gooks, nips, monkey, hajis, and etc.. Such is engrained in our culture, or lack thereof.
Do you think all hatred is race related! How then do you explain away the hatreds and atrocities endured during our own civil war when brother shot against brother? Or any civil war where neighbors are shooting neighbors and brothers are shooting brothers? Or for that matter how do you explain away when Sunni are shooting at Shia when family members are intermarried?
Do you think that shiites who shoot at Sunni think them to be less than human? How about during the ciivil war when brother shot brother - did they think the other to be sub human? Of course not! It is hatred. Hatred fostered and nurchered by the people who lead those men and boys into battle.
I had dinner the other night with a group of people and later in the evening one good friend and I discussed the similiarites between Viet Nam and Iraq. He had tears in his eyes as he discussed Viet Nam. Almost 40 years after that war and he still breaks down when talking about it. What about the American soldiers who are not "hate filled Christain zealots"? We now have 2500 dead Americans. 18,000 permanently messed up medically and untold men and boys who will cry in 40 years remembering back to what they did. Did because they were told to DO IT!
Christian zealots are too meak and cowardly to go to war! Your hatred and disgust at the atrocities in Iraq are completely misplaced. Use your energy and hatred for those who deserve it.
NL
NL,
I honestly do not believe that I expressed any hate. I expressed what I believe to be truth. Just as there are hateful bigots in USA society at large there are hateful bigots in the services.
You’re Civil War analogy of brother shooting brother does not hold up when one considers that the brothers were combatants. Within my limited readings of Civil War history I do not recall reading of either Federal or Confederate troops wantonly murdering children, as was done in the Indian, Vietnam, Korean, and Iraq wars.
Further I have never stated that all USA service persons are bigots. Most are honorable, ethical human beings that do not engage in atrocious acts against noncombatants. Very many have committed heroic acts. But that does not mean that we should not condemn those who commit inhuman and inhumane acts. How far down the chain of command should folks be held responsible for their inhuman acts?
I do not remember the recently deceased fellow’s name who landed his helicopter in the mist of the Mai Ly massacre of noncombatants, including children, and ordered his machine gunner to train his weapon on the American troops committing atrocities and rescued a wounded child from a roadside ditch, but he is a true American hero. He knew where the line was and he threatened to kill out of control USA troops so that he would not cross that line.
Maybe not hate - but disgust for those who get wrapped up in the ugliness of war.
How about the people in Hiroshema or Nagawshaki (sorry about the spelling)? Were the hundreds of thousands killed by that nuclear device not innocent women and children? .......Your picture of the child killed was obvious to make a point - a point that I believe is extremely judgemental and wrongly placed.
Wars are ugly inhuman affairs filled with unmentionable atrocities - the civil war included! Before going into battle, troops are spoon fed propaganda to "learn" to hate the enemy. Soldiers going to Iraq are told of the atrocities committed by the Iraqies - rape of our women soldiers, mutilation if captured etc. The initial invasion into Iraq was under the constant threat of "chemical weapons". Remember those? The soldiers believed daily they would be poisened and put their mask on over and over again on any day. Put another way, the very first casualty of war is the truth! And you expect these kids after being spoon fed this hate and propaganda to always make the right decision - especially under the stress of war when one of their brothers gets blowen to bits?
For every picture you are able to post of a really ugly event, our leaders can post 100 of beheadings or Iraq atrocities far worse than your baby wrapped in a blanket. You get caught up in THEIR game and you will lose. We all lose. We lose because Americans will get turned off by the wrongly placed critisim.
Soldiers aren't crusaders killing babies because they think they are subhuman. If you want to end the war - put up pictures of soldiers with arms blown off - or guts hanging out if you need really gross pictures. Or just coffins. Do that and then the American people will demand an end to this insane war. When you put up sadistic pictures of dead babies that you think are killed by bigoted soldiers you shame all soldiers. Here is what you said;
"I believe the answer is that there are a significant number of bigoted USA troops who think of Iraqis as rag headed Muslims and who believe they are doing their Christian duty in killing Muslims."
After the insane atrocities committed by Iraqi's, you come up with this conclusion? It is wrong. They are all - and I mean ALL - a result of the decision to go to war. I urge you again place the blame where it is deserved.
NL
I appreicate your opinion. I think we've both made our points so I wil leave it at that.
I may be a little late in joining this discussion, however, I'd like to add another perspective as I just read these posts.
There are three simple points that I would like to make:
One, every human being should be held responsible for their actions whether they are in combat or not. Although, to "you know me" I would like to say that it's awful convenient that you laud the helicopter pilot in Vietnam as a hero while condemning US soldiers in Iraq as "bigoted USA troops ... doing their Christian duty in killing Muslims." While I don't believe you have to have experienced something to criticize it, you've clearly never been in combat and are far too lacking in perspective to make such a crass generalization about US troops in Iraq.
Secondly, just a simple point of order, but I saw that "you know me" wrote: "You’re Civil War analogy of brother shooting brother does not hold up when one considers that the brothers were combatants. Within my limited readings of Civil War history I do not recall reading of either Federal or Confederate troops wantonly murdering children, as was done in the Indian, Vietnam, Korean, and Iraq wars."
Your readings of the Civil War (and war in general) are very limited indeed, if you are not aware of the number of women and children who were maliciously murdered in that war (as well as nearly every human war that has ever taken place). Additionally, if your point there was to differentiate between combatants and non-combatants, as a combat veteran myself, perhaps I can enlighten you in this area. It is EXTREMELY difficult, particularly in a modern, urban combat environment, to distinguish between combatant and non-combatant. How successful might you have been at getting it right every time?
Thirdly, if your answer to all of this is that such troops shouldn't have been in the military in the first place or shouldn't even be in a position to make such terrible errors, I ask you then - who should be? You? Nobody?
John Stuart Mill, a great thinker of the 19th century, said, "War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."
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