For one thing, half the guy's body is completely obscured. For all we know, he's clutching an AK in his right hand. Possibly not, but I'm inclined to give a US serviceman the benefit of the doubt over either a terrorist (which, whatever you think of attacks on US troops, is what the animals in Fallujah are--remember, these aren't your run-of-the-mill insurgents using IEDs to attack American convoys, these are the subhuman life forms that are beheading innocent civilians on video) or an NBC reporter.
Maybe. Maybe not. But its surely not too much to ask that they don't do it in front in cameras and get caught, now is it?
Tell me Alex, how much accuracy do you get shooting your AK one handed from a prone position? Just curious - I've been meaning to try alternative methods. Because squeezing the trigger with my tongue has gotten boring. Why? If we had no evidence, sure, but given what we can actually see? Your hard on for the military is reaching epic proportions. Is your dick really that small? Jesus, get over it. The army is a job, usually done by good people who make the right decisions. But just like among the general population, there are people who commit crimes. The army doesn't automatically ennoble you. You're not immune from investigation or prosecution, nor should you be.
This...is what we have become. The enemy - THE ENEMY - IS our standard. Along with Bush and Blair employing ends justifies the means reasoning to defeating an enemy over whom our moral-societal superiority rests with choosing means - i.e., lawful resolution - over ends - i.e., "terror" - this is the beginning and the end of the truth of the Neocon Age and its concomitant values. It has nothing to share with the world other than an actual moral disspation that is only transcended by "might makes right." What an ABSOLUTE FAILURE of the Great Experiment, the Wondrous Possibility, that was the best of America. Welcome to the Age of...well, of Darkness and Force. Horkheimer and Adorno submit that the very science and technology produced by the 18th century enlightenment would over time produce its opposite. Maybe they are right. Now here come the folks who rail, in their skyscraped settings, against the notion that it can be THAT bad, simply b/c it's NOT that bad for THEM. Before you bother, ******** off.
Of course we do. The army commanded by its civilian leaders. The moment we lose our ability to monitor the army is our first step to fascism. (No, I'm not arguing it has happened under Bush or is likely to happen under Bush.)
To be fair, its not her fault. I do have that effect on Dutch women. I'm thinking about getting a restraining order against Famke Janssen. Sure, the first time she showed up at my apartment wearing nothing but clogs it was cool, but really, at a client dinner? Dutch people just don't understand boundaries.
ROFL!!! Seriously ... what's it like, being mentally handicapped?? That is the worst, the most idiotic, purile and ridiculous post that has ever been committd to cyberspace. Congratulations. EDIT: Still marvelling at stupidity - another point: you can add "inaccurate" to the list of regrettable qualities that post has, given that the US Army's actions in Iraq have nothing to do with my liberty (let alone it's continued assurance).
Everyone is entitled to an opinion. Some opinions are beter informed than others but that's not quite the same thing is it.
Uh, last time I looked, the idea was to kill the enemy, not run and hide. Perhaps the biggest difference in this war is the fact the terrorists don't behave like soldiers, they behave like terrorists. They dress like innocent civilians, hide in hospitals, use "holy mosques" as cover, use women and children as human shields, etc., etc. Not exactly what the Geneva Accords directed combatants to do. As a US soldier, after you have dealt with that for a few months, you might tend to get a little jaded trying to deal with an enemy who disregards all the rules of engagement. It is too easy to sit in front of your monitor and say what should be done when the biggest challenge facing is whether you have time to finish this post before you have to go to the restroom because you have been drinking too much coffee.
Well, that would lead to the always productive "But Mom, he did it first!" resolution of the problem.
Doesn't matter. First, if the guy's armed, he's armed. Second, if he tries to shoot one person and misses wildly, there still exists the possibility he could hit someone he wasn't aiming at. I'm not saying that there shouldn't be an investigation. I'm saying that "innocent until proven guilty" doesn't just apply to terrorists at Gitmo or Johnny Walker. The one thing we know for a fact about this case is that we're only seeing a very small portion of the evidence. Ever seen "Rules of Engagement"?
Army was given a goal... eliminate insurgents with least risk to American soldiers. THAT IS GOAL IN IRAQ NOW. Army is meeting that goal in the best way it can... Insurgents have no uniforms, use guerilla tactics, and are threatening even when subdued or otherwise incapacitated. Examples of this are many: booby-trapped bodies, mines on classroom doors, etc. So you see one example on video of something that looks inappropriate and you are perfectly willing to suspend reality and condemn a soldier based solely uopn what you see on that video (divorced from reality and actual surrounding events that may in fact have contributed toward soldier's actions)! Nicephoras: Your statement on "fascism" reveals your complete lack of understanding... If everything else were equal and shooting an injured insurgent was in fact what this soldier is charged with; I would in fact give this soldier a medal for being cautious and wide awake! You think the insurgent would treat our soldier with respect and Geneva Code honor if the positions were reversed? Are you as "ashamed" about the insurgents using road-side bombs which mutilate our soldiers?
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/lo...6nov16,0,19927.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines Wrong. Zarqawi's men mostly left. I would like to add, and that's something everyone not sucking Bush's ******** predicted. This was a stupid, pointless attack symbolizing this stupid pointless war.
Right, and we're dropping 500 pound bombs onto a city under occupation. I feel alot of anguish at my growing realization that we're acting in a manner less moral than the homegrown* insurgents. *I made this distinction before and nobody got it. I put in a, um, footnote, so there's no excuse this time.
Mel, are you trying to save my soul, or what? First it was the "priests" rant, now it's you going off on the fact that, in this "new" war, sometimes we have to fight with "new" rules. You actually bring quite a bit to the boards, but your perceived position of moral authority is somewhat annoying. I am almost hate to tell you I subscribe to the "kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out" theory. The only thing this enemy understands is brutal force. Nothing less will get their attention. If that means that US servicemen soak their bullets in pigs' blood, so be it. This enemy has said that, to them, there is no difference between a civilians and soldiers. If anything, the US should be commended for letting all the civilians that could get out. I'm sure they would not do the same for us. If you feel encouraged to comment on my morality (or my perceived lack of it, by you), feel free. Just realize that I don't feel any real need to be "saved" since I don't feel my stance on these issues is something I need to be "saved" from.
A big reason we're losing this war is that our president seems to, like you, make the mistake of using the singular here, rather than the plural.
Whooooosh! The camera doesn't lie, Alex. On prima facie evidence, the guy's guilty. Your refusal to accept that our army may have criminals is bizzare. Yes, and its a movie. This is not. Am I saying that he should be on death row now? No. But the likelihood is, he's guilty of doing something rather inhumane. There's nothing wrong in admitting our army's not made up of angels. We wouldn't want it to be.
What makes you think that Zarqawi's minions are all foreigners? Also, with the exception of those who are important enough to personally be on wanted list, I'd say it's pretty damn hard to distinguish between Iraqi dead and Jordanian/Saudi/Yemeni/etc. dead, especially when I would imagine most of the foreign dead aren't carrying anything identifying them as foreigners (pure speculation on my part, but if I was one of them, I wouldn't--that way, if I was stopped at a roadblock by US troops and forgot to bring my suicide vest to work that morning, I could just say I'm an Iraqi). I'd figured we'd had everything coming into and out of Fallujah sealed off for some time, couldn't tell you why we didn't.