I disagree. It is simply being precise. There are American losses, American military losses, American civilian losses, Iraqi military losses, Iraqi civilian losses, pro-American Iraqi civilian losses, anti-American military Iraqi losses, etc. etc. All are important data points independent of each other. It’s actually a good thing to be precise when reporting statistics so that people aren’t misled.
“3,998 American military lives have been lost in the Iraqi war” is no more offensive to me than someone saying that “250,000 Confederate soldiers died in the Civil War.” Does that mean that the 360,000 UNION soldiers who died are unimportant? No. It is simply saying that…250,000 Confederate soldiers died in the Civil War.
I agree with your example, but I disagree with your analogy. It is the government’s job to care more about its own citizens than those of other nations. However, it is my job as an ethical human being to care about all of humanity.
America was founded on slavery and genocide, and the evil of our beginnings has always shaped our nature. To a typical American, you are either an American, or an animal. Something to be exploited like cattle or killed like vermin. Or tormented for amusement.
No, people listen to us because we bomb and invade them and tell we are doing it for their own good, and pontificate about our moral superiority.
They are NOT on my side. They are my ENEMIES. They are scum. As I’ve said in the past, if I had the power to call down lightning and kill every last American soldier in Iraq I’d do it and smile.
We are in no danger of being “oppressed by the other side”. This is a war of pure aggression and greed and always has been. We are the ones doing the oppressing, and exploitation, and destruction.
They are there because we twisted the arms of their governments into sending them. The world isn’t trying to kill us because we are powerful and have nuclear weapons.
I’m an American, and I couldn’t care less whether lives lost are Americans I don’t know or Djboutians. I didn’t know anyone in the WTC attacks, and it meant the same to me as a bombing in China that killed thousands a few months after. Whether they are American or not, if I don’t know them, they’re all just faceless humans. I may be able to relate more to what American citizens go through than what an Iraqi goes through, but it doesn’t mean I care any more one way or another. To me, any life lost in the Iraq war is a stupid, senseless waste of life. I feel more anger at religious zealots who perpetrate violence than I do about people who are killed in self defense, but I care far less about the American animals who rape Iraqi women than I do about Iraqi citizens.
Ah, yes, your usual stupidity. But the beauty is that BubbaDog is correct. Like it or not all those murderous Americans in uniform DO represent you. You don’t like that? Well, that’s too bad. Of course you could rectify it. Simply move to another country and renounce your citizenship. Really. If all this killiing on your behalf—done with your tax dollars—riles you so much, man up and move out.
Oh, not enough of a man to back up your words to that degree? Okay, here are some easier things to do. Let’s call them backbone-light:
Simply refuse to pay your taxes since so much of it is going to help Amercians in unifrom kill others. April 15 is right around the corner. Why not make that the day you do the right thing?
Walk around with a sign stating you deep-seated belief that: “American Soldiers are scum. I wish them all dead.” At least if you did that people would know that “THAT GUY” has him some principles.
Of course you could just spew your ignorant, infantile hate America bullshit anonymously on a website. :rolleyes:
So whataya say, you pathetic punk? You going to go through your day allowing everyone to think that you—the real life you—supports the murderous American soldier? After all, your actions say that you do.
Ah, yes, the argument that the only way to be true to my beliefs is to do something wildly stupid and self destructive. How very convenient for you. Why don’t you show your support for the military by personally flying to Iraq and shooting and raping a few Iraqis ?
Better than being a supporter of monsters. The last thing I want is the approval of someone like you.
yeah, you know, 'cause shooting and raping random Iraqis is what ALL American soldiers are about.
:rolleyes:
But you can’t blame them, right? They were just following orders! shakes fist
Your posting on this board alone are testament to the fact that you need no encouragement whatsoever to be “wildly stupid”.
Why? As an evil American I could do those same things here. Just find me some furrniers, right? Then again, at least if I did what you suggest I could wear the uniform and represent YOU. And have YOU clothe and feed me and pay for my weapons and ammo. Hmmm, I’ll think about it.
But you ARE supporting them. Every time you pay taxes that’s bullets and guns used to kill the other guys. You keep saying you don’t support them, but your actions say you do. Sorry, big-mouthed tough guy, but thems the facts.
So, come on man. Take a stand for what you believe in. Stop the monsters. Is it too much to ask that you simply wear a sign. Guess all that killing doesn’t mean so much to you after all…
So, if I call Americans a bunch of thugs, and get beaten up for it, that proves me wrong ? You sound like someone who would beat his wife for calling him abusive, and think that proves he’s not.
You’re basically arguing that I’m right.
No, because the government prefers less violence at home.
No, it’s not “the facts”. Paying taxes doesn’t mean that I or anyone supports what they are used for. And where have I claimed to be a “tough guy” ?
Which would accomplish what ? I can’t stop the monsters, being outnumbered millions to one.
Winter Soldier | Iraq Veterans Against the War Do not imply that all the soldiers are happy with us being there. There is a growing movement of soldiers to face the evil that this kind of war brings.
Many of the soldiers don’t even understand the mission. They serve their time and protect their buddies.
Wait a minute, you never said anything about “thugs” nor did Magellan. YOU said you’d kill them all and smile, if you could.
YOU made the broad generalization that the “typical American” thinks that anyone that isn’t an American is viewed as an animal.
Magellan said you should walk around wearing a sign that said “American soldiers are scum. I wish them all dead.”
I agreed and modified the circumstances where I wished you’d wear it, precisely to ensure that you would in fact at least be harassed for your inane wishes.
At least then you would have to defend your position face to face with some of the mothers and fathers of these “worthless killers” rather than clacking away your fake moral outrage onto an internet messageboard.
I don’t think anyone’s implying that. Believe me, that kind of gun-ho idealism melts away the first time you see a firefight.
And then you revert to, as you said, “keep yourself and your buddy alive” mode.
Way back in the 80s HBO’s Not Necessarily the News satirized the whole “American lives are the important ones” meme with a news brief about a plane crash that killed 190 people. “Fortunately, there were no Americans on board.”
Oh, and are you willing to go to Iraq and tell some Iraqi parents that they should stop whining about how we killed their sons and daughters ?
And why should I assume that the parents of murderers are not murderers themselves ? I have no desire to be killed just to fulfill your little fantasy.
To paraphrase George Orwell: “The reason you are able to sleep safely in your bed at night (and sit cowardly at your computer posting this despicable tripe) is because rough men (American soldiers) stand ready to do violence in your behalf.”
If every last American soldier were killed it be very short time indeed until you were some dictator’s bitch - and while such a scenario might sound extraordinarily gratifying at first, it still would be nowhere near worth it because even one of them is worth more than a million of you.
Really, why you don’t follow magellan01’s suggestion and move to a country you don’t despise (if you can find one) and renounce your citizenship? You don’t have to get “beaten up” or anything, and it would allow you to do something more convincing than to sit impotently tapping away at your keyboard wishing death upon people fighting for a government that provides you with the freedom and safety required for you to be able to slither about your daily activities unmolested.
I’m going to sum this up in the easiest way my little military mind can:
It’s a fucking war. Civilians and soldiers die. Nobody outside of the few sickos in uniform wish to go to war or wish to kill civilians, noncombatants or in many cases, ANYONE!
We go to great pains both in terms of greater expense for weapons programs designed with limiting collateral damage being a factor to nixing certain missions because the probability of limited target value against civilian deaths is too high.
There is a CLEAR deliniation between “murderer”, which by definition implies intent and malice aforethought against a presumably innocent victim, and the deaths of civilians in a war that are unintentional.
America *has been * and *continues to be * somewhat unique in the “kindler gentler machine gun hand” approach to waging war by limiting civilian casualties and how prisoners of war are treated, outside of some instances where accidents occur (bomb goes off target…it happens) or some inmates run the asylum (Abu Ghraib).
These instances of the military “running amok” are the outliers, not the norm.
You have a very jaded, cynical and twisted view of how the US military works.
He’s not a fucking monster. He’s not saying that non-American lives are literally worth the same as the lives of animals - he’s saying that people, in general, care about what’s close to them, and hearing about people suffering thousands of miles away around the world doesn’t mean very much on a deep level to the average person. (In fact, it makes some people downright jolly - after 9/11 there were folks in the Middle East dancing in the streets and filling the air with 7.62.) I think he’s right that it’s just a natural human instinct to care more about the lives of your fellow tribesmen or countrymen.
I think all human life IS worth the same, when it comes right down to it, in theory. But not in practice. That’s just how it is with human beings.
They aren’t doing it on my behalf, and they aren’t making me safer. Rather the opposite. And I’m quite sure that they’d be just as willing to kill me as any other innocent person; they’ve proven a willingness to kill the innocent already.
Yes, because insulting people on a message board makes me SO MUCH WORSE than people who devastate countries, slaughter thousands, rape and torture. All you are doing is showing how sociopathic you are.
Exactly what WOULD our soldiers have to do to qualify as the “bad guys”, hmmmm ? Let me guess - the answer is, there’s nothing they could do. They could kill every last living thing outside the borders of America, and you’d be sneering at me for saying that makes them bad people, and how they are killing to protect me.
It is an UNJUST war. A war of pure aggression, which means it’s nothing more than mass murder and vandalism. And I’ve heard entirely too much gloating and bloodlust to believe any garbage about how restrained we are or about how we care about our victims.
Lies. We’ve always been more than a little indiscriminate about who we kill. Iraq is no exception.
And this entire war falls under the catagory of murder.
