Of course not; they do deserve it.
It means that I’m not going to dedicate my life to charity, or crawl on broken glass to save someone; that’s heroic. I am unwilling to murder upon orders; if that means I’m more heroic than most people, it doesn’t mean I’m all that noble, but that most people are amoral.
:rolleyes:
-XT
Eloquent and detailed as always.
Can someone direct me to a blog by a US/Coalition soldier where they talk about what went on when they realised there were no WMD.
And there were orders to torture. And Iraq was in no way or form any threat to the US. And the iraqis had nothing whatsoever to do with 9/11. And there was no sheltering and harbouring of ‘terrorists’.
Because I’m trying real hard to sympathise with the US soldier here. But all I’ve heard over the years are 2 things:
Yahoo we’re the best let’s kill ragheads.
Resounding fucking silence and no , “yes the Liberals had it right and my leadership are a bagload of scum-sucking liars.”
As you may imagine these charming dialogues have coloured my impressions somewhat.
Now I’m all open to believe there is some shred of worthiness to be found in your serving US soldier in Iraq. All open. What I want to see is some evidence.
Too much to ask?
This not being the Pit, not much I could say. Oh wait! Here ya go…
-XT
Hmmm… has anybody ever seen Der Trihs and Phred Phelps at the same time? :dubious:
Well, for those few who have not fallen beneath the withering gaze of DT’s wishes - Good News Everybody.
GOP Sets Up fund for Victory Parade
The good news? With compound interest this little nest egg should see world poverty and the national debt taken care of.
Shame no-one had the foresight to set up a Victory in Vietnam or the War on Drugs Has Been Won fund.
Maybe they’ll have it on an aircraft carrier.
Nah - aircraft carriers would have gone the way of Ironclads by then.
Frontline had a program on Afghanistan yesterday. The Talliban is coming back and is backed by it’s neighbors. We have no friends there. We are doomed. Declare victory over te Bathists and bring our troops home in 60 days.
So, you’d condemn to death the American soldiers who’ve served in Iraq, if you could?
Nothing like answering the violent radicalism of the far right with the violent radicalism of a (fortunately essentially nonexistent) far left.
That’s not “far left”. I’m far left. That’s nuts.
Why is wishing for the destruction of an invading army “nuts” ? Is it because it’s an American invading army ? If the Iraqis managed to kill them and free their country, would that make them “nuts” ? If we did the same to a country that conquered us, would we be “nuts” ?
Iraq pulls police brigade out of service
Quis custodiet custodes ipsos?
You’re confusing ‘kill or be killed’ with ‘sitting in omnipotent judgment’. That the people of a nation would fight off an army invading them, tooth and nail, is perfectly rational, even though rationality would have little to do with their visceral response.
That you would, from your safe perch, be willing to put to death every last member of that army, is no less than sociopathic.
I think you make this more ethically complicated than it is. We invaded them, without provocation, nor were we in danger from them. We have wrecked their country, slaughtered them by the tens of thousands, let loose the fanatics and criminals among them to run rampant, and in general done a good job of turning Iraq into Hell. I am condemning our soldiers in Iraq because of what they have done. Not soldiers in general, not even all American soldiers - just the ones in Iraq. By being there, by participating in or enabling our brutality and murder and destructing, they condemn themselves.
Do you think it’s wrong to condemn everyone in Al Qaeda for 9-11 as well ? Should all Stalinists be blamed for the gulags, all Nazis for the camps ? Yes, just as all our soldiers in Iraq deserve blame for what has been done there. “Just following orders” is not an excuse. Nor do I think that it’s all that hard to grasp that the mass murder of innocents is bad.