dre2xl - thank God you appeared I was reading through the thread and wondering if anyone would ever stop to think what sort of sense of humour the military fosters.
Sick in a kind of South Park way probably understates it - as a necessary defense mechanism. Having spent some time around my brothers ex-para buddies as soon as I saw the offensive sign, the smiles and the thumbs up it just shouted “genuine” at me.
Now marine is going to be that cheesy about doing anything “good”.
I found it funny too - but as you say now some poor fucker if for it if the conclusion it is genuine is accepted by the military. If I were them I would claim it was fake and stick to it - I mean I hate this War with a vengence but my beef stays with Bush until War Crimes start appearing on the ground.
I have no time for anyone having a go a simple squaddies for letting off some energy sick as it seems to us here at home.
He didn’t spend a lot of time on it, either, since the the “F” is recognizable at a glance as part of the “B” from “Boudreaux”, the and he copied “x” from “Boudreaux” too, including the grease-spot from the surrounding area.
notquitekarpov – I agree 100% with what you said. I grew up in a military family and I too know the kind of humor they develop, a defense mechanism is a good way to put it. Bush and the US military in general is on the defensive about their treatment of civilians and POWs, and that’s why all the OP’s Republican friends are trying to write it off as a fake.
Most people simply don’t understand how these kinds of conditions can develop a warped sense of humor, and because of that, this poor guy will probably be kicked out of the military for political reasons over a relatively innocent joke.
Larry Mudd: mea culpa. At the time, I was reading and posting in Lynx, so I didn’t see the pictures, so I didn’t/couldn’t verify that the “nice” pictures came in more than 1 version.
Off-topic, but another tidbit: I’ve also heard that they collect camel spiders, starve the spiders for 2-3 days, and have contests where they bet on whose camel spider kills & eats the other camel spider. No cite on that though, just tossing something interesting in here.
Actually the wording in the “saved” version isn’t all that odd, especially if the kid does know English. Rather than the sign being a narrative, it is actually a commendation of the soldier for having his priorities straight. Obviously, the soldier showed proper sensitivity to Muslim sensibilities by first saving the father, and then rescuing the less important sister. :rolleyes:
It’s also possible that the father had suffered a grievous injury that had to be treated right now, before rescuing the sister who may have simply been trapped in debris but not in any imminent danger.
I passed the photos around the office today, The Saudis had never seen them.
We came up with a unique idea. Both images are faked.
Someone found this Marine’s photo on the net and blanked out whatever original message there was. He then produced two version. Since one person did both images, the two are so close you cannot tell the real from the fake.
I recognise the kid holding the sign from a BBC news report. Him and his friend befriended this group of American soldiers (who nickname him ‘Barney’), he learnt rudimentary but functional English (including many obscentities) from them, though I highly doubt he could either read or write it.
I should say that I don’t blame this Boudreaux guy. He probably joined the military to defend his country. NOT to get shipped off to Iraq for reasons that were always highly suspect (remember the huge stockpiles of WMD’s that Iraq was supposed to have?), plus the soldiers’ tour of duty keeps getting extended, and they’re getting shot at and bombed on a near-daily basis.
Until we start hearing reports of them doing stuff like blowing up people’s houses and running over protesters with tanks, I’m laying my anger at the feet of our fearless leader, the prez.
It’s my belief that the photo is NOT a fake, the soldiers taught the boys to say things like “I f— your mother”, etc. and just about every senetnce of English that these boys uttered contained the F-word. The sign in the second picture looks more unliekly than the one in the first pictur. HOWEVER the soldiers were very fond of these two boys and there was certianly no malice towards them and I find it unlikely in the extreme that the sign was anything other than a joke.
I remember about 30 years ago, when the Minnesota Twins baseball team imported a player from Puerto Rico who spoke almost no English. He played 3rd base, next to an umpite, and his fellow players told him he should always greet the umpire politely, and they ‘helpedl’ him memorize some English phrases to say. Like:
“Good morning, f*** you very much.”
“Is beautiful day to sleep with your mother.”
“I hope you f*** up your calls today just like yesterday.”
Luckily, the umpires knew that Zoilo didn’t speak much English, and quickly figured out what was going on. And they weren’t insulted; they found it real funny.
I just opened up the two images in gimp (photoshop like prorgam) and decided to look around to see how well it was photoshopped. The only thing that cought my attention and is leading me to believe that the unoffensive one is real, is if you zoom in on <a href=“http://www.cair-net.org/images/lcpl11.jpg”>this one</a> then between the “knocked” and “up” words, you can see the remanents of what should be the my from “resuced my sister”
After reviewing everything yet again, I’m willing to bet hard money the offensive one is original.
Incidentally, the Snopes article on the subject has Bourdeaux’s commander during the mission saying it was a poor attempt at humor. And perusing through my father’s Vietnam scrapbook, I must say that the picture seems pretty consistent with military humor, unless things have drastically changed since then.
The Arabic alphabit is much more ornate, and requires more precision than our alphabet. I would guess it’s quite easy to write in English from Arabic. To further prove my point, the vast majority of Chinese and Japanese people I know have superb handwriting.
I was going to say something about that Snopes article, but pulykamell beat me to it. They’re still calling it “Undetermined,” but it looks like Boudreaux’s commanding officer has confirmed that the offensive version is real, and that our boy the corporal is in troulble over it.
Unfortunately, vibrotronica, that cite contains no real information. Of course the photo has been altered… We’ve known that since the first post of this thread. The question is not whether the photo has been altered, but which one is the original.
Point taken, Chronos, but I had asked earlier (either in this thread or the one in the Pit) what Boudreaux was claiming. When I found the answer (or non-answer), I posted it.
I found this link over at MeFi. Some quotes from the article:
“Gustafson” is Boudreux’s mom. She has not been able to produce the email in question, however, claiming her computer was fried in an electrical storm. There may be a bona fide original still in existence, however:
So some kind of definitive answer could be out there. If the kid still has the original, why not make the email available, along with time stamp, routing information, etc., if it exhonorates his uncle?
Here’s what the Marine in question has to say:
I’m still in the “undecided, but leaning towards authentic” camp.
