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Quote by: rdnor I do not understand the willingness to believe that our military is evil, unless you are supporting the other side(s). |
It's not necessary to believe that our military is evil, rdnor, simply human. Do you deny that the abuses at Abu Ghraib happened? No one was suggesting that our military was evil because of it, simply flawed. One side argued that it was just an isolated group of ne'r do wells, I argued that it was simply some poor dumb National Guard slobs doing what thought they were supposed to be doing with absolutely no training and no supervision.... human error due to bad planning and policy.
I'm not saying the military is lying, I'm not saying they're not. All I know is that it's entirely possible this may be a case of simply the wrong leader making the wrong decision at the wrong time. And gawd knows our troops are over-extended, worn out and frustrated. After all, My Lai happened under similar circumstances, it doesn't mean that our military in Vietnam was 'evil'.
According to the Pentagon's
own report, our military is nearing the breaking point. This could... IF it happened... be a sign of our troops reaching that point.
I noted on an NPR interview with
Karen Hughes, Bushes spin meister, the rather ham-handed way the military is going about dealing with this. I almost laughed listening to two officers discussing just the right phrasing of the message, "The U.S. military does not target civilians.", as if, if it just sounds sincere enough, a blanket denial will be sufficient, despite the highly detailed descriptions by witnesses of what happened.
The military has been involved in way to many FUBARS to simply blow this off with a press release sound bite. They need to let the press all over the site, and to hold a serious and hi-profile investigation. I'm sure they'll hate it, but at this point, nothing less is going to satisfy Iraqis - and a Muslim world - already inclined to believe the worst.
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Quote by: rdnor The real dumbshits are the ones that think that if we are nice to the radical muslims that they will like us . What we have in Iraq is a golden opportunity to eliminate terrorists . |
and create a whole lot more. Becoming a bunch of ruthless storm-troopers didn't help the Nazis in WWII and it sure won't help us here.
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