Friday, November 19, 2004

I See Dead People...

During the last week, the "has been media" have been trying to use the recent video of a Marine shooting "an unarmed, injured Iraqi insurgent" in an ill-fated attempt to make this incident another firecracker moment to predicate another Abu Gharib event.

Let's review:

-- Insurgents, who have been killing Marines, Iraqi Police Officers, Iraqi Police Cadets, and innocent people of all kinds take hold of the city of Fallujah.
-- The Iraqi Provisional Government declares that it is time for all inside Fallujah to lay down their arms, or deadly force will be used.
--Iraqi and American Forces FINALLY are able to initiate action shortly after the US Presidential election to bring order and the seeds of peace and structure to the tired town of Falljah.
-- A very one-sided battle ensues for more than a week, during which 40+ American Marines are killed. Their deaths are reported as the result of small arms fire, explosions, and arranged ambushes -- all carried out by the insurgents that have been leaving a path of destruction in their wake.
-- One of the methods of death insurgents have been using has been to booby trap bodies, either already fallen bodies or their own, in an effort to kill more of those "invading their city." This method of death has been almost completely left out of any mainstream media reports to date.
-- A marine entering a mosque, that has been used as a make-shift bunker encounters a moving injured Iraqi that had already been shot and shoots this moving Iraqi insurgent in the head killing them.

I see dead people.

I see dead people that were warned to lay down arms, by their own government.

I see dead people that were part of a terror-circle, leaving a clear but still untold path of destruction in their wake.

I see dead people that would have thought nothing not only of shooting people in the head, with their face down, but taking their victims head with the help of a hunting knife.

I see dead people that had every chance to change the course of their future, with offerings from hundreds of thousands of people with their hands extended in assistance.

I see dead people that don't have an American Flag on their shoulder.

3 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

Bravo. Great post.

1:29 PM  
Blogger Tom Kertes said...

War and Children: War’s reality through photos of children and soldiers in Iraq.This is what I saw: US soldier kills an Iraqi insurgent in a mosque.

If you are an American who supports this war, you may only see that two soldiers were fighting, one died. Yes, given the reality of the battlefield things get murky and people are killed. War is tough, and toughest on those in battle (especially non-soldiers caught in battle).

But to an Iraqi and an Arab nationalist, the fact that the American was in a mosque in Iraq trumps the fact of war. An American was in a mosque in Iraq and he killed an insurgent who was already injured.

And to an American who is opposed to this war, what trumps the reality of war is that war’s reality was brought home. For the killed insurgent the mosque event was fatal. For the American the event looked horrible. Every time Americans can be exposed to the reality of war helps build a case against the war.

War is horrible. We need to see this. We need to be bothered by the horrors of war. Americans need to not delegate war to soldiers. If Iraq is a war for American’s freedom as Bush claims, then everyone American who supports this war should become involved directly in it. And that can start by just seeing how horrible war is.

Finally, the video of the killing does more than illustrate injustice or war’s reality – it also dangers American soldiers and weakens the American mission in Iraq. Each time Americans are shown killing, harming, torturing Iraqis we go backwards in our moral authority in the world.

Why would you care that the flag on the dead person's body was not an American flag? Both soldier and insurgent are enaged in warfare. Both have taken the role of fighter. Both are killing and being killed. I just can't think that an American life is worth more than the life of a non-American.

War and Children: War’s reality through photos of children and soldiers in Iraq.

3:35 PM  
Blogger Mike Wilkerson - 2GuysTalking said...

To comment to Tom's posted comment:

Tom writes:
"If you are an American who supports this war, you may only see that two soldiers were fighting, one died. Yes, given the reality of the battlefield things get murky and people are killed. War is tough, and toughest on those in battle (especially non-soldiers caught in battle)."

All occupants were informed, by their government in a variety of forms, that the city would be retaken by military force. That is the reason why not only the US waited to retake the city of Fallujah and to put an end to the (already found) slaughter houses, the rampant disorder, and the killing of the same innocent people you're talking about "because they wanted to be able to make decisions for themselves."

It looks as though even Zarquoi took a note about the forces that were coming and bailed.

Tom continues:
"But to an Iraqi and an Arab nationalist, the fact that the American was in a mosque in Iraq trumps the fact of war."

Even the Iraqi government condemns the use of holy facilities use as a base of operations for military strife. It's well documented, and their own government has issued three decrees to stop doing it. They don't. If two men, one that is muslim, and the other an American serviceman, are standing in a mosque, each with a rifle/potential to end the others life, you're saying that the American should stand there and be killed? It's a WAR Tom. There are rules that we as a country use, that the enemy doesn't and it costs lives.

Remember the two chapels in the Twin Towers in New York?

That surely didn't stop/prevent any of the terrorists from flying planes into them because of some "mythos" about it being "holy ground."


Tom continues: "An American was in a mosque in Iraq and he killed an insurgent who was already injured."

He killed a man, that was fighting from a place where he thought no one would enter or return fire from. You're telling me that taking potshots out of the window of a mosque is "ok", but when that man's life is taken in a war it's not? What about the lives he may have taken shooting from the mosque?

Tom continues: "And to an American who is opposed to this war, what trumps the reality of war is that war’s reality was brought home. For the killed insurgent the mosque event was fatal. For the American the event looked horrible. Every time Americans can be exposed to the reality of war helps build a case against the war."

It builds a case for order, and heralds democracy.

Tom claims: "If Iraq is a war for American’s freedom as Bush claims, then everyone American who supports this war should become involved directly in it."

1.) War isn't for "America's Freedom" it's for the liberation of a country that has had a boot on it's throat for a very long time. It's to help establish an outpost in the middle east for peace, and liberty in general.

2.) Tom, everyone in America, both "for the war and against the war" IS involved directly in it. If you don't get that, look at the back of any vehicle that has a yellow ribbon on it, on the face of anyone reading a newspaper, television or the internet, and you'll see involvement, You'll note that there is a significant sense of pride that comes from giving a serviceman a very hearty "thank you for serving" and I would plead that you use that.


Tom concludes: "Why would you care that the flag on the dead person's body was not an American flag? Both soldier and insurgent are enaged in warfare. Both have taken the role of fighter. Both are killing and being killed. I just can't think that an American life is worth more than the life of a non-American."

Tom, it's a war, and if you have any inclination that we're "the bad guys" something is inherantly wrong.

I don't see any terrorists creating a positive, giving environment anywhere in the world - do you?

How many humvees of sustainance are they delivering to children, because I don't see any of that.

When they are delivering a carbomb to it's target, and putting not only American lives in jeopardy" but anyone else around them in the same peril, how is that helping their country or it's population?

1:18 PM  

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