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Thursday, January 12, 2012

Shocked, shocked!

The prurient finger-wagging going on over the Marines who were dumb enough to get caught wagging their extra fingers over some dead opponents (or victims) is pushing my ack-meter to the limit.
   Anyone involved in war on the ground knows firsthand that this is not aberrant behavior, it's common and always has been. How could it be otherwise? We train kids to be brutes, to kill, to hate whatever enemy is convenient today, yet we can't stand to see the brutal results. From the media to the pious government and military officials to Joe Six-Pack at the business end of his glass teat, it's hypocrisy of the highest order.
   What these kids are being pilloried for isn't what they did, but rather letting the folks back home find out about it in all its graphic ignominy. I'm sure this sort of behavior is no secret to the Afghans and Iraqis we've been routinely brutalizing for a decade.
   If we really hope to ensure that this doesn't happen anymore, our only choice is to get out of the war business, folks.

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2 comments:

  1. Sweet LeafJanuary 17, 2012 at 6:33 PM

    Texas Governor Perry thinks it's justified because Iraqis killed and tortured some Americans. He's criticizing anyone who suggests that this was a criminal act. I think this behavior expresses the feelings of America toward Afghanistan. We just feel uncomfortable when it is expressed honestly and caught on film.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Steven AyresJanuary 18, 2012 at 6:14 PM

    Let me be clear: We cannot allow or condone US soldiers acting like this, and we have an obligation to our own principles to punish them. My problem with it is that we do so little to ensure that our military culture firmly prevents it. Quite the opposite, it seems, and we only go after the ones who are dumb enough to get caught at it.

    ReplyDelete

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