'Screw Them' (A leftie blogger/Demo fav reacts to Fallujah victims)

Best of the Web - Opinion Journal ^ | 04-02-04 | JAMES TARANTO

[veronica]

Let the people see what war is like. This isn't an Xbox game. There are real repercussions to Bush's folly.

That said, I feel nothing over the death of merceneries [sic]. They aren't in Iraq because of orders, or because they are there trying to help the people make Iraq a better place. They are there to wage war for profit. Screw them.

[TexasCajun]

What a moron this guys is. Wasn't the convoy delivering food for the Iraqi people?

[WilliamofCarmichael]

Remember those "I hope the war is a disaster, it will help the Democrats" comments from the likes of Democrat stalwarts like Ellen Ratner and salon's Gary Kamiya?

http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=30414 you may have to use google cache

Mr. Farah refers to Fox News Channel's "Your World" Dec. 28, 2002

"Ratner, it should be noted, recently stated on Fox News Channel's "Your World" that she hopes President Bush messes up the war so he won't be re-elected in 2004." [end excerpt]

I don't know if there is a way to "mess up a war" without American men and women being killed.

Or how about Gary Kamiya of salon.com, April 11, 2003

"I have a confession: I have at times, as the war has unfolded, secretly wished for things to go wrong. Wished for the Iraqis to be more nationalistic, to resist longer. Wished for the Arab world to rise up in rage. Wished for all the things we feared would happen. I'm not alone: A number of serious, intelligent, morally sensitive people who oppose the war have told me they have had identical feelings." [end excerpt]

To be fair at least he is honest. It's his friends, the "serious, intelligent, morally sensitive people" that require attention. They probably got off on Fallujah.

In a letter to the editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, a Bay area Rat says that some things are worth the lives of other people's sons and daughters:

"The constant loss of U.S. soldiers in Iraq--after the war is 'won'--is a tragedy. However, if this is what it takes to retire the Bush administration at the next election, the sacrifice is justified." [end excerpt]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/07/11/ED272984.DTL

The letter was referenced by JAMES TARANTO Friday, July 11, 2003

I don't have the brightest pixels here but I suspect what we got here is more than just disagreement over the "issue" of national defense. We got us a very, very serious situation.

[sauropod]

Ummm Hmmmm....

BTW, how'rya doin? < Hon;-)>

[Free ThinkerNY]

You are the enemy within. We need to cut traitors like you out like a cancer. As this war gets worse, we will. The only ones crying will be you and your IslamiNazi friends.

[sarasmom]

Excuse me, while I take a shower.
Anyone have this individuals coordinates?

[TomB]

Disagree with him all you want, but at least get your facts straight.

Leaving aside your stupidity involving the term "mercenaries", you are the one who needs to get his "facts straight".

Here is what you say is a link to his "original diary entry".

It bears little resemblance to the original blog entry.

[veronica]

PURE HATE is what drives the left these days. HATE for Bush - HATE for America and HATE for Israel btw, as well.

That is why they and their Demo friends must be kept out of power. GO BUSH...!!!!!

[BushisTheMan]

Today he has changed his tune.

Mercenaries, war, and my childhood
by kos
Fri Apr 2nd, 2004 at 17:57:39 GMT

There's been much ado about my indifference to the Mercenary deaths in Falluja a couple days ago. I wrote in some diary comments somewhere that "I felt nothing" and "screw them".

My language was harsh, and, in reality, not true. Fact is, I did feel something. That's why I was so angry.

I was angry that five soldiers -- the real heroes in my mind -- were killed the same day and got far lower billing in the newscasts. I was angry that 51 American soldiers paid the ultimate price for Bush's folly in Iraq in March alone. I was angry that these mercenaries make more in a day than our brave men and women in uniform make in an entire month. I was angry that the US is funding private armies, paying them $30,000 per soldier, per month, while the Bush administration tries to cut our soldiers' hazard pay. I was angry that these mercenaries would leave their wives and children behind to enter a war zone on their own violition.

So I struck back.

Unlike the vast majority of people in this country, I actually grew up in a war zone. I witnessed communist guerillas execute students accused of being government collaborators. I was 8 years old, and I remember stepping over a dead body, warm blood flowing from a fresh wound. Dodging bullets while at market. I lived in the midsts of hate the likes of which most of you will never understand (Clinton and Bush hatred is nothing compared to that generated when people kill each other for politics or race or nationality). There's no way I could ever describe the ways this experience colors my worldview.

Back to Iraq, our men and women in uniform are there under orders, trying to make the best of an impossible situation. The war is not their fault, and I will always defend their honor and bravery to the end of my days. But the mercenary is a whole different deal. They willingly enter a war zone, and do so because of the paycheck. They're not there for humanitarian reasons (I doubt they'd donate half their paycheck to the Red Cross or whatever). They're there because the money is DAMN good. They answer to no one except their CEO. They are dangerous, hence international efforts (however fruitless they may be) to ban their use.

So not only was I wrong to say I felt nothing over their deaths, I was lying. I felt way too much. Nobody deserves to die. But in the greater scheme of things, there are a lot of greater tragedies going on in Iraq (51 last month, plus countless civilians and Iraqi police). That those tragedies are essentially ignored these days is, ultimately, the greatest tragedy of all.

[veronica]

So not only was I wrong to say I felt nothing over their deaths, I was lying. I felt way too much. Nobody deserves to die. But in the greater scheme of things, there are a lot of greater tragedies going on in Iraq (51 last month, plus countless civilians and Iraqi police). That those tragedies are essentially ignored these days is, ultimately, the greatest tragedy of all.

Wrong, buddy-boy.

Some people deserve to die. Like Yassin, and Bin Laden, and Al-Zawahiri. Another thing the left cannot seem to get these days - the difference between good and evil.

[BossLady]

Why does this idiot think the guys who were killed were mercenaries?

I heard the mother of one of the victims say yesterday that her son had been in the military (Special Forces or something of that nature), had been the bodyguard to an American politico there but went back to help out the people there......doesn't sound like a mercenary to me....

[atomicpossum]

Interesting to see the cancer that festers inside some people bred by their hatred of Bush.

Like Islam is the 'religion of peace,' Liberalism is equally the 'compassionate' political view...

[TomB]

I heard the mother of one of the victims say yesterday that her son had been in the military (Special Forces or something of that nature), had been the bodyguard to an American politico there but went back to help out the people there......doesn't sound like a mercenary to me....

Apparently to the left, if you are in Iraq, armed, and are not part of the military, you are a mercenary.

[BossLady]

LOL... a Lawyer calling other people mercenaries.....HAHAHAHAHA!

[veronica]

They are totally animated by their hatred of Bush. We didn't like Bubba but it was not on this scale. Their hatred of Bush (which in the first place is so misplaced and unconnected to reality) is so intense, that they side with Saddam and against brave Americans in Iraq trying to do good. I can only hope their agony will come on November 3rd, when Bush is reelected. Ha.

[L.N. Smithee]

Well, well, well. A high-ranking Democratic operative that says, 'Screw the dead.'

He's just bought himself a peck of trouble.

[Cloud William]

Apparently to the left, if you are in Iraq, armed, and are not part of the military, you are a mercenary.

I reckon Geraldo was a mercenary too, back when he was packing heat in Afghanistan.

[alrea]

Was it seeking profit, a sin to many liberals and socialists, or was it helping their fellow man? It sounds like they were making a living.

Somehow when a liberal or socialist does it with a book deal, like with Hilldabeast or Richard Clarke, it's not profit. Some government employees are immune from the sin of making a profit. I guess they work for free. Same with journalists, they probably don't get paychecks.

Why didn't these former soldiers have more weapons?