The article i read about this explicitly states that these "death squads" will be trying to make it painful for civilians who may be inclined to favor the insurgency. Not people who are themselves insurgents...just people who look the other way. People who let the insurgents into their home, maybe. People whose 16 year old child was seen talking to an insurgent. You know, anyone who is at all suspected of contact.
How do they make it painful? Well, they kidnap you, they 'disappear' you, they torture you, and they kill you. This is not "US Soldiers" killing people who call themselves "soldiers" (interesting that you are willing to define them as soliders here, by the way....i thought Geneva was 'quaint' because these people aren't soldiers.).
This is Iraqi para-military groups literally terrorising a civilian population as a way to discourage not just participation in, but also support for, insurgency. As noted upthread, previous uses of this means of furthering democracy have resulted in literally 100,000's of dead, tortured, and disappeared civilians. Women and children, raped and mutilated. Men beheaded in front of their families. Political dissent is very offectively oppressed by these means.
Now the insurgency is certainly not a legitimate form of political dissent, and it is a problem for the US, and a serious one at that. The question is, though, is there *nothing* that is not justified by a war-zone? Have you people ultimately no common humanity in you? We are talking about MY FRIGGIN GOVERNMENT COMMITING THE MOST HORRIBLE IMAGINABLE ACTS, in my name and yours, on people who, let's be honest here, are horrible people, but we're in their country, and we picked this fight, and we told them to 'bring it on', and now we want to cut lose the dogs of Hell on them, and fuck 'em anyway?
We went there to bring democracy, and that, my friends, is NOT democracy. I understand that we are in a shitty situation over there, i really do. But we need to retain our humanity, our decency, our respect for the Laws of God and Man, or else we will regret it. And frankly, the Left is in the right here, when they look at us and say "i told you so."
Yes, we do. The kind of humanity that knows it needs to find a way to end the Hitlers of the world; and knows that singing hymns around the campfire isn't going to do it.
U.S.-funded forces allegedly included so-called death squads that were directed to kill rebel leaders and their sympathizers.
I can think of two sympathizers who would be legally targeted by such squads. Lori Berenson might never have fired a gun, but she was caught in a safe house with guns and explosive, and was running cover for those who had fired guns. Rachel Cory was protecting those who were building tunnels to run guns and explosives. The weren't merely readers of the New York Slimes who sent in $25 in support of Hamas.
For that matter, people who send $25 to Hamas are guilty of murder too, IMHO.
I read 'sympathizers' from the original article to mean the same as collaborators. In this case, it also means traitorous SOB, or will once the new Iraq government is in place.
As noted upthread, previous uses of this means of furthering democracy have resulted in literally 100,000's of dead, tortured, and disappeared civilians. Women and children, raped and mutilated. Men beheaded in front of their families. Political dissent is very offectively oppressed by these means.
Political dissent, or treasonous insurrection? My understanding is that the methods you report were Viet Cong, Kyhmer Rouge, and Islamist policy, and certainly not in the name of furthering democracy.
Political dissent had crossed a long way into murderous insurrection before Franco got the upper hand, or haven't you read your Orwell?
When I wrote the previous post, I was trying to suggest that in Iraq, the use of Death Squads will not be a clean option. However, your hysterical response makes me reconsider. Murder, rape, torture are what we are stopping. The plan is to find and kill those who support murder, rape and torture. That's ok in my book.
People who let the insurgents into their home, are signing their own death warrant. That is the well known result of being a collaborator.
Somehow 100,000 dead a year to maintain sufficient fear to keep Saddam in power doesn't bother you. What seems to bother you is that in killing 100,000 Islamic radicals, the real problem is the fact that maybe 1000 bystanders die and it might affect your karma.
The question is, though, is there *nothing* that is not justified by a war-zone? Have you people ultimately no common humanity in you? We are talking about MY FRIGGIN GOVERNMENT COMMITING THE MOST HORRIBLE IMAGINABLE ACTS, No, we aren't. You are. Killing is permitted in a war zone. What they are talking about is getting better information and doing the killing up close and personal rather than with a 500 lb bomb.
We went there to bring democracy, and that, my friends, is NOT democracy.
It's the defence of democracy, not democracy itself. There's no place in a democracy for those who would shoot people going to the ballot box.
But we need to retain our humanity, our decency, our respect for the Laws of God and Man, or else we will regret it.
And if we do not stop the Saddams of the world, what use is your definition of 'humanity and decency'? For we will surely regret it if the Saddams get the upper hand. Your definitions of 'humanity and decency' will disappear forever.