Posted on 05/29/2006 4:46:05 PM PDT by Coop
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In the meantime, my column had been posted on a well-known right-wing American website, where it attracted 119 comments. Oddly, none of them displayed any hint of disquiet over the behaviour of the Marines under investigation. Rather, their outrage was reserved for John Murtha and yours truly.
One poster's reaction was to "nuke the Middle East" adding "thank you very much Dishonourable Rep. Jack Murtha". He was later to write "if you can't stand behind our troops, stand in front of them".
A few of his co-posters rushed to the website of Murtha's Republican challenger Diana Irey to donate campaign funds.
The fact that this murdering troop has the support of even those 119 posters is worrisome. Surely, nobody should defend the indefensible based on some false notion of patriotism.
Military personnel should act as ambassadors for their country and behave according to international rules of law and the Geneva Conventions that were drawn up as a result of atrocities committed during the Second World War. There should be a difference between real soldiers and ruthless thugs with public opinion the final arbiter.
If the public, as represented by the 119 posters on the Free Republic website, condones such behaviour or seeks to excuse it, then not only is its members giving their country's soldiers a license to kill arbitrarily, they are altering the fundamental psyche of their nation.
To quote a well-known rationalist intellectual Felix Adler "Love of country is like love of women - he loves her best who seeks to bestow on her the highest good."
The "Freepers" - as members of the Free Republic website have come to be known - may also like to contemplate the words of theologian Howard Thurman who said "During times of war, hatred becomes quite respectable, even though it has to masquerade often under the guise of patriotism."
In short, people who glorify soldiers who purposefully assassinate women and small children are as misguided as those who glorify the blowing up of crowded buses, trains and marketplaces.
Does the donning of a uniform render its wearer impervious to justice? The Nuremberg trials indicate not...
Funny how the media has nothing to say about the 1500 schools or literally dozens of hospitals that were built from the ground up by U.S. contractors assisted by U.S. military,...
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Funny how there is never any "unrest" when "insurgents" bomb a mosque, but eight are dead and one hundred are injured in Afghanistan today because of protests after an American military vehicle had a traffic accident.
Logic does not apply when people are convinced that we are the Great Satan.
Exactly! And not only a presumption of innocense - but they always have a rush to judgement but then yell at us if we judge them. They are never willing to just let the facts come out and the hearings be held.
Men sometimes do things in war because of stress - I'd rather wait and see what the investigation reveals.
Ms. Heard,
Have you ever heard of the phrase innocent until proven guilty. As a former Marine and current Federal Law Enforcement Officer it absolutely disgusts me to have to protect people like you.
Ms. Heard, since it is obvious you LURK around here on FreeRepublic, I am sure you will read my message.
In our country you are INNOCENT until proven GUILTY, so therefore we will not condemn the Marines until such time as they are proven guilty.
On the other hand you and Murtha are low life's for having done so.
Right on, Coop.
I'm sure this guy realizes the one fact that he convieniently omits from his rebuttal:
Freepers don't want to protect the guilty, but if a common crack dealer deserves a presumption of innocence, then that's the least we can give to a group of Marines that have to endure what those guys do on a daily basis.
If these Marines are ultimately proven guilty of what Pelosi's lap dog accuses them of, then I don't have the slightest problem with the harshest sentence a court chooses to impose. But to assume guilt, when none of us, Murtha included, know what happened, is simple political grandstanding at the expense of those Marines.
Unfortunately, the left's tendency to presume the worst of those in uniform and not give the military any benefit of the doubt has its intended effect of slowly undermining support for the mission.
What would they call Murtha during WWII?
I have see these scum before.
When the communists tried to take over Greece after WWII they too spoke like Murtha.
Murtha seems to be one of those soldiers who thought of his medals as votes in the ballot box.
sad.
Hi, concretebob!
It's quite obvious that Ms. Heard is of the same mindset of the Clintonista's Administration's Janet Lister; who proclaimed Marines to be "Barbarians!"
Well, sometimes Barbarians are needed to quell uprisings from Illegal Combatants. Who wear no uniform or insignia of rank and do not rate The Geneva Convention. While hiding behind women and inside Mosques to do their killing.
My guess is that this "investigation" will follow the same route as Captain Illario Padilla. Who stood his ground against accusations of murder from the Media and has all charges dropped more than a year ago.
Jack.
PS: Thanks from my family for your service, Marine. We love you guys!
You hate-filled warmongerer, you!! ;-)
And to think while doing all that he still had time to use the sink off of the Oval office and Monica Lewinsky. :-)
Thank you for the clarification, Das Outsider.
Jack.
Very well said! [applause]
Awesome!
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