Posted on 06/01/2006 3:19:46 PM PDT by Axlrose
The best defense is a strong offense.
The Geneva rules shouldn't have any weight against a non-uniformed enemy.
Let it be known we treat any insurgent sympathizer a target.
That includes all people who obviously knew it was planted and set to explode against us.
It's a good strategy. Israel has survived on it.
Read this. It was by the same author, Tim McGirk, who miraculously broke the Hadifa story.
Thanksgiving With the Taliban
TIME correspondent Tim McGirk shares bread, raisins, and thoughts about the afterlife with some Taliban fighters, and finds some common ground
By TIM MCGIRK
With a few colleagues, I spent my Thanksgiving meal squatting on the floor of an Afghan passport office, talking to Taliban fighters about miracles and Judgement Day.
On the Afghan side of the border near the Pakistani town of Chaman, we had pulled into a Taliban base, a dusty courtyard with two broken-down cars. Earlier in the day, a convoy of journalists were stoned and robbed while leaving Spin Boldak, just up the road. Some 200 other journalists had already left for Pakistan. We were waiting for four reporters who had been led off into the Rigestan desert by the Taliban to look at some fuel tankers blown up by U.S. commandos. It didn't seem like a very good idea to leave our friends behind in Afghanistan.
So there we were, with darkness setting in, surrounded by curious and heavily armed Taliban. One fighter points up into the mauve twilight sky. I think he's showing me the crescent moon and I nod appreciatively: "Yes, very beautiful." Impatiently, he gestures over to a range of darkening hills, and then I see it: a B-52 bomber, its vapor trails catching the last rays of light. "American?" he asks me menacingly. "No, French," I lie.
I try to distract him by offering some raisins, and he backs away, laughing. Our guide Ahmed explains that the Taliban are fasting. It's Ramadan. On the other side of the world, Americans are waking up to Thanksgiving Day, football and turkey. A Washington Post reporter stranded here with me starts describing with considerable artistry the drool-inducing taste of his mother's turkey stuffing. We tell him to stop.
The sun's gone down, and now the starving Taliban can eat.
(snip)
Our missing colleagues finally arrive, and I leave thinking that maybe this evening wasn't very different from the original Thanksgiving: people from two warring cultures sharing a meal together and realizing, briefly, that we're not so different after all.
http://www.time.com/time/nation/printout/0,8816,185644,00.html
You offered, "Ever since Watergate, journalists have all wanted to be "players," to topple an administration ..." Uh, no, 'cause if that was their objective, Gore would have been president prior to the 2000 elections. The media have become THE nest/pestilence of leftist socialist vipers, so they want to topple any administration not approved by their agenda of societal engineering.
These crack-pots pass themselves off as reporters!!
If we're no different after all - our troops better start bombing and beheading everyone who wants to kill us infidels!!
Wasn't the BBC the major pusher of the Palestinian lies on the Jennin "massacre" (that never happened) on the West Bank a few years ago?
Vermin always gravitate to places where they can survive and multiply.
The left learned 100 years ago they can easily spread their propaganda via the media and then claim "free speech" when they are caught lying. Same with academia. They use our protections for liberty to destroy liberty.
The British Bullsh&% Company
ballistics work, even in Iraq
Aha we should now believe a Sunni terrorist group.
Still running around to all these threads convicting the troops huh.
Sick.
I usually don't notice FR nicks... not unless its someone I talk to regularly (on the sunday threads or whatever), but you I've seen over and over and over the past week.
And its always the same thing... I read an insipid comment, say "who in the hell said that" and surprise, surprise its you... every time.
And most of them have a low IQ and that is why they chose journalism in the first place. The IQ requirement to get a degree in journalism is very low.
There was no cover and regarding the liberals hope that this will President Bush Watergate, this will be the 17 millions times they say "This is it, this is the one that will be Bush Watergate". Of course like the 17 millions times before it, this time they will fail again... miserably.
""The Haditha incident is REALLY troubling because the chain of command may have been trying to hide it."
No, it is really troubling because the news media will make 10,000 times a bigger issue of this one incident than they will make of the 5,000 attacks against civilians perpetrated by the insurgents. I take it as a "given" that in a war of this magnitude there will be a few incidents where our troops violate the rules of war. I also take it as a given that they will be punished if the incidents come to light. Just as was Abu Ghraib, this will be blown up entirely out of proportion. That's what's really troubling."
Well put. Would you credit the possibility of one or two well placed agents provacateurs (i.e., covert Leftists inserted into the Marines or their vicinity) encouraging this incident (if it happened)?
That was steve replying to BeHoldAPaleHorse.
BeHoldAPaleHorse is the resident judge, jury, and executioner of the troops here at FR, didn't cha' know?
What do you mean IT IS PROBABLE??? Talk about jumping to conclusions!! The media and some fools are hyping this story and we've only heard one side of it.
How about giving those Marines a break? Just because you read it - or heard it "from the sound of it" tells me that you have decided to be their judge and their jury. That's big hearted of you to feel bad for them!
I'll speak for myself and let the others do the same.
Well a few days ago I posted a rant on this incident about the rush to judgement and impugning men (and women) of Honor. I stand by every word with the following modification. My original post was naive in that I believed this to be a pure political stunt by Murtha.
I must now admit that it is conceivable that some small element of the US forces violated the rules of engagement. That said, the incident has yet to be proven and is still being investigated. Nevertheless, there is a miniscule possibility that a rogue squad of our team broke the law. If so, they should be appropriately punished consistent with the circumstances they were in.
BUT, whether this incident was justified or not, it in no way changes the fact that this sad event when measured in human terms - with loss of potentially innocent non-combatants - is now and will remain a cheap political event for the Democrats and a battle cry for future terrorists and the entire muslim world. For all the hand wringing of Murtha and his ilk - how much do you think this really bothers the politicos on a human level? I doubt much sleep is lost for the dead. I doubt there is little concern for the effect on our boots on the ground and the US citizens travelling outside if the country.
So I am still P*ssed about this. Whether the incident was criminal or not, I still smell rats. And, our soldiers and each of us will to some degree pay for cheap & fleeting political gain.
I certainly agree with that. It's just one of the many ways in which political correctness is a heinous thing.
I'm not convinced, however, that this is what's in play in the Hafitha situation. Based on the limited info we have thus far, that one smells bad. Yes, our troops absolutely deserve our gratitude, but we also must remember that wearing a U.S. military uniform does not automatically mean the wearer is a person of honor.
I'm not saying you do this, but there are many on here who automatically assume anything remotely negative about a U.S. military man or woman must be a lie. That's not a reality-based view. Reality is that people of poor or no character do make it into the military, just like they make it into many other facets of our society. A Marine who murders is still a murderer, and deserves the full punishment of the law.
We cannot yet know how Hafitha will shake out, but at this point it really smells and I'll be surprised if it turns out well.
MM
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.