Posted on 06/02/2006 6:40:17 AM PDT by Mo1
You knew it had to happen. Haditha, an "incident" involving American troops in Iraq, is now part of the erosion of support for the war in Iraq. The Iraq Syndrome has finally arrived.
This past Monday, Memorial Day, a driver down Manhattan's fast West Side Highway would have slowed at 46th Street to allow the crossing of a constant stream of visitors heading to the USS Intrepid, the aircraft-carrier museum on the Hudson River. It was a beautiful day but a hot day to stand on long lines in the open sun. A small squadron of planes flew up the Hudson in the solemn missing-man formation, with one plane trailing. Amid the sunshine, the chairman of the Intrepid museum, Arnold Fisher, said something to the gathered crowd no one could have expected to hear.
(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...
"One suspects that U.S. troops were party to some awful events in the Pacific and European theaters of World War II, all gone in the mists of history and the enemy's defeat. Not now. Gen. Chiarelli's magnificent "99.9%" notwithstanding, it's the phenomenon of the so-very-public 0.01%--at Abu Ghraib, on an Afghan street, at Haditha--that is breaking America's will this time."
Maybe the NYTimes and its ilk can muster up a fighting unit to do the heavy lifting instead. Yeah right!!
We need to fight back at what some in the media/press are trying to do
Has anybody pointed out that over 100 innocent men, women and children were massacred at Waco, under the orders of our own Justice Dept., to get one man, David Koresh? That the people responsible were never held accountable?
This whole thing makes me sick! Our troops are facing death every day, and the lack of respect in the media ia appalling (sorry, dead horse beating OFF!)
And the 'ethics training' is ridiculous. Troops go berserk when they are hit repeatedly and either the ROE do not allow them to go after the terrorists aggressively enough or they are not being given the means (manpower, armor, air cover) to respond effectively.
The Bush administration is degenerating into complete incompetence and spinelessness before our enemies, both foreign and domestic.
We have treason, sedition, etc. laws but don't use them. It may take "private action" to cure the illness.
Freepers don't care about the killings at Waco anymore. That was in the "before time" when they still distrusted the federal government.
Actually, I remember reading that we killed about 1500 innocent people with our bombing from 5 miles up strategy. Had Bush been President, it would have been all over the NY Slimes.
The author isn't blaming "the 0.01% of the military for the problem"
He's blaming the press and the public for being influenced by the press.
Absolutely. I had three uncles plus one aunt and her husband who served in WWII. Of the five, three are alive, and they still won't talk about it. My father was too young to serve at the time, but later he knew a WWII veteran who served in the Pacific. After the Vietnam stories began surfacing, this man told my father that he was haunted by one incident: They captured some Japanese soldiers, made them dig a hole for their own grave, then shot them and buried them. The man said those Vietnam stories were nothing new. War is not pretty.
Absolutely right MO1! There is a lot more to Haditha than meets the eye. The drive-bys conveniently forget to mention that the place(haditha) has been a terrorist hell-hole for months now.
There have been daily beheadings at a local bridge where five year olds cheer when someone is beheaded. This is the kind of bizarre place our troops have been thrust into.
They deserve, at the very least, a full and comprehensive investigation that takes into account everything that has been going on at haditha including five year olds acting as scouts/lookouts for the terror types.
This is a worthy, just, and necessary fight.
Those who do not support the war do not support the soldier.
It is that simple...no matter what they say.
The soldier needs to know that what he does is just and necessary, because it's so costly, so brutal, so life-demanding (sometimes literally), that the only way to justify one's presence is to believe it is for a greater good.
Take that away, and you've taken away everything.
And not one person has given one sufficient reason why the war effort is not worthy, just, and necessary.
It should be always pointed out that no one was ever sent to prison over My Lai, including Lt. Calley who was ordered freed from House arrest after waiting three years for the appeals process to work.
My Lai was a planned attack on suspected Viet Cong strongholds during the height of the Tet Offensive that created Seymour Hersh's journalistic career after he spent hours interviewing Lt. Calley prior to his trial, those interviews Calley gave Hersh allowed him to later try Calley in the press, the rest they say is history.
"Mr. Fisher, whose family runs the Fisher House Foundation for the military, suggested that the men and women at arms were being forgotten. And he apologized to them. "I apologize to you for carrying the burden of this nation's commitment to freedom and liberty alone." Mr. Fisher's bitterness over the troops is a Cassandra cry, a portent. But why now?
Opinion polls put support for the war below 40%. Still, it has become obligatory now as a nod across the political spectrum to the corrosive Vietnam Syndrome, to reassure that one's opposition is only to the war, not to the men fighting it.
Really? How does that work? "
WOW -- my question too.
"But a senior Marine general familiar with the investigation told the newspaper ``It's impossible to believe they didn't know,'' referring to mid-level and senior officers. ``You'd have to know this thing stunk,'' the general, who was granted anonymity along with others who described the investigation, was quoted as saying."
Agree with all of what you said.
Including Weasely Wesley Clark, who, as commander of Ft.Hood at the time (and dedicated booty-kissing Clintonite), helped plan the operation that killed those people.
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