~~~~GIT SOME~~~~
Posted on 06/04/2007 9:22:30 AM PDT by Zakeet
This was just posted on Fox News. No Details yet.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
If they were still alive, they would have produced them in a propaganda film long ago. They were probably killed within minutes of being captured.
They only take them hostage so that they can torture them before they kill them. My view is that if this ploy worked just 5% of the time, the terrorists would quickly be on the ropes. As it is, we’re getting our heads handed to us.
“We need to dig up General Sherman...”
He is in Calvary Cemetary in St. Louis and his grave is clearly marked.
What are you going to do with him?
We need to step up this war or we will lose.
Yep; been there, seen it...
"What are you going to do with him?"
Curious you define "him" as simply his bones, or remains. I was suggesting we resurrect his attitude toward taking the fight to the enemy, holding the offensive and making the enemy regret ever opening that can of whoop-ass...
Surely you understood that...?
Yes - it’s called Tabloid Fox “News”!
And you can add just about any other network!
They are trying to dumb down the viewers!
Thank God for FreeRepublic! Our aternative to tabloid news!
I don’t know what’s happend to FoxNews since the last election - but - they have gone from great to bad! I’ve just given up watching them!
~~~~GIT SOME~~~~
Those that you named were great generals all...there are several reasons I quite deliberately suggested Sherman (who BTW spent a good deal of his early army career in your home state...FWIW his memoirs present a very interesting history of the early gold rush days)...
First, he dealt with an enemy that had a good deal of tacit support among the civilian and quasi-civilian populace who were giving aid and comfort to the confederacy, even if not directly involved as combatants...he broke their will and earned their begrudging respect.
The confederate press accounts of Sherman and his troops are eerily evocative of al-Jazeera's accounts of coalition activities, and largely account for his infamy today...Sherman used the inflated, horrendous accounts presented by the press so that the south largely terrorized itself...no need to to commit the atrocities as long as people believed that was in store for them. Truth of the matter is that many of his peers in the confederacy wrote him to look after their families as he increased his area of control in the south.
Finally, after consolidating his hold on Atlanta and beginning his march to Savannah, within the first day or two outside Atlanta, retreating rebel forces emplaced a "torpedo" (essentially an IED) in his primary route, which blew the flesh off the leg of one of his captains. Sherman's response was to round up confederate prisoners, put them at the lead, and let them clear the road. Nowadays, the Geneva convention would prohibit such a thing, except for the fact that the combatants in Iraq are not signatories to it...If after the first IED or two we took, we had started using captured prisoners to clear the roads, I'd be willing to bet we'd have had fewer IEDs, and a number of dead US and Coalition soldiers would still be alive.
Our foes in this fight understand one thing only...and that's brute force. Attempting to reason and negotiate with the irrational is wasted motion. Attempting to win their hearts and minds with anything but bullets and bayonets is futile. At best it fails to achieve anything constructive, and at worst it allows the enemy to consolidate, rearm, and probe and attrit our forces.
Sherman lived in a different time, with different standards.
It would be great if we could go back in time, but we can’t.
Sherman did not have to deal with treasonous media, TV on the battlefield or a barbarous, irrational enemy. Many of the actions of his troops would be considered war crimes today.
We need better generals, but another Sherman is not the answer. I hope Petraeus is up to the job. His predecessors certainly weren’t.
There are other things that can be done to defeat this enemy, legally, morally, and effectively. I don’t know why they are not being done.
God bless our soldiers and their families. I sure hope this is a misinformation campaign and not the truth...
Praying for the families and friends of these brave heroes. May they rest in peace, if they have truly departed our world. If they are still alive, God grant them patience, strength, and ease of suffering...
I realize that it’s an easy question for me to ask here, safe in civilization. And I know I shouldn’t question it without first having been in their shoes. But I cannot understand how, knowing what has happened to every soldier captured to date, anyone in Iraq could allow themselves to be taken alive.
We need to grow some balls in Washington and get on with the total destruction of these barbarians and their 14th Century lifestyle.
Sherman was nearly removed from the war because of early media accounts while still in Kentucky, which questioned his very sanity. Granted he did not have to deal with TV, and the Confedeeracy did generally recognize the conventions of war; however, keep in mind that Sherman was also the architect of the Indian wars, which were a bit less..."civilized," (one might even say "barbarous and irrational").
"Many of the actions of his troops would be considered war crimes today."
Therein is part of the problem...Sherman and Grant certainly enjoyed the support of Lincoln who, once he found succesful generals refused to micromanage them, although Stanton had it out for Sherman and tried to ruin his career. When it comes to the various conventions, and the laws of land warfare, you have to go a long way to commit "war crimes" against non-uniformed combatants as we're facing today...and for whom summary execution is prescribed as entirely appropriate. We need poitical leadership who will let the military do it's job, and generals who will ask forgiveness after the fact instead of timidly seek permission first.
Certainly some things have changed since Sherman's day. Likewise, somethings have never changed....and never will.
I don’t care who they get but something needs to happen NOW.
I agree...as someone who submitted an unqualified resignation in 2000, I don't even have the option of going back in the military...so my impotence is coupled with suvivor guilt which I try to combat by providing our uniformed service members with as much aid and comfort as I possibly can...and I hate seeing their hands tied.
Given their ranks, they probably had their ID photos taken in Basic Training. If that’s not the case, it is typical for soldiers, usually as part of an entire unit, to undergo records reviews stateside (i.e. medical records, shot record, wills, powers of attorney, ID cards, etc) to bring everything up to date prior to deployment.
I was referring to the photos at michaelsavage.com.
If in fact, they are genuine..
When fighting savages, never surrender and save the last bullet for yourself. Anyone who takes issue with this should watch what these animals do to hapless Russians in Chetnya
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