Posted on 07/09/2007 12:29:47 PM PDT by bnelson44
When context is other people’s children
As I write these words just a few miles from the graves I saw, the resulting controversy about whether what the man said was true, or whether his words should have been written if the writer couldn’t verify them, seems precious. There is no imaginary line of credulity that al Qaeda might cross should it go from beheading children to baking them.
No unnamed Iraqi stringer claimed that al Qaeda had taken over Baqubah. Al Qaeda said this through the press. I sit writing these words in Diyala Province just a short drive from where the self-proclaimed leader of al Qaeda in Iraq was killed by a bomb delivered by a US warplane. Al Qaeda: the organization that gleefully bragged about murdering roughly 3,000 people by smashing jets full of civilians into buildings and earth. Al Qaeda in Iraq: who proudly broadcast their penchant for sawing off the heads of living breathing people, and in such a manner as to ensure lots of spurting blood and gurgles of final pain, in some cases with the added flourish of the executioner raising up the severed head and squealing excitedly.
These are the same terrorists I often come face to face with: not on television or in magazines, but on bloodstained streets ablaze with human carnage. I remember the charred corpse of a small Iraqi boy. I remember the wailing Iraqi parents and countless other scenes that I am likely to see again and again. Back in 2005, terrorists here were intentionally attacking children. I shot the photo below on a day when they drove a car bomb through a crowd of children who had run out to American soldiers on patrol.
(Excerpt) Read more at michaelyon-online.com ...
I posted his article about the boy being cooked AND OH THE HUMANITY.. All the scoffers had their fun. I should summon them.
A couple weeks ago, LTC Fred Johnson told me a story about General Petraeus. Back when LTC Johnson was Captain Johnson, and General Petraeus was Colonel Petraeus, Colonel Petraeus was Captain Johnson’s new commander. They were doing a live-fire exercise at a range at Fort Campbell when a young soldier named Specialist Terrence Jones tripped and accidentally fired his weapon while conducting a live-fire assault. The bullet from Specialist Jones’ weapon struck Colonel Petraeus, slamming through his chest and taking a piece of his back on the way out. Petraeus fell to the ground, bleeding out of his mouth. He nearly died. We could have lost one of the most important and influential military leaders in generations to a mistake. To a professional misstep.
The best that Captain Johnson and Specialist Jones might have hoped for was a painless end to their military service. I asked LTC Fred Johnson about the story of his own soldier shooting David Petraeus, and I asked how it could be that Johnson was still in the military. Johnson looked me in the eye and said something like, “Mike. You know what Petraeus did?”
“What?” I asked.
“He gave me a second chance.”
Fred Johnson actually got picked up for promotion early.
“But what happened to the young soldier?” I asked, thinking surely there had to be a consequence. Conventional wisdom stipulates that for balance to be restored after accidentally shooting and nearly killing a superior officer, a sacrifice of some magnitude is necessary. A soldier just can’t shoot a commander in the chest and walk away. There is no such thing as an “accidental discharge.” Unplanned bullet launches are called “negligent discharges.” As in negligent homicide.
LTC Johnson answered something like, “Mike, you won’t believe how Jones was punished. Petraeus sent Jones to Ranger School.”
I couldn’t believe my ears! That’s a punishment that a lot of young soldiers dream about, even though Ranger School is a very difficult course. But after thinking on it awhile, I realized it probably explains why LTC Johnson sometimes says, “I believe in second chances.”
Fred Johnson said it just the other day. He said it to me, “When someone gives you a second chance, you should pass it along.”
http://www.michaelyon-online.com/wp/second-chances.htm
Follow up story to the one I posted about the boys being cooked in Iraq.
ping
Bump for second chances...
Do you have a link for that story?
“When someone gives you a second chance, you should pass it along.”
Cool!
Carolyn
I'm starting to believe there actually are no terrorists.
It's all a figment of Yon's imagination.
The story of the boy who was baked and served to his family by al-Qaeda is here:
http://www.michaelyon-online.com/wp/baqubah-update-05-july-2007.htm
Thanks, bfl
I bet there aren’t even people called “Arabs”
Bump!
Lying liars and the lies they tell.
Michael Yon’s newsletter is worth every minute of photos and type. This man is going above and beyond, and he needs all the support he can get.
BTW: You don’t exist.
There are atrocities we know about and there are atrocities we don’t know about.
A thousand AlQaeda fighters...
They are capable of quite a bit.
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