Posted on 05/29/2006 4:46:05 PM PDT by Coop
...
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...
Thanks, and to you and yours!
The hateful liberals and their media want a war were no one dies and no mistakes occur.
God bless you, MARINE!!! (not soldier)
If it means we can abolish the State Department (hear that, Linda?!?), then perhaps we can discuss making military personnel ambassadors. Until then [expletives deleted], Ms. Heard.
Ms. Heard, grow up.
Great post Coop, thank you for your service and God Bless You.
If this writer wants to indict every U.S. service member for the crimes of a tiny handful, I'd like to respectfully invite her to go ^@$%%$.
I consider both terms to be a compliment. :-)
geeze, just found out I'm a right winger, I didn't know that..
Whoops! My bad....(bro was 101st Army Ranger) - it's my default setting ;-)
The real problem here, Ms. Heard, is that we don't KNOW that these men committed this crime. You have them already tried and convicted. The outrage on Free Republic has to do with the fact that most of us here have seen this kind of bu!!$h!t smear time after time by the drive-by media, and we know that the likelihood is great that the crime never happened, or at least not as it has been characterized. Given that you are undoubtedly fair-minded, I expect to see your apology and retraction when we are proved right, as I am sure we will be.
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.
Marines, as a group, are some of the finest citizens this country produces. Remember the line from "The Marine Corps Hymn" that talks about "to keep our honor clean"? It's their THEME song. I'm sure you've probably never heard it, or if you have, you haven't contemplated the words.
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.
First, you have a subject / verb agreement in the first sentence in the paragraph. That nit pick aside, the sentence itself makes no sense. How is a right wing website that has about 100,000 posters, an almost statistically insignificant portion of the American populace, changing the psyche of the American public?
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.
Alright, I'm starting to get p!$$ed. How do you jump from us defending the men who are most likely being railroaded, to saying we glorify assassins? John Kerry admits to having been witness to, and having committed war crimes. He was a few thousand votes in Ohio from being President. What do you have to say about his actions?
AND you'd be right!!! The ULTIMATE compliment to you!!!
Finally, my screen name is vindicated. I feel so much better, and it's all about feelings, isn't it?
I agree. Those peopple that provide aid and comfort as well as know information that would be useful to our troops, are part of the problem and will not garner any sympathy from me. When faced with this situation, the US Marines acted correctly.
I'd suggest that all left-wing, moon-bat, "journalists" echoing Murtha (including YOU) be considered traitors until proven otherwise. I thought we tried cases in the courtroom, not the media.
In any event, we all anxiously await your defense.
After much deep contemplation this Memorial Day on the sacrifice in blood of the many brave soldiers who have maintained the arduous trails of freedom.
Dead soldiers are the foundation stones of this Greatest Nation on Earth, and the living fighting soldiers are the ones who are paying the mortgage so that I can enjoy this freedom and prosperity.
War is ugly, sadly, innocent people get hurt when cowards use civilians as sheilds
soldiers get hurt and wars get lost when political strife divides the mission.
Your foolish words have prompted me to make another much larger donation this day to the Diana Irey campaign fund.
It is the very least I can do to support our troops.
Semper fi!
She's just mad that everyone's not jumping on the lynch the Military bandwagon. Muthra is a poor example of an ex-marine and a shame to my home state: I only wished I can be one to vote again this "rotten to the core" leftist.
I take it she is writing from the confines of her office on our shores about an event that happened halfway around the global and assumes that everything happened as she was told.
If you want to pony cash to help the civilian deaths like you b@tch about the 9-11 survivors got, then do it. Most of those billions were raised by US citizens not the military/government. Quit this leftist "lets solve the problem" with tax money.
War causes deaths of anyone who in the operational area, which it is a shame when civilian population gets harmed but no war would have been won if the military had to walk on eggshells to win.
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