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...
Well, then string the sorry bastards up right now!
It also corraborates the testimony of a young girl who survived the massacre - she said it was American soldiers who came into her home. I actually haven't seen anyone claim that anyone else was responsible.
I don't think there's any doubt Americans came into that home. There is doubt as to whether the occupants were already dead, if they killed from afar or at point blank range, etc.
You haven't heard claims of anyone else? Why would that be? Oh, perhaps because you don't know squat about what occurred, just like the rest of us? Perhaps because we're only getting one side of the story. There's a reason we have prosecutors and defense attornies - although this point is premature since no charges have been filed.
I presume the shots were deliberate because a Marine is a trained marksmen and a shot to the forehead would seem to be a very deliberate shot.
ROTFLMAO!!! Typical nonsense spewed from one who has never served in the military! Yes, it takes a trained marksman to put a gun to someone's head and pull the trigger - which is what you and others are accusing them of having done.
Presumption of innocence doesn't only apply to the Marines. It also applies to the witnesses to the shootings.
a) No it doesn't. The victims are not being accused of crimes. b) You act as if said presumption has been afforded to these Marines. It certainly has not been by you and many others. You've already convicted them.
Many people are presuming these people to be liars.
Liars, maybe. More likely distraught and confused by an incredibly hectic situation, ready and willing to lash out at anyone - it's human nature.
I know, I know! You're just a long-time lurker! [wink]
Welcome to the forum, Tom! :-D
Shrieks the newby troll who is going after Marines who have not been charged with a crime.
A little history of this Jihadist loving excremist, Linda S Heard.
http://www.habtoor.com/anenemycalledapathy/l-1.htm
Linda Heard is a British editor, journalist and columnist currently based in Cairo where she is a correspondent for the English-language Saudi daily The Arab News. Besides the writer’s weekly column in the Gulf News and regular articles in Shindagah magazine, her political commentaries have been published in Ahram Weekly, the South China Morning Post, Athens News, Palestine Chronicle, CounterPunch, Alternet, Online Journal and Outlook India.
While acknowledging that she is a daughter of Wales, Linda considers herself to be a true citizen of the world. A period of over 30 years away from her country of birth - living and working in 16 different countries - has taught Linda a powerful lesson: we are all brothers and sisters under the skin. It is this principle, which has guided Linda more than any other in her passionate penmanship on behalf of victims of racism, discrimination and injustice, whether the perpetrators are individuals or states.
Linda’s road has often been a lonely one since she refuses to align herself with any political system, party, activist group, or campaigning society. Without the constraints of ‘belonging’ and having to toe an official line, she strives to be an objective observer of the international political arena.
However, after many years spent in the Arab world, including Dubai - where she was the Editor of both the Emirates In-flight and the Dubai Airport publications - Linda has grown to love the Middle East, North Africa and the Gulf. “When I hear the hauntingly beautiful call of the muezzin, I know I’m home,” she is known to say.
Due to decades of witnessing so many good things about Arab culture - hospitality, compassion, charity and respect for family values - Linda feels that the Arabs, and even Islam, are currently being maligned by leaders of Western powers to suit their own power-led agendas. “Portrayals of Arabs as backward or barbaric have long been themes of Hollywood movies,” she says, “and since September 11, the often gagged and compliant Western media has followed suit. The truth is very different.”
Linda urges critics of the Arab world - most of which have never even met an Arab, let alone visited an Arab country - to spend some time in the United Arab Emirates. “This is the place where in little over three decades the desert sands have been rolled back to make way for parks, gardens and golf courses; home of the world’s tallest building; the constructor of the world’s only man-made islands able to be seen from space, and most importantly, where citizens from almost every country live together in peace and harmony,” she says.
The writer’s greatest ambition is to witness an end to the terrible suffering of the Palestinian people in her lifetime and a viable Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital. She would also like to see a multi-polar world instead of one where a hyper-power is able to ride roughshod, unchallenged.
Actually, that's not accurate.
The little girl specifically stated: "I couldn't see their faces very well—only their guns sticking into the doorway."
In FACT, the little girl thought the Iraqi soldiers were responsible: ""We were lying there, bleeding, and it hurt so much. Afterward, some Iraqi soldiers came. They carried us in their arms. I was crying, shouting 'Why did you do this to our family?'
http://www.time.com/time/world/printout/0,8816,1174649,00.html
The draft needs to be activated to draw in these nutcases that would destroy our country and teach them discipline and love of their country.
We hav been raising pansies, not citizens of the best country in the world
The draft needs to be activated to draw in these nutcases that would destroy our country and teach them discipline and love of their country.
We hav been raising pansies, not citizens of the best country in the world
Really? Is the trial over, or has this author appointed herself the judge and jury for the whole world? (She's got to be one of those white elitist liberals.)
Why not wait and see if the military men actually did something wrong before demanding their beheading?
Amazingly, Ms. Heard has not responded to my E-mail from a couple of days ago.
No one knows yet if they were disarmed. A woman or child with a gun is just as dangerous during war as an adult sand flee jihadist with a gun.
The left automatically finds Americans guilty no matter what.
I find her hate for America worse than a possible military panic during a time of war myself. Left wing propaganda has caused more harm in the world than any of our military weapons ever has.
The left can't handle waiting for the truth. They don't want the truth. They want the U.S. to pay (for all the far left wing liberals own self inflicted miseries).
The U.S. is always evil in their eyes (yet the continue to stay and feed here anyway).
I wonder if there is any forensic evidence to tie the killing to the Marines?
Where is your outrage toward terrorists killing civilians every day? Got any? Until you walk a mile in the soldiers shoes, shut up. I hope one of them never has to risk his life to try to save your sorry butt. (Sent to Heard)
MS. Heard should be eternally grateful to FR. Who has ever heard of this POS?! Without FR, her audience/readership would have been severely limited! LOL!
Yes, I agree. And I hope her articles (I haven't read them) reflect these things. I'm sure she routinely reports on the atrocities of the insurgents hiding behind children, ambushing our troops and Iraqis who oppose them. (with sarcasm)
You call that following Geneva convention rules?
Funny how she seems to apply these rules only to our troops and seems to care little that those we are fighting against don't seem to even know of the rules' existence. Like the insurgents in Iraq are carefully consulting the rules before their terroristic actions. And these terrorists aren't reacting to our troops and allies' troops presence, but merely continuing the terroristic actions they had long exacted on their fellow Iraqis before our arrival.
My bet is that the terrorist killed innocents just to blame it on the Marines for pr attention.
I tend to agree with you. But I await the results of the investigation. Naturally, if found true, those troops should be punished, it would be despicable - if true. (Listening, Ms. Heard?) Unlike Ms. Heard, I won't be 'trying' them and presuming guilt. But it does seem a little too much like Kerry's manufactured Jengis Khan-esque 'atrocities'... Especially in light of his recent insistence on continuing his 'war' against the Swift Boat Vets.
If they did this, then burn 'em. I have no problem with that. It's just that all too often, we hear these stories about the military being so bad, and it turns out that they're just not true.
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