See a pattern with recent posts yet? I'll give you a hint... frequency. Now do you see it? Yep... I haven't posted in a while. Well, I'm stretching out my mental muscles and might not have my "A" game going today... here goes.
I'm learning to play guitar. Not sure how this is really going to work since I seem to be functionally tone deaf, my singing being the key indicator. Also, I'm not sure my fingers will bend the way they're supposed to and they hurt real bad right now. I've got a young college kid teaching me how to play. I think he's going to be a good teacher. I know for sure that he's a great guitarist. About halfway through the lesson he told me about his band. He and his band are playing all over the state this summer. If the others in the band are as talented as he is they'll be a great show. (This concludes the "feel good" portion of this particular blog post so if you're feeling happy and don't want to lose that gentle smile... stop reading now.)
Good job to the House of Representatives. They passed a bill that will withhold half the funding that the US gives to the UN, that enormous, parasitic, redundant, beauracratic organization... sorry, got caught up in the moment. The House bill, if passed by the Senate would withhold half the US funding until the UN proves it can handle it's business.
We all got a glimpse of the porkbarrel that is the UN when US Marines captured Saddam's multiple palaces, primarily bought with money Saddam made in the UN controlled (loosely used) Oil for Food program. Yes, Iraqi children starved while Saddam sat on his gold toilet and everyone involved in the Oil for Food oversight got rich. We have also seen the UN demonstrate it's absolute powerlessness as UN peacekeepers stood by and watched the genocide in Rwanda. The UN continues to ignore what may be classified a genocide in Sudan. They can adopt a resolution about tsunami aid and they can adopt a resolution about US preemptive military actions and they can adopt a resolution about genocide but it all boils down to, "blah, blah, blah... " and nothing more.
Tell your congressperson (see how PC I am?) what you think ought to happen with the UN and ask them to support the bill the House passed. Next step: evict the UN from that very expensive real estate we provide for them in NYC.
Showing posts with label Iraq. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Iraq. Show all posts
Friday, June 17, 2005
Monday, November 22, 2004
Insurgent's Publicist is Doing Great Work
There's a syndrome or an affliction of some sort known as "white man's guilt" that is best described as overcompensation in regards to all things racial. There seems to be a variation of this syndrome in America today in regards to all things Islamic.
A US Marine is shown by NBC shooting an Iraqi insurgent. Apparently, such an inconceivable atrocity (sarcasm, since it's in the midst of war) makes it newsworthy. This choice by NBC should be seen in contrast with their decisions not to air the multiple videos of Islamic terrorists beheading US and British civilians. This imbalance portrays the US Marines as cold blooded killers rampaging through the streets of Fallujah murdering any Iraqi man they encounter whereas the Iraqi insurgents (to call them insurgents is generous) are portrayed as freedom fighters, struggling to match forces with a vastly superior US military. That view of these current events is only possible when the complete context is ignored.
I can read a single sentence of any great book and you, faithful reader, will have difficulty identifying the author or the work. Let's not make that same mistake as we review these recent events in Iraq.
Saddam Hussein, with the help of his sons committed such gruesome acts against the people of Iraq that the memory of them and the videos of them make me physically sick. Let's recall the men being dropped off of three story buildings. Let's recall the arms being cut off with circular saws. Let's recall the tongues being cut out. Let's recall the hands and arms being broken with wooden poles. Let's recall the mass graves filled with men, women and children. Let's recall the poison gas victims lying burned and bloated in the streets where they fell. Let's recall the original Abu Ghraib prison, with it's rape rooms (built to hold women who were raped and then killed) and torture chambers where Iraqis were brutalized in whatever way a depraved Uday Hussein could invent. Let's recall the gold and marble of Hussein's many palaces as the children of Iraq starved to death. Let's recall the heroin, the pornography, the bundles of cash in those palaces as Iraqi children died because their water supply was contaminated and they couldn't get medicine for common diseases. Let's remember that the men who are videotaping themselves cutting the heads off of aid workers, contractors and civilians (working to make Iraq a better place) are Saddam's friends. These men, friends of Saddam want to make Iraq what it once was under Saddam Hussein, a royal paradise for them and a bloody, nightmarish hell for anyone that didn't agree with them.
Don't get misty eyed over these poor Iraqi insurgents. If they have their way Iraq will return to it's former "glory" and you can bet there are Iraqis who begged for a bullet in the head to end their misery in those "good old days." Don't be tricked into a new form of white man's guilt. We are doing good things for Iraq and for the world. Don't let (the media coverage of) one Marine's decision in the heat of battle make you believe that we are anything but the good guys in this world.
A US Marine is shown by NBC shooting an Iraqi insurgent. Apparently, such an inconceivable atrocity (sarcasm, since it's in the midst of war) makes it newsworthy. This choice by NBC should be seen in contrast with their decisions not to air the multiple videos of Islamic terrorists beheading US and British civilians. This imbalance portrays the US Marines as cold blooded killers rampaging through the streets of Fallujah murdering any Iraqi man they encounter whereas the Iraqi insurgents (to call them insurgents is generous) are portrayed as freedom fighters, struggling to match forces with a vastly superior US military. That view of these current events is only possible when the complete context is ignored.
I can read a single sentence of any great book and you, faithful reader, will have difficulty identifying the author or the work. Let's not make that same mistake as we review these recent events in Iraq.
Saddam Hussein, with the help of his sons committed such gruesome acts against the people of Iraq that the memory of them and the videos of them make me physically sick. Let's recall the men being dropped off of three story buildings. Let's recall the arms being cut off with circular saws. Let's recall the tongues being cut out. Let's recall the hands and arms being broken with wooden poles. Let's recall the mass graves filled with men, women and children. Let's recall the poison gas victims lying burned and bloated in the streets where they fell. Let's recall the original Abu Ghraib prison, with it's rape rooms (built to hold women who were raped and then killed) and torture chambers where Iraqis were brutalized in whatever way a depraved Uday Hussein could invent. Let's recall the gold and marble of Hussein's many palaces as the children of Iraq starved to death. Let's recall the heroin, the pornography, the bundles of cash in those palaces as Iraqi children died because their water supply was contaminated and they couldn't get medicine for common diseases. Let's remember that the men who are videotaping themselves cutting the heads off of aid workers, contractors and civilians (working to make Iraq a better place) are Saddam's friends. These men, friends of Saddam want to make Iraq what it once was under Saddam Hussein, a royal paradise for them and a bloody, nightmarish hell for anyone that didn't agree with them.
Don't get misty eyed over these poor Iraqi insurgents. If they have their way Iraq will return to it's former "glory" and you can bet there are Iraqis who begged for a bullet in the head to end their misery in those "good old days." Don't be tricked into a new form of white man's guilt. We are doing good things for Iraq and for the world. Don't let (the media coverage of) one Marine's decision in the heat of battle make you believe that we are anything but the good guys in this world.
Friday, November 19, 2004
Welcome home. Thank you for your service, Marine
A US Marine is under investigation for the shooting of an unarmed Iraqi. A US reporter embedded with the Marines filmed the shooting of a wounded, possibly unarmed Iraqi. The video is available online, of course and has been shown, unedited by Al Jazeera. The usual voices are screaming about the US being no better than the Taliban, etc.
Give me a minute... oh yeah... the unarmed Iraqi was in a mosque (not saying his prayers) shooting RPGs and AK47s at the Marines. The Marine who is shown shooting the Iraqi was shot and wounded the day before the video was taken. The Iraqi was on the floor, leaning against the wall and was obviously wounded. The Marines had just lost one of their own when a hidden grenade exploded underneath a wounded Iraqi.
All the arguments about war crimes can go out the window. Frankly, I don't really care what the Geneva conventions say. The US is the only the country on this earth that even remotely follows the rules. In case you missed the last couple of wars, US soldiers who are captured are beaten, burned, tortured, denied food, denied medicine and publicly executed. Enemy combatants are usually (there are certainly exceptions) provided with first aid by US soldiers and flown away from the fighting in US helicopters and healed in US hospitals and given US medicine and fed US food and generally live better as POWs than they did before they began fighting the US. So, I don't have too much compassion for this dead Iraqi because I know what happens when the tables are turned. If this Iraqi had come upon our wounded Marine the Marine would be lucky to get a bullet in the head. So, don't lecture me about war crimes.
I don't want US soldiers losing the disciplines of trained soldiers. I don't want civilians to be raped, tortured and killed. I don't want to see US Marines beheading Iraqis who are chained and begging for their lives. I want our Marines to be better than our enemies. That's part of us being the good guys and them being the bad guys.
Now, what about this Marine? Pull him off the front line, remind of the rules that we choose to play by and then send him back into the fight. He could very well have saved his life and the lives of those around him had that wounded Iraqi been holding a grenade and just waiting for the Marines to get close enough. He could have saved his life and the lives of those around him if the wounded Iraqi had lived to fight another day.
These Iraqis are our enemies. They are trying their best to kill us. They will not hesitate to use a mosque as a gun turret, to use an infant as a shield or to use their last breath and a grenade to kill and maim Americans. They will proudly videotape themselves cutting off the heads of civilians, men and women who are working to bring running water, electricity and medicine to the Iraqi people.
The Marine in the videotape is in the midst of this life and death struggle. He understands war. It's brutal. It's ugly. People die in war. Today was not his day to die. Today it was the Iraqi's day to die. The Marine got one more minute, one more hour, one more day and maybe, he could come home to a wife who misses him and kids who cry for their daddy. He better find this country welcoming him home IF he gets home.
A couple of thoughts and I'm done... for today. The Marine commanders who lead these young men into battle have one ultimate measurement for a successful mission: NO DEAD MARINES. And finally a word from General Patton. "The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his."
Give me a minute... oh yeah... the unarmed Iraqi was in a mosque (not saying his prayers) shooting RPGs and AK47s at the Marines. The Marine who is shown shooting the Iraqi was shot and wounded the day before the video was taken. The Iraqi was on the floor, leaning against the wall and was obviously wounded. The Marines had just lost one of their own when a hidden grenade exploded underneath a wounded Iraqi.
All the arguments about war crimes can go out the window. Frankly, I don't really care what the Geneva conventions say. The US is the only the country on this earth that even remotely follows the rules. In case you missed the last couple of wars, US soldiers who are captured are beaten, burned, tortured, denied food, denied medicine and publicly executed. Enemy combatants are usually (there are certainly exceptions) provided with first aid by US soldiers and flown away from the fighting in US helicopters and healed in US hospitals and given US medicine and fed US food and generally live better as POWs than they did before they began fighting the US. So, I don't have too much compassion for this dead Iraqi because I know what happens when the tables are turned. If this Iraqi had come upon our wounded Marine the Marine would be lucky to get a bullet in the head. So, don't lecture me about war crimes.
I don't want US soldiers losing the disciplines of trained soldiers. I don't want civilians to be raped, tortured and killed. I don't want to see US Marines beheading Iraqis who are chained and begging for their lives. I want our Marines to be better than our enemies. That's part of us being the good guys and them being the bad guys.
Now, what about this Marine? Pull him off the front line, remind of the rules that we choose to play by and then send him back into the fight. He could very well have saved his life and the lives of those around him had that wounded Iraqi been holding a grenade and just waiting for the Marines to get close enough. He could have saved his life and the lives of those around him if the wounded Iraqi had lived to fight another day.
These Iraqis are our enemies. They are trying their best to kill us. They will not hesitate to use a mosque as a gun turret, to use an infant as a shield or to use their last breath and a grenade to kill and maim Americans. They will proudly videotape themselves cutting off the heads of civilians, men and women who are working to bring running water, electricity and medicine to the Iraqi people.
The Marine in the videotape is in the midst of this life and death struggle. He understands war. It's brutal. It's ugly. People die in war. Today was not his day to die. Today it was the Iraqi's day to die. The Marine got one more minute, one more hour, one more day and maybe, he could come home to a wife who misses him and kids who cry for their daddy. He better find this country welcoming him home IF he gets home.
A couple of thoughts and I'm done... for today. The Marine commanders who lead these young men into battle have one ultimate measurement for a successful mission: NO DEAD MARINES. And finally a word from General Patton. "The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his."
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