Letters to the Editor
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"The soldiers were unable to provide Salon with any conclusive evidence of war crimes."
Talk about burying the lede...
I'm shocked, shocked that the mainstream media has ignored this story; that Salon hasn't come up with any conclusive evidence of war crimes. Where would we be without Salon's searing investigative journalism?
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Useful idiots
These soldiers are little more than useful idiots. Even Human Rights Watch, no friend of this administration, has praised the U.S. military for the lengths it goes to avoid civilian casualties, sometimes even to the point of endangering their own troops.
Leave it to Salon to find a "story" where none exists.
What a load of crap.
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imagine that, american war crimes...
the people of latin america will not be astonished. neither will the phillipinos. nor the people of south east asia.
the iranians and iraqis won't be surprised. nor american veterans.
what is it about 'conservatives', that they regard anyone living on land or resources they want as red devils, greasers, gooks, slopes or ragheads, 'terrorists' all...
what exactly are they 'conserving'? shouldn't they be called 'killers'?
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it is plain to see...
Attacking and invading Iraq on false premise,fixed propaganda,fact and truth abuse was illegal and indeed had Russia,Iran or China done this the Americans would have gone nuts and into convulsions of denouncement and condemnation.
Americans being in Iraq is a war crime because Iraq had nothing to do with what took place on 9/11/2001.
That is fact. Is known fact. Documented fact.
The Americans have since the first day of Shock and Awe never had legal standing or moral authority to be in Iraq,killing Iraqi political leaders,Iraqi civilians and raining devastation,destruction and mayhem on this small nation of 26 million.
To infer or suggest that there may have been war crimes committed but that the initial attack/invasion/occupation by Americans itself was never anything other than naked aggression based on American West Asian hegemon desires is flawed thinking from the get go.
The death/destruction the Americans now choose to rain down on Iraq from the air is of the same ethical/moral depraved tactics the Americans resorted to against Japan,Germany and Vietnam in the last century. Because of victors justice such barbaric tactics were not scaled on merits or rightness. We won. They lost.
The Israelis are practioners of the same tactics in Israels ruthless occupation of Arab Palestine,Gaza and also in Lebanon.
The Americans have no claim to moral or ethical rights in this early 21st century having given up legitimate claim to such a position in the last century and in fact the one before it.
The combination of blindness,ignorance and arrogance the Americans now stand on in Iraq can leave no room for doubt as to whether war crimes have,did or will take place.
Surely the Americans would have had Russia,Iran or China put up on war crimes charges should any of these countries have attacked or invaded Iraq on false premise and outright lies.
Had many Iraqis been killed,maimed. Had the civilian infrastructure of Iraq been devastated. Had an occupation been mounted with clear aims on Iraqi oil control presented.
The hypocrisy and injustice of it is astounding.
The corrupt nature of it is plain to see.
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I am in big agreement that we have had a problem of way overusing airpower
We use it way too much, and it is stupid and counter productive.I remember Mortar team started shooting indirect fire at the base. We were on QRF, sitting in our trucks not far from the area, which was a farm. We could have very easily have rolled over there in no time and taken care of it, captured the cell, confiscated the weapons, no collateral damage. Instead…. They told us not to do anything, and that they were going to drop a 500lb bomb on the site. I was pretty pissed about that, it was just stupid. It is NOT by any means because I wanted to go do a rambo or something, but it was the fact that it was just overkill. There was no need for it, and now it was just going to create a big crater on someone’s farm, waste money, probably not destroy the target, and maybe kill an innocent person (from a f16 they might not be able to tell what is down there better than say...someone right there). Stuff like that pisses me off to no end.
Anyway, getting back to the subject.
For one, if anyone soldier, airman, or marine comes forward to expose a war crime, nobody can dare call that person “unpatriotic” or not “supporting the troops “some other bs. I will personaly punch said name caller in the nose, because it is the biggest tristing nonsense. It is every single soldiers DUTY to do so, they take an oath to do so and it is written in the UCMJ. Therefore, any soldier, airman, or marine who commit’s a war crime or willfully disobeys either the Geneva convention or general order #1 is in fact betraying his our own laws, his unit, and his country. There can be no dispute about this. We are not the Russian army or AU “peacekeepers” , and I’ll be damned if I’d excuse anyone in our military for acting like that.
The 2nd thing is about IVAW. They do have real credibility problems. I’m no fan of them as an organization, not on political grounds, but just because they have too many members who are fake military or posers. I most certainly am not trying to sound “Rush Limbaughy” about it, but I have had a problem with a lot of them because they have had many members, who I have found to be phony soldiers, in the literal sense and I found a lot of them to be…well lets just say, trying to get personal attention. That is why I don’t really care much for them.
From my experience veterans groups tend not to get involved in affairs outside of veteran affairs, it has to do with a sense not wanting to mix military service with politics (unless you are running for president I guess).
However, there is no short of vets among mainstream political organization. I do have a good many friends I know personally and served with who work for either the Obama campaign or donate money to Paul or people like the former head of the Kucinich campaign in Jersey is a veteran…you are more likely to get straight dope from them.
BTW: I’m getting sick of my spell check changing Obama to Osama…Microsoft, want to get on that?