Letters to the Editor
-
They Have A Particular Distaste
For any former troop that becomes a democratic politician, regardless of the pins and colors on their chest. While bowing at the altar of their own leadership of deferments.
-
For a while back there, I thought I was beyond outrage and utter sadness
...until I read this story yesterday at Eschaton.
I'm so old...I remember seeing M*A*S*H* episodes where great care was always taken by the military brass of Congressmen's and two-star generals' sons in battle, and various other situations. The military is nothing if not a political animal, especially in the upper echelons.
It is utterly unbelievable to me that these mens' superiors did not take the greatest of care to make sure they did not come under the slightest scrutiny of the suspicion of the POSSIBILITY that these men would be punished for their words.
So much for that thought.
For any scoffing trolls out there: Just calculate the odds of two of these particular men dying, out of the 160,000 other soldiers in Iraq. If you can do the simple division...
-
A war zone is a dangerous place, at all times, no matter who you are, or what your politics.
"The accident in western Baghdad also injured 10 other soldiers from the unit, based at North Carolina's Fort Bragg, along with one additional detainee, said division spokesman Maj. Tom Earnhardt. Two detainees also were killed."
Their five-ton truck went off the road and rolled.
Highways in Iraq, it goes without saying, are not like they are here. They are not maintained in any way. There can be huge holes in the pavement without warning cones. Road warning signs are non-existent, as are many directional signs and place name signs. Bridge railings can go missing. Road shoulders can drop off at steep angles.
In a live fire war zone, nobody drives the speed limit. Everybody drives balls-out, center of the road, going as fast as their vehicle will go. Anybody gets in your way, lay on the horn and hope they get out of the way before you have to run them over or knock them into the ditch.
Drive at all times like someone is pointing an RPG at you. Do not slow down for obstructions because it could be an ambush.
Vehicle accidents in Iraq are another deadly part of the occupation, along with IEDs, ambushes and snipers.
There are thousands of soldiers and Marines among the 165 thousand that are there, who bitch about being in Iraq every day. They know this mission is fucked. They are not fighting for Iraqi democracy or to keep Al Qaeda "over there" so they don't have to fight them "over here." No, they are fighting each and every day to make sure their squad, their platoon, their company, their regiment and their brothers in arms can live to someday get the hell out of that shit-hole and come home in one piece.
So the idea that somebody in the Pentagon or the DoD or the White House would send out a secret hit team to set up an elaborate murder plot to get these guys for writing an op-ed piece is beyond credulity.
To anybody who thinks this was a murder, please do tell, how do you suppose it was pulled off? There were a lot of people on that truck when it flipped. There were many injuries and two or three Iraqi detainees killed also. But the survivors of the wreck can tell what happened. Are they all in on the conspiracy too?
Oh, I know! Some secret Blackwater mercs crept into the motor pool the night before and guessed exactly which truck would be signed out in the morning. Then they avoided the mechanics who work all day and night servicing these rigs, and they ... what? ... cut the hydraulic brake lines? Loosened the Jesus nut on the steering column? Calling McGiver, Calling McGiver!
Or, what happened most likely was exactly what happened: They ran off the road and flipped. The two men were not singled out. They were both from the same outfit, the 1st of the 73rd. So it's not even odd that they were traveling together, or on the same truck together.
Iraq is an unbelievably shitty and dangerous place all day, all night, every day. All "battle spaces" are. You could be run over by a deuce 'n half on your way to the mess hall. You could be killed by a rifle bullet that was fired miles away at something, or nothing else. Shit happens.
Shit happened. The blame lies with the lying asshole in the White House who sent them all into harm's way and then went fishing at his hobby ranch.
-
Sadly
this seems to happen all the time over there. I seem to remember some story that record numbers of journalists had died in Iraq.
So much for a free press and a free society when corporations take over our government and are turning it into a fascist police state.
Didn't the same exact thing happen in Nazi Germany? Everybody is asleep.
-
Let's Finish This Thought
There is plenty of profit to be made in war.
We all know morality is very slow to get to the boardrooms of these war making companies and that they basically think of us all as dispoable insects, to be plundered for profit, then gutted.
They are racing the planet towards WWIV. But don't worry, these corporate scum have built their protective hangars and bunkers and homes and hideouts in certain designated areas of the planet.
Sad when humanity is so depraved and dishonest and lies about it to the innocents among us.
-
Anti-conspiracy snobs.
As irritating as professional conspiracy nuts may be, I find anti-conspiracy snobs even more insufferable.
I'm referring to those people who know -- somehow -- that everything is as it appears to be . . . who understand that it's childish to dig deeper or to be skeptical. The grown-ups who think it's gross that we'd suspect the worst, even when we're suspecting it of the worst people.
How many other things have come out in the last six years that initially "taxed credulity?" (Presumably, the bombing of al-Jazeera's headquarters in Iraq a few years back was a freak accident?)
If there's ever been a time in our history when the assassination of military officers critical of the war would not "tax credulity," this is the moment. I think it's unlikely that "blackwater mercs" "took out a hit" on these guys -- unlikely but (ha) not impossible . . . but I wouldn't be surprised if these guys were shifted to more dangerous assignments in retribution for the op-ed. What's most likely is that these officers died in just the way the military claims. But there's no longer any reason to trust the official account. Anti-conspiracy snobbery and the desire to appear savvy and aloof are not good reasons.
I'm also creeped out by the commenters who "don't see what the big deal is" about these particular soldiers being killed. Here were some people loudly and bravely denouncing the war, even as they risked their lives in service of it. Not long after, their voices were silenced by the same war they spoke out against. Improbable conspiracy theories aside, there's something deeply affecting about that. It's the loss of those voices that's new; with these deaths comes some instant of recognition that each of the soldiers killed in this war HAD a unique voice. It's also a reminder that soldiers fulfill their duties whatever their own political judgments may be.
Seriously, guys -- the aloofness and savviness is fatiguing. Go be aloof and savvy somewhere else.