"Raptor514" <Raptor514@SPAMSUCKS.com> wrote in message news:<Bn6nd.4745$BX4.1955@trnddc08>...
"Zinnic" <zeenric2@gate.net> wrote in message
news:4ce617c0.0411180404.51afe567@posting.google.com...
"Raptor514" <Raptor514@SPAMSUCKS.com> wrote in message
news:<eoQmd.4479$BX4.1596@trnddc08>...
Somehow, I think that if there were video of an insurgent shooting a
wounded
and unarmed marine in the head you would be so willing to stand on
so-called
'principle.'
The fact is, our culture has different standards on acceptable killing
for
people who aren't white Christians.
Somehow, I think that if our marines acted on the same principles as
do the terrorist insurgents your objections to their conduct would be
valid.
I'm not a moral relativist and I don't think that evil on one group's part
justifies evil on another group's part. That goes both ways between
American soldiers and the insurgents.
The actions of the insurgents in Iraq have been far more heinous than the
actions of our troops, but that does not lessen or excuse our own moral
culpability.
You say in your post (to me) that seeing the video is enough evidence
for you to condemn our soldier. Surely as a veteran you accept that
combat stress should be a consideration in this situation? Or do you
think that being trigger happy is the equivalent of a shot to the back
of the head of 40 Iraqi prisoners or the cold blooded decapitation of
helpless hostages?
Combat stress is, of course, a mitigating factor. But it doesn't change the
reality of what happened. Insurgents were shot the day before and left
unsupervised in a mosque. The marines came back in the next day and one of
them fatally shot one of them when he was no conceivable threat. People
have mentioned insurgents blowing themselves up when wounded, but I cannot
imagine marines who are too stupid to frisk a wounded insurgent before
dragging them into a mosque.
Perhaps, like Kerry, your anti-war politics motivates you to
'overstate' the case?
I don't think so. Also, I'm not 'anti-war' per se. I'm opposed to the war
in Iraq which I think was a horrible misstep almost guaranteed to convert
the war on terror into a decades-long bloodbath, while fully supporting the
war in Afghanistan which was perfectly legitimate in light of 9/11 and the
actual presence of actual terrorists in that country.
I served in the Persian Gulf war, supporting it at the time, and came to
retroactively question it after learning more. I served in NATO and U.N.
operations in Bosnia-Herzegovina and am still quite proud of the assistance
I rendered there to refugees and in gathering evidence for the war crimes
tribunals now ongoing. I think the Iraq war was horribly misguided from a
security standpoint rather than any pacifist point of view.
We are now planting the seeds of future 9/11s in Iraq and making bin Laden's
dreams come true when we should have long ago.
Raptor514
What's been done cannot be undone. Rightly or wrongly we are in in an
unpleasant situation. I have no way of knowing if the world terror
situation would be better if military action had not been taken
against Iraq. Terrorists, by definition, choose to use bloodbaths to
achieve their ends and only actions that risk their furthur fury will
affect their defeat. They are not invincible and their supply of
'martyrs' and finances will be exhausted in much less than 10 years,
provided we continue proactive resistance to their demands.
Injustices are bound to occur from this resistance but they pale in
comparison to the injustice that will reign worldwide if we fail.
Since the Reformation, Western civilization has enjoyed the advantages
of separation of church and state. The re-emergence of Sharia
envisioned by terrorists for Mid-East nations is as much a threat to
civilization as was the emergence of the Nazis in the thirties. A
paralysing horror of the evils of war will serve us no better now than
it did then!
PS. What are your views on the pre-emptive strike by Israel against
the Iraqi nuclear effort?
Regards...Zinnic
.
