Bending the Third Rail
Because We Should, We Can, We Do
Saturday, August 19, 2006
All In A Day's Work
The WP's Haditha piece is based on a leaked statement from Lt. Col. Jeffrey R. Chessani, and the paper calls it the "first formal evidence to emerge in the case" involving U.S. forces allegedly killing civilians, including women and children, in the Iraqi village. Chessani, who declined a lawyer when he spoke to investigators despite being told he was suspected of dereliction of duty, did not order an investigation after the incident because he didn't consider what happened unusual, the paper reports. He considered it normal "combat action."
Yeah, a little rape, a little murder in a village of civilians sounds like typical combat to me. The above quote goes right along with this golden oldie from 2005:
Lt. Gen. James Mattis, who commanded Marine expeditions in Afghanistan and Iraq, made the comments Tuesday during a panel discussion in San Diego, California.

"Actually it's quite fun to fight them, you know. It's a hell of a hoot," Mattis said, prompting laughter from some military members in the audience. "It's fun to shoot some people. I'll be right up there with you. I like brawling.

"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil," Mattis said. "You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them."
And of course there's the recently retired General Geoffrey "bamboo-under-the-nails" Miller's recently awarded Distinguished Service Medal", and the military leadership picture becomes understandable. This just goes to show the level of delusion the military has had to undergo in order to fulfill Bush's mission in Iraq.
Written at 1:10 PM by Greyhair.
2 comments
2 Comments:
Blogger Lynne said...
Unfortunately I think they reflect the character of Americans in general. We are a violent people. Look at the movies we watch, the tv shows, the 'games' the kids play. A lot of these soldiers grew up virtually killing people with no thought other than "its fun to shoot some people." We build monuments to war but not to peace. We worship power.
I don't know what it will take to turn us around to become a civilized nation or if that can even be done and I most certainly reject the "christian" notions of civility. They don't have the answer either.
6:12 AM  
Blogger Deb said...
As a veteran with two Article 15's, I can assure you that there is no way I find any of this behavior excusable. When I went thru basic they hammered us with appropriate behavior and they never figured that women would be in battle or anywhere near the front line. This is a failure from the top down.

There are penalties that could have been assessed at the beginning that would have prevented this behavior, but if you consider only Americans to be human, it is easy to pretend like everyone else is an animal. We haven't learned much in the last 70 years.
9:10 AM  
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