Posted on 05/29/2006 4:46:05 PM PDT by Coop
...
In the meantime, my column had been posted on a well-known right-wing American website, where it attracted 119 comments. Oddly, none of them displayed any hint of disquiet over the behaviour of the Marines under investigation. Rather, their outrage was reserved for John Murtha and yours truly.
One poster's reaction was to "nuke the Middle East" adding "thank you very much Dishonourable Rep. Jack Murtha". He was later to write "if you can't stand behind our troops, stand in front of them".
A few of his co-posters rushed to the website of Murtha's Republican challenger Diana Irey to donate campaign funds.
The fact that this murdering troop has the support of even those 119 posters is worrisome. Surely, nobody should defend the indefensible based on some false notion of patriotism.
Military personnel should act as ambassadors for their country and behave according to international rules of law and the Geneva Conventions that were drawn up as a result of atrocities committed during the Second World War. There should be a difference between real soldiers and ruthless thugs with public opinion the final arbiter.
If the public, as represented by the 119 posters on the Free Republic website, condones such behaviour or seeks to excuse it, then not only is its members giving their country's soldiers a license to kill arbitrarily, they are altering the fundamental psyche of their nation.
To quote a well-known rationalist intellectual Felix Adler "Love of country is like love of women - he loves her best who seeks to bestow on her the highest good."
The "Freepers" - as members of the Free Republic website have come to be known - may also like to contemplate the words of theologian Howard Thurman who said "During times of war, hatred becomes quite respectable, even though it has to masquerade often under the guise of patriotism."
In short, people who glorify soldiers who purposefully assassinate women and small children are as misguided as those who glorify the blowing up of crowded buses, trains and marketplaces.
Does the donning of a uniform render its wearer impervious to justice? The Nuremberg trials indicate not...
From http://www.habtoor.com/anenemycalledapathy/l-1.htm
"Linda Heard is a British editor, journalist and columnist currently based in Cairo where she is a correspondent for the English-language Saudi daily The Arab News. Besides the writer’s weekly column in the Gulf News and regular articles in Shindagah magazine, her political commentaries have been published in Ahram Weekly, the South China Morning Post, Athens News, Palestine Chronicle, CounterPunch, Alternet, Online Journal and Outlook India."
...The writer’s greatest ambition is to witness an end to the terrible suffering of the Palestinian people in her lifetime and a viable Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital. She would also like to see a multi-polar world instead of one where a hyper-power is able to ride roughshod, unchallenged.
splains a lot to me.
----
Linda, pull your head out of your ***, and start writing about french food.
But it would appear that I'm squarely in Ms. Heard's gunsights. (Hey Linda, see the irony there?!?!?) I welcome the challenge. I'll be glad to E-mail you, Ms. Heard, and I can guarantee my account will still be active if you have the courage to respond. Maybe I can get next week's entire column about me!!! Heck, maybe you can even get a sentence or two correct!
It appears that Mizzzzzzzz Heard has already convicted the Marines in her own tiny, fevered mind......
I am not sure if any of my comments were on that thread she referenced...BUT, it seems to me that it was MURTHA that was trying to find "excuses" for behaviour he had already convicted the Marines of participating in.
I think it was the freepers that were asking for facts and a trial before convicting anyone.
I thought THAT was the American Way...and sure seems more patriotic to me, than a couple of loudmouths proclaiming them guilty without benefit of a completed investigation or a trial.
To Ms Heard: Oh would that your heart would bleed so passionately for the victims of terrorism, many of which are our armed forces which you so blithely condemn on Memorial Day! Please do the country a favor and dry up and blow away.
Well done! I hope many others follow your lead. :-)
Surely, nobody should pronounce guilt without knowledge of the facts. .....as you and Murtha have done. Let the process play itself out.
Doubt it, from her writing I think her IQ and age correspond. But she sure likes to convict and execute before the charges are made if any.
Since, the pictures of this alleged act were taken 24 hours after the military personal were there, it will take a lot to prove to me that we aren't hearing of a staged event.
murtha : Pay attention
You have been hanging around to long with cut and run hanoi kerry
The Brothers and Sisters on The Wall know what you have done.
And before you complain about me, I was there also.
DISMISSED!
Marine NOT afraid to not be "PC" Ping!
Young Marine Blasts Rep. Murtha at Town Hall Meeting
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1558047/posts
"Yes sir my name is Mark Seavey and I just want to thank you for coming up here. Until about a month ago I was Sergeant Mark Seavey infantry squad leader, I returned from Afghanistan. My question to you, (applause)
"Like yourself I dropped out of college two years ago to volunteer to go to Afghanistan, and I went and I came back. If I didn't have a herniated disk now I would volunteer to go to Iraq in a second with my troops, three of which have already volunteered to go to Iraq. I keep hearing you say how you talk to the troops and the troops are demoralized, and I really resent that characterization. (applause) The morale of the troops that I talk to is phenomenal, which is why my troops are volunteering to go back, despite the hardships they had to endure in Afghanistan."
So there ya go. Your post explains it all to me. She's an America-hating, Leftwing kook. She also hates the military. Thank you for posting this about MS Foghorn.
Good find! :-D Perhaps in next week's column Ms. Heard can explain the horrible contrast between this ambition of hers and her lecture here about us allegedly glorifying the massacre of innocent women and children.
Surely, nobody should defend the indefensible based on some false notion of a Palestinian state!
What a lovely piece of anti-American sentiment.
"Does man's inhumanity to man know no bounds?" she asks, when posting about the price of Iraqi lives.
Nary a word about the price of servicemen's lives in her writings. Nary a word. Nor a sweet word about the gifts they give.
When one's blogspot is titled 'Selves and Others', how could anyone expect her to understand 'sacrifice'. 'T'were it the other way 'round, one might expect something less than ignorance. But alas, mi'lady can have no concept of Others first. I wonder...what is the price of mi'lady?
When I was stationed in Germany in the 90s, we were told to act as though we were 'Ambassadors' for our country. That kinda made sense at that time and place. After all Germany was a fairly civilized place and considered a stanch US ally (at the time). Iraq and Afganistan however are currently not that awful civilized. Terrorists and mad men in either country will not be deterred by flowery words or gosh darned pretty speeches. So we sent our rough and tumble professionals. You know the kinda people we sent to take Europe back from Hitler and half of Asia from Tojo. Tell you what Ms. Heard, maybe in 10-15 years we'll send 'ambassadors', but all be damned if I'm going to ask the fine folk in the military to to talk first fire later. Haditha may turn out to be the horrible massacre you and other are claiming, but I'll wait for the investigation and trial(s) to end first mmkay?
The newspaper employee finally gets it: let there be an investigation and evidence of wrong doing, charges and trials (if warranted) -- then convictions, if found gulity.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.