Tell the dead children

Published on October 16, 2004 By d3adz0mbie In International

Think Saddam was contained? Think he wasn't a terrorist? Do you think, in any fashion, that the Iraq war was a mistake?

More Iraqi mass graves
"The head of the unit, Greg Kehoe, who has seen more than his share of horrors in places such as the Balkans, couldn’t believe what he saw.
"I’ve never seen women and children executed, defenseless people executed in this fashion," he said. "I mean, you look at a young woman holding her 2-year-old child with a gunshot wound to the back of the head. I can’t find any reason to justify that."
When I saw the images I could only think back to Hilla, a town south of Baghdad where I went in the spring of 2003, just after the fall of Saddam. A mass grave of Iraqi Shiites was discovered there.
I will never forget it for as long as I live. Thousands of bodies. Thousands of families swarming over piles of clothing and flesh. Earth-moving equipment digging through the raw humanity. Digging up the past."

Tell the dead children "wrong war, wrong time". Tell the dead mothers "blood for oil". Tell the sons, daughters and fathers of the dead that removing Saddam was a "colossal failure of judgment."

Go ahead, I dare you.

Comments (Page 3)

Deference

on Oct 16, 2004

I have to say, JU is the most vicious, arrogant blog site I've ever come across.

God how I love it so!

SSG Geezer

on Oct 16, 2004

Voodoo , texas has a very legitimate reason to say the things she does. As does everyone here. That is why we serve.
The fact that there are people who believe differently is fine.
There is a point where using the deaths of our servicemembers to make your point crosses more than one line of acceptability.
I will accept it from texas, because her husband is serving in Iraq now, and if stevendaedalus was here
I would accept it from him since he served . If you have never been wiiling to put your ass on the line in the military, don't use us as your
self righteous justification.

NBS-An Insightful for you

voodoostation

on Oct 16, 2004

I am not arrogant, though I wish I were. I don't believe in God, I do believe in right and wrong. Your picture of that soldier, Tex, is perfect. That is a man with his priorites in line. You like to quote death tolls. 3200 for Saddam is a drop in the bucket. How large was the army he unleashed upon us? How many dead were in that last grave? Idealogy is what the war is about here, and yours is not strong enough. Quit watching the media, it's never good news that gets ratings. If that soldier in your pictures didn't believe what he was doing was right, he wouldn't be wearing the uniform.

I have not attacked your character, unless you believe what I've written describes it. The world is not about you, it never has been. It is the greater good of all who have, are, and will walk on it. If you cannot see it, then I'm sorry, you may never.

As for the continued loss of innocent life, it is intentional. Not by us, but by the "insurgents", who know that, by giving Iraq freedom they are one step closer to obsolescence. Why can't you allow a complete stranger, on the other side of the world, the chance to think and live as you do? Is that too much to ask?

voodoostation

on Oct 16, 2004

She may, Staff Sergeant, but her idealogy stems from selfishness, as I've garnered from her statements. Having been a sailor since the first Gulf War, her staements warrant no merit with me. Not a single damn service member was drafted. This is all voluntary. Bitch and moan as much as we did, we still did it. Being a spouse or a relative does not give you the right to call the war your loved one is in "wrong". Selfish. You have just shat upon your loved ones' memory. I have no respect for that. "I hate the President, but I support the troops." Doesn't work. I don't care how you spin it.

I have never been self righteous. I just believe I happen to see further up the road than most, even with these cheap damn eyeglasses. Too many people want to live in the now, but damned be the consequences later. It is not about you. Why is everybody so myopic?

Deference

on Oct 16, 2004

If that soldier in your pictures didn't believe what he was doing was right, he wouldn't be wearing the uniform.

Wrong. In the service, and any vet will tell you this, you do what you are told to do, in basic, the Army "breaks you down to build you up", this is about the extinguishing of the civilian self and the establishing of the soldier who does what he is told and does not waste time questioning his superior's orders. You don't do your job because you believe in it, you do it because it is your duty.

drmiler

on Oct 16, 2004

Reply #35 By: Deference - 10/16/2004 6:54:30 PM
If that soldier in your pictures didn't believe what he was doing was right, he wouldn't be wearing the uniform.

Wrong. In the service, and any vet will tell you this, you do what you are told to do, in basic, the Army "breaks you down to build you up", this is about the extinguishing of the civilian self and the establishing of the soldier who does what he is told and does not waste time questioning his superior's orders. You don't do your job because you believe in it, you do it because it is your duty

voodoostation

on Oct 16, 2004

So you say they're all mindless robots, worker bees, tending to the queen. If you really believe that crap, you got another thing coming. You're saying they joined the military because they were bored, they were poor, they had nothing better to do, no good prospects. They joined up for the benny's, they never figured they'd have to die. They joined up, not for belief, not for a sense of wrong or right, not for a sense of duty, not for a sense of responsibility. You're saying, then, that they were too stupid to think that, hell, I might get killed. You're saying that these "kids" autonomously signed their lives away for no good reaon? Is that what you just said? We're not talking about Pavlov's frigging dogs here. I am not Pavlov's dog. Anyone who ever tells me I was programmed will damn well wish they had never been born with a mouth. I am a vet, my little slow friend, and I believed in what I did. I still do, almost a decade removed.

Grim Xiozan

on Oct 16, 2004

Speaking of Army Basic:

- Grimry Xrunt

T B

on Oct 16, 2004

Here's what I don't understand. I don't understand how an individual can be so upset about the tragic loss of US soldiers, but not also be as upset about Saddam's execution of hundreds of thousands of innocents, how an individual can be so upset about the tragic loss of innocents to collateral damage, but not mention Saddam's mass graves or the killing of 100,000 Iraqi Kurds at Anfal. It seems incongruent to me.

Has society learned the lesson of Neville Chamberlain? And the additional cost in lives as a result of appeasement?

Hasn't anyone noticed that Iran has new neighbors? There is a bigger picture here. I also haven't heard what the alternative solution would be to the deployment in Iraq. It certainly can't be more UN resolutions or "diplomacy", the Duelfer report has shown that China, France and Russia were on the take and actually aiding Saddam. Did anyone actually read the Iraq War Resolution passed overwhelmingly in October 2003? There is a pretty compelling preponderance of evidence that the deployment was justified (which is why Kerry and Edwards vote for it).

I certainly have no hatred for Democrats, my girlfriend is one, so is my Mom. I could have supported Joe Lieberman but the party effectively ignored him. I do question the policy of appeasement, I think history has shown that appeasement delays the inevitable at a much greater cost in lives. I guess there is allot of Nader voters on these sites (who else could those so vehemently anti-war vote for without sacrificing their convictions?).

drmiler

on Oct 16, 2004

Reply #37 By: voodoostation - 10/16/2004 7:06:43 PM
So you say they're all mindless robots, worker bees, tending to the queen. If you really believe that crap, you got another thing coming. You're saying they joined the military because they were bored, they were poor, they had nothing better to do, no good prospects. They joined up for the benny's, they never figured they'd have to die. They joined up, not for belief, not for a sense of wrong or right, not for a sense of duty, not for a sense of responsibility. You're saying, then, that they were too stupid to think that, hell, I might get killed. You're saying that these "kids" autonomously signed their lives away for no good reaon? Is that what you just said? We're not talking about Pavlov's frigging dogs here. I am not Pavlov's dog. Anyone who ever tells me I was programmed will damn well wish they had never been born with a mouth. I am a vet, my little slow friend, and I believed in what I did. I still do, almost a decade removed

I also stiil believe after 25 years. And I've been called an idiot, a moron, a child and a few others that I won't repeat here. "Anchors Away"!

Deference

on Oct 16, 2004

You sir are dead wrong on this one. Think logically. What the man meant (correct me if I'm wrong fellow ex-squid) was that if the man didn't believe in what he was doing he wouldn't be wearing the uniform because he would not have volunteered in the first place!

I'm certain the gentleman pictured above entered the service before the Iraq war. Just because one is serving doesn't mean one supports the reasons one is performing one's duty (dang, lot's of "one's" in there!). As you know, you don't get out of the service when you suddenly decide things aren't going the way you'd like, right? You're locked in to your obligation. Your opinion on your duty doesn't matter, you do what you're told.

So you say they're all mindless robots, worker bees, tending to the queen. If you really believe that crap, you got another thing coming. You're saying they joined the military because they were bored, they were poor, they had nothing better to do, no good prospects.

Your words not mine. Assumptions bereft of facts, rhetoric without substance, a loudmouth without brains.

They joined up for the benny's, they never figured they'd have to die. They joined up, not for belief, not for a sense of wrong or right, not for a sense of duty, not for a sense of responsibility. You're saying, then, that they were too stupid to think that, hell, I might get killed.

We've had plenty of people like that in the service as you may know, but, once again, your assertion, not mine.

I am a vet, my little slow friend, and I believed in what I did. I still do, almost a decade removed.

Never said you weren't, but if I did that would make me as equally presumptious and ignorant as you - so willing to open the mouth and declare my obtuse view. So, my tawdry fellow, do me a favor and stop making the vets look bad. The point you egregiously failed to address stands, one doesn't neccessarily have to stand in lockstep with the reasons one is doing one's duty, but one must "continue the mission", regardless.

Deference

on Oct 16, 2004

Damn, GX, you do look grim! May I ask where you were stationed for basic?

Grim Xiozan

on Oct 16, 2004

Fort Sill, Oklahoma

Deference

on Oct 16, 2004

Ft. Leonard Wood, MO.

Mitch21

on Oct 16, 2004

As for myself, I will always side with the soldier over the civilian and I am willing to suffer torture eternal for it!

Amen, i wish more people thought this way.

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