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| My thought on this |
| 04.30.04 (8:15 am) [edit] |
[b]Family defends soldier accused of prisoner abuse[/b]
[i]By David Dishneau[/i]
Relatives of a soldier accused of abusing Iraqi war prisoners said Thursday that he is being made a scapegoat for commanders who gave him no guidance on managing hundreds of Iraqis with just a handful of poorly equipped troops.
Army Reserves Staff Sgt. Ivan "Chip" Frederick is one of six members of the 800th Military Police Brigade facing courts-martial for allegedly humiliating the prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad. CBS's 60 Minutes II broadcast pictures of the alleged abuse and an interview with Frederick on Wednesday: the other soldiers' names have not been released.
Frederick's uncle, William Lawson, said the army is traeting his nephew unfairly."They're trying to portray him as a monster," said Lawson, of Newburg, W.Va."He's just a guy they put in charge of the prison."
Frederick's wife, Martha, of Buckingham, Va., said her husband, who has been in Iraq since April 2003, told her his unit wasn't provided proper training and equipment.
Military officials said Chip Frederick,37, and at least some of the others are from the 372nd Military Police Company, a unit of the 800th based in Cresaptown, in western Maryland. The charges against them include dereliction of duty, cruelty, and maltreatment, assault, and indecent acts with another person.
60 Minutes II reported that Frederick will plead not guilty and that he claims the way the Army operated the prison led to abuse of prisoners.
"We had no support, no training whatsoever, and I kept asking my chain of command for certain things, rules, regulations, and it just wasn't happening," Frederick told CBS.
"I can assure you Chip Frederick had no idea how to humiliate an Arab until he met up with higher-ranking people who told him how," said Gary Myers, the Washington-based lawyer for Frederick.
[i]Online: 60 Minutes II,
www.cbsnews.com/section/60II/main3475 .shtml
[/i]
I posted my comment before reading further information..I'm a jackass....Ok so now my opinion has changed. I did not know the exact details of the abuse. And I decided that what they did was wrong. There is no excuse for that. I think the soldiers did what they did out of anger and frustration but nonetheless it was wrong. What the Iraqis did to our people (burn and mutilate) was just down right horrifying, but this was just disgusting. These soldiers should definitely get punished for their actions. If it was just pistol whips/punches that would be a different story. But to pose next to naked prisoners smiling and having them pose in sexual positions, thats when I put my foot down. My comment earlier was: When Iraqi learn to be civilized then that is when we should care about issues like this. A good point was made..“Our soldiers could be taken prisoner as well. And we expect our soldiers to be treated well by the adversary, by the enemy. And if we can't hold ourselves up as an example of how to treat people with dignity and respect … We can't ask that other nations to that to our soldiers as well,"says Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmit.
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| PLEASE read this and post a comment..this is insane |
| 04.29.04 (7:12 am) [edit] |
[b]Pat Tillman is not a hero: He got what was coming to him[/b]
[i]By Rene Gonzalez
April 28, 2004[/i]
When the death of Pat Tillman occurred, I turned to my friend who was watching the news with me and said, "How much you want to bet they start talking about him as a 'hero' in about two hours?" Of course, my friend did not want to make that bet. He'd lose. In this self-critical incapable nation, nothing but a knee-jerk "He's a hero" response is to be expected.
I've been mystified at the absolute nonsense of being in "awe" of Tillman's "sacrifice" that has been the American response. Mystified, but not surprised. True, it's not everyday that you forgo a $3.6 million contract for joining the military. And, not just the regular army, but the elite Army Rangers. You know he was a real Rambo, who wanted to be in the "real" thick of things. I could tell he was that type of macho guy, from his scowling, beefy face on the CNN pictures. Well, he got his wish. Even Rambo got shot in the third movie, but in real life, you die as a result of being shot. They should call Pat Tillman's army life "Rambo 4: Rambo Attempts to Strike Back at His Former Rambo 3 Taliban Friends, and Gets Killed."
But, does that make him a hero? I guess it's a matter of perspective. For people in the United States, who seem to be unable to admit the stupidity of both the Afghanistan and Iraqi wars, such a trade-off in life standards (if not expectancy) is nothing short of heroic. Obviously, the man must be made of "stronger stuff" to have had decided to "serve" his country rather than take from it. It's the old JFK exhortation to citizen service to the nation, and it seems to strike an emotional chord. So, it's understandable why Americans automatically knee-jerk into hero worship.
However, in my neighborhood in Puerto Rico, Tillman would have been called a "pendejo," an idiot. Tillman, in the absurd belief that he was defending or serving his all-powerful country from a seventh-rate, Third World nation devastated by the previous conflicts it had endured, decided to give up a comfortable life to place himself in a combat situation that cost him his life. This was not "Ramon or Tyrone," who joined the military out of financial necessity, or to have a chance at education. This was a "G.I. Joe" guy who got what was coming to him. That was not heroism, it was prophetic idiocy.
Tillman, probably acting out his nationalist-patriotic fantasies forged in years of exposure to Clint Eastwood and Rambo movies, decided to insert himself into a conflict he didn't need to insert himself into. It wasn't like he was defending the East coast from an invasion of a foreign power. THAT would have been heroic and laudable. What he did was make himself useful to a foreign invading army, and he paid for it. It's hard to say I have any sympathy for his death because I don't feel like his "service" was necessary. He wasn't defending me, nor was he defending the Afghani people. He was acting out his macho, patriotic crap and I guess someone with a bigger gun did him in.
Perhaps it's the old, dreamy American thought process that forces them to put sports greats and "larger than life" sacrificial lambs on the pedestal of heroism, no matter what they've done. After all, the American nation has no other role to play but to be the cheerleaders of the home team; a sad role to have to play during conflicts that suffer from severe legitimacy and credibility problems.
Matters are a little clearer for those living outside the American borders. Tillman got himself killed in a country other than his own without having been forced to go over to that country to kill its people. After all, whether we like them or not, the Taliban is more Afghani than we are. Their resistance is more legitimate than our invasion, regardless of the fact that our social values are probably more enlightened than theirs. For that, he shouldn't be hailed as a hero, he should be used as a poster boy for the dangerous consequences of too much "America is #1," frat boy, propaganda bull. It might just make a regular man irrationally drop $3.6 million to go fight in a conflict that was anything but "self-defense." The same could be said of the unusual belief of 50 percent of the American nation that thinks Saddam Hussein was behind Sept. 11. One must indeed stand in awe of the amazing success of the American propaganda machine. It works wonders.
Al-Qaeda won't be defeated in Afghanistan, even if we did kill all their operatives there. Only through careful and logical changing of the underlying conditions that allow for the ideology to foster will Al-Qaeda be defeated. Ask the Israelis if 50 years of blunt force have eradicated the Palestinian resistance. For that reason, Tillman's service, along with that of thousands of American soldiers, has been wrongly utilized. He did die in vain, because in the years to come, we will realize the irrationality of the War on Terror and the American reaction to Sept. 11. The sad part is that we won't realize it before we send more people like Pat Tillman over to their deaths.
[i]Rene Gonzalez is a UMass graduate student.[/i]
[url=]http://www.dailycollegian.com...[/url]
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| Wow |
| 04.28.04 (1:36 pm) [edit] |
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So I actually checked a few people out and wow. There are some strange people. I know everyone is different, hell I'm not exactly normal..By the way what is normal? There are people that are kind of strange, borderline freaks, and out of this world crazy. :roll: It's pretty funny. But hey everyone lives their life the way they want to live it.. who am I to judge. Honestly, I fall into all 3 categories..LOL
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| I thought this was interesting... |
| 04.28.04 (1:04 pm) [edit] |
[b]Declare Mission Accomplished and Leave[/b]No current or former U.S. government official—and no prominent U.S. politician aside from long-shot presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich—publicly advocates, to use the Vietnam formulation, declaring victory and getting out of Iraq. Not yet, anyway. But the question lurks under the surface of public debate about what the U.S. should do. And it's not that far under: Senator Edward Kennedy, a frequent campaigner for Kerry, gave a speech last week calling Iraq "George Bush's Vietnam."
If the daily reports of U.S. servicemen and -women dying in Iraq continue at their current pace, calls for a pullout could increase. That will be particularly true if—and it's still a big if—the rebellion among the Shi'ites spreads well beyond where it is today. Having given more than 600 of their sons and daughters to remove Saddam and help rebuild the country, Americans are not likely to be patient if the majority of Iraqis seem to be turning on them.
The TIME/CNN poll last week showed only 24% of Americans now view the military campaign in Iraq to be "unsuccessful"; on the other hand, more than half say the U.S. should maintain or increase the number of troops in Iraq. The relative public equanimity gives the Bush Administration precious time to try to get things right. Foreign policy luminaries from both parties say a precipitous U.S. withdrawal would cripple American credibility, doom reform in the Arab world and turn Iraq into a playground for terrorists and the armies of neighboring states like Iran and Syria. "We can't afford to have a failed state there," says Nancy Stetson, a foreign policy adviser to Kerry. "If we walk away, the place could implode."
So when can the U.S. walk away? After last week's eruptions, the most this Administration—or, should Kerry win in November, the next one—can hope for is that some kind of elected Iraqi government will eventually emerge from the wreckage, at which point the U.S. could conceivably reduce the number of its troops significantly. But getting there requires a commitment of at least several more months of American blood and treasure. As his troops raced toward Baghdad last March, the commander of the 101st Airborne Division, Major General David Petraeus, asked a question that is both basic and haunting: "Tell me how this is supposed to end?" More than a year down the road, we still don't know the answer.
[i]— Reported by Massimo Calabresi, Matthew Cooper and Mark Thompson/Washington; J.F.O. McAllister/London; and Andrew Lee Butters/Baghdad [/i]
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| A Fallen Defender |
| 04.27.04 (11:27 am) [edit] |
The Arizona Cardinals safety Pat Tillman walked away from a $3.6 million contract with the NFL to join the U.S. Army:he was killed in action Thursday. He was a specialist with the Army Rangers
I think that was so brave of him. He didn't care about the money, he wanted to defend his country. I don't want to come off as some crazy patriotic person that has flags hanging everywhere...because thats not me. However, I do support out troops especially because I'm a military wife and a former military brat. My husband is in the U.S. Navy. He is currently stationed with the Marines@ Camp Pendleton. He is going to Iraq for the 2nd time in June/July for 7-9 months. I'm so scared because so many people are dying. If it was up to me, I'd pull us out of Iraq. We've been there for too long. We were out there trying to help them get their country in order but yet they are fighting us. So why not leave and let them let their country go to shit. BUT that is my personal opinion. :idea:
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