I am sick of the 'War is Hell' excuse!

THIS IS IN RESPONSE TO RECENTLY SEEING THIS ARUGMENT MADE ON DU...


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I am sorry, but such a lame excuse no longer flies...

From the beginning of the 'War on Terror' the U.S., from the top to the bottom of the command, has been targeting civilians.

It is so obvious that our leaders have to go out of their way to deny it. http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Oct2001/n10112001_200110119.html

Meanwhile, the civilian death rate for Afghanistan was much greater than any recent conflict. In fact, the only recent conflict close was the Cambodia bombing campaign of 1969-73.

"The Afghan air war has been particularly destructive in terms of civilian impact deaths compared with three previous aerial bombing campaigns. The following Table 1 plots figures of civilians killed per 10,000 tons of bombs dropped. In an article in the Boston Globe , Fred Kaplan argued that the so-called 'kill ratio' in Serbia was about the same as in the Vietnam campaign---circa one civilian killed for every 10 tons of bombs dropped---whereas in the Iraq war, it was reportedly one-half that, though this seems to be a serious under-estimate.2 The index is, of course, at best suggestive since civilian casualties will reflect type of ordnance used, local demographic factors, topography, emplacement of military facilities, etc..." http://www.cursor.org/stories/civpertons.htm



Meanwhile in Iraq, "American troops.. admitted they routinely gun down Iraqi civilians - some of whom are entirely innocent..." http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/content_objectid=13087653_method=full_siteid=50143_headline=-US-TROOPS-ADMIT-SHOOTING-IRAQI-CIVILIANS-name_page.html
Human Rights Watch actively condemned America's bombing campaign in Iraq. "Hundreds of civilian deaths in the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq could have been prevented by abandoning... misguided military tactics..." (link to the HRW Report http://www.hrw.org/reports/2003/usa1203/)

If you are still not convinced, you might want to take a look at the faces of collateral damage http://www.friendsjournal.org/contents/2003/04april/feature.html

Snipers regularly shot civilians during the Fallujah standoff http://theinsider.org/mailing/article.asp?id=492 and this behavior by U.S. troops continues unabated. I also have independent confirmation of the targeting of civilians by U.S. Marines to the recent standoff in Fallujah. The uncle of my source was shot without provocation. He was not a fighter or soldier: just a civilian. His was just one horror story from Fallujah (just one town in Iraq).

The horrors of Abu Ghraib point to a military command that is out of control in relation to human rights abuses. From the highest levels ( Dare we say Bush himself) free reign has been given to prosecute abuses of the worse kind.

War can indeed be Hell, but that doesn't make it an excuse. Hell often is the thing we make of it.

http://www.thesyndrome.com/archives/00000942.htm

*Posted in entirety by the author...

Police and thieves in the street....
oh yeah
scaring the nation with their guns and ammunition

Police and thieves in the street....
oh yeah
fighting the nation with their guns and ammunition

From Genesis to Revelation
the next generation
will be, hear me

From Genesis to Revelation
the next generation
will be, hear me

And all the crowd come in
Day by Day
Noone stops it
in any way

All the peace makers
Third World officers
Hear what I say...hey hey hey hey hey hey!

IT'S CALLED LEARNED HELPLESSNESS! It is the message that problems are so overwhelming and hopeless, that there's no reason for you to act.

Facing reality can be disturbing so comfortable red-white-and-blue sleep masks can help block out unsightly deaths that might cause sleeplessness. Here, try these on-

A few here, a few there, what can you do?

Well, y'know, war is ugly, what can you do?

Freedom ain't free, what can you do?

They hate us for our freedom, what can you do?

You gotta break a few eggs to make and omelette, what can you do?

They chose to be there, what can you do?

We must fight evil, what can you do?

Times are tough, what can you do?

They're just following orders, what can you do?

We must fight terrorism, what can you do?

He's our president, what can you do?

They know things they can't tell us, what can you do?

They are led by evil leaders, what can you do?

The press always shows things as going badly, what can you do?

I can't save the world, what can you do?

Hey, I've got bills to pay, what can you do?

They started this war against us, what can you do?

There will always be war 'cause that's people, what can you do?

That part of the world is just a mess, what can you do?

The author has thought more to write this one article than dubya has in three years in office

There is always a reason. Always.

Why aren't you getting in line?


:evilgrin:

He says that Bush needs to lead, that people's lives are at stake -- which alludes to the idea that Bush HASN'T led thus far. He also has alluded to the idea that if Bush isn't up to the task, we need to get rid of him.

The first is that they usually come from very low post count members who shortly end up sporting a tombstone.

The other thing I've noticed is that it generally only applies in one direction. If it happens to an American, then the perpetrators are subhuman and animals. If it happens to an Iraqi, then it's just one of those things that happens in a war, and we all know that war is Hell.

Sadly enough, our prison camps are becoming concentration camps. War is Hell, but international law is that way of enlightenment, and the Geneva laws were developed for a very apropriate reason.

But let us just fire our smart bombs at market places, yea, that works. I don't support any countries troops in any capacity, in fact, I rather dislike them.

Yes, in war, it's the oldest excuse in the book. You've marshaled some good evidence and a context for debunking it.

Abu Ghraib is best understood 1) as the government being caught doing what it usually effectively conceals and 2) as merely a significant tombstone in a very large cemetery of atrocity.

none of these things are isolated incidents and they don't take place in a vacuum.

:kick:

not just another foreign policy tool like it was in the 19th Century.