Role model
Sometimes, I hate being right.
Nine days ago, I wrote that it was "...a stunning coincidence that the four American soldiers accused of raping and murdering an Iraqi schoolteacher [which was what the American press was reporting at the time] and her family are from the same platoon as the two Americans abducted and butchered in mid-June." And in the days since this story first broke here, I haven't seen one newspaper article or televised report that dared to point out the obvious connection between the two incidents, preferring instead to let the "official" story - that our soldiers were murdered in a random act of savagery by a bestial foe angered over the death of the evil Abu Musab al-Zarqawi - stand pat as an example of the moral barbarity and inferiority of our terrorist foe.
Oh really?
As noted by Michelle Pilecki in yesterday's HuffPo, an article in the conservative UK Telegraph confirms that the incidents are indeed directly related, an example of "local justice" as it were, fueled by a pervasive distrust among Iraqi citizens of both the U.S. Army and Iraq's police forces.
Again, I'll point out that the torture and murder of our two soldiers was a heinous, barbaric act, and those responsible should be held accountable. But it's deplorable that the Pentagon, even now, insists that any possible links between the separate incidents is "speculation" - and that our traditional media machine continues its refusal to point out the obvious "tit for tat" nature of the scenario.
It's called "cause and effect." "Action and reaction." And as terrified as we are to face the facts in this nation, the time has come to honestly admit that America is the world's leading role model when it comes to acts of "blood for blood revenge." That is the single message we've telegraphed most vividly with our swaggering, militaristic foreign policy for the past 5 years - so it should come as no surprise to a self-proclaimed Christian nation that we're reaping that which has been so recklessly sown.
As I also noted last week, the weekly revelations of American atrocities against Iraqi citizens should come as no surprise either. For they're a logical consequence of the "trickle down effect," reflecting a tone of savagery that's been set by the Bush Administration since the inception of its "war on terror." That tone is one which has painted our "enemy" as sub-human, and has condoned the torture and murder of unarmed prisoners, indefinite detention without charge or legal protection, and a military campaign that has caused generally unreported "collateral damage" resulting in the deaths of 3,000 Afghani and between 50,000 and 100,000 Iraqi civilians.
The architects of America's "war on terror" have championed this eye-for-an-eye approach from the very start. Time to retire that cloak of moral superiority in which we've blindly wrapped ourselves since September 12, 2001. And let's stop acting surprised at the degree to which our enemies have learned to imitate the behavior of this wretched Administration.
Nine days ago, I wrote that it was "...a stunning coincidence that the four American soldiers accused of raping and murdering an Iraqi schoolteacher [which was what the American press was reporting at the time] and her family are from the same platoon as the two Americans abducted and butchered in mid-June." And in the days since this story first broke here, I haven't seen one newspaper article or televised report that dared to point out the obvious connection between the two incidents, preferring instead to let the "official" story - that our soldiers were murdered in a random act of savagery by a bestial foe angered over the death of the evil Abu Musab al-Zarqawi - stand pat as an example of the moral barbarity and inferiority of our terrorist foe.
Oh really?
As noted by Michelle Pilecki in yesterday's HuffPo, an article in the conservative UK Telegraph confirms that the incidents are indeed directly related, an example of "local justice" as it were, fueled by a pervasive distrust among Iraqi citizens of both the U.S. Army and Iraq's police forces.
Again, I'll point out that the torture and murder of our two soldiers was a heinous, barbaric act, and those responsible should be held accountable. But it's deplorable that the Pentagon, even now, insists that any possible links between the separate incidents is "speculation" - and that our traditional media machine continues its refusal to point out the obvious "tit for tat" nature of the scenario.
It's called "cause and effect." "Action and reaction." And as terrified as we are to face the facts in this nation, the time has come to honestly admit that America is the world's leading role model when it comes to acts of "blood for blood revenge." That is the single message we've telegraphed most vividly with our swaggering, militaristic foreign policy for the past 5 years - so it should come as no surprise to a self-proclaimed Christian nation that we're reaping that which has been so recklessly sown.
As I also noted last week, the weekly revelations of American atrocities against Iraqi citizens should come as no surprise either. For they're a logical consequence of the "trickle down effect," reflecting a tone of savagery that's been set by the Bush Administration since the inception of its "war on terror." That tone is one which has painted our "enemy" as sub-human, and has condoned the torture and murder of unarmed prisoners, indefinite detention without charge or legal protection, and a military campaign that has caused generally unreported "collateral damage" resulting in the deaths of 3,000 Afghani and between 50,000 and 100,000 Iraqi civilians.
The architects of America's "war on terror" have championed this eye-for-an-eye approach from the very start. Time to retire that cloak of moral superiority in which we've blindly wrapped ourselves since September 12, 2001. And let's stop acting surprised at the degree to which our enemies have learned to imitate the behavior of this wretched Administration.
posted by Bob P @ 8:52 AM
2 Comments:
the question is: how much more of this has been going on all along? And how much has been covered up?
According to what I've read, with the drastic lowering of standards for military recruitment, gang members and white supremacists are now being mixed with law-abiding soldiers -- which I suspect would greatly increase the chances of criminal activity such as this occurring...
Bob, I think everyone who reads this post is coming face to face with the sort of brain freeze that those of us in the pro-peace camp have had for years. Everytime Palestinians retaliate for heinous, barbaric crimes by Israeli settlers and/or IDF forces with violent acts of their own, the media spins those attacks as "provocations" justifying greater and more destructive repression.
This is how the right-wing, corporate media controls our minds, and if we have the courage to combat it, we will quickly discover that we are like lone figures out in the wilderness. We are vulnerable, we are exposed to viocious counter-attack, and we will eventually be marginalized, ignored, and/or executed by those who want these truths to be kept quiet. Iraq is Palestine. There is no difference in kind, only in degree. The same false-flag attacks, the same sectarian violence, the same scapegoating of legitimate political reformers. All of this happens to keep ordinary Americans and Israelis from confronting the inherent inhumanity of occupation.
And yet it continues, despite all the wishes of God-fearing and hopeful men and women.
Until hate is outlawed and love reigns, I remain your friend,
Tahoma Activist
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