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Title: Support the Troops?
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URL Source: http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2010/10/07/support-the-troops/
Published: Oct 8, 2010
Author: Justin Raimondo
Post Date: 2010-10-08 06:20:50 by Ada
Keywords: None
Views: 899
Comments: 81
No way! We often hear, from antiwar activists as well as pious politicians and every sort of commentator, that we should all "support the troops." No matter what one thinks of the particular war being fought, this kind of boilerplate is invariably appended: "But of course," we are told, "everyone supports the troops." We honor them for their service. We pat them on the back and say: "Good job!" In this context, consider the details of the most recent atrocity coming out of Afghanistan, the activities of the "Thrill Kill platoon," which is accused of murdering Afghan civilians and keeping body parts as trophies. The alleged mastermind of the thrill-killers, Staff Sergeant Calvin Gibbs, is also under investigation by military authorities on suspicion of carrying out similar murders in Iraq. The Gibbs "kill team" is suspected of slaughtering at least seven Afghan civilians, and quite possibly more, in the most heinous manner imaginable. Gibbs and four others were arrested in June, and seven others are being held. These twelve apostles of mayhem — assigned to the 2nd Stryker Brigade, and stationed at Forward Operating Base Ramrod, along the border with Pakistan — randomly chose unarmed Afghan civilians to murder. Then they shot them, or blew them up with grenades, mutilating the victims. Gibbs, the alleged ringleader, made necklaces out of the body parts. They covered up their killing spree by placing weapons near the corpses, and the incidents went down in the records as gun battles with "insurgents." Gibbs reportedly has a tattoo on his left calf which is a pictorial record of his crime spree: it consists of two crossed pistols encircled by six skulls. According to news reports, the red skulls indicate murders carried out in Iraq, and the blue skulls represent Afghan kills. Knowledge of the killings was widely shared in the camp, and it’s hard to imagine higher-ups were unaware of what was going on. But there was indeed one apparently unwilling participant, Adam Winfield, who desperately tried to reach out to his parents, to whom he confessed the murders. The "honor the troops" brigade will tell us this is just another case of a few bad apples: this latest incident is no reason to condemn the entire US military – is it? Well, quite frankly, it is, because, as Winfield pointed out to his parents in a February 14 Facebook posting: "Pretty much the whole platoon knows about it. It’s okay with all of them pretty much. Except me…. I want to do something about it [but] the only problem is I don’t feel safe here telling anyone." "I talked to someone," Winfield continued, "and they told me this stuff happens all the time and that when we get back there is always someone that spills the beans so it normally works its way out." Winfield’s father asked, "No one else thought it was wrong?" Winfield’s reply: "No, everyone just wants to kill people at any cost, they don’t care, the Army is full of a bunch of scumbags, I realized." Winfield resigned his position as the platoon’s team leader because "I cannot be a leader in a platoon that allows this to happen." He went on to make a key point: "There are no more good men left here…. I started to think whether I should quit and just give up because it’s stupid to get smoked in Afghanistan. The Army really let me down when I thought I would come out here to do good, maybe make some change in this country…. I find out that it’s all a lie." None of this would have come out if not for an investigation into alleged drug use by soldiers. Investigators uncovered widespread and rampant drug use, including hashish, opium, and anti-depressants which are issued by the military: in the course of their investigation, one of the thrill-killers – apparently under the influence at the time – spilled the beans. In addition, Winfield’s parents made repeated calls to military authorities immediately upon learning of this horror, but before I get to any of that I want to underscore Winfield’s words: "There are no more good men left here." Of course there aren’t. What kind of person joins the military at this particular point in time – a point when the US is engaged in endless wars of aggression, and stories of atrocities committed by "our" soldiers are coming out all the time? For the most part, precisely the kind of person who would delight in the orgy of bloodlust conducted by the "thrill kill platoon." The military has become an outlet for the sociopaths in our midst. Yes, I know, with the recession people will be joining for economic reasons: after all, where else can they find a job? Economic considerations no doubt play a large part in the decision to go into the military, but other factors also play a part in making this choice: alongside economic necessity, in this instance, is the generalized knowledge that atrocities are being committed over there. Winfield says the whole platoon knew about what was going on with the "thrill killers," and the same can be said about the entire country when it comes to atrocities being committed in Iraq and Afghanistan by US troops, and I don’t just mean Abu Ghraib. This grisly record is common knowledge, and, in deciding to join up, the prospective US soldier is consciously choosing to ignore or downplay the moral aspects of being asked to commit atrocities: it’s much more important to him (or her) to make a living. This is the definition of a moral monster. There was a time, not so long ago, when the decision to seek a career in the military did not involve becoming such a monster. That time has long since passed. To put on an American uniform today is to become complicit in a criminal enterprise, and this characterization is not by any means limited to the thrill-killer platoon but to the entire killing machine deployed to carry out Washington’s grand design. When Winfield’s parents contacted US military authorities they were told nothing could be done unless Winfield came forward in Afghanistan – where his life was at risk. The others suspected him of being "soft," and threats had already come in from the thrill-killers that if he squealed his life was worth nothing: the ringleader waved the finger of a dead Afghan in his face to illustrate the point. The day he learned of the situation his son was in – Valentine’s Day, a Sunday — Winfield’s father left message on the Army Inspector General’s hotline, the Army’s criminal investigations division, and the office of Sen. Bill Nelson, Democrat of Florida. The response was nil. A few days later, Private Winfield was forced by his sergeant to engage in yet another random murder: Winfield says he aimed high and missed, but the military is still charging him in the killing. The Army knew what was going on. As that officer said to Winfield, this sort of thing goes on all the time. It’s part of our "footprint," even in areas where we aren’t engaged in military operations. Where US military bases exist, murders and rapes committed by US military personnel are common: the bases themselves are ringed with bars, houses of prostitution, and other less-than-savory establishments, catering to the thuggish tastes and habits of our centurions as they guard the perimeters of the American empire. These bases are running sores on the faces of our client states and protectorates, and, as in Japan, immensely resented ambassadors of ill will. So what can we do about it? Short of getting the US out of Iraq and Afghanistan, not to mention the rest of the world, the antiwar movement can engage in an aggressive campaign of counter-recruitment. This latest atrocity, which has been downplayed by the US media, should be publicized extensively, in tandem with a focused effort to persuade young people not to join up. If the media is running "public service announcements" and ads promoting military service, we should run counter-ads – and take full advantage of the controversy when the networks refuse to run them. The US military is a criminal enterprise, just as the ruling elite in this country is the equivalent of a crime syndicate: and they are getting away with murder. One day, the people’s justice will be visited on them. Let’s hope that rough justice doesn’t unfairly impact us all. The US is exporting its sociopaths overseas, in hopes that the havoc such people usually wreak can be put to some "good" use, but such callousness will soon blow back in our faces when Johnnie-the-thug comes marching home. We’ve already seen a spate of vicious murders committed by just-released veterans of the Iraq and Afghan wars: mental illness is rife among these veterans, and a disproportionately large segment is turning violent. More worrisome, gang members are reportedly joining in droves, and being accepted because the military is desperate to make its recruiting quota. They are boasting that when they come back, trained to kill by professionals, they’ll be in good shape to continue their criminal activities on the home front. It will be a harsh justice indeed as these deranged killers visit the same sort of destruction on us as they inflicted on their innocent victims overseas.
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#2. To: Ada (#0)
that is true. But a complication is that our people are very loyal to the US military and the US government. Our people believe in the democracy ideology. They believe that government somehow represents them, out of loyalty to the nation they are loyal to the government/military. we should not put faith in democracy.
Psalms 137:1 By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.
No. Justin needs to awaken to the fact that there are two military's within the military. Regardless of what happens in war, one cannot condemn the grunts on the ground. We teach them to kill, we pay them to kill, we PAY BIG MONEY to professionals to lead and command. When those in charge fail, condemning the grunts is the easy way out for civilians. If we are not there, speak your piece, however be careful with your condemnation of which you are not qualified to expound.
"You are judged by the company you keep." And the only ones I know of that view U.S. soldiers as sociopaths are the traitors in the press and the traitors in government that do their best to screw U.S. soldiers out of the rights, such as having their vote counted. I know a number of soldiers, most retired, ranging from 20 years old to 70 years old. Most are good, honor people, though a few of them are idiots. This nation is collapsing, with the very real possibility of an armed revolution happening in this nation within the next few years. Taking this into account, those in D.C. are probably going to lose, badly, because those in D.C., including the press, and YOU, continue to insult, demean, and abuse the two most heavily armed groups in the U.S. for the last few decades One group is the U.S. military. The other is the U.S. middle class. And the U.S. middle class has a lot more guns and people than the U.S. military ever had.
LOL! Sure there is. Sure there is. You are going to be sorely disappointed.
"The Central Intelligence Agency owns everyone of any significance in the major media." ~ William Colby, Director, CIA 1973–1976 Nothing in the State, everything outside the State, everything against the State - Jan Lester, Escape From Leviathan "When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that justifies it." - Frederic Bastiat Good order results spontaneously when things are let alone. - Zhuangzi
Keep this in mind when reading the "news".
"Satan / Cheney in "08" deleted
The relationship between morality and liberty is a directly proportional one.
Ping for discussion.
"Satan / Cheney in "08" deleted
The relationship between morality and liberty is a directly proportional one.
Ask them to read Gen. Butler's War IS A Racket.
"Satan / Cheney in "08" deleted
The relationship between morality and liberty is a directly proportional one.
It is difficult to separate the military into two entities, rather than one. I had friends that stayed in the military, one made it to major general before he was given the boot, the others got to the concrete ceiling of colonel and then they were booted. They did not realize it until it was too late that Colonel was going to be their limit, even tho they had done the heavy lifting for years. Those in the "other" military passed them by and applied the boot. The political insiders are groomed and perfumed for the top, the heavy lifters are used, abused and thrown away when no longer of any value. That is the way of the military.
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The relationship between morality and liberty is a directly proportional one.
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The relationship between morality and liberty is a directly proportional one.
True... Looking at it that way, one has to wonder if it is non caring or ignorance thru lifelong programming. Asking questions of those of advanced age, you find a greater number who are aware of the "system".
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The relationship between morality and liberty is a directly proportional one.
just like police departments, the military has been almost entirely debased.
Astute... They have a need to conform, to be in the flow, physically and mentally, the herd association.
You wanna stop the MIC? Stop the goofs from enlisting.
Really???????????????????????? WHO hired Johnny? Who taught him to kill or be killed? Who sent him in harms way into a society he has never experienced? I resent anyone calling them thugs. Society needs to look in the mirror before they point fingers.
The plain and simple fact is, there ARE thugs and assholes in the military, just as there are thugs and assholes everywhere else. Thing is, those thugs and assholes walking the streets here at home aren't usually wearing body armor and sporting a fully automatic weapon, nor a six pack of grenades. Those over there are, and aren't alone, they have others who are just as willing to join in the "fun". Of course not every soldier is a thug, but many of them apparently are. Marines are a bit more disciplined than Army, but after watching that little puppy get tossed off a cliff, they certainly have their share of assholes as well.
And they are employed by whom??? The mirror tell NO lies, points no fingers.
Can anyone tell me why a kid with all the availability of today's information flow, would choose to 'liberate Afghanistan' at the behest of this government? IMVHO there is no sane answer.
Ever since 2001 the military has turned a blind eye to hispanic and black gang members who join the military, but this article sounds (going by the soldiers' names mentioned) like there is only a problem with European-Americans. Blame whitey, and whitey only: no minority who has lived under decades of oppression in America would dare oppress the inhabitants of another nation, right??
__________________________________________________________ Stop the goofs from enlisting. So soon we have forgotten the Vietnam war and its daily and weekly enemy "body counts" demanded by the Pentagon and its professional military. WE, the fault finders, elected Lyndon Johnson by the biggest majority of any President in history, he gave us a long painful, horrible war. A war fought by kids that were in elementary school when Johnson took office. We drafted them, taught them to kill, count bodies, thats what they were paid for. Earn their money. Now we use money to entrap the lowest strata of our society, teach them to kill or be killed and then complain and call them names. How hypocritical we have become.
Cyni, this is the caliber and quality of, i hesitate to call them men, currently. they're sociopaths to begin with and a large number of those that aren't are given psychotropic drugs which turns them into monsters. while it's not right to call them all thugs, the fact of the matter is, there are many who are. the military is not what it was when decent boys were drafted.
astute observation
Substitute Afghan with either Korea or Vietnam and you have your answer. I did not know where Korea was, but the government was hell bent on war, and would find men to kill one way or the other, just as now. How is the draft any different form the "volunteers", all of us then and all of them now come from the lowest class of society. The professional military comes from a higher class, they TAUGHT US TO KILL WITH NO REMORSE. The dregs of society, the lower class that we love to hate, ALWAYS GET TO DO THE KILLING. How they got there matters not. Do we see any Harvard trained military hauled in for shooting innocents???? Of course not.
What about the Air Force/Navy pilots who bombed the Christians in defense of the invading muslims in Bosnia in the late 1990's under the direction of Bill Clinton?? I think a case could be made that they were misled by their superiors to a degree, but how much blame must be apportioned to them as individuals since they pulled the trigger on releasing bombs/missiles?? Every military aviator I've known my whole life was above average in intelligence and patriotic fervor, but even a few who bombed Bosnia must have had some inkling that maybe everything was not as they were being told??
__________________________________________________________ Christine, once again, these "killers" as you say, come from the lowest strata of society. None of us want our grand children to go into war, so we were so happy when the government decided against the draft and would use money to lure the have nots into service. As long as I nor my children go, all is well. WE hired them, we trained them to kill, and we will NOT accept any responsibility for their actions as they are thugs. What first class hypocrisy. The internet is replete with stories, even photos of American "thugs" in WW2 lining innocent men up and shooting them. We gave them medals. Eisenhower even had one man shot because he refused to kill. I remember that.
If you note, nearly every week, via an air strike a dozen or so "enemy" are killed. No name of the "thug" pilot. When it is determined all were innocents, it is written off as "collateral damage" AND WE SIT HERE AND SAY NOTHING. I hate this government, and we are to blame for it. I look in the mirror.
"It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brush fires of freedom in the minds of men." -- Samuel Adams (1722-1803)‡
Good people in back, sorry people in front. They tried to get me to join when I was in college, said I'd be an officer and get taken care of. Said they "didn't care" what the grunts wanted.
"If ever this vast country is brought under a single government, it will be one of the most extensive corruption, indifferent and incapable of a wholesome care over so wide a spread of surface. This will not be borne, and you will have to choose between reform and revolution. If I know the spirit of this country, the one or the other is inevitable." - Thomas Jefferson
point taken, Cyni, however, i still make a distinction between those who were drafted and those who enlist today. sure, economics plays a big part for many and i understand they are duped (as Winfield was) into believing they are "fighting for their country." but there is definitely a low echelon and criminal element of sociopaths who are drawn to the military because they enjoy killing. the same is true of those who are drawn to law enforcement. there's a good percentage of them who are thugs with badges.
Who's "WE?" I don't recall hiring anyone, nor training anyone to kill. You may say that the gummint was my agent when it did so. But I didn't hire them, either. Sorry, but I accept responsibility only in proportion to the amount of control I have. Which, in this case, is zero.
- - - - - - - - - - - ghost... Having been born and raised on the wrong side of the tracks back in the 1930s, having a Father that was strident anti government, I grew up knowing my place in society and what the future portended, regardless of what that lying SOB Roosevelt said. No TV to deaden our minds, with little radio for news at night, Americans were still able to think for themselves, however FDR would soon take care of that. I well recall his words, "I will never send American boys to fight in a foreign war", and my Father replying, "You lying SOB". He fooled the majority and they voted him an unprecedented third term, terminal rot had already set in for American minds. I voted for years and the corrupt government was my fault, I stopped voting and I am still responsible. The mirror does not lie.
Exerpts from "War Is A Racket" A speech delivered in 1933, by Major General Smedley Butler, USMC. WAR is a racket. It always has been It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small "inside" group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes. In the World War [I] a mere handful garnered the profits of the conflict. At least 21,000 new millionaires and billionaires were made in the United States during the World War. That many admitted their huge blood gains in their income tax returns. How many other war millionaires falsified their tax returns no one knows. How many of these war millionaires shouldered a rifle? How many of them dug a trench? How many of them knew what it meant to go hungry in a rat-infested dug-out? How many of them spent sleepless, frightened nights, ducking shells and shrapnel and machine gun bullets? How many of them parried a bayonet thrust of an enemy? How many of them were wounded or killed in battle? Out of war nations acquire additional territory, if they are victorious. They just take it. This newly acquired territory promptly is exploited by the few – the selfsame few who wrung dollars out of blood in the war. The general public shoulders the bill. And what is this bill? This bill renders a horrible accounting. Newly placed gravestones. Mangled bodies. Shattered minds. Broken hearts and homes. Economic instability. Depression and all its attendant miseries. Back-breaking taxation for generations and generations. For a great many years, as a soldier, I had a suspicion that war was a racket; not until I retired to civil life did I fully realize it. Now that I see the international war clouds gathering, as they are today, I must face it and speak out. ... ...But the soldier pays the biggest part of the bill. If you don't believe this, visit the American cemeteries on the battlefields abroad. Or visit any of the veteran's hospitals in the United States. On a tour of the country, in the midst of which I am at the time of this writing, I have visited eighteen government hospitals for veterans. In them are a total of about 50,000 destroyed men – men who were the pick of the nation eighteen years ago. The very able chief surgeon at the government hospital; at Milwaukee, where there are 3,800 of the living dead, told me that mortality among veterans is three times as great as among those who stayed at home. Boys with a normal viewpoint were taken out of the fields and offices and factories and classrooms and put into the ranks. There they were remolded; they were made over; they were made to "about face"; to regard murder as the order of the day. They were put shoulder to shoulder and, through mass psychology, they were entirely changed. We used them for a couple of years and trained them to think nothing at all of killing or of being killed. Then, suddenly, we discharged them and told them to make another "about face" ! This time they had to do their own readjustment, sans [without] mass psychology, sans officers' aid and advice and sans nation-wide propaganda. We didn't need them any more. So we scattered them about without any "three-minute" or "Liberty Loan" speeches or parades. Many, too many, of these fine young boys are eventually destroyed, mentally, because they could not make that final "about face" alone. ... ...Yes, the soldier pays the greater part of the bill. His family pays too. They pay it in the same heart-break that he does. As he suffers, they suffer. At nights, as he lay in the trenches and watched shrapnel burst about him, they lay home in their beds and tossed sleeplessly – his father, his mother, his wife, his sisters, his brothers, his sons, and his daughters. When he returned home minus an eye, or minus a leg or with his mind broken, they suffered too – as much as and even sometimes more than he. Yes, and they, too, contributed their dollars to the profits of the munitions makers and bankers and shipbuilders and the manufacturers and the speculators made. They, too, bought Liberty Bonds and contributed to the profit of the bankers after the Armistice in the hocus-pocus of manipulated Liberty Bond prices. And even now the families of the wounded men and of the mentally broken and those who never were able to readjust themselves are still suffering and still paying. ... (And this has not changed unto today) ... So...I say, TO HELL WITH WAR. Click here to purchase "War Is A Racket" Smedley Darlington Butler Major General - United States Marine Corps [Retired] Born West Chester, Pa., July 30, 1881 Educated Haverford School Married Ethel C. Peters, of Philadelphia, June 30, 1905 Awarded two congressional medals of honor (One of only 19 Men to ever be so honored), for capture of Vera Cruz, Mexico, 1914, and for capture of Ft. Riviere, Haiti, 1917 Distinguished service medal, 1919 Retired Oct. 1, 1931 On leave of absence to act as director of Department of Safety, Philadelphia, 1932 Lecturer - 1930's Republican Candidate for Senate, 1932 Died at Naval Hospital, Philadelphia, June 21, 1940
"One of the least understood strategies of the world revolution now moving rapidly toward its goal is the use of mind control as a major means of obtaining the consent of the people who will be subjects of the New World Order." K.M. Heaton, The National Educator
Grunts are the lowest men on the totem pole. All of the abuse is heaped on their heads. That has been true since recorded history. Everyone above the grunts come away with honor and clean hands, and we say nothing, just damn the grunts. Society has programmed people well. Hate the grunts, give medals to the Generals. Being a grunt gives one but one lesson, you are hated, despised and loathed by everyone else up the social ladder. By the military, you are more expendable than anything else in their killing machine.
Earlier I said, "I voted for years and take my share of the blame for a corrupt government, now I have not voted for some time and still must shoulder my share of the blame for this government. Walking free and clear of any responsibility is difficult for me.
I think some of what you both say is true. There are good kids who join lured by the prospect of romantic adventure, duty, or the desire to see the world but coming from a class that does not make that easy. As well there are the thugs, the criminals, and sociopaths who join to get a license to commit mayhem and murder without fear of prosecution. In my time in uniform I encountered both types, and I have met veterans of both types. Some, like a Navy Seal I met, a friend who was a Green Beret, and others were shattered by the experience, and spent a large part of their life trying to run from the memories that would not go away. They could not elude that which they carried with them every waking moment however dimly receded. I recall a Navy Chief of my acquaintance, a helmsman on a PBR (Patrol Boat, River), who twice was the only man living when he pulled the boat back into its slip. He never really recovered from the experience but became instead an alcoholic seeking to escape the memories of the unendurable loss of friends and shipmates. I also met the criminals, the sociopaths who would kill without thinking, without remorse, and without cause. I recall the look I received from a Seal instructor in San Diego (no I wasn't a SEAL, but dealt with them) and that look was one of absolute soullessness, and I knew that he could slit my throat from ear to ear and it would be no different to him than shaving. Such do exist and they too wear the uniform. My father, a Marine Scout-Sniper, spoke of the SEALs he knew during WWII. Do you know why the SEALs were disbanded at the end of WWII? Per my father's account they had become what he termed "Kill Happy" - they had come to enjoy the killing. The problem has been made worse in present time because enlistment standards have been dropped to nearly a historic low simply to keep bodies moving into the maw of the machine. Recruiters, and they have been caught at it, counsel unqualified criminals to lie, deny any of their past criminal activity or drug use, and the I.Q. and education standards have been dropped to the point that some of those entering are literally morons, as clinically defined, with an I.Q. in the range of 80 or so. So, you take a confused kid, who is not very bright, train him to kill, and then hand him a gun. Not bright enough to think his way out of situations what does he do? Kill. Kill, and kill some more. Is he bright enough to question the illegal orders from someone he has been told to obey under all circumstances? You judge. The reality is that the good kids get swamped by the psychopaths and sociopaths and are intimidated into silence by NonComs and Officers who are themselves at least sociopaths or too afraid to rock the boat lest they not get that next promotion - or the next bullet. It will change only when enough people say ENOUGH! That is why the media presents so little of the truth, because those running the death machine fear what would happen if the reality sunk into enough of the American Public to reach a critical mass.
"One of the least understood strategies of the world revolution now moving rapidly toward its goal is the use of mind control as a major means of obtaining the consent of the people who will be subjects of the New World Order." K.M. Heaton, The National Educator
I respect your opinion. Perhaps personally living thru three major wars has warped my sensibilities. In defense, all I can say is, to me, experience says regardless of how we got there, it has been those of the lowest social order that have done the bleeding and dying. Even this government publishes statistics for present and past wars, showing who paid the price. Those figures are very sobering, factual and enlightening to anyone with an open mind.
Butler was only 59 when he left us...
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Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/LatestThe US military is a criminal enterprise, just as the ruling elite in this country is the equivalent of a crime syndicate: and they are getting away with murder.
#3. To: Ada (#0)
The "honor the troops" brigade will tell us this is just another case of a few bad apples: this latest incident is no reason to condemn the entire US military – is it?
#4. To: Ada (#0)
(Edited)
The US is exporting its sociopaths overseas, in hopes that the havoc such people usually wreak can be put to some "good" use,
#5. To: PaulCJ (#4)
This nation is collapsing, with the very real possibility of an armed revolution happening in this nation within the next few years.
#6. To: Ada (#0)
They covered up their killing spree by placing weapons near the corpses, and the incidents went down in the records as gun battles with "insurgents."
#7. To: All (#0)
#8. To: Ada (#0)
To put on an American uniform today is to become complicit in a criminal enterprise, and this characterization is not by any means limited to the thrill-killer platoon but to the entire killing machine deployed to carry out Washington’s grand design.
#9. To: Cynicom (#3)
#10. To: Eric Stratton (#9)
I must say, I don't really know what to say since I want to engage them in their spoon-fed media mantras that they've wolfed down. But would it penetrate.
#11. To: tom007 (#10)
#12. To: Eric Stratton (#9)
#13. To: tom007 (#10)
(Edited)
#14. To: Cynicom (#12)
#15. To: Eric Stratton (#13)
No one cares.
#16. To: Cynicom, All (#15)
#17. To: Ada (#0)
The US is exporting its sociopaths overseas, in hopes that the havoc such people usually wreak can be put to some "good" use, but such callousness will soon blow back in our faces when Johnnie-the-thug comes marching home. We’ve already seen a spate of vicious murders committed by just-released veterans of the Iraq and Afghan wars: mental illness is rife among these veterans, and a disproportionately large segment is turning violent. More worrisome, gang members are reportedly joining in droves, and being accepted because the military is desperate to make its recruiting quota. They are boasting that when they come back, trained to kill by professionals, they’ll be in good shape to continue their criminal activities on the home front.
#18. To: Eric Stratton (#16)
If there's one thing that I've noticed about people under 30, they seem terrified to be alone. I'm guessing that a most effective "torture" for them would be to simply put them in a room, could even be a tremendously comfortable room or a five-star hotel room, w/o the ability to communicate with their peers.
#19. To: All (#17)
just like police departments, the military has been almost entirely debased.
#20. To: christine, All (#17)
soon blow back in our faces when Johnnie-the-thug comes marching home.
#21. To: Cynicom (#20)
I resent anyone calling them thugs.
"The real deal is this: the ‘royalty’ controlling the court, the ones with the power, the ones with the ability to make a difference, with the ability to change our course, the ones who will live in infamy if we pass the tipping points, are the captains of industry, CEOs in fossil fuel companies such as EXXON/Mobil, automobile manufacturers, utilities, all of the leaders who have placed short-term profit above the fate of the planet and the well-being of our children." - James Hansen
#22. To: FormerLurker (#21)
Of course not every soldier is a thug, but many of them apparently are.
#23. To: FormerLurker (#21)
#24. To: Ada (#0)
"This man is Jesus,” shouted one man, spilling his Guinness as Barack Obama began his inaugural address. “When will he come to Kenya to save us?"
-Schweizerische Schuetzenzeitung (Swiss Shooting Federation) April, 1941
#25. To: Jethro Tull, Christine, All (#19)
You wanna stop the MIC?
#26. To: Cynicom (#20)
More worrisome, gang members are reportedly joining in droves, and being accepted because the military is desperate to make its recruiting quota.
#27. To: X-15 (#24)
Ever since 2001 the military has turned a blind eye to hispanic and black gang members who join the military, but this article sounds (going by the soldiers' names mentioned) like there is only a problem with European-Americans. Blame whitey, and whitey only: no minority who has lived under decades of oppression in America would dare oppress the inhabitants of another nation, right??
#28. To: Jethro Tull (#23)
Can anyone tell me why a kid with all the availability of today's information flow, would choose to 'liberate Afghanistan' at the behest of this government? IMVHO there is no sane answer.
#29. To: Cynicom (#3)
"This man is Jesus,” shouted one man, spilling his Guinness as Barack Obama began his inaugural address. “When will he come to Kenya to save us?"
-Schweizerische Schuetzenzeitung (Swiss Shooting Federation) April, 1941
#30. To: christine (#26)
this is the caliber and quality of, i hesitate to call them men, currently. they're sociopaths to begin with and a large number of those that aren't are given psychotropic drugs which turns them into monsters. while it's not right to call them all thugs, the fact of the matter is, there are many who are. the military is not what it was when decent boys were drafted.
#31. To: X-15 (#29)
What about the Air Force/Navy pilots who bombed the Christians in defense of the invading muslims
#32. To: Cynicom (#31)
#33. To: Cynicom (#30)
Christine, once again, these "killers" as you say, come from the lowest strata of society.
#34. To: Cynicom (#30)
The internet is replete with stories, even photos of American "thugs" in WW2 lining innocent men up and shooting them.
#35. To: Cynicom (#30)
WE hired them, we trained them to kill, and we will NOT accept any responsibility for their actions as they are thugs.
Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under. -- H. L. Mencken
#36. To: ghostdogtxn (#32)
#37. To: Ada, all (#0)
#38. To: Turtle (#33)
Good people in back, sorry people in front.
#39. To: Enderby (#35)
Who's "WE?" I don't recall hiring anyone, nor training anyone to kill.
#40. To: christine, Cynicom, all (#34)
(Edited)
#41. To: christine (#34)
i still make a distinction between those who were drafted and those who enlist today
#42. To: Original_Intent (#37)
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