Excerpts from a MUST READ article. These are the facts that Neoconservative Republicans like to ignore. This will be the history that remains once the propaganda of the Bush administration has been swept out of office.

What it means when the US goes to war

By Chris Hedges

War as betrayal

"This unit sets up this traffic control point, and this 18-year-old kid is on top of an armored Humvee with a .50-caliber machine gun," remembered Sergeant Geoffrey Millard, who served in Tikrit with the 42nd Infantry Division. "And this car speeds at him pretty quick and he makes a split-second decision that that's a suicide bomber, and he presses the butterfly trigger and puts 200 rounds in less than a minute into this vehicle. It killed the mother, a father and two kids. The boy was aged four and the daughter was aged three.

"And they briefed this to the general," Millard said, "and they briefed it gruesome. I mean, they had pictures. They briefed it to him. And this colonel turns around to this full division staff and says, 'If these f---ing hajis learned to drive, this (*)(*)(*)(*) wouldn't happen'."

Punishing the local population

Sergeant Camilo Mejia, who eventually applied while still on active duty to become a conscientious objector, said the ugly side of American racism and chauvinism appeared the moment his unit arrived in the Middle East. Fellow soldiers instantly ridiculed Arab-style toilets because they would be "(*)(*)(*)(*)ting like dogs". The troops around him treated Iraqis, whose language they did not speak and whose culture was alien, little better than animals.

The word "haji" swiftly became a slur to refer to Iraqis, in much the same way "gook" was used to debase the Vietnamese and "raghead" is used to belittle those in Afghanistan. Soon those around him ridiculed "haji food", "haji homes", and "haji music". Bewildered prisoners, who were rounded up in useless and indiscriminate raids, were stripped naked and left to stand terrified for hours in the baking sun. They were subjected to a steady torrent of verbal and physical abuse. "I experienced horrible confusion," Mejia remembered, "not knowing whether I was more afraid for the detainees or for what would happen to me if I did anything to help them."

These scenes of abuse, which began immediately after the American invasion, were little more than collective acts of sadism. Mejia watched, not daring to intervene yet increasingly disgusted at the treatment of Iraqi civilians. He saw how the callous and unchecked abuse of power first led to alienation among Iraqis and spawned a raw hatred of the occupation forces. When army units raided homes, the soldiers burst in on frightened families, forced them to huddle in the corners at gunpoint, and helped themselves to food and items in the house.

Rest of Article Here

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"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident." - Schopenhauer

Abuse? A car speeds up to a checkpoint and refuses to stop and this is the fault of the check point?

This is crazy! Its sad that the family was killed, but it was the fault of the women driving the car. You can try to put it on American soldiers all you want but you just looks foolish. Those guys are doing a hard job and they want to live as much or more than the ones that they are fighting.

I see this kind of stuff and I just laugh at how foolish it is and how dumb someone would have to be to believe it. We learned that this is what is called propaganda and this is anti-American propaganda like we read about that is being used in Palestine. Its craziness made to look like its not crazy like its OK to pack up explosives and walk on a bus with other people who just want to get home or work or whateever and you just blow them up and kill them and want to make it seem like you were forced to kill people that never did anything to you. Its crazy.

This is what it means when any country goes to war.

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WARNING: In the unlikely event of an accidental agreement with any or all points made in the above post, contact a clinical psychologist immediately.

The views expressed in the above post are not necessarily those of Joker and/or any of his affiliates.

1) He's obviously not trying to put it on American soldiers, and to imply that he is, is just a distraction attempt. The soldiers are the ones being betrayed -- by the people that got them involved in needless bloodshed.

2) It's her country. It's not her fault that someone from another country got scared and shot her.

Excellent points.

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"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident." - Schopenhauer

Funny how you can only focus on one point of the entire article and try and deceptively use that to label the entire article. If the other facts in the article are wrong, then prove it. That's not the only grievance my friend. I'm sure you wish that it was.

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"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident." - Schopenhauer

I don't agree with him on this.
I'm going to read his book "I Don't Believe in Atheists." It was published this year, and I'm hoping my local library has it. Anyway, I like this author (Chris Hedges), he has a divinity degree from Harvard. He's philosophically very close to myself, but in this instance of being against the war in Iraq to the detriment of those fighting it...

I must disagree.
Respectfully.

Well, of course, the American troops were fooled just like the rest of us into believing that the Iraqi people were somehow responsible for 9/11. Abuse follows like night follows day.