Friday, May 19, 2006

Telling Truth to Power

From Breitbart.com through the resources of the AFP LINK: CLICK HERE

A US lawmaker and former Marine colonel accused US Marines of killing innocent Iraqi civilians after a Marine comrade had been killed by a roadside bomb

"Our troops overreacted because of the pressure on them and they killed innocent civilians in cold blood," John Murtha told reporters. The November 19 incident occurred in Haditha, Iraq.

"There was no firefight" that led to the shootings at close range, the Vietnam war veteran said, denying early official accounts, which said that a roadside bomb had killed the Iraqis.

"There were no (roadside bombs) that killed these innocent people," he said.

Time magazine reported the shootings on March 27, based on an Iraqi human rights group and locals, who said that 15 unarmed Iraqis died, including women and children, when Marines barged into their home throwing grenades and shooting.

"It's much worse than reported in Time magazine," Murtha said.

This is really tragic. But the guilty will be brought to justice. In public. With the entire world's press reporting and investigating and commenting and exploiting. I'm betting that the New York Times will devote at least 50 front page stories to the Iraqi massacre.

Oh yes, the press will report. There will be so much sunlight, you could easily get sunburned. You will know the name, rank and serial number of every soldier remotely involved in the murder. And you'll meet their wives, girlfriends, ministers or priests and their third grade teachers.

Meanwhile Al Queda and the insurgents purposely target and kill women and children every day. Every day. Without exception. Children are killed by Al Queda every day.

And not by rogue troops. Not by out of control soldiers. Not by over-stressed or poorly trained National Guard units. But children are murdered by trained assassins acting under direct orders of leaders (usually religious leaders). It is no accident that Al Queda are targeting and murdering children every single day.

But unlike the US soldiers the insurgent assassins will never be arrested. They will never be tried. The world's press will never run their stories. There will never be marches or protests or strikes or even a modest editorial in the New York Times.

Of course there will be numerous posts in blogs that absolve Al Queda of blame and call them idealistic young freedom fighters. Telling truth to power.

My prayer... my hope... my dream.... is that every horrific crime on earth, every rape, every murder, every torture, all be done by US soldiers. That way the world would finally hold all victims and all perpetrators of violence equal instead of focusing 99.9999% of the press, the emotion and the hate on 0.0001% of the acts of violence.

I, for one, am in tears every day. I don't have to wait for John Murtha to tell me for whom I should shed a tear.

2 comments:

Vigilante said...

So Vietnam had its My Lai(s) and Iraq has its Haditha(s).

Is it the Same Ol - Same Ol? One thing is clear: it's not the troops. It's their civilian bosses. Our civilian bosses.

Bob Keller said...

Vigilante, You're leading the parade.

The front page, above the fold, headlines are already here. The press is geared up to cover this horror for weeks or months. Once the official Marine report is finally issued the real explosions will begin. Word is that it is very disturbing. The US troops did some very evil things.

Look for marches and riots in most Muslim countries. Tens of thousands and maybe hundreds of thousands will march and protest. Rioters will die in the melee.

The US image will fall further and Bush approval ratings will hit the lowest of any president in history.

The trial will become the televison event of the new century.

Over the next 12 months Al Queda and their related insurgents will purposely target and kill over 1,800 women and children in Iraq alone and hundreds (or perhaps thousands) more worldwide.

Reporting will be minimal internationally, virtually non-existent in the US.

The 15 to 25 killed by the American's will receive the justice they so rightfully deserve. The 1,800 others will only be mourned silently by their parents and families.

Which arab (civilian, religious, governmental) leaders are you going to blame for those 1,800 deaths of innocents? Will we ever see an published essay on their culpability?