Next time you see some asshole from the right-wing, a conservative, a Tea-bagger, a libertarian, or even an admitted member of the Republican Party or some devout religious group, or any other nature tell you that that the war in Iraq or any other place was justified, point them to this (h/t to Buzzflash)-
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/08/31/122789/wikileaks-iraqi-children-in-us.html.
"A U.S. diplomatic cable made public by WikiLeaks provides evidence that U.S. troops executed at least 10 Iraqi civilians, including a woman in her 70s and a 5-month-old infant, then called in an airstrike to destroy the evidence, during a controversial 2006 incident in the central Iraqi town of Ishaqi.
The unclassified cable, which was posted on WikiLeaks' website last week, contained questions from a United Nations investigator about the incident, which had angered local Iraqi officials, who demanded some kind of action from their government. U.S. officials denied at the time that anything inappropriate had occurred."
WARNING: What you see there isn't for the faint of heart.
And just in case the owner of the link is somehow compelled by subordinates connected to the very same elements to remove or redact what they orignally claim (or it conveniently comes out that the picture was faked) - read this by-line under the photograph -
"This cell phone photo was shot by a resident of Ishaqi on March 15, 2006, of bodies Iraqi police said were of children executed by U.S. troops after a night raid there. Here, the bodies of the five children are wrapped in blankets and laid in a pickup bed to be taken for burial. A State Department cable obtained by WikiLeaks quotes the U.N. investigator of extrajudicial killings as saying an autopsy showed the residents of the house had been handcuffed and shot in the head, including children under the age of 5. McClatchy obtained the photo from a resident when the incident occurred."
A part of me would like to get drunk or throw up, but frankly what would that do? No alcohol, drug or any other kind of vice will erase what I've seen.
This isn't war.
This isn't protecting anyone's freedom, let alone ours.
This isn't even terror.
This was cold-blooded murder and cover-up. And it was done on behalf of every American, not just the ones who supported this war, but all of them.
While it's one thing to be reminded that there are always innocent people in any conflict whose lives are 'caught in the middle' or destroyed 'accidentally', neither is the case here (whether that's really true or just made-up bullshit by chickenhawk types is a separate, but otherwise irrelevant issue now). The difference here is that this was a pre-meditated act against people (children) who had no involvement, no concept, no understanding of what was going on, or why this was happening, and never had a chance at life at all - all of which was committed on our behalf, with our money.
And ... we as readers have the evidence in front of us, backed by what the US Government communicated to its embassies, and what the media outlet's own investigation and data findings back up.
What does George W. Bush have to say about this?
What does Dick Cheney have to say about this?
What does Donald Rumsfeld have to say about this?
What to Powell, Rice, and every other member of that illegitimate administration have to save about this?
What does Barack Obama have to say about this? Or Joe Biden? Or Christine Gregoire, or any other Democrat for that matter?
I frankly don't know who are worse - the idiots who would continue to justify it - not knowing the photo and evidence existed - and would defend it still after the fact; or ... those who've known all these last five years and stayed silent?
What does that say about them?
What does that say about those like me who didn't know, or those who were too absorbed by Lady Gaga, or Jersey Shores, or the latest Disney crapfest which continue to turn us all into mindless consumers of stupidity; and allow all of this to go on and on? There's no point in bellowing on and on about how we are becoming an entertainment consumer society of increasing intellectual decay and permanent decline - we're there; and have been there for sometime.
I frankly have no answer. I honestly don't know if there is one.
I will say this however. It's a lot easier to hate a nation of people, or a group or culture when they are just random statistics you read about or data points in one's head to justify a point of view.
It's a lot harder to do that, when those random people's dead faces are in plain view forever, and when such people have names.
Maybe it's that part of me that is inside that likes to believe I have empathy. Maybe it's the part of me that's a parent and father; what if those were me and my family there? If we were a different race, living in that place, that'd be me and my family there - would anyone care about us? Would anyone be as affected by the loss?
And what can be said about people, who ... despite all that, still insist it was (and is) justified?
How many other events of a lesser or greater magnitude have occurred?
What will it take for anybody to to something about it?
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