I had links to all my information,but decided against using them and just let myself rant instead.Most of the links were to very graphic sights,and I in all honesty felt very uncomfortable linking people to these sights.Google the stuff yourself,if you feel the need.
I am for our troops.Not because it is fashionable to do so,nor because I never served.But,because I admire the courage of the men and women in our military.Being an American service person is patriotism at it's very best.
Because of this I have turned a blind eye to a questionable practice going on by our troops in Iraq.Just like I don't believe in 'My country right or wrong',I can no longer continue blindly supporting supposed injustices or wrongs going on in the war zone.For this I am grievously sorry,but I feel I must consider the morality of a certain practice going on by a very small portion of our troops.
The first thing I must say is that this thing most certainly must have always went on in one form or another in all war zones.That does not justify these actions.Secondly,I feel that these actions would be fairly limited if our troops had less free time on their hands.With private companies like Blackwater guarding our military posts,and supplying the meals etc,responsibilities that used to fall on the G.I's are now out of their hands,and they now have more private down time.
Privatizing military functions is one of the ways The Roman Empire fell.There are somethings our government should be liable for,running the military should be one of them.Getting rid of private contractors should be priority number one.
Military porn is becoming an increasing problem.There are many web-sights dedicated to military porn...too much of it gay...many sights promoting the participants as actual military personal.Hey,if you are over in Iraq putting your life on the line for political freedom and keeping America safe...more power to you...if this is how you want to spend your free time-go for it-but I feel grandpa and gramma would rather wish you were pulling MP duty or peeling potatoes,instead.
However,when you start trading photos of dead enemy combatants,for free porn,that is where I draw the line.I don't care how many enemy produced videos of our dead are posted on the net,this atrocity is wrong.First off,it is against the Geneva Code to post these photos.Secondly,we're the good guys.How can we convince the Iraqi people the glories of Christian democracy with our troops trading photos of Iraqi dead for porn?
I know,yes,I know,this problem is only a small one amongst a very small portion of our otherwise noble and likable military personal.Our troops are fighting in a inhospitably place,against a indistinguishable enemy.But with our reasons for being in Iraq already on questionable grounds,we really should be nipping this wrong behavior in the bud.
There is an old song by Tex Ritter,called,'Deck Of Cards',about a soldier who was 'going to be punished like no soldier had ever be punished before' because the WWII soldier brought a deck of cards into a church.Has the decency of America really sunk so low that trading cell phone photos of the enemy dead for pornography does not deserve some form of punishment?I hope not.
6 comments:
Interesting post. Perhaps you could comment on the moral equivalence between trading photos of dead enemy combatants for internet porn and posting videos civilians being beheaded on YouTube.
I'd really like to hear that argument.
Two wrongs never make a right.Should I rob a bank because someone else does?Should I rape because someone else does?
The better arguement,I beleive is,or would be,why is it alright to kill your enemy,but then not to gain personal profit from it?Plunder is a traditional benefit of warfare,is it not?
If a soldier is going to damage his soul for his his country by killing his enemy,should only the rich oil barons profit?
To this,I have no answer.
No, I guess you don't.
On that at least, we agree.
Okay, I am pressed for time and will not be able to fully investigate this issue, so I will only mention a few points.
As you speak about a soldier killing "his enemies" how are they defined as enemies? Only because we went over there and made them that. Prior to our going to Iraq those people meant nothing to us.
Why do we have to convince them of "Christian democracy"? Why are we trying to force feed other peoples Christianity? My god, it sounds like every other war from the Crusades and everything else through time. Fighting to promote our "God". That just makes it so totally wrong!! Who do we always think that we are that we have it right and know how everyone else needs to live and worship. Why not democracy for it's own sake, but NOOOOOO we always have to inteject the whole Christianity angle.
Now about the porn, I have not heard about this whole trading scenario, and will look in to it more, but c'mon soldiers have had porn as far back as Betty Grable and those gales were pin-up girls yes, but the crap changes with the times. If the guys / gals feel that that is what they ant to do in their off or relaxation time why should it be anyone's business? Now if they are trading photos of the dead, that is probably a matter for their internal justice system.
Thank You,Dharma.Your points are my points.I mention the Christian reference only in the fact that we are fighting Muslims.The same can and is said about the iraqi's we are fighting.Everyday the point is brought up that the Sunni's are fighting the Shittes.The vast majority of our soldiers are Christian AND promoting democracy...like it or not...thatis how we are seen and precieved.
I have said from the very idea of this war-police action that I believe it to be wrong for America.It is like we are just the hinchmen for the suadi's or something.
When I think about the idea of war,it makes my brain hurt(no far stretch).When I think of the extreme cruelities of WWII-Death camps-death marches-massive bombings of civilians-I wonder how,just how can we now be holding hands like lovers with such once hated enemies???What did all the soldiers die for?How can so many people's lives be effected by war deaths and now we act like nothing happened at all?Is this a good thing,or a bad thing?
As for watching porn,as I already said,to each their own,but I can not simply say boys will be boys when we are supposed to be liberators of a country and then the troops are exploting the counties war dead for pornography!
It pisses me off seeing OUR war dead exploited,it shames me seeing Americans doing it foe something as cheap o get as porn
What if our soldiers were showing pictures of our own war dead for porn?
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