Archives for 2003

Level-headed Jeralynn at Talk Left (who is, IMHO, quite appropriately waiting for more information) and the more flame-throwing Atrios link to this story:

Military coroners have determined that the deaths of two detainees while in U.S. custody in Afghanistan were homicides, CNN has confirmed.

Some readers have commented in TalkLeft’s comments section:

Are we to sink as low as the perpetrators of 9/11? Are we losing our humanity?

and

Smells like Nazi Spirit. There should be a registry of torturers.

Some of the comments from Atrios’s readers include:

My Lai

and

Mourning in Amerika. (say you love Jesus – SAY IT!!)

and

NOW we know what all this talk about torture that’s been in the media over the past few days was really all about. These prisoners were obviously tortured to death by the U.S. military.

Those are our soldiers and our boys who you are flippantly comparing to the bastards who killed 3,000 people on 9/11. To the bastards who killed 6 million Jews and I don’t know how many other people before and during WWII.

Breathe deep. Calm down. The investigation needs to run its course before we start hopping to conclusions, and if something evil has happened, the hopefully the military (and I believe they will) will do the right thing.

Regardless, this knee-jerk response about the military does raise what I perceive to be an interesting contradiction within the left. When the left protests war, they are quick to invoke the names of our young who might die over there. Charlie Rangel’s reason for his draft proposal (which is just a hideous and cynical idea) was to protect our boys, because perhaps Congress and the country will re-think what they are doing. Yet when there is the slightest suggestion of malfeasance by anyone in the military, the rhetoric immediately paints the military, as an institution and to the individual, as evil.

Look folks- the military doesn’t change ranks from issue to issue. These are still our boys you are smearing here- the same ones you were nobly concerned about in the anti-war protests, and I would prefer to give them the benefit of the doubt, and I will wait for the investigation to be concluded before I start screaming murder and dust of the Viet Nam era “My Lai” rhetoric.

There are bad eggs in the military, just as there are bad eggs in every group of people. I remember being told that “there is a thief in your Sunday School class.” But calling my troops Nazi’s without any sort of investigation, any opportunity for charges to be filed, any opportunity for justice to be done is just a bit much for me, thank you very much.

Maybe this is why many incorrectly and flippantly state that the left just hates America?

And don’t go accusing people of that, nor should you confuse Atrios and Jeralynn’s comments with the people who commented on their sites. I just don’t know why people are always so quick to assume the worst of our military.

*** Edited slightly to make some sense of my intial post ***

Calm Down, EveryonePost + Comments (2)

An interesting read in the Washington Monthly about the military and troop strength. Some of this appears needlessly breathless, and I am not sure about the figures regarding those who are deployed are presented in a fair light- yes- we have deployed more since 2000, but Afghanistan was necessary. Likewise, when you calculate those forces who are in Bosnia and Kosovo for the long haul because of previous administrations, it might not be fair to characterize this over-deployment as a fault of Bush policy (this is not Clinton bashing- I think he did the right thing in the region). At the same time, that would be as pointless as criticizing the fact that troops are STILL stationed on the DMZ.