From the “Where-is-the-outrage?” Department
I know I’m late to this story, but sheesh. I’m glad I’m not the first one to ask the question.
Missing Soldiers’ Bodies Beaten Beyond Recognition (NBC Afflilate) (WaPo)
We have protests about supposed, unproven, and unjustifiably inaccurate reports of torture in Guantanamo Bay. (Where the International Red Cross has an office ON BASE.) We have news reports of Abu Ghraib months and months after the incident. And our stinkin’ White-Guilt is only focusing on heresay of OUR misdeeds.
Meanwhile, our heroes are being mutilated and it seems like this is supposed to be the status quo.
Even the The White House is uncomfortably quiet about this.
Two-Headed-Salutes:
Why?
Why is the United States the “Bad Guy”?
Why is it that when the United States does something which MIGHT BE questionable (and probably is false) it is heralded around the U.N., and the World, and the Main-Stream-Media as the worst thing since the Black Death.
But beheading in Iraq. (Even Nick Berg’s Father thinks it is Bush’s fault his son is dead, and not the Al-Qaeda terrorists who weilded the knife.) It was eclipsed by naked photos of Iraqi prisoners.
Lets see, Beheading and killing our kids… nude humiliating photos of people still alive. I’m not condoning the events of Abu Ghraib, but sheesh people, a man died and the Press has nothing but a porn addiction.
And now these two boys.
Kidnapped.
Beaten.
Tortured.
And other unspeakable things.
Am I alone in thinking this is messed up? That there is something wrong?
Where is the outrage? Its there, I see that. But not at the level of the venomous anti-US voices.
In fact, most of the venomous anti-US voices are either silent, or *shudders* Thankful, at this development.
I hope this is a fringe minority.
No one can be that hard-hearted.
June 21, 2006 at 6:35 AM |
Well first, I don’t hear all that much about Abu Graib or Guantanamo anymore. Not like it was when Abu Graib first happened. We heard a lot about civilian beheadings when they first happened. I think Americans are growing weary of war news in general.
Second… I think the enemy we face is so far from what we can fathom as normal behavior we don’t know how to even address it. And it’s also hard to define. It’s not just Al Qaeda, not all Muslims, and not one country. America and Bush are the devil we know. Well defined, visible, outspoken. It’s much easier for people to wrap their heads around America and our actions than this enemy we face, so anyone remotely predisposed to put blame on the US for any part of this situation will naturally address our actions first becasue of a sense of control over that… rather than rail against an unknown, invisible enemy.
I doubt this explains all, but maybe some of the anti-American sentiment. And I agree, the result is often disturbing.
I’m afraid I don’t know too much about this story… why was it released so late? Lack of interrest or military trying to keep it quiet?
June 21, 2006 at 6:42 AM |
I agree with your second point. Geneva conventions apply to nation states, that was the design. Now we have an enemy that does not exist at the nation state level.
Which brings me to an additional point. How do you fight an enemy that plays by different rule book than you?
It seems like our hands are tied. We get attrocities committed against us, but if we even breathe the idea of doing the same thing, we have “world police” forces condeming us as illegal and inhuman.
I hate it.
June 21, 2006 at 6:47 AM |
I hate it too.
But I also firmly believe we shouldn’t stoop to their level.
Doesn’t mean we shouldn’t get more inventive about how we fight this war though.
June 21, 2006 at 9:34 AM |
Can someone update me?
I can’t seem to find anything on Amnesty International’s scorching condemnation of the recent torture and murder of our two brave young Marines.
Others Blogging on the Lack of Outrage
Michelle Malkin – SPEAK UP, PRESIDENT BUSH
Two Headed Monster …
June 21, 2006 at 10:07 AM |
I think you are wrong about stooping to their level.
We should stoop even lower,so the next time they see our soldiers they may decide to run the other way. These muslims are punks, and we should wipe the floors with them.
We should take the koran and wipe our asses with it!!
June 21, 2006 at 10:16 AM |
Okay, lets step back for a moment.
As much as I’m as angry as the next guy, we don’t need to start that kind of talk.
We are angy at Islamofascism, that is who this war is aganst. Not Islam.
See, its language like that which makes people say we’re intollerant.
June 21, 2006 at 10:54 AM |
Its all over the world…wherever there is islam there are problems.
June 21, 2006 at 12:22 PM |
It’s a very convenient label and I think supports my point above. But there is Islam in Virginia (one of the largest muslim communities in the US). Are there problems there? Some of the largest populations of muslims in the world are in India, Indonesia, and Saudi Arabia. Do we have problems with those countries as a whole? I don’t know that the Saudi’s are the best example, but they are considered by Bush to be an ally in the “global war on terror”.
Are muslims building missles in Korea? Are muslims smuggling drugs across the mexican border?
Giving their cruelty back to the terrorists serves nothing but revenge. It does not serve justice or peace or American interrests. Revenge is what has driven centuries of civil war in the middle east, eastern europe and Africa. I understand the tempation to just say “level the whole region… bomb it and pave it over”. But it’s wrong. You may be willing to give up what seperates us from them, but I’m not.
June 21, 2006 at 1:46 PM |
These people have said they want to kill us…they only understand toughness. Ask all the people who have died at the hands of these people from the religion of peace. Go into most of the mosques in this country and you hear about jihad.
I live in NY and I have seen what can happen with these people. After 9/11 did you hear one muslim condemn the attacks? They were happy! The paleswinians gave out candy and had parties. The muslims want to take over the world….thats the real world, not the one you live in.
June 21, 2006 at 2:13 PM |
I understand where you are coming from Josh. I’ve seen what’s happening in Europe, the Paris riots, the issues in Canada. Lots of experts say that the religion of Islam, the religion of peace, does not and refuses to assimilate to other cultures. There are more examples than what I list in this comment.
I’ve even heard some pundits say that muslims who DO assimilate well, only do so because they are in a minority.
However, I do not agree with any of those people. I have hope.
What makes US, the United States, the center of the Free World and Western Culture, different is our acceptence of other cultures. Yes, Islam does not accept us, but we are of different ilk. WE CAN ACCEPT THEM. If we lose that feature of our culture, we lose who we are.
I’m not willing to lose that.
I’m glad you brought this up, because it helps me accept the original topic of this article. Like Bradley suggests, we have to fight an enemy that refuses to fight at our level. But we cannot fight them at theirs, and we shouldn’t; because that is what makes us who we are. Just like the analogy of cultures, the analogy of war is parallel.
We can fight them, and we can win, and we don’t have to sacrifice who we are. Nor do we have to perform genocide to do it.
It is my belief, my hope, that Islam and Western culture can live side by side as well.
June 21, 2006 at 3:12 PM |
How do you fight an enemy who hides behind women and children?
And if there is another terrorist attack in the USA then I wouldnt want to be a muslim.
England accepted them and look what happened…Canada too…
Go to these two blogs and read the articles…LITTLE GREEN FOOTBALLS and JIHAD WATCH.
There is alot of stuff happening the main stream media doesnt tell us.
June 21, 2006 at 3:46 PM |
At this point, Josh, I don’t know what to say.
I read LGF regularly. I know that they do not advocate such things as slaughter of innocent people, or the dehumanization of a certain group of people. They are great advocates of equal rights (and often expose much in how the media misrepresents the issues surrounding the Jewish state, the Palestinian State, and the Islamic nations.)
How do you fight a people who use “holy ground” as a place to group, organize and plot against us, safe from our moral high ground?
I’ll warn you once more, as a fellow man who believes that the War on Terror is a vital mission for this nation, please focus your rage agaisnt the terrorists, and the insurgents.
I point above at the people of the far left who look at this incident with joy or the complete lack of concern; I believe they do that because people on our side of the aisle react with such a discrimanatory argument. In my opinion, both are unfair, and the two behaviors are only distinguishable by their polarity on the political spectrum.
June 21, 2006 at 8:38 PM |
Send a Clear Message
President Bush needs to tell the American people what happened to those Soldiers. He needs to let the people know what we are fighting and quit white-washing the actions of our enemies.
June 23, 2006 at 12:52 AM |
The British Empire faced this over 100 years ago. Governments of USA and UK are as human and flawed as the rest of us. We need better propaganda. News media give us pacifism. Governments give us minimum information. cyquick.wordpress.com
June 23, 2006 at 3:45 AM |
[...] Over at Two-Headed-Monster we had a unique discussion on the recent attrocies in Iraq. Lots of people are talking about it, including two city newspapers. [...]