Re: "rogue/bad "jarheads" being over-zealous.... Sickos...."
What concerns me the most about the whole deal is that much points to "private contractors" as the guys ordering this shit. Right now we have a force of 20,000 guys in Iraq who don't have to answer to the military, but who have these vague "security" and "intelligence" classifications.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1206725,00.html
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/04/27/60II/main614063.shtml
And they make BIG money in comparison to our grunts.
Help me out on this military historians... Has there ever been a publicized US conflict where 1/6 of the guys with guns and the ok to kill, and in some cases the power to order around American soldiers, were not a part of the military command structure? (When I say "publicized", I'm not including black ops/CIA shenanigans that are a constant part of US foreign policy.)
http://www.publicintegrity.org/wow/report.aspx?aid=334
Bottom line, I agree that those who committed the acts are guilty of crimes against humanity. But even more evil in my mind are the scumbags who order a front line grunt to do their dirty work for them.
Tangent: Speaking of contractors, here's an interesting list of folks making money off of the war, with links to how much cash they gave to Bush and Co, as well as the democrats.
http://www.opensecrets.org/news/rebuilding_iraq/index.asp
One other tangent and I'll shut up. Isn't it odd that the folks that have supposedly been beheaded by Iraqi extremists have been wearing orange jump suits only used by the US occupying forces to clothe "detainees"?
If you're one of the Iraqi/Insurgent extremists, why do you run the risk of death to steal these uniforms to clothe your hostage? It makes absolutely no sense.
Granted, there is the metaphorical value, perhaps, in clothing your prisoner the same way your enemy does, but is that power enough to outweigh the down sides?
You would have to not only steal the clothing, but if you had to move your hostage around as security forces sweep the area you're hiding in, he's going to stand out like a sore thumb, isn't he? Just doesn't add up for me... There's ample evidence that the famous Nicholas Berg video was a fake, and it's kind of interesting that Berg was held and interrogated for days by the US forces before his "kidnapping". His parents were even pitching a bitch to the military about it. Then the video appears.
Strange, strange days we're living in...
What concerns me the most about the whole deal is that much points to "private contractors" as the guys ordering this shit. Right now we have a force of 20,000 guys in Iraq who don't have to answer to the military, but who have these vague "security" and "intelligence" classifications.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1206725,00.html
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/04/27/60II/main614063.shtml
And they make BIG money in comparison to our grunts.
Help me out on this military historians... Has there ever been a publicized US conflict where 1/6 of the guys with guns and the ok to kill, and in some cases the power to order around American soldiers, were not a part of the military command structure? (When I say "publicized", I'm not including black ops/CIA shenanigans that are a constant part of US foreign policy.)
http://www.publicintegrity.org/wow/report.aspx?aid=334
Bottom line, I agree that those who committed the acts are guilty of crimes against humanity. But even more evil in my mind are the scumbags who order a front line grunt to do their dirty work for them.
Tangent: Speaking of contractors, here's an interesting list of folks making money off of the war, with links to how much cash they gave to Bush and Co, as well as the democrats.
http://www.opensecrets.org/news/rebuilding_iraq/index.asp
One other tangent and I'll shut up. Isn't it odd that the folks that have supposedly been beheaded by Iraqi extremists have been wearing orange jump suits only used by the US occupying forces to clothe "detainees"?
If you're one of the Iraqi/Insurgent extremists, why do you run the risk of death to steal these uniforms to clothe your hostage? It makes absolutely no sense.
Granted, there is the metaphorical value, perhaps, in clothing your prisoner the same way your enemy does, but is that power enough to outweigh the down sides?
You would have to not only steal the clothing, but if you had to move your hostage around as security forces sweep the area you're hiding in, he's going to stand out like a sore thumb, isn't he? Just doesn't add up for me... There's ample evidence that the famous Nicholas Berg video was a fake, and it's kind of interesting that Berg was held and interrogated for days by the US forces before his "kidnapping". His parents were even pitching a bitch to the military about it. Then the video appears.
Strange, strange days we're living in...
