As the situation in Iraq gets worse by the day, a new book by an ex-Marine, Jimmy Massey, may support existing reasons why the US has found itself in such a position.
Entitled "Kill! Kill! Kill!", the author explains that he and his fellow marines had killed dozens of civilian Iraqis due to a an "exaggerated sense of threat", and often they experienced thrills of a sexual nature when doing so. Apparently their training imbibed them with the sense that all Iraqis were terrorists. Massey said he published the book in France, in French, because no American publisher in his right mind would bring bad publicity to the US Marines and national pride. Massey was discharged from the Army in 2003 after being diagnosed with post-trauma stress syndrome. Read more here.
Obviously, any army would train its best to be most brutal and most effective during any war. This would mean dehumanising the enemy, so that killing of enemy combatants in a hostile enemy territory is swift, unthinking and effective. If not, the attacking force would be destroyed.
But the problem is, this was meant to be a war to rid the threat of Weapons of Mass Destruction that Saddam allegedly kept but somehow were never found. Then it became a war for democracy and peace to free the people of Iraq from a repressive government. It also sometimes became a war against terrorism. The war was many things, but not to decimate a country that was seen to populate aggressive individuals who would be patriotic to the old regime. But killing of civilians is happening now, by both US troops and anarchists (Shia/Sunni/everybody) who want power, any power.
In a time where technology is advanced enough to pin-point exact locations to be bombed, the threat that was Saddam could've been taken out smoothly. But troops were sent by the hundreds and thousands, and there have been too many casualties for what has been packaged as a noble cause.
The book "Kill! Kill! Kill!" will provide some clues as to why the US troops in Iraq are seen as an oppressive regime initiating anarchy in the first place. Michael Moore's Farenheit 9-11 also showed us examples of the mentality of the US troops, mentality that smacked nothing less than racism against a foreign people. The Abu Ghraib torture photos are a manifestation of the number of human rights abuses happening in Iraq.
These are the acts of terror in an invaded country that provide cold, hard justification for suicide bombers. A London bomber claimed he was shown video clips of US brutality towards Iraqi women and children. It's absurd that the US and coalition forces are fighting a war that they help to fuel - much like fire-fighting with kerosene in the hoses.
So there is a cycle of killing, revenge, and killing that results in a blood-filled quagmire of no-return. All we can do at the moment is just pray for the dead souls to be at peace.
2 comments:
hey...
i couldnt agree more. The US went in for the wrong reasons, is still fighting the war on dubious grounds and may continue fighting because it will never be able to end the war without embarrassing itself.
However,
Do the acts of terror that US marines commit justify the london attacks? Not anymore than the london attacks justify further US atrocities. An eye for an eye never justified the means to an end. If the terrorists were atleast targetting military personnel, one might try to justify their actions. But since like the Bali bombings have shown, terrorists have waged war against humanity, then they deserve scant respect, as much as you think the US forces deserve.
Do the acts of terror that US marines commit justify the London attacks? Of course not. There's no justification in murdering civilians. True, the London bombers have shown total disrespect for humanity, as have the Bali bombers, for the second time running. The bombers don't need Iraq to justify their killings; there are a lot more in the bag where Iraq came from (Palestine being the big one).
But would you not agree that America has just gone down the dirty drain with providing more discontent for aggrieved peoples in the Middle East by using its Marines to kill unarmed civilians, much like how the London bombers used bombs on unarmed civilians? As I mentioned, there were a thousand ways to skin the cat called Saddam, but America chose to do it the way it can to secure an entire country's resources: with its troops.
Terrorists deserve scant respect, no doubt, for causing death, violence and villifying the religion they claim to represent. Killing civilians under the veil of promoting freedom and democracy in well-planned press releases doesn't deserve an iota more respect either.
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