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| Into harms way |
I was going to throw up here a long post about the war at the moment, but to be honest with you I don’t have the energy. I have posted a bit on some of the topics over at [[Metafilter]]. I’ve copied the posts here to this entry, but you really should go over and read them in context.
The short form?
- Friendly Fire incidents suck. Hard. However during time of war accidents will happen… things will go wrong. It is the nature of armed conflict.
- The fact that the Iraqi military is deliberately using tactics designed to put their citizens at maximum risk is no surprise. The more casualties they can force they more propaganda they get to show on TV. Of course, this is all the more reason to oust these guys.
- Apparently, the entire concept of charity is confusing to many.
- Michael Moore is an idiot. For ‘Moore’ idiocy go check out MooreWatch. While your at it, go look at his problems with facts. Of course, he might gain a clue every now and then.
posted on 03/31/2003 @ 7:35 AM
So… having read the whole article… we have this:
- The Iraqi tactics are accomplishing what the deliberately intended, and what we knew they would do; make it extremely difficult to limit civilian casualties.
- Despite the danger to themselves the coalition soldiers are going well out of their way to try and avoid civilian casualties.
- The Iraqi psy-op belief that #1 will cause many anti-war Americans to scream about the supposed atrocities and “war crimes” of the US was correct.
- When Iraqi soldiers deliberately mix with civilians, civilians will die as a result. Marines will also die.
- #4 was always a possibility, and one we were completely aware of. It will not alter the war militarily in any significant amount, but it may unfortunately cost more lives.
It seems only the anti-war folks are fixated on the idea that we thought the Iraqis wouldn’t fight. The military HOPED for the best, but always knew it could go the other way. Further, the level of resistance by civilians is not extremely high.
War is rough… people die. When the regime you are fighting is deliberately working to increase the number of civilian casualties then a lot more people will die. That sucks, but it changes nothing.
posted on 03/31/2003 @ 8:27 AM
“A good reason to avoid it, IMHO.”
I agree… but the reality is that you cannot always avoid it. The concept of “peace at any price” usually means the “price” is the total destruction of all you care for.
“Funny that people with the “people die, so what”-attitude are rarely the people in the line of fire.”
I don’t recall that I ever said “so what”. I spent my time in the military, I took the risk of backing up my convictions. It is bad. It sucks. It’s horrible. None of that changes that it is sometimes necessary.
posted on 03/31/2003 @ 9:23 AM
Whether it is justified or not at this time is obviously up for debate – but many anti war people get very caught up in the rhetoric that it is >never< justified.
Me? I think this war is justified.
“My point exactly.”
I haven’t seen anyone say “so what” that wasn’t obviously a whacko. On the other hand, I have seen a lot of people who were never in the military make judgements on all sorts of things they have no clue about.
posted on 03/30/2003 @ 3:28 PM
Hmmm… so if someone wants to provide aid… that’s “sickening”?
And if that someone (you know, the person spending all the damn money and providing the food/water/shelter) might actually want to TALK TO YOU while you eat his food, drink his water and sleep in his shelter… then he’s obviously a full on bastard right?
Tell ya what, the Iraqis can exercise their free choice, just like the charities. They can decide not to take the charity. No one is forcing them to do it.
Unlike of course the situation hey have now, where their faith or lack of it will get them tossed in a plastic shredder.