The true reason why I bring this up, is that the other day I saw someone in our Armed Forces
(NOT my Son-In-Law) comment on the Almighty Facebook that just pulling his military issued weapon out of the holster would "make those Iraqis scatter like cockroaches" and he was not describing the enemy. He was describing the Iraqi Army and/or Iraqi civilians.
Does he realize that those people, who have had their country for the most part, invaded (and I don't care under what pretense) and torn apart by us under the guise of helping them escape a dictator? (Don't worry, I AM thankful that Saddam went the same route as Hitler.)
I have a sneaking suspicion that maybe a few of those Iraqi countrymen probably feel at least a portion of the way the Jewish, Polish, French, Belgian, and Norwegian peoples felt when Hitler decided to roll the tanks in and take over to make them part of the Third Reich where they'd be better off.
ONCE AGAIN I AM NOT COMPARING OUR GOV'T WITH THE THIRD REICH!!!
I AM COMPARING HOW THOSE THAT WERE OCCUPIED MUST HAVE FELT!
And for one of our men in uniform bragging in a public forum that he can make citizens of another country "scatter like roaches" at the sight of his big ole macho gun that the military gave him absolutely DISGUSTS me. That's why we have had numerous incidents of inhumane treatment of pretty much every level of society in Iraq and Afghanistan from Abu Graib to the recent Marines peeing on corpses. I could perhaps understand a little bit about the enemy combatants, but the people we're supposed to be helping?? 
I mean, come on, we're already looked at as the bully on the block and the "Infidel" by quite a few around the world. Why not change your attitude as someone representing the USA (and ME, a taxpayer and voter!) and QUIT DEHUMANIZING HUMAN BEINGS just to get your macho rocks off? Some civility please!
Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Kim Jong Il, Milosevich, Hussein and all the other bloody dictator murderers were able to perpetuate their atrocities because they successfully got their people...humans....to DEHUMANIZE the humans they wanted exterminated. The Jews were called cockroaches and worse...and 6 million later we wonder why they weren't treated as humans or helped by other humans.
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| The Smallest... |
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| Victims Of... |
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| Hitler's Holocust |
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| And Victims Of... |
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| Josef Stalin's Gulag |
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| The Evil Handiwork of Slobodan Milosevic Mass Grave in Bosnia They were Yugoslavian, just the wrong RELIGION, again. |
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| Widows & Mothers of the 7,500 Muslim men & boys murdered in 1995 Srebenica, Bosnia Masscre |
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| And Finally, The Work of Saddam Hussein... |
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| 1987, In Halabja, Iraq |
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| 50,000 Kurds Killed by Mustard and Sarin Gas (Who are Iraqi, btw, just not the same ethnicity as Hussein) |
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| 2,000 Entire Villages as well as their Livestock (wildlife too) DESTROYED on a whim of Saddam. There are many other cases in the world that are just as bad. -2003: Darfur Region of Sudan, over a quarter Million of the Indigenous Non-Arabic Affiliated Islamist Darfur Tribe have been systematically slaughtered in terrifying village raids by the Non-Indigenous Arabic-speaking Islamists called the Janjaweed. This genocide took place solely on the ethnicity, including the systematic "War" rape of every female of child-bearing age, to "breed them out." -1991-present: In Somalia, the al-Shabab Mujahideen, an offshoot of Hizbul Islam and deemed a terrorist organization loosely affiliated with al-Qaeda. They have actively blocked relief efforts to almost 2.5 Million people that were forced to flee when al-Shabab began killing practitioners of other sects of Islam and Christians in the country. These millions have fled across the border into neighboring Ethiopia and Kenya who do not have the resources to assist the people in refugee camps. -1994: Rwanda (now The Democratic Republic of Congo) with the majority Hutu tribe, minority Tutsi tribe, and the 1% of the population Twa Pygmies (who were absolutely no threat to the Hutus, they just didn't like them and they were an easy target). This former Belgian colony, with it's converts to Roman Catholicism, The Anglicans, and a smattering of Protestants, had a problem from the very beginning. The Belgians decided to elevate the Tutsi Tribe to the level of aristocracy, leaving the Hutu Tribe the role of second-class citizens. However, the Belgians did one better, upon relinquishing their colony to it's independence, they encouraged the brewing Hutu rebellion into fruition by switching their allegiance from Tutsi to Hutu. The Tutsi were forced into exile and the Hutu took power. At some point those in exile demanded to be allowed back into Rwanda, by force if necessary. Long story short, the Tutsi faction forced their way back, hostilities exploded, France stuck it's nose in to help "support" the Hutu regime but made a bigger mess, President Habyarimana's plane was shot down which started the presidential guard's attempt at a Tutsi and Tutsi sympathizer massacre. In April-May-June of 1994, 937,000 people were murdered. All three Church bodies failed to recognize and condemn the genocide (sound familiar?) Women were raped repeatedly and tortured, "war rape"as it's called. Now 70% of those rape victims are HIV positive. Men weren't immune from sexual attacks either, hundreds were mutilated, their genitals being cut off and hung up as trophies. Oh, and that Twa Pygmy Tribe, they killed EVERY LAST ONE of them they could find. 30% of their population was murdered, and 30% fled the country. Only 40% of the pre-genocide population remains, and they have been given no help in rebuilding their villages and social structures. So why didn't we go in to help in these instances? Simple, they don't have anything WE WANT! So, I reiterate, YES SADDAM NEEDED TO GO! Do I agree with how we justified this war? Not necessarily. Do I think the Iraqi people (especially those purported to be friendlys) have been through enough? Absofrickenloutely!!!! A word of caution regarding things brewing in this country, all of the above atrocities were caused by one of three things: power, religion, or lack of resources. Add a disillusioned population to the mix and you have the recipe for civil war. Don't kid yourself that it couldn't happen again, as it did in the 1860's, here. |
