(no subject)

[apocalypsos]

I just saw the video of the American being decapitated by the Iraqi extremists that's up on Ogrish.com. All I have to say is just ... ugh. And I have a strong stomach when it comes to mind, so the act itself isn't what disgusts me. (Be forewarned if you're going to go see it ... it's forty seconds long of them literally sawing on his neck. And just when you think you've seen enough, his screams just cut off.)

Let me put it this way. The first person to so much as imply that now we have to retaliate back at the Iraqis runs the risk of a first-rate TP-issue bitch-slap. "An eye for an eye" works just fine until you realize if you keep it up, everyone in the kingdom ends up a one-eyed whiny freak.

When. The FUCK. Is all this going to end?

Comments

[nute.livejournal.com]

(Granted, the same question could be asked of the U.S., but...ew. U.S. soldiers may do crappy things sometimes, but they've never stooped that low.)

Very untrue. Doesn't make it right, not by any stretch of the imagination. But soldiers of all nations have done worse. It's what soldiers DO.

[budclare.livejournal.com]

"Very untrue. Doesn't make it right, not by any stretch of the imagination. But soldiers of all nations have done worse. It's what soldiers DO."

Uh, no. Deliberately killing someone slowly and painfully? And I don't just mean unintentially, as in shooting to kill but only fatally wounding, resulting in slow, agonizing death. Planning to kill someone slowly and painfully just to put on a show?

[budclare.livejournal.com]

*sighs* Lost a few ltters. Nughty letters, running off like that.

*rereads last sentence, and facepalms*

[jyorraku.livejournal.com]

Planning to kill someone slowly and painfully just to put on a show?

...isn't that what war is?

[budclare.livejournal.com]

Gosh, that was deep. I'm so impressed.

Sorry if I dripped sarcasm on you just now. At least it doesn't stain clothes.

[jyorraku.livejournal.com]

Are you? Really? My life is now complete.

[nute.livejournal.com]

That's exactly what I mean. There's US soldiers who keep scrapbooks of stuff like this. It's a mindset - and one that's all too easy to fall into. Dehumanize the "enemy", thus you don't ask questions when you're told to kill them "just because". Once the mind can accept that this isn't a real person you've got at your mercy, it's easy to rationalize all kinds of horror.

No, it's not right. It's simply how it is. That's war. There is no honorable or gentle kind.

[budclare.livejournal.com]

A US soldier who sawed someone's head off just for fun, videotaped it, and showed it off to the whole world would be sent to prison.

I never said that other soldiers don't commit atrocities, and thank you so much for insulting my intelligence by implying otherwise. There's a reason (many, in fact) why I don't, in general, support wars. That doesn't mean that all atrocities are equal. Yes, I'm sure that there are US soldiers who have made their victims suffer more than this man suffered, but the deliberate infliction of pain, on videotape, for the sole purpose of gloating in front of the entire world is a wonderful new level of stupidity. Hurray for the information age.

[nute.livejournal.com]

That doesn't mean that all atrocities are equal.

There I'll disagree. I think that once you murder someone, no matter the other mitigating circumstances, you're all in the same boat. But I can see your point.

[pepperjackcandy.livejournal.com]

So your specific "our soldiers would never do that" is to the videotaping, not to the act itself.

Um, well, only just (http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040512/tv_nm/iraq_abuse_video_dc_3).

[budclare.livejournal.com]

It's funny how it looks like you're quoting something that I never actually said.

I'm glad that all of you are so eager to save me from the ignorance of what you thought I said... It really warms my heart.

[pepperjackcandy.livejournal.com]

I'm trying to figure out what you meant, that's all.

You said,

Yes, I'm sure that there are US soldiers who have made their victims suffer more than this man suffered, but the deliberate infliction of pain, on videotape, for the sole purpose of gloating in front of the entire world is a wonderful new level of stupidity. Hurray for the information age.

Which I took to mean that you were specifically talking about the videotaping, not just the atrocity.

That's all. Honest.

[budclare.livejournal.com]

Not just the videotaping, the whole damn thing. The incident was, to my mind, an escalation of the atrocity stupidity. It's as if one layer of atrocity isn't enough; they (meaning any assholes who commit atrocities, not those of any specific country) seem to be stacking atrocity on top of atrocity, trying to see who can make the tallest pile of stupidity. In my opinion, the (inept) beheaders currently have stacked the atrocities the highest. (Proportionally, anyway. Such a small group of people can only cause so much damage, so they obviously can't be compared to, for instance, the perpetrators of the Holocaust.) That doesn't mean this is the worst atrocity, certainly, but most atrocities aren't intended to be made public. They used to be dirty little secrets that people made an effort to hide. (And before someone tries to argue with that statement, yes, sometimes atrocities are meant to be public on a limited scale, usually for the purposes of frightening people, but not public on a large scale. That takes a special kind of brazenness. I don't think that's a word, but tough.)

I can't believe how much time I've wasted on this, all because of one little off-hand remark. This is why I usually avoid subjects like this like the plague. It's just tiring.

[lots42.livejournal.com]

That makes very little sense. US soldiers are supposed to disobey illegal orders.

'I was just following orders' is never an excuse for an atrocity.

[nute.livejournal.com]

Supposed to. Few do.

And you're right. It's never an excuse. Ever.