(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

[sleepyaardvark.livejournal.com]

Well I don't mean to sound likea cold-hearted un-American son of a bitch, but I can understand why Iraqis would do something like this and I wouldn't necessarily even call them extremists. To clarify that, they may or may not be extremists in other regards, but I would not make that determination solely on the basis of this beheading. While I don't condone what they did and I certainly don't think continued violence on either side is going to constructively solve anything, I can certainly understand the emotions of the Iraqi people right now--in fact, I share those same emotions.

Assume the situation were revered and the Iraqi army had invaded and deposed George W. Bush and set up shop in New York City and then after a year, we heard that they had been torturing prisoners--especially if we'd been hearing these allegations for a while and preferred to not believe them and give our occupiers the benefit of the doubt (which most mainstream Iraqis did until hard evidence of this abuse surfaced). Frankly, even as much of a pacifist as I am, I would be mad enough to want to go kill someone, and probably even mad enough to seriously consider the idea (while the particular method might seem gruesome to us, keep in mind its a different culture and beheading is very common in that region)--and I'm the furthest thing from an extremist.

And regarding the occupation itself, while I would certainly consider anyone who would invade and depose that crazy son of a bitch to be liberators (I keep praying for the remote possibility that the Queen might consider revoking our independence and the Treaty of Paris and sending in the Royal Marines), I, like the Iraqis, would want them to get the hell out ASAP. "Thanks very much for your assistance, NOW GO HOME! We'll take it from here."

But the prisoner abuse and the beheading should surprise no one. In fact, I would not be surprised when and if things got worse. When will it end, you ask? Well think of it this way, we know what horrid things we have seen in these photographs that have become public--can you just imagine what isn't being photographed?

According to Iraqbodycount.org, at least 9,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed since the start of the war, not to mention 700 US soldiders. Most of these casulties occurred after last May when Bush so arrogantly stood on an aircraft carrier in front of a "Mission Accomplished" banner in what had to have been the most ill-conceived photo op since Michael Dukakis climbed aboard a tank.

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