I would like to clarify my opinion (for the sake of individuals with hardened hearts and closed minds) on the letter I posted yesterday.
Practical Penumbra has taken a stab at my logic by insinuating I support troops who commit torture and murder .
"Mountain Girl does not dispute any of these allegations that US and British troops in Iraq are behaving surprisingly like Saddam Hussein's forces."
She does this by merely quoting this response to a reader:
"I too support our troops. It is not a question of loyalty to the troops. The troops are pawns in this game. They must do what they are told or face life-long consequences. I hope that we can break this cycle of attack and be attacked. We are perpetuating terrorism, in my opinion, by occupying Iraq."
She goes on to say, "Any American military personnel who gouge out prisoners' eyes or pull off their limbs should be summarily court marshaled, not "supported" by Mountain Girl and her ilk. I do not and never will support those kinds of troops."
Never did I say our troops are "behaving suprisingly like Saddam Hussein's forces". I merely posted a letter I found disturbing. I don't believe our troops are killing innocent bystanders for shits and giggles. When a war is raging, innocent civilians are killed. My president lied to me, made me feel justified for this war, and the terror has not abated. If anything this letter makes me feel as if civilian Iraqi's who were not part of any terror group are now seeing terrorist tactics as their only way of survival against the Forces invading their country. When civilians feel this way we must be doing something wrong.
Buddy Don has an interesting post today that helps validate this point. Robert Pape has written a book following a study of suicide bombers from 1994-2005. The book is titled Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism.
Here are some of the studies conclusions:
* The data show that there is far less of a connection between suicide terrorism and religious fundamentalism than most people think
* What nearly all suicide terrorist attacks actually have in common is a specific secular and strategic goal: to compel modern democracies to withdraw military forces from territory that the terrorists consider to be their homeland
* Three general patterns in the data support these conclusions
1. First, nearly all suicide terrorist attacks - 301 of the 315 in the period I studied - took place as part of organized political or military campaigns
2. Second, democracies are uniquely vulnerable to suicide terrorists; America, France, India, Israel, Russia, Sri Lanka and Turkey have been the targets of almost every suicide attack of the past two decades
3. Third, suicide terrorist campaigns are directed toward a strategic objective: from Lebanon to Israel to Sri Lanka to Kashmir to Chechnya, the sponsors of every campaign - 18 organizations in all - are seeking to establish or maintain political self-determination
* Before Israel's invasion of Lebanon in 1982, there was no Hezbollah suicide terrorist campaign against Israel; indeed, Hezbollah came into existence only after this event.
* Before the Sri Lankan military began moving into the Tamil homelands of the island in 1987, the Tamil Tigers did not use suicide attacks
* Before the huge increase in Jewish settlers on the West Bank in the 1980's, Palestinian groups did not use suicide terrorism
* There had never been a documented suicide attack in Iraq until after the American invasion in 2003.
If these points are in fact a true reflection of why suicide terrorists do what they do then our administration's logic is flawed. The war is simply feeding the fire and perpetuating terrorism.
Life Is A Comedy For Those Who Think...
Wednesday, July 13, 2005 at 11:14 AM
Counterpoint...
red molly said...
Mountain Girl, I commend you for posting the soldier’s letter yesterday and writing an excellent counterpoint today. I really believe that many people in our country are not concerned that thousands of innocent Iraqi’s have lost their lives from a war that was started by our dishonest president. Here are some words from Thomas Jefferson; it’s too bad our current president doesn’t have the same scruples.
“The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government.”
~
Mountain Girl said...
Thank you rm for the inspiring words. I think it's just too hard for some people to admit when they're wrong.
~
said...
How childishly simple your views are. So the only way we can win is to surrender? Is that what you're saying? You leftards are really as stupid as the worst charicaturizations make you out to be.
~
said...
Leftard...now there is one clever word (for middle school).
Anonymous must be from the conservative atheist right, because his/her WWJD bumper sticker is peeled back to just "W" now that there is a war to be won, and names to be flung at his/her own countrymen. If you represent some form of thought at least you could post a handle, it is non-committal, and we would have a name for our prayer list.
~
red molly said...
~
Cape Coral Countertops said...
~
© Mountain Girl 2005 // Powered for Blogger by Blogger templates
