[lit-ideas] Re: Videos of the Text-book Army
- From: "Lawrence Helm" <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 20 Jul 2006 09:49:21 -0700
Andreas,
I was careful to say "objective standard." That means I rule out emotional
outbursts. Pick an objective standard and the modern military achievement
is superior to anything that has gone before. The only standard that can
possibly be adduced from your . . . statements is misbehavior on the part of
individual soldiers. That isn't something that can be quantified, but it
has occurred in every army in every war. What is important is the position
of military leadership regarding misbehavior. In our military it is
punishable.
However, slanted stuff posted on a site by people looking to embarrass
America? A waste of time. People are people. My impression from all I've
heard and read is that there is less misbehavior in the modern Marine Corps
than there was in my day. I can't tell from what you say where the sniper
had a legitimate target or not. He may have. If he did and that makes you
sick, so what? It only means you weren't suitable for the military, but
then we already knew that.
"There are dozens, if not hundreds, of these videos online." Maybe
thousands, maybe millions.
But when I say "text-book efficiency," I am of course concerned with
military matters: 1) good military strategy, 2) effective execution of
military orders, 3) courageous fighting, 4) quick defeat of enemy, 5)
minimum U.S. casualties . . . that sort of thing.
Lawrence
-----Original Message-----
From: lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Andreas Ramos
Sent: Thursday, July 20, 2006 9:01 AM
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [lit-ideas] Videos of the Text-book Army
> You think we are militarily incompetent? We have the most competent
military that has
> ever existed and this can be demonstrated by any objective standard. Our
wars in the
> Middle East were models of text-book efficiency.
No, Lawrence, it's you who is clueless. Go to Google Video or YouTube and
watch some of the
"videos" that US soldiers made in Iraq and proudly posted to the web.
You'll see what that "text book efficient" army is actually doing in Iraq.
In one video, the US Army drives along in columns and shoots at anything
that moves. A
passing car? Blow it off the road. Do they bother to even slow down and see
if it was
justfied or if there are any wounded survivors? No. Not even slow down. At
least the street
gangs in LA only do driveby shootings of houses of their gang enemies. In
Iraq, the US Army
does driveby shootings along the entire road at anything and everything.
Another video shows a nighttime surveillance by a sniper team. For ten
minutes, they watch
several persons in a field. Are these farmers? Terriers? Friends getting
together on a cool
summer night? Who cares? Kill them all. After shooting at them from a long
distance, one is
crawling away, wounded. Shoot him again. Yes, they shoot and kill wounded
persons.
These videos are sickening to watch. It's wanton slaughter, without any
military purpose, by
savages (they can't be dignified as "soldiers") who fear no retribution, who
feel entirely
justified to kill whatever they please. They are killing people for no
reason at all, just
killing.
There are dozens, if not hundreds, of these videos online.
yrs,
andreas
www.andreas.com
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