digg

Join DiggAbout

Digg Townhall Tonight!
Tune into the live Digg townhall tonight at 5:00pm PST/8:00pm EST.

"I came to Iraq here because I wanted to kill people." Pvt Green (502nd)

washingtonpost.com — "I shot a guy who wouldn't stop when we were out at a traffic checkpoint and it was like nothing," he went on. "Over here, killing people is like squashing an ant. I mean, you kill somebody and it's like 'All right, let's go get some pizza.'

show profanity settings
expand all
  • anonymoustroll, on 10/12/2007, -184/+42Sure, you can put on the uniform and show up to "work" at the right time each day, but the real entry fee in the combat arms profession is an honest-to-god confirmed kill annotated in your record book.

    If the press is going to get all squirmy-spinned about that, then they need to step back and reconsider what it is that they think war is.
    • WalkingDead, on 10/12/2007, -34/+211Had this been said by a Muslim, Imagine what the reaction might have been. This whole war is propaganda war. A Christian or Jew saying it, “Yes this is WAR we are speaking of. We need to defend ourselves. Israel has a right to exist.” If it comes from a Muslim, “Oh those terrorist can’t think of anything but killing.”

    • bigdavediode, on 10/12/2007, -23/+155War is not about killing people. War is about winning.

      We killed hundreds of thousands in Vietnam, and lost. Very likely because we killed too many and the wrong ones, and alienated the population. Where does this dangerously naive attitude about war come from? Some sort of macho instinct that thinks war=killing?

      I can see a small child thinking that, but we have adults thinking that now.

      Oh, and by the way, I guess that kind of reveals that all that "liberation" nonsense that we were sold as the fourth or fifth justification for the Iraq war was all BS.
    • borninda818, on 10/12/2007, -76/+14only recently was war not about killing. Now there are missions to capture strong points and things like that while killing as few people as possible. Back in the day, the objective of the war was to kill as many people under the opposite flag while minimising casualties under your flag. I like the old way more; it was simple. But i think you should be limited to killing only people who have guns, not random people.
    • ytrabbit, on 10/12/2007, -23/+94This kid was f'd in the head. If you read the article you would see that he was just convicted of murdering and raping a 14 year old girl. He should have been caught by the psych people when he signed up. This is part of what that phrase Catch 22 means. By the militaries standards if you want to kill then you are insane and have no place in the US Army.

      In truth this reporter is also at fault for that childs death and torture since he did not report this disturbed young man to his commanding officer.

      The reporter even states that while he thought this young man's attitude would be the norm, it is not. This reporter saw to many 80's Vietnam flicks and did not act in a reasonable or responsible way.
    • drizek, on 10/12/2007, -9/+77How exactly are we supposed to win in iraq? we have no objective. Right now the best we can hope to achieve is to be able to leave the country without having a civil war break out. Thats not very likely to happen though, our failure in iraq is unprecedented. Its even worse than vietnam because thousands of innocent people are going to be dying as a result of it decades from now.
    • bigdavediode, on 10/12/2007, -7/+49ytrabbit:

      >This kid was f'd in the head. If you read the article you would see that he was just convicted of murdering and raping a 14 year old girl. He should have been caught by the psych people when he signed up.

      Due to falling enlistment rates, we lowered our standards for enlistment to include borderline mentally retarded. In addition there have been recent stories about gang members and skinheads being allowed to enlist (how can that possibly go wrong!?)

      >Further evidence that the war in Iraq is wrecking the U.S. Army: Recruiters, having failed to meet their enlistment targets, are now being authorized to pursue high-school dropouts and (not to mince words) stupid people.

      >More than that, the Los Angeles Times reports today that 4 percent of recruits will be allowed to score as low as in the 16th to 30th percentile—a grouping known as "Category IV"—on the U.S. Armed Forces' mental-aptitude exam.

      http://www.slate.com/id/2127487/
    • Djfind, on 10/12/2007, -33/+25War has and always will be about Killing. There's no such thing as controlled bloodshed. War is Death. Plain and simple. Claims to the contrary are of Naive minds.
    • barakatx2, on 10/12/2007, -6/+37"If the press is going to get all squirmy-spinned about that, then they need to step back and reconsider what it is that they think war is."

      So do you think war is a game where you try to get the most kills? Why don't we just have our wars in MMOFPSs then?
    • kp3469, on 10/12/2007, -26/+1wrong thread - bury
    • goodoldharris, on 10/12/2007, -8/+34"War is not about killing people. War is about winning."

      But a war is won by using various kinds of violence (including killing), or threats of violence, to make the population weak and afraid. It's about violence, killing, and domination. You can't disguise the fact by saying "war is about winning."
    • orangeRam, on 10/12/2007, -3/+39This reminds me of that scene in Full Metal Jacket where Joker asks the helicopter gunner "How can you shoot women and childern?" and the gunner responds "Easy, you just don't lead 'em as much."
    • chipset, on 10/12/2007, -21/+39If US wants to win war through killing non-resisting people (women, children) then -- well, it's war. Just stop talking all that crap about 'war against terrorism' because US IS A TERRORIST.
    • Sithlrd, on 10/12/2007, -14/+24War is supposed to be about killing. The fruitcakes who want war with rules are not doing anyone a favor. All the geneva conventions do is make it easier to wage war.

      War is supposed to be about killing, pillaging, scorched earth, heinous acts and all the other stuff tha makes war "Hell". This is supposed to make war a thing to be avoided. But with the sanitary BS that people are calling war now, it's way to easy to send our militaries into conflict.

      Bring back real war like we saw in WW1 and 2 and there will be less of it.
    • Jugalator, on 10/12/2007, -6/+9"Very likely because we killed too many and the wrong ones, and alienated the population"

      This isn't (at least directly) about USA, but there's an interesting analogy about then and now with Israel killing Lebanese civilians.
    • Jugalator, on 10/12/2007, -5/+11"Bring back real war like we saw in WW1 and 2 and there will be less of it."

      Given the current stance about military monitoring videos and Israeli employing journalism censorship, the war may get more ugly, but too little might then get leaked out on the media channels, which is most people's only connection to a war.
    • blackjack75, on 10/12/2007, -6/+19"We killed hundreds of thousands in Vietnam, and lost."

      Hundreds of thousands? One would only wish it had been so.

      Wheter you take the northern army, southern army or civilian death toll, all range between one and several _millions_. The only group that lost under 60'000 was the U.S. army. Of course not all of these were killed by the U.S. army, but napalming civilian areas surely did not bring the counter down.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War_casualties

      With such a high civilian cost (above 2 millions) there was absolutely nothing that the U.S. could to 'win' this war, aside from finishing the extermination of course. If every guy in the country has seen a member of his family taken away by your army, they will simply never-ever accept your domination.
    • walterd93, on 10/12/2007, -4/+5"Bring back real war like we saw in WW1 and 2 and there will be less of it."

      But now we(and everyone else) have tons of atomic bombs(enough to destroy all mammalian life on earth).
    • Bioshocker, on 10/12/2007, -5/+12"But with the sanitary BS that people are calling war now, it's way to easy to send our militaries into conflict."

      Calling modern war "sanitary" only emphasises that
      1) You don't know what you're talking about.
      2) You haven't read the article, which would demonstrate you don't know what you're talking about.

      People have waged MUCH MUCH MUCH less war since the Geneva conventions than they did before. Perhaps you would do well to read up on some European history.
    • drizek, on 10/12/2007, -2/+12a couple points:

      WWI was brutal and very bloody. However books like "all quiet on the western front" only came out afterwards. During the war killing for your country was still glorified.

      The fact is that israel is encountering fierce resistance in southern lebanon and they need americas help. We are already sending them bombs that were used last night to kill 60 innocent civilians.

      Likewise the british during WW2 needed americas help to fight the germans. Today most americans see nazis as pure evil, but at the outbreak of WW2 there was a LOT of support for germany in the US. England launched a massive PR campaign in the US trying to drum up support. They focused on nazi attrocities and just totally omitted their own. At the time there was no internet and there no satelites. England controlled the flow of information to the US from europe and they were quite successful in turning hte tide of public opinion against germany, paving the way for FDR to declare war after pearl harbor with no resistance.

      Today we are more fortunate. We area ble to see what is going on in lebanon as it happens and it is just absolutely sickening. Almost all deaths on the lebanese side are civilians, and a majority of those are children. Israel has just started mindlessly slaughtering people. THe problem is that while we hae all these advances in technology people are still turning a blind eye. Even if people read the body counts on a news story, it still does not allow them to empathize with the lebanese people. I dont know why the press censors what is going on in lebanon, even the english-language al-jazeera does not put up hte pictures of the fathers carrying their dead children. This is the page on the arabic site though http://www.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/0D464BC9-17E3-4D4F-B1C5-EB09EE9C00BE.htm the pictures speek for themselves i think.
    • ChileanGoD, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1Ear this while reading the comments...
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vo3e4EnSigs&search=killing%20in%20the%20name%20of
    • TKDWILSON, on 10/12/2007, -8/+3""""We killed hundreds of thousands in Vietnam, and lost. Very likely because we killed too many and the wrong ones, and alienated the population."""""

      OR

      because we never would just forge ahead. We would take a hill and let it go back to the enemy. We didn't fight aggressively enough.

      Eric Wilson
    • goodoldharris, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Eric Wilson:

      Should the US have just exterminated the whole population? You sound like a nutjob.
    • OBKenobi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Sithlrd got +9 Diggs for that ridiculous comment? That's just sad.

      There's no way to bring back all-out war like WW1 & WW2. It would kill us all. It's not a question of morality, because if it was, we would have gone back to war like that years ago.

      Also worth noting, even with all the conventional bombs in America's inventory, it would still not be enough to wipe out a country--we would have to at some point occupy it. Then what would we do? The $$$ to fund the war has to come from somewhere. What are you going to do next, enslave the people you conquered?
  • Shorties, on 10/12/2007, -13/+65Oh yeah we are making Iraq much better then it was before...
    • floejoe, on 10/12/2007, -6/+28I'm just surprised that the reporter shrugged off his comments at first like he did. I found it disturbing even without the murder/rape allegations that came later. This could have been front-page news back in February, but I suppose they think that timing is much better now.
    • templest, on 10/12/2007, -7/+44Moral of the story: Send the criminals to war instead of the ones most deserving in our society of a normal life, and let the problem take care of itself.

      War is never good, no matter how you see it.
      We're really far behind in our social and spiritual development as a race.

      Monkeys with weapons, my friend.
    • Shorties, on 10/12/2007, -8/+11@Templest: Yeah I have always wished we would send the criminals to war, so many kind hearted and good individuals are sent to war and are changed forever.
    • YourTechSupport, on 10/12/2007, -9/+66Don't ***** with America, or we'll bring democracy to your country.
    • Shinta, on 10/12/2007, -5/+16Yeah send criminals and end up like the US Army in the Indian Wars.
    • BlackCow, on 10/12/2007, -38/+7@Shorties
      Why yes, we are making it better. Has to be better then being under saddams rule, with his secret police torturing anyone who didn’t fully agree with him. Judging by bushes approval ratings if it were like that in the U.S.A about 54% of the US population would be brutally tortured and dead...including you shorties.
    • kp3469, on 10/12/2007, -7/+32@blackcow:
      so before we invaded iraq, an iraqi might get tortured by Saddam. now an iraqi might get tortured by U.S. troops. what's the frakking difference?
    • SmeRndmGy, on 10/12/2007, -18/+10Bring back Saddam.
    • blackjack75, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10"Judging by bushes approval ratings if it were like that in the U.S.A about 54% of the US population would be brutally tortured and dead...including you shorties."

      Huh, are you implying that bush has a 46% rating? That's maybe what he gets in iraq, where he still has some credibility.
    • Bioshocker, on 10/12/2007, -3/+9"Why yes, we are making it better. Has to be better then being under saddams rule, with his secret police torturing anyone who didn%u2019t fully agree with him."

      Leaving aside the torture you face at the hands of US soldiers (since that is minor and not at all on the same scale), if you're an Iraqi, you now face being tortured/killed for dressing wrong or for any other number of "un-Islamic" actions. Or simply because you follow a different interpretation of Islam from another guy.

      Seems a whole lot better than being tortured for disagreeing with the regime in power. Oh wait, actually it's a ***** of a lot worse ...
    • mictester, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4It's simple - it's all about the oil. The USA will be back to a pre-industrial state unless it can keep the cheap fuel coming!

      The fact that Iraq had an "evil dictator" was a bonus - it made justification of the "war" so much easier.

      The next excuse will be "Iranian Terrorism", followed quite soon by "Nigerian Terrorism" and "Venezuelan Terrorism"!
    • aviazn, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4^ Cause the war in Iraq is making gas sooo much cheaper....right...
    • OBKenobi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2[quote]That's maybe what he gets in iraq, where he still has some credibility.[/quote]

      He doesn't have any credibility there. The Iraqis don't know what to do. They're stuck in a quagmire too. They're wondering if Bush is completely insane or if this is all just a joke on them of some kind that will be over soon.
    • OBKenobi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1[quote]"It's simple - it's all about the oil."
      ^ Cause the war in Iraq is making gas sooo much cheaper....right...[/quote]

      One of those non-believers I see?

      http://www.house.gov/schakowsky/iraqquotes_web.htm

      %u201CThis is not Afghanistan%u2026When we approach the question of Iraq, we realize here is a country which has a resource. And it%u2019s obvious, it%u2019s oil. And it can bring in and does bring in a certain amount of revenue each year%u2026$10, $15, even $18 billion%u2026this is not a broke country.%u201D - Richard Armitage

      "... the oil revenues of that country could bring between $50 and $100 billion over the course of the next two or three years%u2026" - Paul Wolfowitz

      http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/06/25/BU264248.DTL&type=business

      Iraq oil to sail to U.S.
      ChevronTexaco gets contract for crude

      Want more proof? There's plenty of it.
    • aviazn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@OBKenobi
      Read your own articles dude.

      The first one is quotes related to IRAQI oil revenues--that is, oil revenue that the government of Iraq will be able to take in, NOT American oil companies. The quotes are about how Iraq would've been able to raise funds through oil exports to improve their infrastructure and invest in social capital after the UN's sanctions were lifted and the Oil For Food program ended. And they would've, if it weren't for the inept occupation that has resulted in insurgent attacks on Iraq's own oil pipeline network.

      As for the second, here's another quote from it:
      "ChevronTexaco, headquartered in San Ramon, was the only U.S. company to be awarded Iraqi oil. The other firms winning contracts were Tupras, in Turkey; Total, of France; ENI, in Italy; and Repsol and Cepsa, both in Spain."

      Yes, ChevronTexaco got an oil contract--and so did oil companies in other countries, even countries that OPPOSED the war.

      The fact is, Iraq, like many other nations, is blessed with huge oil reserves, and they could have used those revenues in order to improve their country's infrastructure. Take Norway, for example, a country with enormous state-owned oil resources; since the oil boom in Norway in the 90s, they have invested their oil revenues in social capital and now enjoy the highest standard of living in the world. Now compare that to a country like Iraq or Saudi Arabia, who instead chose to funnel their oil revenues towards supporting totalitarianism and religious fanaticism. With the UN sanctions lifted, Iraq can finally use their own resources to improve their own country instead of having them prop up a totalitarian regime. The fact that an American oil company is one of many around the world buying oil from Iraq proves nothing about the motives of the war.
  • gh02t, on 10/12/2007, -10/+41You can't mark all soldiers as crazed killers though. Many people sign up because they feel it is what is necessary to protect their family and friends. Soldiers frequently spend long stays in psychiatric hospitals because of the trauma they suffer in battle. Yes, most people realize that they will have to fire at another human being when they elist, but that doesn't mean they are all psychotic murderers. This guy is just a piece of filth that would have done something if he had stayed at home anyway.
    • bigdavediode, on 10/12/2007, -8/+39Maybe, maybe not. But as part of a grand experiment we gave him a gun and let him run through some person's neighborhood.

      Just not your neighborhood.
    • tonyspencer, on 10/12/2007, -9/+21Right, and he's the only one right?

      What about the countless other videos, or charges being brought? Abu Ghraib, Gitmo etc etc

      Or the Muslim sergeant who fragged his own guys.

      The truth is Bush has dehumanised Muslims in general, so many people think they are just like ants. Remember "Charlie"? Funny, but that dehumanisation didn't work either, and the world's mightiest power lost a war to a bunch of rice eating gooks...
    • rafiss, on 10/12/2007, -4/+16gh02t:

      Now it's not like I don't support our soldiers, but protect their family and friends from what? I know now that we are over there, soliders have to keep going in. But originally, I don't remember Iraq being a threat to us in our country.
    • automagically, on 10/12/2007, -3/+13Yes, not everyone kills in Iraq. I drove a forklift and did paperwork. But even though I don't believe the war was justified, if an Iraqi shot at me and my friends, you better believe I'd shoot back with equal or greater aggression. Luckily, since I was just a POG, my biggest worry was the long chow hall line. I thought 18 wheeler convoy "detail" was fun since being on base was so boring, and we got to see other bases (some with theaters, swimming pools, shopping, bus transport systems, etc). We sat in the trucks with the local national drivers, added protection for the 2 or 3 infantry humvees following along which have been known to ditch the convoy (pussies! but i think they were national guard...). Part of me really wanted something to happen, the part that watches cop chases on SpikeTV. The other part realized it's better if it doesn't, since it would mean some of my friends would be involved, and they were not exactly infantry either.
    • ilLH, on 10/12/2007, -6/+11"Now it's not like I don't support our soldiers, but protect their family and friends from what? I know now that we are over there, soliders have to keep going in. But originally, I don't remember Iraq being a threat to us in our country."

      If Iraq doesn't give us oil, families around the US can't drive in a Hummer to the grocery store daily and get their families food.
    • timetrap, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1We give our soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen a set of laws to live by (the uniform code of military justice), those laws are plain, simple, and clear. But the part that becomes murky for some, is the individual accountability. Laws are broken all of the time, it just matters if you get caught. What the military needs to work on more, is giving troops a sense of honor, that just deeds, give just results.

      IMHO I think the military focuses too much on Laws and not enough on Honor.
  • mojoel, on 10/12/2007, -11/+42Who's worse the 'uncivilized barbarian' Middle Eastern people or the civilized patriotic thugs like this guy?
    • Shorties, on 10/12/2007, -11/+35And it seems you have been a victim of the propaganda in this world... They aren't barbarians, some of their customs are weird to us, some of them are plain out wrong in our eyes, but to say our customs are completely right and theirs are completely wrong is just *****. Most of those people were happy before we came, they could of been happier, I am sure, but since we have been there they have been miserable. All that good ***** you see on TV (Like the purple voting thumbs) is propaganda.
    • mojoel, on 10/12/2007, -4/+23I'm on your side, dude. The word 'barbarians' was in quotaions. That means they're not my words. Just clarifying where I stand.
    • will42, on 10/12/2007, -5/+11Note the careful quote-marks by mojoel.
    • Shorties, on 10/12/2007, -6/+7Yeah I noticed that after I posted my post, I was like hmm there are quotes there I wonder if he meant it.
    • rogueman, on 10/12/2007, -5/+2Quotes or not the meaning is there. And its misleading because Iraq was actualy a developing country, about the same level as maybe a quarter of European countries. They may have been a dictatorship but so was half of Europe until not so long ago. If anything has taken them back to the middle ages its this war. Before it they were confortably into the XXI century.
  • ReadMeTXT, on 10/12/2007, -11/+36USA made a ***** mess and now Israel
    • AhmedOmran, on 10/12/2007, -4/+12And they have grandiously removed all lines between themselves and terrorists.
    • blackjack75, on 10/12/2007, -5/+3That's the strategy! By getting closer to terrorists they might be able to catch them.
  • Piglith, on 10/12/2007, -4/+17It's good to hear the words from a soldiers from time to time. It keeps "WAR" in perspective.
    • BlackCow, on 10/12/2007, -17/+13Yes but make shure you hear from just one solider. Ive also herd from a friend of my dad who went to Iraq that there is some good there, things are getting done. But he didend shuger coat it all, he said that its hell there and that morter shells strike near him everyday. But do not trust the media, all the media will do is report the bad because people dont like bush and all they want to hear is bad news so they can rub it in bushes face.
    • bigdavediode, on 10/12/2007, -6/+16Black -- just like a cult where the victim is told that they can't trust their families, the Republican party members are told that, no matter how bad it is that he saw firsthand -- mortars falling near him every day, he can't trust the media because they're reporting the "negative."
    • blackjack75, on 10/12/2007, -3/+8Yes, they definitely don't report the good news but that's because there are some disturbing numbers. Even if you value the life o iraqi people at nothing, the american death toll should be high enough to prevent anyone from celebrating.

      The war has been going on for 1229 days. The total number of U.S. soldiers killed ? 2578. Gravely Wounded in action (could not return within 72 hours) 8773.

      On the average, every 10 hours an american soldier dies. And it's been going on for three years. And really... you don't want to hear about the iraqi people.
    • meepus, on 10/12/2007, -4/+6Why are you guys digging BlackCow down? He's letting is on a window of perspective from yet another soldier who served in Iraq, and broadening the overall perspective contributed to this posting within the comments. Others who posted similar (albeit less poorly worded) things received plenty of diggs.
    • rogueman, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7"On the average, every 10 hours an american soldier dies. And it's been going on for three years. And really... you don't want to hear about the iraqi people."

      I know your intentions are good, but as long as everybody behaves like american lives are more important then iraqis there won't be an end to this. I don't give a damn how many americans die. I'm not american. I'm however quite worried that lots of _people_ die every hour there.
  • coyforce, on 10/12/2007, -48/+11until any of you go over there and see what it's like first hand - shutup.
    • bigdavediode, on 10/12/2007, -11/+26Coy:

      >until any of you go over there and see what it's like first hand - shutup.

      No. You are responsible for this. You and your "you can't speak out because you have freedom" junta. And we're going to point that out because it's absolutely disgusting. And the fact that you won't let yourself see that you were wrong means that you're a disgrace and cause direct damage to this country.
    • cawpin, on 10/12/2007, -17/+17Wait a ***** second. Coy has no responsibility for this. He was making a plain, and very true, statement. You can't judge the situation unless you have been there. He wasn't defending the guy's actions in the story. He was saying that being over there will mess with your head.
    • bigdavediode, on 10/12/2007, -9/+20cawpin:

      >You can't judge the situation unless you have been there.

      I call *****. You can judge many situations without being there. What he is doing is what Republicans have been famous for doing over the last few years -- suppressing dissent and shrieking "freedom" at the same time. It's disgusting.
    • Clbck, on 10/12/2007, -5/+24How about I can talk if I repeat what my friend/neighbor who DID go to Iraq said?

      "It's a ***** hell-hole."
    • merm, on 10/12/2007, -12/+24@Coy

      As long as I'm paying for it, and as long as I'm an American I WILL NOT SHUT UP.
    • ASHole71, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0And i will say what my friend said to me. Lots of good things are happening, yes it was hot and hellish but things are getting better. Unfortunately now there is more sect violence but what do you expect with Iran on one side and Syria on the other.
  • bigdavediode, on 10/12/2007, -4/+25His sleeping quarters burned down, and:

    >The company commander in charge of Green's unit told me that the situation was so stressful that he himself had "almost had a nervous breakdown" and had been sent to a hotel-style compound in Baghdad for three days of "freedom rest" before resuming his command.

    "Freedom rest." Orwell has nothing on the US. We're going to take the book 1984, and forget using it as a guide, we're going to exceed its every imagination. "Freedom rest."
    • Flashman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7"Freedom rest" - is that the post-September 11 version of "French leave"?
  • AjaxsLastStand, on 10/12/2007, -39/+4Walkingdead, people don't bitch when Muslims are indifferent to killing. People bitch when Muslims praise the killings of innocents.

    Bigdave, we didn't lose in Vietnam. We left. North Vietnam could not have kept fighting for more than a year if we'd kept our presence there. Then, the only thing left would have been to mop up what FEW Viet Cong survived after Tet, as they could not survive without the NVA pouring materiel through the Ho Chi Minh Trail. I won't argue any further, but please don't make such crass, ignorant comments, as it only muddles this thread.

    Shorties, the Kurds will never have to fear Saddam again. That's a better Iraq right there.

    Mojoel, GREAT POINT! Now if only there was any decent way to answer it without feeling like a creep. Sucks when either option still sounds messy.

    ReadmeTXT, wow. You're a "giant" of intellect, if giant is applicable to that of which I can measure with a single foot ruler. However, I'll grant you this: The USA has made a mess. But Israel really has no bearing in this conversation. So, given that, you did make a point. You just had to bring irrelevant items in here, which...I don't know why, so I'll just guess you felt you needed to bitch.
    • bigdavediode, on 10/12/2007, -5/+27Ajax:

      >Bigdave, we didn't lose in Vietnam. We left.

      No, we lost. And we can never grow as a populace unless people start accepting that fact. The endless counter arguments that you folks put forward that this would have happened, or this would not have happened is all just pretend. You can't know what would have happened. Maybe if we had actually learned as a society that we did lose in Vietnam, we would have had the smarts to not be in Iraq today.

      But we were there for a long, long time. And we had over half a million troops there at the end. We lost. Plain and simple. We lost.

      Let us grow as a society and stop believing what people WANT, rather than what WAS.
    • ilyag, on 10/12/2007, -5/+19Yeah, you're right. The Vietnam War was lost by the usual assortment of hippie scum, liberal politicians (who, as Rambo cries in one of his movies, "wouldn't let us win"), and backstabbing South Vietnamese. Yeah, I guess the war could and should have been won if only the Curtis LeMays of the world had had their way. I am guessing that if we had only bombed more villages and executed more civilians and destroyed more nature and civilization, somehow the tide would have turned. 1,000,000+ dead Vietnamese was simply not enough to win these people's hearts and minds.

      You seem to forget the ghastly and unending bombing campaigns of the Nixon era, which failed to do anything that I am aware of, except add to the nightly body counts. But we can look back at that age, thanks to fools like you, and believe that those who protest during times of war are ultimately responsible for causalities and, if it comes to it, failure in the overall mission.
    • cadron, on 10/12/2007, -7/+16"Bigdave, we didn't lose in Vietnam. We left. North Vietnam could not have kept fighting for more than a year if we'd kept our presence there. Then, the only thing left would have been to mop up what FEW Viet Cong survived after Tet, as they could not survive without the NVA pouring materiel through the Ho Chi Minh Trail. I won't argue any further, but please don't make such crass, ignorant comments, as it only muddles this thread.
      "
      Good lord, how can you possibly make a statement like that. I'm sure thats what McNamara keep telling LBJ but your both wrong. The Vietcong could live bamboo and rice and live in holes in the ground and had been fighting outsiders for decades. Some analyst estimated that the US would need 1 million troops on the ground to insure victory, that was something the American people would not stand for and thats why we left.
    • tonyspencer, on 10/12/2007, -3/+12What's interesting thing is that the plan of using compounds to hide in, and not engaging with the locals, failed spectacularly in Vietnam, so why does the US military think it will work in Iraq?

      The British Army has had some success in many countries around the world by being among the people, not holed up in a compound. The only place they've had a problem is Basra. Why? Because like the Americans, they've been hiding in compounds...
  • Amir5831, on 10/12/2007, -7/+9No matter how much I want to be human and feel sorrow for the death of any human being, these kind of story makes my humanity to vanish and create an animal out of me like this "Green", but the deference is I want to kill those who come to kill others. So logic justifies Al-Qaida.
    I wish we could live in a peaceful world, but I guess the nature of humanity is bloodthirsty and wild. I never felt this much sorry to be a human being.
    God help us all.
    • fredtellum, on 10/12/2007, -5/+1 "Those who stay in America should be open to society without melting, keeping Mosques open so anyone can come and learn about Islam. If you choose to live here, you have a responsibility to deliver the message of Islam ... Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faiths, but to become dominant. The Koran, the Muslim book of scripture, should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on Earth." - Omar Ahmad Co-founder of the Council on American-Islamic Relations

      Muslims want to rule the world. Check out what kind of world they envision http://www.faithfreedom.org/gallery.htm
  • p9s50W5k4GUD2c6, on 10/12/2007, -8/+17I don't know the story of this private.

    But I DO know of many young men and women that have served in Iraq - or are currently serving there. I know that the words of this private dishonors the personal hell that many of these soldiers have to endure - and the nightmares they will never fully rid themselves of.

    • jeeff, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2i believe the story of this private is linked at the top of the page. that's what everyone is commenting about.
  • AjaxsLastStand, on 10/12/2007, -21/+6Excuse me? No, we didn't lose. And it's not all pretend. The government of Vietnam flat out said they couldn't have fought the war past 73 if we'd kept our presence of 1970 had remained. That, given by their word, is no longer pretend. It's straight from their mouth and I'll believe it. So excuse you and your comments. We didn't lose. We left. We did more damage to the NVA's infrastructure and manpower base than they did to ours or South Vietnam's. We did more damage to their economy than they did to ours or South Vietnam's. We hardly lost, as we left. You may be ignorant on the subject. But that's ok. It's your right.
    • wedderburn, on 10/12/2007, -8/+19some ones been smoking some good ol American propaganda
    • Clbck, on 10/12/2007, -4/+11"We did more damage to their economy than they did to ours"

      Possibly because they weren't on our soil...?
    • the6thReplicant, on 10/12/2007, -4/+6the Pentagon Papers say the complete opposite
    • BillDoor, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3@AjaxsLastStand

      In the same way that the Russians did't lose Afghanistan they just left !!!

      Or how I do in fact believe the US didn't win the Coldwar the USSR chose a different path under Mikhail Gorbachev called Perestroika.
  • LordRahl72, on 10/12/2007, -5/+10Can somebody please remind me that it is the year 2006.

    Why are us humans so stupid to keep getting ourselves into the same situation over and over again?

    What we need to do is mandate that any leader that decides to take us to ware should be the first one into battle leading our soldiers. I wonder if Bush would have come to the same decision as he did?

    Man how I due wish we where living in the Cold War times.
    • fredtellum, on 10/12/2007, -12/+4"living in the Cold War times"

      Child you need to know before you speak. War sucks. Hot or Cold.

      Read this ( http://www.prophetofdoom.net/ ) if you want to know who started the current war.

    • merm, on 10/12/2007, -3/+13Fred,

      Nearly any sacred text (especially the Bible) can be taken out of context and used as an excuse to kill people and fear those with different beliefs than your own. Islam didn't start this war, extremism did. Don't be such a hypocrite.
    • LordRahl72, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6fredtellum, I am no child. I grew up in the 70's and 80's. I remember when we were taught to duck and roll if and when we see a big bright flash of light.

      I would take those times over this any day. At least then we had leaders that thought things threw before acting on emotion. Our leaders today seem to have a problem stepping out of the box and looking at the big picture.

      I am sure that if the Bush cartel would have done this then we would not be in this mess today. At least that is what I hope, otherwise that would mean that the Bush cartel knowingly ***** all of us with no concern for body and soul.
    • fredtellum, on 10/12/2007, -5/+1I know you didn't learn to spell like that in the 70s and the duck and cover was over and done by mid 60s.

      Read this if you want to understand the fight. http://www.prophetofdoom.net/
  • barakatx2, on 10/12/2007, -5/+10"Shorties, the Kurds will never have to fear Saddam again. That's a better Iraq right there."

    Yeah now they only have to fear the US occupation and the civil war the US has caused over there, which is killing Iraqis at a faster rate than Saddam.
    • AjaxsLastStand, on 10/12/2007, -14/+6Do you realize how FEW Kurds have died since Hussein was overthrown? Jesus, man. Just shut up.
    • barakatx2, on 10/12/2007, -5/+11You're still justifying the deaths of Iraqis with the absent deaths of kurds.
    • tuna1, on 10/12/2007, -4/+7We didn't cause any civil war. A civil war has always been prevented by the iron fist of Saddam who always said, "If they're is going to be any killing, its going to be done by me."
  • postaldave, on 10/12/2007, -10/+6someone stupid wrote:
    "Its even worse than Vietnam because thousands of innocent people are going to be dying as a result of it decades from now."

    this person should read up on the killing fields(Cambodia) and understand like then the press(leftist) is undermining our efforts there by encouraging the enemy.

    if this goes on we could be forced out to soon and instead of victory and a lasting peace in the region you can have another "killing field" left in our wake because of the vacuum caused by our early departure.

    thousands? you have no idea how many deaths could happen if an early pull out and victory is not achieved.
    • brentris, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8The two things that bug me the most are a.) now that we're there, we'll have to be there to avoid civil war, and b.) the fact that right now we're walking a thin line avoiding disaster that it begs the question "aren't we just making it worse than it would have been if we didn't go in in the first place?"
    • tonyspencer, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9Well, yep, if you add up the numbers killed. Saddam would have killed a few thousand more, but that pales into insignificance with the hundreds of thousands killed in the first war, the second war, and the almost daily airstrikes by the USAF and RAF in the intervening 12 years.

      Still, as the US says, it's all about winning, which is why Stalin could kill up to 43 million and be just bad, but Hitler killing just 13 million is the most evil person ever. Go figure.
    • blackjack75, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2You have to take those numbers proportionnally. Communism applied to a very very large population so the numbers are bigger. I am not saying Stalin wasn't a monster. What earned Hitler is number one position in the evil category was the killing of people who didn't necessarily try to fight him. The gulags were a monstruous repression tool used to maintain his power through terror, but it affected mostly people who opposed his views.

      As for the nazi extermination camps, there is simply no "reasonable" explanation. It was indeed a purely ideological massacre. I am pretty sure tzigans were no threat to his regime. He actually wasted a lot of resources trying to gather and kill them.

    • jeeff, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1if we kept score by bodycounts alone, mao would likely be the world's greatest murderer (see the book Mao by Jung Chang - even her conservative tally far surpasses that of both stalin and hitler).

      on another note, has it struck anyone else that all these neocons are like starwars geeks run rampant? they predict the rise and fall of nations, the reactions of cultures and societies like these are simple things that can be layed out like the plot in some space opera. right down to bush relying on his infamously inaccurate hunches ("look him in the eye") about the character of allies and subordinates. he may think he can use the force, but seriously... the real world is complex, difficult, contradictory, and ever-changing, and you ignore this fact at your own peril. this article is worth reading particularly because it draws attention to the contradictions, the unresolved questions, the insanity, the ego, and the kaleidoscopic nature of "truth" that fuels both people and wars.
  • spiffyfitz, on 10/12/2007, -5/+8from my perspective, it appears as though this war is fueled by greed for oil and racism, nothing more.
  • Jaymoon, on 10/12/2007, -30/+7Watch that video/audio of the tower collapsing on 9/11, and tell me it doesn't wanna make you go over there and kill someone...
    • bigdavediode, on 10/12/2007, -6/+26Jay -- Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. Nothing.

    • skytimelapse, on 10/12/2007, -6/+22jaymoon: It doesn't.... get your head checked.
    • AjaxsLastStand, on 10/12/2007, -16/+3Again: Iraq had NOTHING to do with 9/11. Other than the fact that...well...people die whole sale in Iraq, too. Sure. Just like 9/11. Just like it.


      ...friggin A...
    • ilyag, on 10/12/2007, -7/+10It makes me sad, depressed, and angry. But no, it doesn't make me want to end the life of another human being.

      Let me guess... when you were a child, you found amusement in capturing birds or other small creatures and cutting off their limbs with broken pieces of glass? Those kids grow up to be just like you. Makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, doesn't it.
    • zadadka, on 10/12/2007, -4/+9Do you have a specific target (say, a known perpetrator) in mind, or are you no better than those who caused 9/11 and any other such atrocity...pleased to destroy as many lives as possible, no matter that they are random and innocent?
    • merm, on 10/12/2007, -4/+17Killing Iraqis, and using bombs to bring "freedom" to the world only makes more terrorists. Don't you understand that just like 9/11 makes you mad, that when we go over there and kill 1000x the number of people who were killed in WTC that we are wishing 1000x the "revenge" on ourselves and our children? How stupid it is to think you can solve the world's problems by dropping bombs. You don't make the world safer for your kids, you just create 1000 to 1 more terrists for EACH AMERICAN to have to deal with 30 years from now. It's suicide what we're doing right now - we are destroying our country by making the world hate us even more.
    • Jaymoon, on 10/12/2007, -7/+2On 9/11 we declared war on terrorism. Not on Afghanistan, not on Iraq. Terrorism.

      You know why Mohamed from Iraq didn't drive the plane into the building on 9/11? Because Mohamed from Afghanistan was already planning on doing it first.

      And I don't get your logic merm... Why is it OK for some person living a crappy life in a third-world country to kill innocent civilians from a developed and more rich country? But it's not the same for the big country to do the same in self-defense?

      I'm sorry, but if by killing 1 terrorist creates 5 more, that's 5 more we gotta take care of. Who uses the excuse "Well because Bob got arrested for robbing the bank, me and my 4 friends felt injustice, so we all went out and robbed banks in the name of Bob".

      It doesn't take a captured terrorist to make others hate us. They hate us no matter what. Given the opportunity, they'd put a bullet in your scull, regardless if we have Abu being held down in Gitmo.
    • OBKenobi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1[quote]Watch that video/audio of the tower collapsing on 9/11, and tell me it doesn't wanna make you go over there and kill someone...[/quote]

      Where? The White House? No comment.
  • JohnCrichton, on 10/12/2007, -24/+3I like this guy's attitude! He is a Hero!

    If I were over there, I would be like BOOM!!! HEADSHOT!!! BOOM!!! HEADSHOT!!! to every goddamn sand ***** and if I saw a little puppy, I would stomp on it with my big ass military boot and yell out "THANK YOU JESUS!!!"

    I am absolutely glad we have Hero's like this fine young man over there, heck I wouldn't mind at all if he every a-rab he encountered.
    • JohnCrichton, on 10/12/2007, -22/+4"I am absolutely glad we have Hero's like this fine young man over there, heck I wouldn't mind at all if he (shot) every a-rab he encountered."

      not enough time to edit.
    • AjaxsLastStand, on 10/12/2007, -5/+12Man, ya know...just wow...I see the dark humor trying to be put forth to represent the stupidity of the situation. But man...ya know, this is the Internet. People are gonna take you seriously...
    • zadadka, on 10/12/2007, -11/+4JohnCrichton :
      Do you speak for ignorant cretins everywhere, or just yourself?
    • tonyspencer, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6Probably why they feel justified in killing every American...
    • jiggleflop, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1Best post all day!

      Sun Tzu, Machiavelli?
      If we still fought like those guys, we would have finished by now...

      Everyones head on a stick...
  • AjaxsLastStand, on 10/12/2007, -7/+5Ilyag, that's a damn dirty comment you made. I'm glad we had protestors. We need them to provide a perspective of the war so everyone isn't pulled into some sense of bizarre, fascist nationalism. At the same time, however, Nixon's bombings did have an effect. The North Vietnamese government said the unmitigated Christmas bombing of Hanoi served as a shock to the system. They flat out said another 2 weeks would have ended their ability to fight because sooner or later the Red River Dykes would have busted and they were down to 30% rail capacity, not to mention the Russians Chinese were refusing to resupply SAMs for fear of their ships getting blown out in Haiphong. Nixon's bombings flat out crippled North Vietnam. It's a shame he quit.

    I'm glad the war ended the way it did. We didn't need to be there other than to protect South Vietnam when it asked for our support. I'm not a fan of the war because I think we did it for the wrongest of reasons. We didn't do it to help anyone. We did it to stop communism. So sure, we probably deserved to lose. But we didn't. We left. All I want is an accurate portrayal of what went down there. To me, the only loss was on the South Vietnamese side, because they refused to fight a war and thus lost their country for it. But militarily, we won it. And wars are fought by militaries. Maybe politically we lost. But again, wars are not political. Politicians just try to make them that way.
    • TheKillDoctor, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9All wars are political but fought with weapons that can kill instead of with words. The war starts once the politicians have run out of words. In a village or a country it's still works the same way.
    • Shorties, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6"The war starts once the politicians have run out of words"

      Ah so that's why Bush started the war, he ran out of words in his tiny vocabulary rather quickly. :D
  • Origin_X, on 10/12/2007, -14/+2Comments are editable for one minute? WTF?
  • andylau, on 10/12/2007, -8/+13I guess America wins the Iraq war when their are no more Iraqis.

    congratulations your well on your way to succeeding.

    Then Iraqis can sit back in their graves and enjoy sweet freedom.

    Which is worst genocide by a Nazi dictatorship or genocide by a democratic government.

    Which reflects worst on the people of that country?



    • AjaxsLastStand, on 10/12/2007, -6/+10To be fair, genocide is a premeditated concept. The USA isn't trying to kill every Iraqi. So please, be a bit more discreet with the venom you spew. I see your point and to an extent I have to agree. But the USA is not that malevolent.
    • andylau, on 10/12/2007, -3/+10
      It was genocide according to the UN guy who lead the oil for food program before he resigned. 1/2 a million dead children. That doesn't even include the dead from iraqi iran war, gulf war part one, or gulf war part 2. Which the US has a fair amount of blame for.

      But your right it isn't premeditated. Americans simpley don't care how many iraqi die.
    • ASHole71, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0
      The head of the Oil for food who was part of the scandal; those children’s deaths are on the UN's hands, their people were in charge and they funneled the money. You might want to do some research before spouting crap.

      And you are so right the US started the Gulf war … after Saddam invaded Kuwait and we were asked to create a coalition to help.
  • BehnoodMarvazi, on 10/12/2007, -5/+11"See, this war is different from all the ones that our fathers and grandfathers fought. Those wars were for something. This war is for nothing."
    • blackjack75, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Well.. it's for nothing if you ride a bike. 11% of U.S. oil consumption came from iraq in 2002. How much is it today?
  • nonsequitor, on 10/12/2007, -4/+5I have not RTFA, but I feel inclined to comment anyway. I can only hope the soldier who expressed those views finds himself moved to a desk job. Armies do not need people who want to kill people. A soldier should not hesitate to kill, but only as a last resort.

    When I was at Annapolis, the US Naval Academy, we had a briefing on Bloodlust. It basically covered that you've spent years training to do a job, and while you may feel good about a job well done, it does not make you inhuman if that job involved killing people. While that is the official view of the US Military, it does not condone in any manner killing for enjoyment. People like the guy in the article undermine the goal of creating a strong Iraqi security force capable of maintaining order in the country since indiscriminate killing is wrong, and the Iraqi people will view our troops as killers and invaders, not soldiers. That guy is sick and has no business being in the military.
    • kadio, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9he's on trial for rape and murder. RTFA
  • AngryPenguin47, on 10/12/2007, -9/+3I hear there's no respawn points in R.L.!, I mean, what happens if you get lag out there?!
  • jellygraph, on 10/12/2007, -8/+2full metal jacket
  • jellygraph, on 10/12/2007, -4/+3Door Gunner: Git some! Git some! Git some, yeah, yeah, yeah! Anyone that runs, is a VC. Anyone that stands still, is a well-disciplined VC! You guys oughta do a story about me sometime!

    Private Joker: Why should we do a story about you?

    Door Gunner: 'Cuz I'm so *****' good! I done got me 157 dead gooks killed. Plus 50 water buffalo too! Them's all confirmed!

    Private Joker: Any women or children?

    Door Gunner: Sometimes!

    Private Joker: How can you shoot women or children?

    Door Gunner: Easy! Ya just don't lead 'em so much! Ain't war hell?
  • bilton, on 10/12/2007, -7/+3Ohhh… War – Good God Y’all.. What is it good for? Absolutely nothing..
  • Soldan, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5As for the Kurds they had been quite secure since the first gulf war...now they are just free to start ***** with turkey were the rest of the kurdish population is..

    I alway wondered how do you impose democracy....it seems that the reason we have problem with these countries is the fact we have be manipulating them for decades..

    Iran for instance would have been fine if we had not backed the Shah who we extremely unpopular with the people..I am sure his death squads and secret police did not help matters...

    but I understand the desire to do something that 18-19 year olds have... that is when I joined up.. to tell you the truth..at that point I did not know ***** about *****.. so i have no doubts that those young men have a moral flexability..some people are not even fully matured mentally by that point.

    there was a guy just prior to desert storm who was taking the ASVAB with me who had failed 7 times... my question is how? I missed one question on the whole test.. most likely because I was going to damn fast...its not exactly hard.. far easier that a regular standardized test they give to high school students

    I would hope the buck does not stop with Pvt Green. War sucks...but i am sure it sucks more when you have no clear plan...and a just doing a holding action...
  • CHAIN, on 10/12/2007, -4/+7We give young men and women the best weapons in the world,And teach how to kill humans.Then we send them into the desert so they can watch they're friends die.What did you expect.
    • AhmedOmran, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5That they go back home?
    • fredtellum, on 10/12/2007, -5/+1This is what they are fighting....

      "Those who stay in America should be open to society without melting, keeping Mosques open so anyone can come and learn about Islam. If you choose to live here, you have a responsibility to deliver the message of Islam ... Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faiths, but to become dominant. The Koran, the Muslim book of scripture, should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on Earth." - Omar Ahmad Co-founder of the Council on American-Islamic Relations

      Muslims want to rule the world. Check out what kind of world they envision http://www.faithfreedom.org/gallery.htm
    • AhmedOmran, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I said it down there once, and I'll say it again:

      faithfreedom.org is the very last source you want to get information about Islam on. I have never seen a more bullcrap-ridden website EVER. And I should know, because I'm a real Muslim.
  • ForrestGump, on 10/12/2007, -8/+3Momma alwase said, Iraq is like a box of chocolates, you never know what your gonna get
    • Shorties, on 10/12/2007, -7/+2Forrest Gump applies to anything in history, it truly is one of the greatest movies ever made.
  • milou, on 10/12/2007, -8/+2As of recently, Bush has killed more Americans than Al Queda. We have met the enemy and it is us (or is that U.S.)? Like the Vietnam days I like to actually see how many body bags come back home. It would be awesome, especially with our big screen Ty's, and super surround sound systems. So far we only see Arabs burying their body bag.

    By the way, senator Mc Cain while on his last recent visit to Vietnam told the Vietnamese government "the wrong side won the war". Isn't it great we have this ***** speaking for the American people? Sounds like the Vietnamese killed the wrong guy while he was a prisoner of war. For those who may not know, it appeared the VC killed his partner while in prison camp.

    Since I have my two cents worth of expression... "Bring all our troops home and send Bush with all his Bozos to fight their own wars".
  • AjaxsLastStand, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2There's a terrible psychological effect on the mind with war. And it all too often comes out when the camera is looking. It's not like before when media was difficult to get across the channels quickly. It got edited. You didn't hear about it. And to some degree, that made it easier for people to handle it. But now, we see it all up close and personal. My question: if we'd had such mass communication then, would it have stopped us in WW2 and WW1? I shudder to think.
  • SIDSI, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3I meet guys like this when I was enlisted, the scariest part about it is when jackasses like him get out of the military.
    • IMustBeEmo, on 10/12/2007, -6/+2This is why the right to bear arms should be abolished.
  • IMustBeEmo, on 10/12/2007, -4/+5I would like to watch this guy die.
  • MoebiusStrip, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4There are certain types of people who join the armed forces, some want to accomplish something, other's need money or a way to further their education, and then there's a group like Pvt Green. He's just a loser who has no direction in life, thus has no friends, no future, no talent.

    And they gave him a gun.
  • pabster, on 10/12/2007, -10/+4You ***** liberals make me sick.

    You go find one quack amongst hundreds of thousands and try to insinuate that this is representative of our troops en masse?

    I can find a quack or two amongst the hundreds of thousands of Red Cross relief workers too. Does that invalidate all the (GOOD) work they do?

    You keyboard commandos and armchair quarterbacks need a ***** reality check.
  • AvintheDooM, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1Ok, you win the price! a shinny car with bombs inside ***** kid butcher.
  • MacBigot, on 10/12/2007, -4/+4• It is naive to believe civilizations can enjoy peace without having to fight for it on occasion. Moreover, it is naive to believe wars can be fought in a civilized manner.

    • Whether the result of war or something before that, Green is an aberration, and not representative of who we are as Americans.

    • Removing Saddam from power has cost no more Iraqi lives than his reign in Iraq did. What's different is that we as Americans could ignore the lives being lost out of public view under Saddam.

    • Saddam was the instigator of his own downfall. Had he demonstrated before the world that he destroyed the WMD's he had during the Gulf War (as required in the Gulf War treaty), he would still be in power today.

    • What positive effect has the Iraq War had? We've given the Iraqi people opportunities they did not have before: 1) the opportunity of self-determination 2) the opportunity to end decades of terror and death, and 3) the opportunity to enjoy more liberty and more prosperous lives than they've ever known.

    • What remains to be seen is whether Iraq is the kind of place it is because of the kind of ruler Saddam was, or whether Saddam was the kind of ruler he was, because of the kind of people Iraqis are.
    • NetImp, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2"We've given the Iraqi people opportunities they did not have before: ... the opportunity to end decades of terror and death, ..."

      Given that it was the CIA who helped organise the coup which helped Saddam Hussain into power in the first place and the US helped keep him in power whilst he was inflicting death and torture ( not to mention helped him calibrate and target the attacks when he gassed the Kurda ), your rant comes across as remarkably ignorant of the facts.

  • richiestang78, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5While I dont agree with what some troops do but I think the attitude is nothing new or different. Ive heard Uncles who were in vietnam with the same attitude and grandparents in WWII and its the same thing. Im not going to get political like most everyone on here does in every digg posted but I will say that the US is the only thing keeping Iraq from tearing itself apart now.
  • bluto20, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4I can't wait until he pulls me over for speeding. Mmhmm
  • Muddle, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2The kids an inbreed moron who should have been put down at or before birth or placed in a state sponsored rehab program shredding classified NSA documents. He belonged in that place where you service the shredders, because they were to mentally or physically challenged to pull the staples and paper clips. If you'd like to blame anyone, blame his recruiter and or state sponsored shrink. Hell, they wouldn't let me into the nuke program over 30 years ago because it had a 80% suicide rate. Or maybe it was because I was stoned out of my gourd when I took the tests, physical and returned for further math tests, because I scored higher on them than anyone my recruiter had ever seen. Come back when your not pissing enough THC to stone the entire population of this building for several days. You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant, excepting Alice, but you can't screw the indigenous population against their will without some eventual consequences.
    http://www.arlo.net/resources/lyrics/alices.shtml
    • Riku67, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1You don't have permission to access /resources/lyrics/alices.shtml on this server.
  • deadpixel, on 10/12/2007, -4/+4i was in the army for several years... target pops up... i pull the trigger, target falls down.

    we were trained to think that way. it's what the military wants of us. the people who sit around thinking about the things they've had to do are the same ones who become dependent on VA care and disability pay after they get out. the same ones you see crying on the news about how bad war is. it's too bad there isn't a way to screen them out before they join up.
  • joshfraz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3the sentance that got my attention was:

    "We're out here getting attacked all the time and we're in trouble when somebody accidentally gets shot?"
  • tj_walker_dvt, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7Killing other humans like good little pre-programmed sheep. All in the name of political gain!

    When was the last time that someone from American fought for Freedom of American?
    Don't get me wrong, I know that having a good military is something that one needs but again, when last did an American Soldier fight for American freedom?

    = : )K
    • drizek, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1Never, those men were part of the Continental Army.
    • fredtellum, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1This is the freedom we fight for.

      "Those who stay in America should be open to society without melting, keeping Mosques open so anyone can come and learn about Islam. If you choose to live here, you have a responsibility to deliver the message of Islam ... Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faiths, but to become dominant. The Koran, the Muslim book of scripture, should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on Earth." - Omar Ahmad Co-founder of the Council on American-Islamic Relations

      Muslims want to rule the world. Check out what kind of world they envision http://www.faithfreedom.org/gallery.htm
    • FlaG8r, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2"Muslims want to rule the world"

      Some do, just as some Christain and some Jewish groups do. All three categories are working on it this very minute.
    • AhmedOmran, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2faithfreedom.org is the very last source you want to get information about Islam on. I have never seen a more bullcrap-ridden website EVER. And I should know, because I'm a real Muslim.
  • dirka, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Has the whole world gone mad?? I feel like im taking crazy pills...
  • mu1ti, on 10/12/2007, -5/+2who cares what this freak says...lets bitch about Mel Gibson
  • nzeeshan, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2what a looser solider .. most of the marines are full of such immature looser kids .. who don't have a job and just sign up for the army .. because army wants people who can fight and die ..
  • dboylon, on 10/12/2007, -5/+2This is nothing to me. It sounds outragous but it's not. What is war but killing people and destruction so that your political leaders can force their will on a foreign people. That is all war is...it is nothing but a game for the political classes waged at the expense of the masses. Americans shouldn't be angry at Pvt. Green, they should be pinning medals on his chest. He just didn't have the ability to be a good hypocrite but he is doing their work. Bending foreign people to your will to make them play by your leader's rule. He has been a good soldier.
    • AhmedOmran, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Well smartypants, that's the absolutely inane imperialist mentality you've grown into. You make "them" sound like low sub-humans that need to be civilised. America has grandly ***** up in Iraq and that's nothing you should be proud of. Damn, you should really listen to yourself talk. Dimwit.

      And Pvt. Green deserves to be whipped.
    • Damphair, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"Bending foreign people to your will to make them play by your leader's rule. He has been a good soldier."

      Yes, because raping young girls is going to make the Iraqis love us more.
  • wrinkles, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5Fortunately we were spared of expletives. Foul language has no place in an article about killing.
  • Rezzy, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Just curious...if Green would have been killed in action, would he have been called a hero?
  • Fetching more discussions...
    Show 51 - 69 of 69 discussions
  •  

    Login or register to add a comment

    Create a new account or login to join in the conversation on Digg. You'll also be able to Digg stories to help promote things you like.


© Digg Inc. 2008 — Content posted by Digg users is dedicated to the public domain.
DIGG, DIGG IT, DUGG, DIGG THIS, Digg graphics, logos, designs, page headers, button icons, scripts, and other service names are the trademarks of Digg Inc.