Slog - Comments on Hearts and Minds

Comment by who cares?

who cares? — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 14:22:51 -0800

As long as they weren't women and children...

Comment by RHETT ORACLE

RHETT ORACLE — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 14:34:25 -0800

...and people still rag Teddy Kennedy for Chappaquiddick. Wonder if we'll see any kind of maudlin Spielbergian-themed video ["Bush's List"] at St. Paul explaining away W's complicity in countless Middle East murders - starting with 4,150 American troops.

Comment by randy beaver

randy beaver — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 14:37:40 -0800

I wouldn't really say theres a upside to this at all. Dead Iraqi's-not good.

A standing army poorly equipped and trained for a counter insurgency is going to generate incidents like this from time to time. Soldiers put in a no win situation who've chosen to commit a war crime based on pressures and surroundings the vast majority of sloggers have likely no understanding of doesn't, in my mind, constitute a bright side per se.

Comment by flamingbanjo

flamingbanjo — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 14:51:58 -0800

@3: I'm guessing by "bright side" he means that, since these are regular Army guys who got caught red-handed as opposed to Blackwater employees, they will actually stand trial for their crimes. Also, I'm guessing it's meant ironically, as in "less breathtakingly horrible than other events we've heard about, but still sad and repellant and ultimately not very bright at all."

I could be wrong.

Comment by Bellevue Ave

Bellevue Ave — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 15:09:29 -0800

Yes, let's kill them Anthony. And if anyone looks at me cock-eyed I'm going to kill them too.

Comment by randy beaver

randy beaver — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 15:13:37 -0800

perhaps he mistook it for a 1st person shooter video game scenario. those reviews are less than 100% scintillating

Comment by max solomon

max solomon — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 15:42:54 -0800

KURTZ
" I've seen horrors...horrors that you've seen. But you have no right to call
me a murderer. You have a right to kill me. You have a right to do that...But
you have no right to judge me. It's impossible for words to describe what is
necessary to those who do not know what horror means.
Horror. Horror has a face...And you must make a friend of horror. Horror and
moral terrorare your friends. If they are not then they are enemies to be feared.
They are truly enemies. I remember when I was with Special Forces...Seems
a thousand centuries ago...We went into a camp to innoculate the children.
We left the camp after we had innoculated the children for Polio, and this old
man came running after us and he was crying. He couldn't see. We went
back there and they had come and hacked off every innoculated arm. There
they were in a pile...A pile of little arms. And I remember...I...I...I cried...
I wept like some grandmother. I wanted to tear my teeth out. I didn't know what I
wanted to do. And I want to remember it. I never want to forget it. I never want
to forget. And then I realized...like I was shot...Like I was shot with a
diamond...a diamond bullet right through my forehead...And I thought:
My God...the genius of that. The genius. The will to do that. Perfect,
genuine, complete, crystalline, pure. And then I realized they were
stronger than we. Because they could stand that these were not
monsters...These were men...trained cadres...these men who fought with
their hearts, who had families, who had children, who were filled with
love...but they had the strength...the strength...to do that. If I had ten
divisions of those men our troubles here would be over very quickly. You
have to have men who are moral...and at the same time who are able to
utilize their primordal instincts to kill without feeling...without passion...
without judgement...without judgement. Because it's judgement that
defeats us. "

Comment by elswinger

elswinger — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 20:14:15 -0800

#6 Yes, lets blame GTA!