If you didn't feel connected by anything human to the WikiLeaks Video, Josh Stieber and Ethan McCord's Letter of Reconciliation to the victims and the community will do it.
Iraq war veteran and writer Josh Stieber backpacking for peace, 08/14/09. (photo: Josh Stieber)
|
THE NEW STREAMLINED RSN LOGIN PROCESS: Register once, then login and you are ready to comment. All you need is a Username and a Password of your choosing and you are free to comment whenever you like! Welcome to the Reader Supported News community. |
Comments
We are concerned about a recent drift towards vitriol in the RSN Reader comments section. There is a fine line between moderation and censorship. No one likes a harsh or confrontational forum atmosphere. At the same time everyone wants to be able to express themselves freely. We'll start by encouraging good judgment. If that doesn't work we'll have to ramp up the moderation.
General guidelines: Avoid personal attacks on other forum members; Avoid remarks that are ethnically derogatory; Do not advocate violence, or any illegal activity.
Remember that making the world better begins with responsible action.
- The RSN Team
How do you bring back the thousands of dead, rebuild their cities and towns, find homes for orphans, help the refugees, stabilize a region that has been turned to chaos? A letter may soothe a few but most, as Jyl says, will hate the U.S. forever and pass that hatred to the next generation.
There will come a time when the U.S. will pay for the Middle East along with every other country they have invaded.
The letter Josh and Ethan wrote is both beautiful and powerful.
Compassion is the order of the day.... for those who've been on the receiving side of 'shock n' awe' and for those who carried out these deeds of mindless horror.
As for Americans' taking responsibility for what was done in "our" name, I absolutely resent that comment. This war is not being conducted in MY name!!! I marched in protest many times, I wrote and called my representatives , and I voted against any candidate who supported the war. This war was NOT fought for "God and country," not by any means! It was fought to satisfy the agenda of a madman and his cohorts.
Take a look at this interview with Josh Steiber. http://www.democracynow.org/2010/4/12/this_is_how_these_soldiers_were
And watch as much as you can of the Winter Soldier testimony on the Iraq Veterans Against the War Website: http://www.ivaw.org/wintersoldier/testimony
You may or may not be ready to forgive, but you'll definitely understand what happened -- and how it could happen --better.
Damn it all, man. Get a clue. America illegally brought the war to Iraqi neighborhoods, not the other way around.
Would that there be More Of it, Particularly in Command.
The Fault in these incidents of War, is Not Often with the Actor's Who Actually Commit them. Responsibility Lies Further up the Chain of Command.
For Those who Never served, ask Anybody who Has.
Nothing Like This, institutionaliz ed as it is, EVER Happen's without the Approval of Whomever is Running the Show, The Commanding Officer is Responsible for Actions of His Troops. And on up the Chain of Command to the Top. In an Illegal War of Aggression, He who Gives the Order, is Responsible for the Results. If we Had Our Integrity Still, that Would have Happened. Till that Blot is Addressed, We Are All Stained with it.
BrucePoint
I found the letter arrogant, arrogant in that the writers can return home and live their lives in an environment that does not reflect what they've inflicted upon the Iraqis.
Were I Iraqi, and my family decimated as thousands have in Iraq, I would not hesitate to strap on a bomb vest and take as many with me as I could in pay back.
Americans, AND their Government still publicaly persue an connection with Sept 11 and Iraq that was NEVER THERE.
As long as that prevails, I cannot accept any claimed apology, nor can any apology ever cut ice with the Iraqi people.
Let's NEVER FORGET, the Iraqi citizenry did at not time, ever, lift a finger against even ONE American citizen.
Yet Americans chose to bomb Iraq back to the stone age and murder millions of it's citizens.
There IS no apology that can ever make up for such an act.
The letter was touching and I'm glad they wrote it, and they are two brave and wonderful men, but as they said, and JYL said, how do we even begin to make it up to them. I would be a lunatic if this was happening to those I loved and had to live in that, and never would I forgive. Support the Troops, BRING THEM HOME.
1. All military forces be withdrawn from Iraq and Afghanistan now.
2. The key players in the prior administration responsible for this war should be tried for treason and handed over to the World Court for trial for their crimes against humanity.
3. The US must pay for Iraq's restoration to what it was before the war, and pay it on THEIR terms.
4. As an act of contrition, the US would need to withdraw troops from the region and close half of all military installations world wide and our budget for the military be halved.
Any less is, by definition, an utter perversion of justice which should be intolerable to a people that would claim to possess even a modest sense of decency.
I appreciate the apologies given, but, "I'm sorry" just doesn't cut it. These troops do not have the moral authority to apologize on behalf of anyone but themselves. WE and the commanders are AT LEAST as responsible. Jyl is right.
Your points are well taken. One has to be cautious about being precise in language as words can be parsed into meanings different than intended.
I think we'd agree that the natural resources of any country belongs to that country and it's peoples. This does not serve our corporate interests one bit, but so what? We'd have sufficient energy resources if we merely harvested grasses along our highways for cheap ethonol production to what ever level of harvesting we'd like. Evidently stealing fuel is more profitable to the military industrial complex.
I am aware that a majority of Iraqis want foreign occupation forces to leave even if it means intensified internal violence between Shia and Sunni occur.
Harold, my regard for Obama is becoming less and less benign. I am less likely to give the benefit of the doubt. Thank you for your insight.
You highly articulate exactly why this won't happen. The corporations couldn't control it since plenty of ethonol could be distilled in our back yards cheaply. They could not possible profit to the extent they can now and they would destroy, and I do mean kill, anything or anyone that stood in the way of their bottom line.
Militants targeting government make a big mistake. They should be targeting corporate America.
What if they had a war and nobody came?
The amoral men and women in the Pentagon and Congress, the blood merchants at Northrup Grumman, Lockheed, Raytheon, and Boeing -- none could do what they do without the complicity of millions of younger Americans willing to march into other people's countries with weapons in hand.
Who pays? Every American citizen pays with the highest burden placed on those who most profited by this disaster with taxes on the wealthy being increased to 90% as it was under the Eisenhower Administration.
The burden of democracy is that we are obliged to overthrow our government when necessary or pay for it if we won't but should.
We are taking revenge to a new level and how many Iraqi and Afghani deaths will it take to satisfy our desire for revenge yet we still call it a mission for democracy. The world sees only too well this hypocrisy.
I am relieved that there are people in our armed forces who now realize the harm we have done to these people and want to atone for it.
Lies swallowed as though the had some nutritional value. WMD's. Al Quaeda in Iraq. Uranium ore from Niger. This is not about oil. Want more? There's plenty where that comes from, just ask any politician. Especially the long-term professionals.
I did not send money to the IRS this year, but did send a note - "I refuse to support a military with my tax dollars that kills innocent women and children in countries who have not harmed us in any way. Other than in self-defense. In case people have it mixed up, WE are the invaders.
Who you do want running our government? Those who care more about getting re-elected (in order to serve, they say) more than they do about human life; civilian or military.
What can you do? Speak up and speak out.....often. If you're proud of killing women and children stand up and say so. If not, say so.
there is NEVER any justification- no such thing as a just war, especially in this day of unmanned weapons , etc.
the horror of watching that video stays forever- ask any parent - or any human being - if what we are doing as a nation is making us feel any better- all that money could be building up and repairing what we have done to them -and for NO REASON- but death is final and there is no repairing that
BRING THE TROOPS HOME- FOR ALL OUR SAKES!!!!!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_iran_gates
More war to come for Iran's oil and natural gas resources. This whole thing reminds me of the Birthers, who, if Obama actually showed his birth certificate, they still wouldn't believe that he was born in the United States. Even if Iran were to show absolute proof to the U.S. that they are not building nuclear weapons, it wouldn't matter. The U.S. is out for one thing, and only one thing, regime change in Iran, to replace the government there with a puppet American government as we did in Iraq and in Afghanistan, one that will jump through our hoops. I hope that both Russia and China wake up and protect Iran from whatever the U.S. has planned before it's too late.
Were you or anyone else watching when CHINA AND RUSSIA snaked the oil out from under American soldiers?
They need to issue an open Thank You Note:
"Dear Americans,
Thank you for keeping the terrorists busy while we took the oil!
Pleasure doing business with you, chum...PS!"
China and Russia snaked the oil out from under America, without paying us for the cost of the war, or the American soldiers who had to die so CHINA AND RUSSIA could get cheap oil!
If America got cheap oil...WHERE IS IT?
Oil prices are still almost DOUBLE what they were a decade ago. Obama refused to issue a Windfall Tax on the oil-companies--the WINNERS of the Free Market--citing something about "Free Market"...right before he bailed out the LOSERS of the Free Market with taxpayer money!
China and/or Russia could at least send a Thank You Note:
"Dear Americans,
Thanks for keeping the terrorists busy while we took the oil.
Pleasure doing business with you, chum...PS!"
RSS feed for comments to this post.