How Long Are You /willing To Be At War?

panzade wrote:

McGentrix wrote:

When they act like people, I will think of them as such.

I guess this is what got my dander up...this dehumanizing of the Iraquis...but i guess i was a little over the top.

"they" are terrorists, not Iraqi's.

0 Replies

I don't know McG...at some point I'd have a hard time keeping everybody seperate...sub-humans, humans, neandrathals, superhumans. It seems to me that this seperation of levels of humanity can cause a veil to be dropped on the uniqueness of humanity.

0 Replies

Terrorism is unconventional warfare -- nothing more. The people we are fighting in Iraq are mostly Iraqi's. Some are 'terrorists' in the sense that they might have belonged to terrorist groups before they went to Iraq. All are fighting us because we invaded Iraq. In every case in history I can think of where a country is invaded the factions within that country unite to fight the invader. There's nothing new about this. Referring to them as subhuman is just the way to assuage our guilt for destroying a country and killing enough people that we don't want to count them.

P, I don't think you were over the top. It sticks in my craw too.

0 Replies

panzade wrote:

McGentrix wrote:

When they act like people, I will think of them as such.

I guess this is what got my dander up...this dehumanizing of the Iraquis...but i guess i was a little over the top.

Given the enormous range of brutal and terrible behaviour, amply and frequently demonstrated by people everywhere, over the millenia, it always sadly amuses me to see these attempts to deny some of them their humanity.

Of course, we tend to reserve our most enthusiastic attempts to deny the reality of humanity to those whose awful acts happen to be committed by those we have determined to be on "the other side".

0 Replies

kill 'em all let God sort 'em out, right? :wink:

ceptin' for us o' course....

0 Replies

You guys are saying it better...you know what I mean. It is an important subject for me and it certainly is for the US Armed Forces who are training soldiers to kill while not de-humanizing their actions.

0 Replies

au contraire my friend...de humanizing their actions is exactly the idea.....and one must only look as far as this thread to see how well it's working.....the enemy is not human...merely a target, a statisitic, a barrier towards the goal.....in order to be an efficient killing machine, you must not view your enemy as human and you must be disconnected from any feelings towards that person.....that is the idea of miltary training......in the civilian world this trait, coveted and sought out in the soldier, is called sociopathic behavior and considered a mental illness.

0 Replies

Of course Bear , the problem revealed in the Vietnam War is: once you program soldiers that way how do you deprogram them when the rotate home?

0 Replies

panzade wrote:

Of course Bear , the problem revealed in the Vietnam War is: once you program soldiers that way how do you deprogram them when the rotate home?

answer: Take the usual approach...f*#k 'em...they've served their purpose.....if they act up....lock 'em up......keep a few around for photo ops o' course... Rolling Eyes

0 Replies

Black Jack Pershing found a way to stop the terrorist attacks by Muslim extremists in the Phillipines just before WWI.

He captured 50 terrorists and had them tied to posts for execution then brought in 2 pigs, slaughtered them, and had his soldiers dip their bullets in the pigs' blood.

They then shot and killed 49 of the terrorists, dumped the bodies in a mass grave and threw the pigs, blood, and guts in on top of them. They then let the 50th one go.

And for the next 42 years there was not a single Muslim extremist attack in the world.

Where can we find another Black Jack Pershing?

0 Replies

Remember, terrorists have no sympathy for you. Only desires of your death. If you choose to throw flowers at your enemy, so be it.

0 Replies

OK, you get the cynics crown. But this is the kind of stuff I have problems with when we demonize an enemy. Satt and John-Bush are dealing with the results from 65 years ago: The invasion of China by Japan. The Japanese were masters of dehumanizing their conquered enemies. Then the Chinese under Mao. UN forces under MacArthur...it never stops.

0 Replies

Larry434 wrote:

Black Jack Pershing found a way to stop the terrorist attacks by Muslim extremists in the Phillipines just before WWI.

He captured 50 terrorists and had them tied to posts for execution then brought in 2 pigs, slaughtered them, and had his soldiers dip their bullets in the pigs' blood.

They then shot and killed 49 of the terrorists, dumped the bodies in a mass grave and threw the pigs, blood, and guts in on top of them. They then let the 50th one go.

And for the next 42 years there was not a single Muslim extremist attack in the world.

Where can we find another Black Jack Pershing?

I suspect it will be hard...there are so many here and around that have a hard on for that sort of action but not if they have to dirty their hands by doing it personally......conversely those willng to do it, probably find it distasteful to do......that's the difference between men of action and posturing arm chair quarterbacks......me, I don't have the balls for it and that's why I don't run around posing and posturing about it......

0 Replies

Larry, not doubting the veracity of your post because I consider you a peer...but I'm gonna have to research that nugget, especially the no attacks for 42 years part.

0 Replies

Bi-Polar Bear wrote:

I suspect it will be hard...there are so many here and around that have a hard on for that sort of action but not if they have to dirty their hands by doing it personally......conversely those willng to do it, probably find it distasteful to do......that's the difference between men of action and posturing arm chair quarterbacks......me, I don't have the balls for it and that's why I don't run around posing and posturing about it......

I agree, posing and posturing by our military is not what we need to win the war on terror.

Innovative action, such as Pershing effectively used, is what is needed. Armchair quarterbacks, such as you and I, can then express our value judgment of the action.

0 Replies

panzade wrote:

Larry, not doubting the veracity of your post because I consider you a peer...but I'm gonna have to research that nugget, especially the no attacks for 42 years part.

I received it in an email chronicling Pershings career. Could be an Urban Legend. Check it out and let us know.

0 Replies

Larry434 wrote:

Bi-Polar Bear wrote:

I suspect it will be hard...there are so many here and around that have a hard on for that sort of action but not if they have to dirty their hands by doing it personally......conversely those willng to do it, probably find it distasteful to do......that's the difference between men of action and posturing arm chair quarterbacks......me, I don't have the balls for it and that's why I don't run around posing and posturing about it......

I agree, posing and posturing by our military is not what we need to win the war on terror.

Innovative action, such as Pershing effectively used, is what is needed. Armchair quarterbacks, such as you and I, can then express our value judgment of the action.

Obviously you admire this action....there's no more to be said really.

0 Replies

[quote="Bi-Polar Bear"
Obviously you admire this action....there's no more to be said really.[/quote]

I admire innovative and effective actions that save the lives of my fellow countrymen, albeit at the expense of the lives of our enemies, don't you,?

0 Replies

I'm not discounting it Larry, but it seems you popped into the thread and offered up an example of what I was decrying...I would say it was perfect timing.

0 Replies

How Long Are You /willing To Be At War?

Related Topics

Quick Links

My Account

able2know