9/11 Changed Everything
"We're not going to harm you. We're American soldiers."
---George H.W. Bush Sr. recalling his proudest moment of his administration's war against Iraq, quoting an American greeting a surrendering Iraqi soldier.
---George H.W. Bush Sr. recalling his proudest moment of his administration's war against Iraq, quoting an American greeting a surrendering Iraqi soldier.
posted by Edward_ at
2:24 PM
9 Comments:
I've read that Iraqi soldier in the first Gulf War were buried alive in the sand by American troops. I think Poppy might be mixed up - he's refering to WWII.
Ginger,
have you seen a link with a news story that backs that up?
As awful as that story may be, it pales in comparison to the 2nd war. W went over to the dark side. The sickening thing is that so many let his idiocy stand and even encouraged it.
Oh, yeah, WWII was a war of the righteous and good against the worthless and evil. Americans never did anything like, oh, I don't know, discovering a cache of stolen medical supplies in a cave then waiting until the Japanese returned to it so they could blow it up and entomb anyone not immediately killed. Which story is happily told to me by the WWII Navy veteran across the street.
Every war is full of horrible, terrible things. But up until the Gulf War II, we at least persisted in the idea that Americans were somehow better than that. How quickly we forget. Twenty or thirty years from now I expect we'll all be shocked -- shocked! -- by some new atrocity committed in our name.
Edward, I remember that story that was brought up in the first comment. From the 1991 New York Times report. I believe it was first reported in the Army Times.
Note that the Iraqis being buried alive here were not surrendering soldiers but active combatants. I like what Pentagon spokesman Pete Williams is quoted as saying: "I don't mean to be flippant, but there's no nice way to kill somebody in war." There's a summation of the 20th century right there, if not the whole of human history.
Seymour Hersh reported a different version of this event.
(New York Times' report on Hersh's article.)
Hersh, being one of my heroes, is my preferable source.
Chris is right that all wars are horrible and all wars will bring out the worst in some people. The thing is, that until this war, at least we subscribed to higher standards, even if we didn't always meet them. Now, we don't even do that. Now we play with semantics to enable our side to torture or detain without charge whomever that moron in the White House decides he wants to abuse.
I'd rather say that now the guy in the White House has decided he doesn't even have to pretend to subscribe to higher values. I doubt that any president has ever really been that idealistic. Carter, maybe, and look what happened to him.
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