Mark Weiss wrote:
>
> Only our guys are fully human. How could it be otherwise? Hasn't it always
> been so?
>
> In the fullness of time, as you develop something like compassion, you too
> may become fully human.
>
>
I don't quite understand for whom I am not showing compassion. But
you're right, in part - I feel no compassion whatever for Saddam Hussein
or anyone who willingly serves him. As opposed to those who fight
because of fear of reprisal against their families.
Lt. Col. Tim Collins, commander, 1st Battalion, Royal Irish Marines, 16
Air Assault Brigade, to his men, 22 March: "The enemy should be in no
doubt that we are his nemesis and that we are bringing about his
rightful destruction. There are many regional commanders who have
stains on their souls and they are stoking the fires of hell for
Saddam. He and his forces will be destroyed by this coalition for what
they have done. As they die they will know their deeds have brought them
to this place. Show them no pity."
The rest of his statement is equally moving. You can find it.
Yes, yes, I know, sentimental, self-righteous, partial, a half-truth.
In these respects like so much that appears on this list, and hence a
useful corrective. And now I'll be silent. Because I know from
experience it will do no good to say I detest Bush and Ashcroft, that I
regard them as being ALMOST as dangerous to civilization as the
theologians of jihad. It will do no good to argue that DESPITE the fact
the US helped keep S.H. in power while he served its purposes, the fact
that it's now deposing him MAY lead to a net gain in freedom for his
people. Against whose oppression people like us would certainly have
signed petitions, but never physically fight. It did no good for me to
send that material about Sayyid Qutb - it inspired no serious, i.e.
non-moralizing, questions about real forces in the world. It inspired
nothing whatever - it didn't fit. Some of you have to see America as
the greater enemy, no matter what it is opposing. A mullah, a suicide
bomber, the stoners and mutilators of women, "brilliant Osama," Saddam
H. - they're human, they're sacred victims, they're no threat, they're
fucking MATES compared to, say, an oil executive.
I'll go back to lurking, now. Sometimes there's useful stuff on poetry
here.
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