Hi Michael,
I read a lot about this war. And I bought a television the other night for
the purpose of learning about British and US propaganda. And I've read a
number of interviews with soldiers.
You say the soldiers are there "because they believe they're saving lives."
Based on what I've read, the soldiers don't have a consensus as to why
they're fighting. In one interview an argument arose amongst US soldiers,
some of whom were asserting they're fighting oil, others asserting they're
fighting for Bush's revenge for his dad. None of them said they were there
to help the Iraqi people. In fact, Anthony Swofford argues eloquently in
JARHEAD that soldiers fight to protect one another and don't really pretend
they're killing to save lives. Geoffrey Gatza, a poet and gulf war vet, a
good e-friend of mine, said that the soldiers in his company knew they were
"oil police" and called themselves by that moniker.
From what I can tel, it's only the Pentagon, Bush, Rumsfeld, Blair et alii
who say the Potemkin coalition is there t o help the Iraqis.
Civilian casualties are heavy now, very heavy in Al Basrah and Nasiriya and
in Kirkuk -- in every place the potemkin forces are fighting.
Even x-marines and other gulf war vets are against this war. In fact,
Harlan Ullman, the man who devised teh "shock and awe" tactical theory, is
against this war.
Do I know soldiers? Yes, I have and have had good friends who have served
in the special forces, in the Army Rangers and in the Navy SEAL teams.
They're not fools. They don't believe propaganda. They don't believe it
because they've seen the other side: they know the things they do --
covert, illegal things -- and they've seen how the govt spins what they've
done, lies about what they've done.
Something Doug Barbour used to have in his signature has always stuck with
me: "Violence can only be concealed by a lie, and the lie can only be
maintained by violence. Any man who has once proclaimed violence as his
method is inevitably forced to take the lie as his principle." - Alexander
Solzhenitsyn. Violent govt's lie. No one but the most ignorant Americans
can say that America is not now run by a supremely violent govt.
I think it's naive to think different. Sorry my speculations are
"disgusting" to you. American and British forces have been doing
"disgusting" things for decades. That's what Imperialist armies do. They
attack people to take their goods and to give them in turn "democracy" or
"god" or :freedom."
Too, I often think of what Senator George Frisbie Hoar (1826-1904)said to
Teddy Roosevelt regarding his policies in the Philipines (where COUNTLESS
Philipinos were slaughtered, tortured, and maimed in horrifying atrocities
under a General Smith, who ordered his troops to maim and dismember
Philipinos who were trying to repel [US forces these atrocities are a
matter of record discussed on teh Senate floor by Henry Cabot Lodge) and in
Panama where he fomented a coup in order to TAKE the isthmus-- what Senator
Hoar said was, "You have slain uncounted thousands of the people you have
desired to benefit."
Killing people to help them doesn't work. They will resist being dead.
Thomas Friedman, pulitzer winner from the NY Times ,just said in a tv
interview that a country is perfectly capable of hating its dictator and
hating its invader at the same time.
You think it's disgusting of me to know about soldiers and history adn to
speculate about their lying. I'm sorry but govt's DO lie about what their
soldiers do. In fact, govts ask soldiers to do disgusting things.
GAbe
I don't know you, but am I correct in assuming you're American or British?
At 09:24 PM 3/25/2003 -0500, Michael Snider wrote:
>Do you know anyone in uniform? Whatever the motivations of Bush and
>Blair and Howard, the men and women fighting are there because they
>believe they're saving lives. They're risking everything to do what
>they hope is good, and you call them murderers. It's worse than
>disgusting.
>
>
>On Tuesday, March 25, 2003, at 08:59 PM, Gabriel Gudding wrote:
>
>>Heard reports tonight that British special forces relayed news to "in
>>bed"
>>journalists that a faction of Iraqi guerillas has risen up against
>>Iraqi
>>troops within Basra and that these Iraqi guerrillas opened up a mortar
>>attack on Iraqi troops WITHIN THE CITY, shelliing inside the city, and
>>that
>>the B'ath party headquarters has been shelled.
>>
>>I don't believe this.
>>
>>I fear British special forces are using this as cover story for
>>bombing and
>>mortaring the fuck out of Iraqi troops within Basra, so that they can
>>blame
>>civilian loss of life on internecine Iraqi rattatat.
_____________________________________________________
"But by a timely mixture of ignorance, thoughtlessness,
forgetfulness of evil, hope of good, and a dash of delight,
I bring relief from troubles...."
--Desiderius Erasmus, The Praise of Folly
Gabriel Gudding
Department of English
Illinois State University
Normal, IL 61790
office 309.438.5284
http://www.pitt.edu/~press/2002/gudding.html
http://gabrielgudding.blogspot.com/
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