Deep in our hearts, we knew that it would come to this:
Two U.S. soldiers missing since an attack on a checkpoint last week have been found dead near a power plant in Yusifiyah, south of Baghdad, according to an Iraqi defense official.
Maj. Gen. Abdul Aziz Muhammed-Jassim, head of operations at the Iraqi Ministry of Defense, said the soldiers had been “barbarically” killed and that there were traces of torture on their bodies.
Rest in peace now, soldiers. Thoughts and prayers now go to their families in a time of almost unbearable pain.
The human temptation now would be to “cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war.” And it will be a challenge for leadership on the ground to keep the troops focused on the task at hand, but not an insurmountable one. They are up to it, I know.
After all, what have learned about this foe, that we did not already know? What does it say about them, that in their barbarity, they rely upon our humanity?
But enough about us, say the chattering classes: Let us not change the subject.
Sometimes this all makes me so weary.
What does it say about them, that in their barbarity, they rely upon our humanity?
Somehow that is even more repulsive than to believe they are given over wholly to evil… That they can still recognize good, yet choose evil… Words fail in my attempts to characterize them.
And I also can’t help but compare and contrast the screams of “torture” from those who would smear the U.S. Military, with what real torture (vs. abuse or neglect) looks like.
Thoughts and prayers with the families and the souls of those deceased…
And like you said, sir, hopefully, the topic won’t be changed.
An uncle of one of the slain soldiers had some inflammatory things to say on the Today Show that make me even “weary”-er….
B2
A few other relatives were reluctantly giving the “I think we should pull back the troops”, but I hardly blinked because one can’t really blame the family of the dead in wishing the war would end or would have ended sooner so that their loved ones could come home and no one else would have to suffer as they did.
I have to say, once it was announced, I simply imagined them already dead because to imagine anything in between would do nothing. On top of that, I’m afraid that I have to quote Sherman “War is cruelty” and whether a man dies after receiving horrific blast wounds or dies at the hands of another after being captured and tortured, it is still pain, it is still death and it is still war. it just reminds me, frankly, why I believe we should not leave any civilization or society to their “tender” mercies.
I fear this is the outcome of a card from the Somalia playbook…we shall see.
My thoughts (expanded version) are here, with comments from another service man who suffered at the hands of his captors in another place, another time.
Although the arguments arrayed against us and what we know to be necessary and required to combat this Evil cause, are strident and make us weary, CAPT Lex, they are only imitations of the same arguments and characterizations made in 1942 when Bataan, Corregidor, Singapore and Pearl Harbor showed up the depths of depravity resident in our enemies and highlighted the despair of those too weak to defend themselves against tyranny. Throughout the war, tales of the atrocities visited upon American, Australian, and British POWs and the natives of the countries they fought to protect came to our countrymen and steeled their resolve.
Our fathers did not falter in opposing the tyranny of Imperial Japan, and the methodical and monolithic image of supremacy of the German Armed Forces. They knew Death and Destruction awaited many to the left and right of them, and quite possibly themselves. They volunteered in large numbers, just as clear thinking young Men do today to fight these evil people. Our Fathers did not fail to complete their mission.
And, as long as we at home do not falter, however weary we may be of fighting the Dhimmi insurgency in our own country which attempts to undermine our resolve and besmirch our reputations, then our generation, too, will know Victory in the end over this Evil.
Do not lose heart, sir. This Victory over Evil will require determination and fortititude by us at home as well as our young Men and Women on the field of battle. If they can continue to believe they are achieving something which is noble, and will, in the end, procure the Peace and Victory we so desperately need in this terrible war of ideals, then, by God, who are we to give up, or even question the fight they have so valiantly carried forth.
No, sir. Weary though we are, we shall never give in while breath lives in our lungs and life beats on our hearts. We shall support them in their needs. We shall fight the attitude that our enemy is honorable or “only doing what we would do if our country were invaded”, or is only treating our soldiers the same way we treat our “tortured” prisoners.
Do not lose heart, sir. For I shall never waver in my conviction that this is the absolute standard of a Just War. The clear evidence is before us in this story. This is the absolute standard in humanitarian endeavors for oppressed people. And the American GI remains the finest ambassador of what America stands for and can achieve for the oppressed. He is the gold standard of sterling conduct and superior compassion for the innocent. And he is a damn sight tougher than any jihadi in the world.
The American GI will make all the difference in this war. His example will be the fuel which changes Muslim opinion, the Truth which overcomes the multitude of Islamic lies and innuendo. And the renewed source of Hope and Respect for oppressed people everywhere.
America’s soldiers have not lost faith in the fight. And I will not abandon their cause. Not by a damn sight.
Subsunk
I say, “Cry Havoc….”
Hunt this into whatever holes it lives in and kill them all. Take Tarawa or Iwo Jima as the example. If not now, when? How many more young soldiers, sailors, and Marines will die before we begin to fight this like a war?
My youngest son is joining the Marines. Among the other advice I will give him will be, “Don’t ever, under any circumstances, allow yourself to be taken alive. It would only mean your slow degraded death by torture.”
There is no honor in fighting this way, only survival. And make no mistake about it, we are engaged in a war that will decide which civilization and people survives.
Semper Fidelis,
ASM826