Oh, the horror! Exile stories: The American dream
Posted by: Wolfie’s evidence | Feb 5 2005 11:08 utc | 1
By the way, Zeynep (underthesamesun.org) this week has noted the merging of xtian fundyism and military fetishism in ” Trinity Church of the Nazarene” which offers “boot camp” training for Christian boys.
I’m suddenly reminded of the Second Golden Age of US Sci Fi and the haunting tales of George R R Martin: his sketch of the hypermasculine cult of the Steel Angels seems to be taking form in real life. Onward Christian Soldiers indeed…
ROFLMAO, DeAnander! Sand Kings…
Onward Xian Soldiers…
Posted by: Kate_Storm | Feb 6 2005 4:50 utc | 5
@Kate the story of which I’m reminded is “And Seven Times Never Kill [a] Man” (I think the publisher inserted the bogus “a” in the title).
My granddad was in the Philippines in WWII, not quite Vietnam, but he saw some nasty shit. He never told me directly that he killed anybody, but he described some things that were like Apocalypse Now. The story I really remember, though, is one night he was on watch, and he saw a lone Japanese soldier trying to slip past. He aimed his .50 machine gun and fired, but he was using somebody else’s gun. They hadn’t cleaned it right, and it jammed. The Japanese soldier got by, never knowing what hadn’t happened. And my grandfather was glad. He was a true Christian who was willing to serve his country, but all he really wanted to do was get back to Georgia to his wife and son. Killing one Jap wasn’t going to change the war, and he didn’t want that on his conscience. And that’s why we won WWII — not heroes, not murderers, just men doing what they had to do so they could go back home and still look at themselves in the mirror.
America is starting to remind me of Kurtz. Our methods have become unsound. I wonder how long before someone terminates our command.
Posted by: Aigin | Feb 6 2005 15:54 utc | 7
From WE’s link above:
“Perhaps if American officials had been more knowledgeable about Middle Eastern culture, they would have questioned her claim about her husband’s heritage. His name provided a clue: Haytham Jamil Anwar is an Arabic name, not an Indian name. He was, according to numerous Iraqis who knew Hanna, an Iraqi Arab, a simple fact that undermines the very premise of her story. But the American investigators never talked to any Iraqi citizens about Hanna. Dryden and Mejia were so isolated in the Green Zone that they couldn’t do basic detective work. They didn’t even have a car.
“I don’t think the U. S. did much to verify her story,” Judge Campbell told me in September, when I called him to discuss what I was learning. “Once the Washington Post article came out, we treated it as gospel. We were skeptical; as lawyers, we are always skeptical. But once the investigators looked me in the eye and said they believed her story, I accepted it. Nevertheless, they were young men, not seasoned investigators.”
I realize I’m mostly supposed to react to this story emotionally and then cynically. But the critical thought growing in my mind as I read was that we have taught ourselves to listen to so-called experts, and stopped asking these experts to prove it. Later in the article one of those experts actually says he doesn’t care if the whole line of torture stories is a lie, investigating it got him 4 months of living in Saddam’s palace and got him a girlfriend. He doesn’t care if its a lie.
Dryden wasn’t troubled by this latest revelation. “If she told me today that she lied to me, I wouldn’t even care,” he said. “It got me four months out of the combat zone. It got me four months in the palace, where I had a lot of fun, in an air-conditioned building with e-mail and a phone line home. And I met a fantastic woman who I’m going to marry. So it wouldn’t bother me one bit if Jumana told me she’d made it all up. I’d say okay.”
He sounded amused.
I felt stupid and gullible.
That is the story of the entire adventure. Should be required reading.
Posted by: Citizen | Feb 6 2005 17:30 utc | 8
War brings out the lowest (it would be unjust to say animalistic) in people and it elevate creeping scam to the top too. But it’s not an excuse.
We have a friend who was reserve in Army and was picked up from his bed, leaving very sick child and wife with another small baby and was forced to go to war on Vukovar -Croatia. It’s a draft situation and no asking questions there…He did fight Croatian fighters as it was his duty but he also felt sick when they had to sleep in one family home on the front. He saw albums with family photos and toys around the house…even dishes on the stove cause people didn’t have time having to run from battlefield. He couldn’t sleep all night and all tho he was sick he couldn’t make a tee in that house. Later he told us they as a regular Army unit found village where our unit of so called volunteers have killed a lot of people…children and women and oldies…they buried them…
When this man came home he was insane for months even tho he fought by the rule of law…but what he saw was terrible…
On the other hand Special Forces and volunteers were chosen to be blood cold killers…I suppose it’s a case anywhere else.
I also remember seeing on our TV one almost old Serbian village man from Croatia who told a story how he walked in his house and found whole his family including grandchildren cruelly killed with knife. Then he said he only lived to kill as much of Croatians as he could. He said he killed by his hand more then 100 (of course innocent) people. He was later hospitalized in mental institution but it was good propaganda at the time.
What bothers in this USA story is that this kind of “behavior” is not only permitted officially but even desirable and this way propagated…
It’s not only shame or illegal…it’s in a sense death of USA culture…if ever there was such a thing…
That’s why I also hate Milosevic. All tho my people were very often through the wars in our history we were kind of proud to consider our solders “knights” for fair fighting…this myth was dead after recent wars…Who ever has a grain of decency is now ashamed in front of his children …
Posted by: vbo | Feb 7 2005 14:20 utc | 9