WB: In Cold Blood – Moon of Alabama

May 18, 2006

WB: In Cold Blood

Billmon:

There is a wiff of genocide in the air, and not just in Iraq. While the keyboard warriors still talk in slightly coded terms about waging war with the "ferocity" required to win, some of the real warriors aren’t bothering to conceal what those terms really mean. A few days ago I came across a diary at Daily Kos (can’t find it now) in which the diarist relayed the gist of his recent conversation with a Marine Corporal — an MP, of all things, currently stationed at Quantico — who was eager to get to Iraq so he could "kill some sand niggers."

In Cold Blood

Posted by b on May 18, 2006 at 11:24 UTC | Permalink

Comments

I don’t know if it’s better or worse that this atrocity seems to have been committed by a military unit completely out of control, instead of one that was following orders, as was clearly the case at Abu Ghraib.
I don´t think we should jump on that train. Maybe they did get orders to do it. Also it’s for sure not the only Mylai that happened/happens in Iraq. This one only came out because some media were there. Others are not covered.

Posted by: b | May 18 2006 11:27 utc | 1

The story from Daily Kos: My Military Encounter at Richmond International Raceway

I was talking to one of the Marines, who’s name was Jim. He seemed nice enough, until he told me that he enlisted wanting to get into the infantry, but was told that there were no openings at that time. So he asks the recruiter what was close, and he was told MP, so he singed for that. He went on to tell me that when he was assigned to Quantico he would not be deployed to Iraq. I looked at him and said, “Man you lucked out.” And before I could the out said, he looked me square in the eye and said, “No sir, I want to get over there and kill some of those fuck’en Sand Nigers!”
…
I calmly ask him if he was aware that his Commander and Chief as much as admitted that he lie about going into Iraq. No sir he did not, that was just put out by the liberals to try to get the “War on Terror stopped. Man I wish we could shut them faggot lovers up. I wish I could just kick the shit out of one.”
…With that said, he set his plate down and walked over to the group that was talking to my father-in-law and told them it was time to go. They had all left, and about five minutes later one of them came back and apologized for Jim and the rest, he said that they are really that way and that is why they are called the killer squad back at the base. He also told us that they are one group you do not want to cross.
…

Posted by: b | May 18 2006 11:43 utc | 2

No billmon they ARE facists. They really mean every word of it and we’d better start dealing with that reality on the terms it implies. Perhaps the 2nd amendment was meant as a protection for us against them. We’d better become the second group ‘you do not want to cross’ otherwise we too will be headed for the American version of Death Camps.

Posted by: Iron Butterfly | May 18 2006 14:11 utc | 3

RIR is in my town. Makes me feel like the filth got on me.

Posted by: beq | May 18 2006 14:29 utc | 4

On the other hand, the fact that U.S. Marines — the few, the proud, etc. — were capable of such bestiality says something ominous about the psychological state of the American military after three years of being stretched to the limit.
Interesting timing of Murtha’s announcement, as it comes on right on the heels of a series by the Hartford Courant about pshychologically distressd soldiers:

HARTFORD, Conn. — U.S. military troops with severe psychological problems have been sent to Iraq or kept in combat, even when superiors have been aware of signs of mental illness, a newspaper reported for Sunday editions.
The Hartford Courant, citing records obtained under the federal Freedom of Information Act and more than 100 interviews of families and military personnel, reported numerous cases in which the military failed to follow its own regulations in screening, treating and evacuating mentally unfit troops from Iraq.
“I can’t imagine something more irresponsible than putting a soldier suffering from stress on (antidepressants), when you know these drugs can cause people to become suicidal and homicidal,” said Vera Sharav, president of the Alliance for Human Research Protection, a New York-based advocacy group. “You’re creating chemically activated time bombs.”

Not enough trops to start. Not enought troops to rotate.
I guess it was only a matter of time before some of these “chemical weapons” unitentionally discharged.
Executing helpless women and children while they’re huddled on the floor, praying to their God, is a war crime committed by terrorists. It’s Lidice and Rwanda and Srebrenica and, of course, My Lai.
Amen brother. Amen.

Posted by: Night Owl | May 18 2006 15:10 utc | 5

Link to Courant Article.

Posted by: Night Owl | May 18 2006 15:13 utc | 6

speaking of “genocide in the air,” this zeitgeist is complemented by really astounding comments made on fox by the blockhead john gibson and concerning the assaulted white man.
I don’t think one could find a more vile racism, but there you have it. after the corporal’s done wasting some iraqis, he can finish business here at home. come back to blood meridian.

Posted by: slothrop | May 18 2006 16:15 utc | 7

ugh.
speaking of “genocide in the air,” this zeitgeist is complemented by really astounding comments made on fox by the blockhead john gibson and inimitable cracker bill o’reilly concerning the assaulted white man.
I don’t think one could find a more vile racism, but there you have it. after the corporal’s done wasting some iraqis, he can finish business here at home. come back to blood meridian.

Posted by: slothrop | May 18 2006 16:18 utc | 8

I don’t think one could find a more vile racism
maybe gibson will create a run here

Posted by: b real | May 18 2006 16:23 utc | 9

I understand how isolated and horrific incidents become symbols. (My Lai.)
How they stand for all the rest, and TV watchers / news readers suddenly have their humped backs broken by a straw.
Nevertheless, the working by example serves to negate and cover up the general situation. How many Iraqis have died, are dying today, or have no future life – amongst other things, the possibility to have healthy children, love and feed them?
How many? Well, lets just say many more than is officially reckoned. Not all of them killed by Marines, to be sure.
Examples of atrocities slip close to the bad-apples line, the particular circumstances, the local, the personal, the exceptional; the handwringing, shocking results of war, occupation, the tragedy, the blips in the screen…Loss of honor is lamented, but that implies there was honor to be found somewhere to begin with, it was or is a commodity that could, sadly, be forfeited, lost, through personal inadequacy, madness, stress, provocation.
Pre-emptive invasion, massive bombing, economic take-over, the setting up of a puppet Gvmt. and formenting civil strife, not to mention the wholesale illegal rewriting of laws, the killing of the population thru the ordinary means that are not mentioned, i.e. destroying health services, clean water provisions and food production (bombs pale in comparion to what that does – there is simply no better and quicker method) are swept away with the glamor and horror (kill sand niggers) of warrior soldiers…

Posted by: Noisette | May 18 2006 17:31 utc | 10

3 million deaths in the Congo.

Posted by: Noisette | May 18 2006 17:56 utc | 11

3 million deaths in the Congo.
Maybe 4, but now some European’s will go in to supervise the election and add to that number. Lots of strategic metals around …

Posted by: b | May 18 2006 18:09 utc | 12

Ann Coulter’s recent suggestion that members of her audience act like “real men” and take out protestors is, imo, beyond the bounds of protected speech in the same way that yelling fire in a crowded theater is an example of unprotected free speech…because of the harm to a group of ppl in a situation which Coulter could and apparently wanted to bring about.
Here’s a blog entry from a student who was there who sat in the midst of the repukes who voted to have her speak (and who, apparently got paid more than anyone the school ever paid for any other speaker….tell me how she is worth that much money? –maybe to Duke Cunningham, her kinda man…
As I chuckled sarcastically at her remark, a girl turned around and gave me a dirty look. I sort of gave her a dirty look back and before I knew it, she told me to “Shut the fuck up.” I was so taken aback by her comments, I said, “uhh, no you shut the fuck up.” Then she turned more towards me and said, “I’ll fucking kick your ass.” I was so SHOCKED that this girl had the actual nerve to say this to me let alone on a college campus lecture, all I could say was well, “that’s typical.” I’m looking around me at the chaos and I see peaceful protestors getting yanked from the crowd, that I find security and tell them that a girl had just threatened me! He went to confront the girl and all of a sudden all of her friends were like “No, she threatened her!”. You can only begin to imagine my shock and indignation about this girl’s lack of principle and ethics. It really was the definition of mob action and what people will do when they lack the any sort of backbone.
if I were that girl, I would have been so tempted to get up in a huff because that girl told me to shut the fuck up and…oops…I just so happened to slug her across the face with my camera which I picked up by the strap and tried to put on my shoulder in such haste to get away from this woman who was so rude to me. It would be worth the cost of a camera to me. See? Coulter even incites me to violence.
Someone should have been handing out sign up sheets for the miilitary there too…and the young repukes at that school need a visit from one of those yellow elephant squads…after tipping off the school newspaper that they’re in the (frat) house.
According the Brad Blog, a conservative group is making a documentary to harsh Ann’s fascist high. The release of the video is supposed to coincide with the ann-tichrista’s 6-6-6 release of her new book.
video is available at the end of the link, as well as a link to Brad Blogs’ radio debate with coulter…I haven’t heard this, but will have, soon…
and, btw, as skinny as she is, her sweater tits are as fake as Bush’s codpiece…don’t know if they’re just bra tits or cut into her chest cavitiy and pasties…(if so, guess they were surprised to find a quivering blob of black bile where her heart’s supposed to be… anyway, they must be bra tits because she doesn’t have them in the other photos, unless they’re a recent addition…which may also be true because you can see her bones under her clavicle, which means, if they’re fake, the docs had to stretch her skin to accomodate the silicone. Who knows, maybe pulling skin from under her arm, so, maybe she has to shave her tits on the sides, or else have this three stooges larry sort of thing going on. LOL. sorry, I couldn’t help it. but really, everytime you see this woman, don’t you wanna see if larry is peaking out of the sides of her bra?
/snark

Posted by: fauxreal | May 18 2006 18:40 utc | 13

Fauxreal, keep your opinions of Coulter’s body to yourself. Nothing is going to make me sympathize with her, but your kind of insult probably has the best chance of doing so.
She’s a disgusting person because of the things that come out of her mouth, not because of what you think of her body.

Posted by: Anonymous | May 18 2006 19:30 utc | 14

@fauxreal – thanks for the calm reaction to Coulter, who is not able to such, but only to spitting vernom.
You even added a /snark to mark your rant as not-so-serious. Anonymous didn´t catch that I guess. And by the way – I do find here body just as disgusting as her brain or what her mouth utters.
/snark

Posted by: b | May 18 2006 19:47 utc | 15

anonymous- thank you for telling me what I can and cannot say. if you can sympathize with ann coulter after someone says something nasty about her after she tries to get audience members to attack others there…well, that’s your problem, not mine.
if you don’t like what I said, fine, say so. but DO NOT tell me to keep my opinions of Coulter’s body to myself…which, as b noted, was a joke…but nevermind…
don’t tell me to shut the fuck up…get it?

Posted by: fauxreal | May 18 2006 20:10 utc | 16

and anyway, the comment was more about the disgusting nature of plastic surgery. I was also going to talk about Pamela Anderson’s basketball breasts because she has so willingly turned herself into a freak, but I didn’t.
and the snark was also in respoinse to the right winger attempts to make Coulter better than a female political commentator who isn’t blond and blue-eyed and a total bitch.
…just for the record.

Posted by: fauxreal | May 18 2006 20:16 utc | 17

sometimes I want to tell Billmon to wake up and smell the historical coffee.
killing weeping, praying women and children as they huddle on the floor of their home is exactly what modern warfare is about and is exactly what all wars of occupation/invasion have always been about. it’s what the Conquistadores did to the indigenos, it’s what Jenghiz did to Asia and a chunk of Europe, it’s what the Anglos did to the Native Americans, the list is as long as the catalogue of territories that have been occupied. a minority determined to control a majority, the majority being on its home turf, always turns to terrorism and collective punishment and atrocity to break the spirit of the people.
it’s about “shock and awe,” meaning: brute force and terror, horror and devastation — extreme brutality that’s supposed to inflict such fear, such grief, such trauma on the occupied people that they become compliant zombies, ghosts of who they were. it’s supposed to break the will. it’s how one pimp can control a whole stable full of prostituted girls, by “seasoning” each one with enough terror to keep her too scared to get out of line.
regret to say that notre cher billmon appears to still be living in this lala-land of male fantasy about Noble Warfare. well the ritual wars of some indigenous peeps maybe, hand-to-hand for honour points; or the similar Capture the Flag games of the more stable high mediaeval periods with their strict rules for the gentry (though it wasn’t so much fun for the peasant footsoldiery).
but real war is not a sport. it is about smashing the other guy’s resistance utterly and taking what you came there for. it’s rape. it’s theft. it’s mugging. it’s a smash and grab raid. and once embarked on the mugging of an entire people for their resources or for the geostrategic value of their turf, the logic of the rapist/murderer plays out as it inevitably will.
wars to defend one’s own turf or repel invaders or even topple a despot may be “decent”. Mao’s original army refrained from raping and looting; the Tamil Tigers are similarly disciplined. but armies of invasion never are. the Soviet heroism during the Nazi invasion reverted to brutal barbarism when the “Ivans” invaded Berlin as victors.
you can’t invade and expropriate and humiliate people who never harmed you, without some kind of major dose of synthetic hate in your bloodstream. could be racism and xenophobia, or religious zealotry, or a real or manufactured grudge calling for payback. we have to make “our guys” hate those “sandn*ggers” in order to blind them to the criminality of what they are doing. and once filled with hate and let loose, they’re gonna do what invading armies do, what invading armies are PAID to do, what invading armies are FOR.
criminy — and men accuse women of being euphemistic or not in touch with reality… women used to put doilies and lace frills on all the furniture to hide the functional bits; we’ve got over that (mostly) but it seems men are still trying to put lace panties (like Honour, Duty, Courage, Country, Manhood) on the functional reality of aggressive war.
imperialism. is. mugging.
those boys are doing a thug’s job. they’re gonna act like what they our: our thugs, our kneecappers, our goons.
what part of this can’t we spell?

Posted by: DeAnander | May 18 2006 20:57 utc | 18

sorry, typing fast and with some feeling, s/b “what they are” obviously.

Posted by: DeAnander | May 18 2006 21:00 utc | 19

b is right – one can quibble with Billmon on this post as to the singularity of the Haditha incident.
For my money,
Noisette
pretty much nails it.
nonetheless, Billmon has been on a roll, for weeks now and despite sometimes major reservations here and there(especially with regard to the Democratic party), what a writer!

Posted by: tgs | May 19 2006 1:09 utc | 20

There is justice in the end…
By experiencing similar Americans may start to understand how all that shit happened to us Serbs…
and how helpless actually we (people) were to do anything let along to stop madness …And you people (in general) even found satisfaction in putting us, Serbian people, under sanctions that destroyed our society, our families our future…
Milosevic and his ilk just gat a bloody rich thanks to those sanctions…
Billmon is right in one thing…it CAN happen anywhere to anyone…

Posted by: vbo | May 19 2006 3:09 utc | 21

vbo
jesus

Posted by: slothrop | May 19 2006 3:15 utc | 22

Did a Viktor Bout Company Help Divert Weapons to Insurgents?

In one of the strangest twists of recent Bout-related events, a company in Bout’s business orbit was found to have flown several hundred thousand AK-47 assault rifles from Bosnia to Iraq, theoretically for use by the new, U.S.-traine Iraqi army and police. Unfortunately, there is no record of the weapons ever actually landing in Iraq, although it appears that the now-defunct air freighter, Aerocom, did make the flights.
This was first reported in a new report by Amnesty International report and I have confirmed the basic outlines from other intelligence sources.
…
As the AI investigation found, there is no record of the 200,000 AK-47s flown from the U.S-military controlled Eagle Base near Tuzla, Bosnia, ever actually reached Iraq. The End User Certificate were from the U.S. Coalition Provisional Authority and the interim Iraqi administration.
Yet there is no record of the aircraft landing or the weapons being signed over. So what happened?

Posted by: b | May 19 2006 5:30 utc | 23

I don’t have any problem with Billmon’s focus on specific actions by our troops – it’s not as if he hasn’t hit the Bushies hard enough on, say, the WMD claims and invasion of a sovereign nation. But it’s also important to document the specifics. We can talk about how wrong the invasion was using statistics or precedent or historical parallels, but the gut-punch demonstrates, even proves the point. Arguing that the war was wrong, a mistake, is one thing, but this shows just how wrong it was.
Billmon also seems quite concerned with the “soul” of America, and he is not wrong there either. These troops may be the future of America. Crazy and popped up on SSRIs, homeless and violent in our cities, or running for president in 30 years.

Posted by: Rowan | May 19 2006 6:26 utc | 24

Rowan has a point.
====
3 – 4 million deaths in the Congo:
b, every metal you can imagine. I was going ot post a list, but held back as it would have been just copy-paste. Oil. too.
Sometimes it seems that the Iraq ‘war’ is a deliberate distraction.
One article, -book review- from Z Net, the steadfast prudent mainstream left, waxing confused about the African mess…the author make some points.
– I don’t necessarily agree, it is just one article that popped up on google and goes into complexities.
Zmag

Posted by: Noisette | May 19 2006 19:49 utc | 25

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