The War We All Lose – What Happens When The Internet Brings Us The Unpatriotic Parts Of The War

March 4th, 2008 | by Ginnie | (Visited 88,430 times)

I hate our occupation in Iraq and I’ve never really done much to hide that. I’m not anti-war at all, but you actually have to declare war, and we haven’t done that. When our administration seems to toe the line that much, it makes it seem as if there are ulterior motives. Additionally, there are “bad guys” out there far worse than Hussein was. There’s also this “Bin Laden” guy I hear we’ve been looking for before we got so busy with all that Iraq stuff.

If the economy, illegal immigration, and healthcare are really such big issues (and they are), many Americans beg for an answer as to why an Iraqi occupation is so much more important than remaining solvent, let alone prosperous.

Ramblings aside though, one of the main reasons I hate this “war” is because America can’t speak out the side of its mouth anymore regarding goodwill and democracy.

For every heartfelt soldier out there reporting via Youtube about their experience and expressing the humanity they try to bring to the situation.

We get videos like THESE.

*** WARNING: These videos contain extreme violence and cruelty on behalf of US Soldiers or US-Paid “Consultants” – Watch at your own risk ***

What spurred this story was reading about David Motari (the US Marine pictured up top), the man suspected to be the person in the below video who hurls a young dog off a cliff. If the act isn’t enough, you can even hear the dog squeal as it lands in agony. Motari is rumored to be working for Blackwater according to some comments/speculations.

What’s more.. a history and human face is given to David Motari when you read about his sister Kathleen’s pride in her brother’s service. While she doesn’t explicitly say it involved her brother, she tells a charming anecdote about US Marines frightening a civilian who works for tips:

A graduate from MHS [Kathleen's high school] joined the Marines right out of high school. They were stationed in Hawaii doing missions up in the mountains when they got hungry. They came out of the woods and found a house and took down the address to call a pizza place. The delivery man didn’t want to come all the way up there because it was really far.

Finally they convinced him to. The Marines waited in the trees and bushes until the pizza man came. When the delivery man pulled up, all the Marines jumped out of the bushes with their face paint on and their guns. The pizza man was too scared to get out of the car! They gave him an extra tip for going through the hassle to go that far. So after, they hopped back in the bushes and ate their pizza!

As commenters on other sites pointed out regarding this:

“No, it’s cool to terrorize American civilians because you’re going to go overseas and terrorize foreign civilians later, and you need the practice.”

or

“I liked the following line: ‘The Marines may be all about work but they have fun as well.’”

But Motari’s story aside, here’s the video that’s stirring up so much controversy:

And That’s It, Right?

No.. and that’s why I hate this undeclared “war”. The world won’t see our love for freedom, our love for democracy, or our general goodwill.

No.. the rest of the world will see the videos below this line, or these pictures of how we torture (supposedly) terrorist detainees (or how we always have), and use that to draw up their opinion of us.

More Shocking Videos of US Military Cruelty

Reading about this after Wired.com’s recent update on new images from Abu Ghraib, some commenters had some links they too wanted to share to show that this kind of careless and detached violence is getting way beyond just out of hand.

BBC Documentary Clip: Soldier Kills Dog

US Soldiers Throwing Rocks and Tormenting An Injured Dog

Soldiers Throwing An Explosive Into A Crowd Of Sheep

Another Clip Of Soldiers Shooting A Dog

US Soldiers Shoot Parents Dead In Front of Their Five Children

Marines Bullying Iraqi Children

Soldier Bragging About His True Intentions

Soldiers Leaving Their Impression For The People They’re Trying To “Liberate”

Soldiers Teaching Kids To Chant “I Love Pork!” And Then Calling Them “Dirty Little Heathen Bastard Muslims”

The Internet and free media are sharp and deadly double edged swords. You can no longer call a pile of crap an ice cream sundae and have anyone with internet access believe it.

Unfortunately, this isn’t going to go away. It will last for a very long time. A very long time.

Tags: iraq, war, muslim, soldier, marine, torture, pic, video