Or rather, I wanted you folks to read a comment: here's my original post, then read the comment.
I'm speechless, so... no comment.
Posted by the wily filipino at October 28, 2003 04:21 PMNothing like the perspective of someone on the firing line to slap the tongue-in-cheek-irony right out of you, huh? Although war is deplorable, it is quite real, and to be critical of the seemingly flippant comments of someone who is in the midst of it, while you are sitting on your ass typing on your keyboard thousands of miles away is just myopic. I expected better from you. I think it would help to get off that ivory tower you are perched on now and then...
Posted by: jd on October 29, 2003 09:41 AMOh please...
War is bad and harsh and people die, no one is saying this is not true, but that does not justify the attitude of Schrumpf during the war to play the game of dehumanizing the enemy (and civilians), only to turn the humanity back on when little children come into the CNN camera's view, and tell us how much good we did (but you can't make an omelet without breaking some eggs, right?).
On the original post he talks about how "good" it is now that Saddam has been removed. No one argues that Saddam was a not a bad guy. We are glad to see him gone, but I just have to cringe when he talks about war crimes and seems to forget (or is not informed of) all the people who are being held at Guantanamo Bay illegally and in cruel conditions by the good ol' US of A, or how we let Saddam hang those people for YEARS without doing ANYTHING until it served our purposes (and the list goes on and on).
And as far as the "honor" of being an American and a patriot, I think Wily here is just that. This country was founded on the values of dissidents. We are protected under law to speak out and have opinions that differ from the government. In my eyes this is just as validly patriotic and "honorable," and certainly not myopic in the least. More people should erect their own Ivory Towers and yell their hearts out; question authority, question the judgments of our soldiers and question the "humanitarian" efforts of our country; after all it's the American way!
Posted by: jesse on October 29, 2003 10:36 AMTo jd: at first I wasn't sure whether Sgt. Schrumpf was being sarcastic, or whether he was unable to pick up my sarcasm...
But now that he's explained himself more eloquently... well, I wouldn't call him a "babykiller" as they do here.
People join the army for various reasons, and that includes people I know who are presented with few job options and are simply trying to get a college education.
But to characterize such comments like "We had a great day. We killed lots of people" as flippant or "seemingly flippant" -- well, I simply see no humor in it. You may, for instance, do a Google search on "Eric Schrumpf" and "blog" (I'm #8 on the list of hits) and a whole slew of bloggers -- Global Gulag, Lew Rockwell, TheoBlogical Community, Notes from a Life in Progress -- couldn't help but interpret his comments, well, rather literally. (See also GlobalAware's bulletin board -- his words are forever immortalized as one of the iconic statements of the war.) Sure, Sgt. Schrumpf may argue that the quotations were taken out of context, or were made in the heat of the moment, but...
I think it should be clear that I have always been supportive of the US troops, and want them back to their families and loved ones as soon as possible -- and have chosen instead to attack their Commander-in-Chief -- but "the chick was in the way" does little to garner my sympathy.
Posted by: the wily filipino on October 29, 2003 12:17 PMI posted this reasoned response back in the March archives too:
"our efforts to rescue 22 million Iraqis from under the heel of Saddam's boot. President Kennedy's words long said long ago again have credible meaning..." Let every nation know whether it wishes us well or ill that we will pay any price, bear any burden, support any friend and oppose any foe to ensure the success of Liberty "
One word: Horseshit.
Damn, everyone loves liberty, eh? As I remember the excuse the Japanese militarists used for invading Asia, subjugating Korea and using their women as fuck toys, not to mention that long party known as the "Rape of Nanjing" was because, yes, you guessed it, the Japanese claimed they were liberating Asia from Western imperialism.
What do you think the Soviets used as their rationale for invading Afghanistan in the 80s? If you said they claimed to be "liberating" their puppet government from Islamic extremists, give yourself a prize.
Well, it's only fair since we previously had a little ten year-long excursion in Vietnam to protect the Vietnamese from the false liberty of having a government we didn't like.
It's an odd thing, isn't it, that amidst our "war on terror" obstensibly to protect ourselves from further terrorist attacks that we took time out from our busy schedule to "liberate" Iraq whether they liked it or not, mercifully killing some 6,000 civilians before Saddam could do something *bad* to them. Of course, it was our help in deposing the Iraqi leadership in the early 60s that brought Saddam to power in the first place, but as you know, liberty goes through stages of fashion like hem lines.
Sgt Schrumpf, I have respect for our brave fighting men, subject to merit. I have more respect for the average guy who joined the military because Wal-Mart wasn't hiring and he wanted to find some way out of the shithole in which he was born and perhaps get an education only to find himself in a morass which he would rather have no part of. Ideologues that think the fact that they are in inform disguises the fact that they are right-wing partisan ass-kissers and olive drab spin doctors I have little respect for.
Since when has the U.S. been so big on "liberty"? Not only have we propped up any number of despots and dictators, including Hussein himself, when it was in our interests to do so, but it is in living memory of many American when their "liberty" didn't extend to sitting in the front of the bus and eating at the Woolworth's lunch counter. And if the recent past doesn't persuade you, how is it that big-on-liberty us is engaged in a wholesale rollback of Constitutional liberties? I mean, it's all nice to go halfway around the world and kick some ass for liberty, but have you noticed the homefront is left wide-open in that regard? Well, at least the sting is lessoned by the realization that it isn't a bone fide democratically elected administration doing it here. Too bad no one had the foresight to parachute a strike force into Florida to keep those 57,000 African American voters from having their right to vote taken away by a voter purge roll that was, ooops, 95% inaccurate. Perhaps next time we can save a little of that liberty patriots such as yourself are exporting at gunpoint for home consumption.
But hey, if a chick gets in the way, maybe it will be Katherine Harris.