Wednesday, November 02, 2005

The Big Picture

Wanting to create killing fields, in order to inhale the steaming vapor of the dying's blood. Is not American. It isn't. It is not who we are. It is not who we have been. Nor is it who we will be. It will never happen. Ever.

It is fiction.

We live our lives, here in America as we see fit. Free from most of the ugly constraints many in the world know, and have known. That does not make us evil. It does however give us the platinum luxury of discussing war in a setting of academia. Rather than in the middle of a fusillade.

So, some of us don't like war. Big googly woogly. Welcome to the human race. What does have me pissed at the moment, is suggesting that we do like war. Because we do not like to be murdered or slaughtered. And are currently actively taking measures to prevent same.

And when those suggestions come around to the treatment of walking talking pieces of frass. You can hold aloft, any and all examples of mistreatment by our soldiers, on the field of battle. In a time of war. Of enemy combatants. To slime our soldiers, and our country, for your personal politics. If you so damn please. That however, does not make it the heart and soul of our armed forces, or the citizens of these United States of America. We are not evil. We are not murderers. We are a kind and decent nation.

Which brings me to current news stories. I would simply ask those of a mind to, to familarize themselves with the particularly appropriate parts of the Geneva Convention. It's dull and boring reading. But surprising in it's specificity and humanity. It's preservation of the dignity of human life. Even in a time of war.


Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949., Convention (III) relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War. Geneva, 12 August 1949.
http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/WebList?ReadForm&id=375&t=art


Convention (IV) relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War. Geneva, 12 August 1949.
http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/WebList?ReadForm&id=380&t=art

Myself, I cannot find ONE example of adherence to these principles by militant radical Islam. As we Americans walk through this life together, to the future. We may sometimes trip, we may sometimes fall. But we will never wear the blood of others as the cloth, as the fabric of our existence.


Addendum 2:46 p.m.

Of course, there are those who would disagree with my sentiments. In no small measure. That's the way things work in a free Democratic society. You can hate America, as an American. As much as you want. Even proclaim it from the highest virtual mountain. Me, I just happen to love this little country of our's. A whole damn bunch. And for which, I make no apologies.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3449870/
Eric Alterman: 'Makes you proud to be an American, don’t it?"

Outside the Beltway's 'Beltway Traffic Jam'
http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/12539/trackback/

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