Savagery in Fallujah

[ceebeegee]

I'm thinking about what happened in Fallujah on Wednesday. I just cannot wrap my head around that kind of insane savagery. Mike and I were talking about this last night--what kind of...creature...do you have to be to do that to another human being? How can you surrender your humanity like that? I don't understand it at all. These creatures look human, they have human faces and talk and move like humans, but it's as though there's human skin stretched over an abyss of evil, the heart of darkness. "Under the tiger-mask, a man, yes. But under the man-skin--a beast."

There are so many awful things about this--these men, the victims, were not only civilians, but they were providing for food delivery, which means they may have even been trying to help the Iraqis. And reports say that there were young boys there, helping the savages and cheering them on. Children. Cheering them on. Bringing them gasoline. I don't...I don't even know how to respond.

A friend of mine online posted on a message board:

You know, I'm watching Nightline and it's showing images of the carnage in Fallujah today, and I'm thinking, okay, do these people know who they are playing with? Seriously? We could FUCK THAT ENTIRE COUNTRY UP. And right now I'm thinking, hey, what the hell? Who gives a shit, drop about a million bombs.

I don't think they know what game they're playing. If they think America is a big beast now, they have NO idea what could happen if we got REALLY pissed off.

And then in another post:

Thank God this county is slow to anger. Really. We could burn the place down and salt the earth, that's what I'm saying. And I don't know if those "insurgents"/"terrorists"/"residents" of Fallujah really fathom that. The only thing that could stop us from doing that...is us.

Jesus. Jesusjesusjesus. God give us strength not to give in to that, because that would make us no better than the savages who did this. God give us strength to do what needs to be done, to finish the job we started. And please keep my brother safe.

Comments

[mysticblaze.livejournal.com]

What annoys me is that supposed "holy people" don't see anything wrong with the killings, but will denounce the mutilations. Neither one is acceptable, both should be condemned, and the clerics should be the ones helping to spread the message, not condoning portions of it.

[darksheik.livejournal.com]

It's pretty nasty stuff.

But if the Soviets ever managed to invade and occupy us last century, I'm sure we'd be doing exactly the same thing. And we did do the same thing in 1776. A guerrilla is a terrorist that's on our side. I'm sure the British were calling the colonists savages, too.

I make no apologies for religious fundamentalists or ideologies of hatred, but people are fiercely tribal and will savagely attack any tribe that tries to take over theirs if their core beliefs clash.

[ceebeegee.livejournal.com]

Resisting occupation, and murdering civilians (which is what those victims were) and mutilating their bodies (in contradiction to one's loudly professed religion's dictates) are completely different things. For one thing terrorism, by definition, targets civilians. Doesn't accidentally hit them, it targets them--so one man's terrorist is not another man's freedom fighter (I get so tired of hearing that). This is why it's wrong.

And I've never heard that we did anything like that during 1776, but even if so--well, that was 200+ years ago. You might as well bring up the Crusades which, tiresomely, knee-jerk anti-Western Arabs do, constantly. And I very much disagree with the concept of moral equivalency. Nothing excuses what those savages did. Dragging them throught the streets? Hanging them up? Having their children help them? Threatening to kill the nurses who wanted to cut down the bodies? They are utter savages, and their own countrymen (http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2004-04-01-fallujah-reax_x.htm) condemned them

A terrorist is someone who target civilians; a guerrilla is a fighter who uses unconventional methods, not targets. And don't speak for me--*I* certainly wouldn't be doing exactly the same thing.

[darksheik.livejournal.com]

I knew I shouldn't have spoken up.

This particular incident is horrifyingly gruesome, yes. I just don't think we can sit in our comfortable, well-protected homes in the West and say that we would or would not do something if we lived in a Middle Eastern shithole.

It was probably a bunch of peer pressure mob-mentality bullshit that led to this anyway -- I think men just like to riot, and if they see some crazy bastard doing something really awful to someone else, they won't jump in and stop it, they'll cheer it on or join the mob. That's the way it was on the playground when I was growing up.

'Course, we never had a hangin'.