by Guest Columnist, Jacob G. Hornberger One of the aspects of the Iraq War that has fascinated me the most is how CIA agents and U.S. soldiers could actually bring themselves to kill, torture, and sexually abuse Iraqis. After all, don’t forget that neither the Iraqi people nor their government participated in the 9/11 attacks. The worst “crime” that any Iraqi committed against any American was resisting an unlawful invasion of his country.
Nonetheless, even though the Iraqi people were innocent of any attacks on the United States, many CIA agents and most U.S. soldiers have been able to bring themselves to kill and maim hundreds of thousands of Iraqis in an invasion and occupation of a country that never attacked the United States, and murder, torture, and sexually abuse dozens of Iraqis detainees and prisoners.
How is a government able to bring men and women to do such things to people who never did anything to harm the United States?
I’m currently reading a fascinating book entitled Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland by Christopher R. Browning. It’s about a police unit from Hamburg, Germany, which was assigned the task of rounding up hundreds of Jews in villages in Poland and shooting them at point-blank range.
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Also see: - A Spiritual Mind Movie
- How the US Became a Vassal State of China
- Terrorism is Worse Under GOP Regimes
- The US Army Document That Proves the US is the World's Number One Sponsor of World Terrorism
- Dissecting the Scrambled Brains of the GOP
- Why the CIA is the World's Number One Terrorist Organization
[w/LINKS] - Why the CIA is the World's Number One Terrorist Organization [PDF]
- How the GOP Pays Off its 'Base' of Elites
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5 comments:
I'm with you, I find it hard to understand how young military people can do such things. I suppose it starts out with just a small number of sick and hardened individuals leading the others in these pursuits all the while encouraged by a military attitude towards the "enemy."
I'll but an all voluntary military makes matters worse.
The atrocities committed in our name and with our tax dollars (not to mention the funds borrowed from China for our military misadventure) should be troublesome to anyone who has not surrendered their humanity. Sadly, the youth of today, by way of violent video games, have become de-sensitised to the human experience. For far too many of our troops there is an emotional disconnect between the fighting, and the suffering caused by their actions. By de-humanizing the enemy, these crimes become justifiable in their distorted reality.
The more frightening aspect of this is when these battle-hardened troops return home and like members of the 3rd Infantry Battalion, now under the command of NORCOM, are tasked with "crowd control" and other domestic security issues, in violation of Posse Comitatus. There is no question in my mind that these individuals would have no qualms in turning their weapons on American Citizens, on American soil, and that, frankly, scares the shit out of me.
Thanks for comments. Indeed, I think this military of 'professionals' might even be eager to fire upon civilians, having been brainwashed to believe that they were seditious or treasonous.
I never cease to be amazed at people's ability to twist their reasoning to support their emotions, whether it be a political cause or a personal issue. The public, in general, overestimate the robustness of democratic political systems believing that essential checks and balances are working and that key officials essential to maintaining democracy, can be relied upon to act decently or with the long term welfare of the state in mind. Such is clearly not the case as Nazi Germany, and now neocon USA, both make clear. When people discover their democracy is gone it is already too late. The shame at having been lead by propaganda and the prospect of some unpleasant alternatives should they choose to publicly protest forces them to continue their support for previous errors of political judgment and round up others at gun point, the "terrorists", or whatever else their leaders call them.
I am amazed at how even now in the US there is so much psychological denial in place in regard to the events of 9/11. It seems as if reason has left the building. No matter how lying or evil Bush and his cohort have been shown to be they are still to be believed about the events of 9/11. It's madness.
I never cease to be amazed at people's ability to twist their reasoning to support their emotions, whether it be a political cause or a personal issue. The public, in general, overestimate the robustness of democratic political systems believing that essential checks and balances are working and that key officials essential to maintaining democracy, can be relied upon to act decently or with the long term welfare of the state in mind. Such is clearly not the case as Nazi Germany, and now neocon USA, both make clear. When people discover their democracy is gone it is already too late. The shame at having been lead by propaganda and the prospect of some unpleasant alternatives should they choose to publicly protest forces them to continue their support for previous errors of political judgment and round up others at gun point, the "terrorists", or whatever else their leaders call them.
I am amazed at how even now in the US there is so much psychological denial in place in regard to the events of 9/11. It seems as if reason has left the building. No matter how lying or evil Bush and his cohort have been shown to be they are still to be believed about the events of 9/11. It's madness.
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