Here is nutjob letter to the editor #2 from today's Seattle Times web page.
Where's the outrage over rape, murder allegations in Iraq?
Editor, The Times:
The media silence has been deafening since the latest allegations of atrocities by U.S. forces in Iraq surfaced a couple weeks ago ["Four more U.S. soldiers charged with rape, murder in Iraq attack," page one, July 10]. I have not seen a single column, editorial or letter to the editor in The Times condemning this almost unimaginably horrific crime. So I guess I'm a bit shocked by the apparent lack of outrage.
Now, of course we're all innocent until proved guilty. And I realize that in war "stuff happens," in the immortal words of Donald Rumsfeld. Like the My Lai massacre in Vietnam. Like the murder in Hamdania. Like the Haditha killings. And now like this an incident in which several soldiers in Mahmoudiya allegedly carried out the premeditated, cold-blooded rape and murder of a young Iraqi woman, also murdering three members of her family and burning her body to destroy evidence.
Aside from the irreversible, unspeakable violence suffered by innocent civilians, whether any of these incidents turns out to be true is beside the point. What is most damaging to America's efforts in Iraq, in Afghanistan and anywhere else we try to "spread democracy" is that the people there believe them to be true.
All foreign occupations must someday end. And when this one does, no matter how many U.S. soldiers conduct themselves with the utmost propriety and humanity, history may ultimately paint the Americans in Iraq as immoral, vicious and evil, hardly better than the regime they ousted. Not only do these terrible events reflect poorly on all of us as Americans, but they make the work of the rest of our troops infinitely more difficult and dangerous.
This is the incalculable damage done by a few "bad apples," and we should all be outraged.
Daniel P. Draheim, Seattle
Lets break this down shall we?
"The media silence has been deafening since the latest allegations of atrocities by U.S. forces in Iraq surfaced a couple weeks ago ["Four more U.S. soldiers charged with rape, murder in Iraq attack," page one, July 10]." Seattle Times Page 1. The Times article ends with "Information from the Los Angeles Times and The Associated Press is included in this report." So I guess by "media silence", Daniel means media people no longer bother to read.
"condemning this almost unimaginably horrific crime." Shouldn't that say "horrific allegation" instead of "horrific crime"?
"So I guess I'm a bit shocked by the apparent lack of outrage." Unlike say the outrage over the Duke Lacrosse Rape "allegations" that is turning out to be just that, an allegation and not a crime. Take a look at the Political Pit Bull website and watch the video to see premature outrage at its finest.
"Now, of course we're all innocent until proved guilty." REALLY?!? It is almost as if this guy is some sort of legal assistant or something.
"And I realize that in war "stuff happens," in the immortal words of Donald Rumsfeld. Like the My Lai massacre in Vietnam. Like the murder in Hamdania." I guess those soldiers are not innocent until proven guilty.
"Aside from the irreversible, unspeakable violence suffered by innocent civilians," most of which has been at the hands of Al Qaeda in Iraq or the insurgents.
"whether any of these incidents turns out to be true is beside the point." So what matters is that we are ACCUSED of committing outrageous acts. It is not what you do, it is what others say you did that matters.
"What is most damaging to America's efforts in Iraq, in Afghanistan and anywhere else we try to "spread democracy" is that the people there believe them to be true." No, what is important is that when one of our own is CONVICTED of a crime, we deal with it appropriately, they are punished for the act, unlike, oh I don't know certain cultures who for instance punish rape victims.
"All foreign occupations must someday end. And when this one does, no matter how many U.S. soldiers conduct themselves with the utmost propriety and humanity, history may ultimately paint the Americans in Iraq as immoral, vicious and evil, hardly better than the regime they ousted." History will show that the United States brought freedom and democracy to a part of the world that once was a leading sponsor of terrorism and had an official government rapist on duty to torture its citizens.
"Not only do these terrible events reflect poorly on all of us as Americans, but they make the work of the rest of our troops infinitely more difficult and dangerous." What makes the job harder are those US Citizens who demand we are outraged before the facts are know in an effort to publicize the fraction of a percent of "bad apples" at the expense of the overwhelming majority of upstanding U.S. soldiers making the world a better, safer place.
"This is the incalculable damage done by a few "bad apples," and we should all be outraged." Yes, there are a few bad apples, they tend to write letters to the Seattle Times Editor and yes, we should all be outraged.
2 comments:
Stripper possibly made a false claim of rape by three boys in 1996.
Stripper made a false claim of kidnapping in 1998
Stripper charged with larceny, auto theft, and trying to kill a police officer in 2002
The entire lacrosse team cooperated completely with the police investigation.
1st round of DNA shows no link to the lacrosse team.
2nd round of DNA shows no link to the lacrosse team
DNA proves stripper had sex with boyfriend/pimp and two other men, and paying “client”, and a battery vaginal sex toy before going to the party, which accounts for the “rape kit” evidence of recent sexual activity.
The bathroom is absolutely and completely devoid of any evidence of a rape. Where is her DNA? Urine, blood, vaginal fluid, saliva, or tears?
Many people’s DNA were found under her nails but none from the innocent lacrosse boys. The only DNA that has a partial link to one of the boys was found on the top surface of the fake nail.
She lied about losing her fake finger nails in a desperate struggle in the small enclosed bathroom, but pictures show that she removed her nails before inadequately performing her routine. No scratches were found on any of the innocent lacrosse boys’ bodies. No DNA of any lacrosse boy was found under her nails.
The 2 innocent boys she “eeny meeny miney moed” to be her rapists weren’t even at the party the time she claimed the rape occurred. She claims that she’s 100% sure, but she told her father that she’s not sure.
The stripper was in the process of being arrested when she created the rape lie as an alibi to stay out of jail
Nifong claimed a rape drug could have been used, but now we know that a tox screen was never done and Nifong made the rape drug lie up.
The DA is trying to suppress the stripper’s cell phone which may contain records of her being on the phone at the time she claimed she was suppose to be being raped by boys who weren’t even there.
Now it’s found that the stripper was on the cell phone at the time she claimed she was raped.
Obviously AndrewsDad is more interested in shooting down any criticism of America's adventure in Iraq than actually reading for context. The point my letter was trying to make, which has been borne out by events on the ground since 2003, is that this is a war of perception. And because of the colossal failures, incompetence and ineptitude of the Bush administration throughout this war (and secondarily because of a few "bad apples"), we are losing this war that we cannot afford to lose.
Further, to use AndrewsDad's own logic, we should never have invaded Iraq in the first place. After all, he's for the principle that everyone is innocent until proven guilty, right? The entire reason we started this war was ostensibly to "disarm Saddam" and rid Iraq of WMD. As we now know, there were no WMD in Iraq and the entire justification for our invasion turned out to be a lie. Had weapons inspectors been allowed to finish the job (with strong international military pressure to back them up) then we would have discovered this at far, far lower cost in blood and treasure. We could have focused on far more real threats, like North Korea and Iran. Or - imagine this - we might have captured or killed Osama bin Laden by now.
But the Bush administration lacked the patience to let the facts come out, so eager were they to establish a strong military presence in the middle of oil-rich Iraq. They even gave up working through the UN when it became obvious that most countries would vote against supporting any hasty military action. As a result, America is now seen as a global bully and most of the world has turned against us at a time when we need international cooperation most. The threat of terrorism is very real, and our invasion of Iraq has made us even less safe from another attack.
So they changed their story. "We're spreading democracy!" they proclaimed, with dittoheads like AndrewsDad gobbling it up. Fine. So if most Iraqis want American troops out of Iraq, and most Americans want American troops out of Iraq, then in the spirit of democracy you don't have a problem with that, right? Guess what - we're in there for years, maybe decades, no matter what the people want. This was never about democracy.
Folks like AndrewsDad just don't get it. When democracy spreads to the Middle East, all of a sudden we have Palestinians putting Hamas in power; Lebanon putting Hezbollah in power; Iraqis putting Shiite clerics in power. We'll see how long it is before Afghanis start putting the Taliban back in power. Hey, it's the will of the people, right? Fine. Just be careful what you wish for.
For the record, I hope these soldiers are found not guilty. If determined to be true, the Mahmoudiya rape and murders case would really be appalling, disgusting, horrific beyond imagination - words simply fail to describe how sickening this would be.
Again, the point I was trying to make in my letter is that from a political perspective, it just doesn't matter whether these soldiers are innocent or guilty at this point. The perception is out there, and has been for a long time, that Americans just don't value Iraqi lives or their dignity. This case, and others like it, just reinforces this perception. Abu Ghraib was not an anomaly.
Daniel Draheim, nutjob
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