I dunno, maybe it's the fact that I'm an American, and I'm above this survivalist, anti-democracy, anti-freedom bullshit that your spouting that I have a problem with the idea of an AMERICAN soldier shooting a prisoner of war in the back of the head. Maybe you don't understand what being civilized is, but it it DOES have something to do with being better than the enemy. I'm sorry that you think that being as bad as Al-Quedea is the way to go, but that just means you are no better than the muslim-extremist sickos plaguing us presently.
Please drop dead or kill yourself, for the good of civilization.
Thank you,
Ryan Somma
First of all, unlike other commenters in the past who have had, shall we say, not-so-nice things to say to me, Mr. Somma provides his full name and a link to his website. He is a man who is not afraid to acknowledge his words and I respect him for that. I took a look at his site and it's a blog of simple, yet elegant design. He mostly provides links to interesting items with a brief comment. And he links to the website of one of my very favorite authors, David Brin, so he can't be all bad.
As to the points he made in his comment, I'd like to address them. First of all, I'm not sure how he is able to perceive my writings as "survivalist, anti-democracy, anti-freedom bullshit." Bullshit it may be, I'm certainly not perfect and my writing ability pales before the likes of James Lileks and Mike Hendrix, but I certainly do not ascribe to a "survivalist" mentality (I live in a very nice suburb of Seattle, for example and not some cabin out in the woods) and you'll be hard pressed to find a more staunch supporter of democracy and freedom than Yours Truly. After all, that's one of the main reasons I support the campaign in Iraq. I'm hopeful that sowing the seeds of democracy and freedom in the Middle East will bring about the kind of change that leads them to take responsibility for their own failure rather than using the West as a convenient scapegoat, make the changes necessary to overcome the failings of their culture (i.e. religious fanaticism, subjugation of women, etc.), and pull themselves out of the eighth century and into the twenty-first. I don't know how successful it will be, but we simply coudn't continue to appease the terrorists or treat terror as a law-enforcement problem in an attempt to maintain the status quo, a situation that had become unacceptable.
As for his comments about the shooting itself, I agree that it's a disturbing situation. The point I was trying to make is that it's entirely understandable under the circumstances for that Marine to have acted the way he did. He didn't know what had gone on there previously and, as far as he knew, it was certainly possible that the wounded man was preparing to detonate an explosive device or pull out a gun and open fire. He did what he thought was necessary to protect himself and his squadmates. It was not his desire to kill an unarmed man in cold blood. As noted, the nearby wounded man was not shot as he was clearly still alive and not feigning death, and was also clearly surrendering instead of trying to take some of our troops with him.
As far as being better than the enemy, this situation actually emphasizes the point that our troops are better than the ones they are fighting against. The very fact that this incident is an aberration, which is part of the reason it is getting so much attention, is proof of that. Not even in the most fevered imagination of the most rabid anti-war activist can our troops commit the kinds of atrocities that the enemy in Fallujah is clearly guilty of given the evidence that has been discovered. The murder of Margaret Hassan which I cited in my earlier post is a quintessential example.
I fully understand what it means to be civilized. However, we must keep in mind that we are asking our troops to perform actions that are fundamentally uncivilized without letting those actions destroy their civility. It's tough to do, and some soldiers aren't completely successful. But our military as a whole does it as well as, if not better than, any other military that has existed throughout the entirety of mankind's history. And when something like this incident, or what happened at Abu Ghraib, occurs, the military doesn't sweep it under the rug but investigates it thoroughly in order to ensure as much as possible that it doesn't happen again. And that as much as anything separates our military from those they are facing and is proof of just how civilized our society is.
I do not for one Planck time interval believe that "being as bad as Al-Quedea(sic) is the way to go." If anything deserves the label of Evil Personified, it is Al-Qaeda and the horrors that they have perpetrated in the name of their twisted variant of Islam. I categorically reject any comparisin between myself and them as well as any claim that our troops in any way are as bad as our enemy.
Finally, I'm sorry to disappoint you Ryan but I intend to live a long, rich life in freedom and prosperity and I will continue to write about my views. If you don't agree with them, then next time respond with a well-reasoned argument instead of a bunch of unsubstantiated accusations and peurile demands that I end my life. I could have simply ripped you a new one and flung a bunch of invective in your direction but I opted instead to respond to your flame with thoughtful discourse. I guess it just goes to show just who the tolerant one is between the two of us.
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