Defending the Truth

Yea... the U.S. military is committing terrorist acts around the world.

How so?

How is the U.S. Military similar to Al-Qaeda?

I call Kicking down doors and killing people terrorism. It is not the U.S. Military's fault. The terrorism carried out by the U.S. Military rest squarely with George Bush and the Fascist Republican Party. I have asked this question many times and never get a straight answer, except once. You give it a try. Let's say you are a soldier in Iraq. Who do you shoot at?

Killing civilians or armed insurgents and terrorists? There's a big difference between the two groups. Killing civilians, yeah I could see how that can be seen by others as terrorism, even if the killing is accidental. We had nearly 3,000 Americans killed in an act of terrorism, and it wasn't accidental by any means. I'm sure that some Iraqis aren't too happy with us there, especially when they hear about the all-powerful U.S. Military killing innocent, unarmed civilians, whether by accident or not. We're trying to take out insurgents and terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan.


Man, you throw that word around a lot, don't you. (Fascist)

While I think Bush is a nut and I am glad that every day is a day closer to January 2009, I don't believe that the U.S. military is terrorist organization similar to Al Qaeda. At least we try to minimize civilian casualties the best we can, Al-Qaeda on the other hand, doesn't differentiate between soldier and civilian.

Ok. Basically, whoever I deem a threat to myself or my brothers in arms. In the battlefield, a guy shooting an AK-47 in my direction is a much bigger and more immediate threat than a wounded child, huddled in a corner of a bombed-out building. However in the heat of the fight, sometimes people make mistakes. (and maybe mistake is an understatement in certain situatons.) The stress, the heightened tension that goes on in the mind of a soldier, especially when trying to clear a building where anyone can pop up from around a corner or from a nook and start firing, it must be maddening. Then you add in the fact that the enemy usually isn't in any sort of military garb, but wearing average civilian clothing, that just makes things even worse.

Bad things, terrible things, happen in wars. I can almost 100% guarantee that in every single war, people not fighting have been killed, whether by accident or otherwise. We dropped atomic bombs on Japan and carpet-bombed Germany.

No amount of military training can ever completely remove human error. Now, I'm not trying to sweep any civilian deaths under the rug, but given the amount of stress a soldier may endure during and even after a battle, there's bound to be a slip-up of judgment here and there.

Maybe the military needs to beef up their threat assessment training or something. (If they provide such a thing.).

I understand the desire to take bin Laden to justice, or vice versa.
But as a practical matter I suspect that has more to do with retribution than pragmatic remediation of terrorism.

If I'm reading the NIE correctly (& between the lines) bin Laden has been marginalized, safe, but contained; without the effective paths of communication he used to have.

The emotional reward of capturing or killing bin Laden might great.
But the practical value? The impact of it upon the broader GWOT? Minimal, I suspect.
An argument might be made that it would make matters worse, not better.

al Qaida is no longer the organization it was in 2001; it's a franchise.
Eliminating bin Laden would probably functionally give more autonomy to the franchisees.

You should not use so much verbage when making excuses for the needless destruction of a Nation.

Okay, I'll give you the short version.

Bad things happen in war.

Civilians died in WWII, WWI, Vietnam, Gulf War I, every war. It's a sad fact of war.

People make mistakes, sometimes tragic mistakes.

Soldiers trained to kill, under duress, with the enemy wearing normal clothes, only makes mistakes more likely.

At least we try to not kill civilians, Al-Qaeda doesn't care.

I shoot who I deem a threat to myself or my brothers in arms.

I'm not making excuses, just stating the facts.

How was I doing this again?

You miss the most important point. There was zero reason to invade Iraq. All the death and destruction in Iraq is total terrorism. Death and destruction for no reason.

I know that. There was no reason for us to invade. The sooner we leave, the better.

All of it is terrorism?

When we toppled a dictator, took away his right to mass murder his own countrymen, was that terrorism?

No - but it was Unconstitutional. When we ignore the U.S. Constitution the United States of America ceases to exist.