Like sharks to chum, so righties to beheading videos. They’ve got a new one, and they’ve dropped poor Debbie Frisch in mid-flame because, you know, why waste time baiting the psychologically miswired when you’ve got severed heads?
I’m not going to link to the rightie sites “discussing” the video — they aren’t that hard to find, if you really want to go there — but here’s a New York Times story about it. The video shows the the mutilated bodies of Pfc. Kristian Menchaca, 23, of Houston, and Pfc. Thomas L. Tucker, 25, of Madras, Ore. Just the description of the video is sickening enough.
Of course I didn’t watch the video, but I inadvertently saw some “stills” posted on a rightie site, which is why I’m not linking to any of them. The last thing these sickos need is encouragement. However, I’m going to quote this from the Jawa Report anyway —
This video shows the true face of the enemies we fight. However you feel about the war in Iraq, this should enrage you. They are ruthless barbarians who boast about killing those they have taken hostage.
We show you these images so that you will understand what it is we are up against. The video and images should enrage you. If you do not have righteouss anger after seeing this, you are beyond hope. Update: Or, as reminded by Jason in the comments, they ought to at least give you clarity and resolve to defeat them.
Update: John at Powerline laments that POTUS has not followed Putin’s example, and ordered the killing of the AQ scum who did this. However, I have received several e-mails from officers serving in Iraq who wanted the video.
One Air Force officer told me he was about to do a brief and wanted to show it to his men. So, if POTUS hasn’t directly ordered revenge, I have a feeling the military is about to take it upon themselves to find and kill the AQ bastards who did this.
Vengeance may not always be swift, but it is always sweet.
I say vengeance is self-indulgent. To act out of vengeance is to abandon your own purposes. Instead, you’re letting your emotions jerk you around, like a puppet on strings, and the script for your theatrics is being written by your enemies. Disciplined people, wise people, don’t indulge in vengeance. They don’t take the bait.
Further, “resolve” born of rage rarely goes hand in hand with “clarity.” Enraged people are not thinking people. Enraged people aren’t weighing the consequences of their actions. They aren’t in control of themselves.
Fred Kaplan wrote in Slate about the U.S. Army’s new field manual on counterinsurgency (here in .pdf format). According to the field manual, getting vengeance for anything is about the last thing we need to be doing in Iraq now.
From first page to last, the authors stress that these kinds of wars are “protracted by nature.” They require “firm political will and extreme patience,” “considerable expenditure of time and resources,” and a very large deployment of troops ready to greet “hand shakes or hand grenades” without mistaking one for the other.
“Successful … operations require Soldiers and Marines at every echelon to possess the following,” the authors write. (Emphasis added.) They then list a daunting set of traits: “A clear, nuanced, and empathetic appreciation of the essential nature of the conflict. … An understanding of the motivation, strengths, and weaknesses of the insurgent,” as well as rudimentary knowledge of the local culture, behavioral norms, and leadership structures. In addition, there must be “adaptive, self-aware, and intelligent leaders.”
Meanwhile, a single high-profile infraction can undo 100 successes. “Lose moral legitimacy, lose the war,” the authors warn, pointedly noting that the French lost Algeria in part because their commanders condoned torture.
The authors note mistakes the U.S. has made already:
“The More Force Used, the Less Effective It Is.” “An operation that kills five insurgents is counterproductive if the collateral damage or the creation of blood feuds leads to the recruitment of fifty more.” “Only attack insurgents when they get in the way. Try not to be distracted or forced into a series of reactive moves by a desire to kill or capture them. Provoking combat usually plays into the enemy’s hands.” “A defection is better than a surrender, a surrender better than a capture, and a capture better than a kill.”
Kaplan observes, “as a nation we may simply be ill-suited to fight these kinds of wars.” He’s probably right. But even if most of us could countenance such an effort, most of us are not in charge. The righties are. And righties are way ill-suited to fight these kinds of wars. You can see that today in the calls for vengeance on the rightie blogosphere. The hell with the mission; to hell with the consequences; they want blood.
Back to the new video — according to Edward Wong of the New York Times, “A message with the video says the soldiers were killed out of revenge for the rape and murder of an Iraqi girl in March, a crime in which at least six American soldiers are suspects.”
“We present this as revenge for our sister who was dishonored by a soldier of the same brigade,†says a message in Arabic on a title card at the start of the nearly five-minute video. Militants had learned of the crime early on and “decided to take revenge for their sister’s honor,†the message says, according to a translation by the SITE Institute, which tracks jihadist Internet postings.
However, this explanation may be bogus:
It is questionable whether the soldiers were actually killed out of revenge. Iraqis around Mahmudiya, where the rape and murders took place, believed at the time that the girl and the other three victims were killed by other Iraqis in sectarian violence, according to the mayor of Mahmudiya and American military officials. The mayor said the possible involvement of American soldiers only became apparent on June 30, when the American military announced it had opened an investigation into the crime.
So, the “revenge” motive may have been post hoc. Still, we’ve had no end to revenge killings already. We’re already well into the “retaliations for retaliations” cycle, which I’m sure is a major cause of the escalation of violence.
The 2004 attack of Fallujah was, by many accounts, ordered by the White House in retaliation for the murder and mutilation of four civilian contractors. This order was given against the counsel of the commanders on the ground. The results are not, um, encouraging.
On a practical level it’s ill advised to be Sonny Corleone (“They hit us so — we hit ’em back.”) if you don’t have the muscle to settle all the family business at once. (Remember what happened to Sonny?) And we don’t have that kind of muscle in Iraq.
Another rightie argues that “I strongly believe we must know and understand who we are fighting against.” OK, but we’d better understand ourselves as well. Whether you thought the invasion was a good idea or not, from the beginning the effort in Iraq has been pulled in at least two directions. War supporters talk about nation building, unified governments, democracy, and security, and that’s fine. But, time and time again, our actions — Abu Ghraib comes to mind — say that we want something else entirely.
I’ve believed all along that, on a subconscious level, Iraq is a proxy war. It stands in for the war many of us, including me, desired after the 9/11 attacks. If only we’d been attacked by a nation-state instead of an international movement, we could have bombed the bleepers to hell and been done with it. But we couldn’t have that war, because we weren’t attacked by a nation-state. Most of us understood that, and we realized that counterterrorism and national security policies should be crafted to deal with the enemies we have instead of the enemy we wished we had.
But then there are righties. They blame us lefties because Iraq is less than the resounding triumph they wished for, but the fact is they and their Dear Leader have been working at cross purposes all along; their desires get in the way of their goals; their ids override their superegos. They haven’t yet come to grips with the fact that the enemies we face are not the same ones John Wayne took on in Sands of Iwo Jima.
(One of the rightie bloggers worked up over the new video has this blurb in his blog masthead: “Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.” — H.L. Mencken. Observes Steve M., “I have to say I really enjoy being lectured on the savagery of people who slit throats by a blogger whose motto invokes the desirability of slitting throats.”)
I’m sure the righties want me to look at the video so that I will be “understand” and feel as they feel. But like I tell the “controlled detonation” theorists who drop by here from time to time — I saw the WTC towers fall with my own eyes. I don’t need to look at the video, thanks.
Revenge begets revenge. Our military leaders need to rationally and compassionately conduct the war plan. Otherwise, it will be a never ending cycle of revenge killings. We slaughter them, they slaughter us. Not a very effective way of winning hearts and minds, or stability and peace. See Israel and Palestine. No one has the character to forgive and work for the future. Excellent post. Thanks.
Our military leaders need to rationally and compassionately conduct the war plan.
I think most of the brass, the professional military, understand this. It’s the civilian “leadership” in the Bush Administrations that’s screwing up.
I agree that our military is instilled with honor and integrity. It is terrible that our administration has put them in such a horrible situation. But, I also understand how tough it would be for a marine in Iraq to see his friends being killed. The urge for revenge would be great. A policy of restraint and measured responses must be instilled from the top down. Beginning with the President. That is what disturbed me most about Abu Ghraib. The first thing our President and the Secretary of Defense should have told our troops before the war was, at all costs treat these people with the greatest respect we can afford. Even the prisoners of war. We are trying to win their hearts and minds. We can’t do that by brutalizing them. This should be common sense to anyone who has read a history book. Apparently, the neo-cons don’t read much.
Instead, the administration has gone out of its way to not only condone torture of these people, but also promote it as American policy. All this accomplishes, is hardening the anti-american sentiment in that part of the world. And amplifying the terrorists message. They have turned this incredibly difficult mission into an impossible one.
Thanks for your response.
Vengeance is Mine! So sayeth…
…aw shit… what’s the use…
….stupid jackoffs….
…calling them inbreds would give inbreds a bad name…
I can’t express strongly enough what an absolute disgrace the destruction of Fallujah was from a military standpoint. It is the biggest military blunder in our nations history and it elevated the United States Military to the level of honor achieved by the Waffen SS in it’s barbaric campaigns in eastern Europe. Whoever ordered the destruction had no understanding of warfare or how victory can rise out of defeat if you don’t understand the nature of the enemy. We lost the battle of Fallujah…except some people think we won.
Did we win or lose at the Alamo?
So this video makes righties so angry that they (a) sign up for the army, (b) sign up for any other branch of military service, or (c) continue to fight evil liberals over here so that they don’t have to go fight terrorists over there?
Well, as Mahatma G said, “An eye for an eye only makes the whole world blind.”
Of course, if the rightie bloggers were literally blind, they wouldn’t be able to indulge in the torture-and-beheading porn that they crave so much.
I think the leftblogs should issue a challenge to the rightblogs – they should ALL start encouraging visitors and members to sign up for the service. They should encourage Bush to send more people to Iraq, and those signing up should REQUEST Iraq duty. Project money-where-your-mouth-is.
I predict there’d be at best a minor, temporary uptick in recruiting.
If I were the Commander-in-chief..I’d have those five soldiers who left their post, and committed rape and murder, publicly executed. What’s five more dead Americans compared to the value to be gained in public relations. Everybody except the five would come out a winner.
I once had a friend( past on) who was under Soviet occupation in East Germany at the end of the Second World War. He told me that he witnessed an execution by the Russians of a Russian soldier for the rape of a German civilian in his village. He spoke highly of the Russian occupation in maintaining discipline of it’s troops and safety for the civilian population..Something that the Americans in Iraq don’t seem to be doing.
We already have Operation Yellow Elephant …
Well this comment ought to get the righties pissed off(as if they are not already)….but I have inlaws on the ground in Iraq as I type….and I have an inlaw who was almost 20 yrs my Jr who is now ,finally, starting to grow grass on his grave after dying in this proxy war without the proper armor.. so rightie comment REAL careful like on what I have to say..
I won’t watch this stupid bleeping video or the stills. I don’t need to look as I already saw firsthand what war does to a family member.My family member died in a war of choice where the president choose to send MY family member into Iraq without the armor he and his fellow troops needed.Me blame rummy? Or the terrorists? King george wishes. I and my family blame bush 100%, remember he is the fucking decider.
Which brings me to this video. bush is the decider. HE decided the geneva convention was lame.HE decided we torture.HE decided on gitmo…HE decided on water boarding and black locations.HE decided it was ok if our troops were tortured and YES beheaded.HE caused the video. So buck the hell up and stop being such whiney pussies.YOUR leader wanted this and now we’ve got it.Did you think it would be ok for us to behave like terrorists and the bad guys would follow all the rules?When the decider decided we no longer should hold to the geneva convention did you really think that only applied to the USA?What the hell did you think would happen?
And yes revenge is a great idea… lets get these troops as whipped up into a frenzy as we can and send em out into a country full of innocent people to go insane and shoot till they hit revenge….that ought to make it safer for the rest of the troops stationed thru out Iraq….good plan!!!
I wonder if we are not seeing these tapes because the bush poll numbers are low and bush is hoping to get a boost in his ratings .You know we never see ANYTHING here that the gubmint doesn’t want us to see(remember when bush got his picture taken in his underwear looking out the castle window? the picture never was viewable here… one had to find them in international papers)… the only reason the American public is being allowed to see this footage is the right hopes to use these deaths for a POLITICAL advantage, which makes me sick….SHAME ON YOU RIGHTIES USING THE DEATH OF OUR TROOPS… HAVE YOU NO SHAME SHOWING THOSE TAPES? Think of their families… the right refuses to show a funeral “out of respect” , but hey go ahead and show their dead bodies…. that isn’t disrespectful is it???One can only imagine how you would sheehan any family member who dared to ask you not disrespect the troops by showing the video.One can almost hear you calling them anti American because they refused to let their childs death be your monkey…. the right is lucky MY family member is not in that video..I would sue anyone who showed it for everything they are worth…..May God be with the families who are having to see this video of their children…HAS THE RIGHT NO SHAME?????????????AND NO COMPASSION FOR THE FAMILY…..THINK IF IT WAS YOUR MOM WHOS CHILD WAS DEAD AND YOU KNEW PEOPLE WERE GAWKING AT THE VIDEO OF HIS DEATH???WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE RIGHT???SHAME ON YOU!!!
I just spend a bit of time on some of the sites where righties are responding to the video and the still pictures.
Two reactions to the rightie sites:
1]They seem to have no perspective about their own rage as an accelerator of atrocities. One commenter actually wrote, “Unless the soldiers forget all morals of being human, and give in to the psychotic, we will never, ever overcome these demons.” Another commenter said, “My blood pressure is up. My heart rate is accelerated. My breathing is quick and shallow. There is perspiration forming on my head. I cannot express the RAGE I’m feeling right now.” [ I wonder if the rapist-murder soldiers were responding to similar physical symptoms?]
2] The righties are furious that the lefties aren’t joining them in their intense video-enhanced focus on these atrocities, and many commenterstherefore segue right into lumping lefties as ‘must be’in leaque with the atrocity committers. Methinks the rightie bandwagon is blaring overtime to recruit, to justify the war, to find an outlet for their preferred emotional position which has often shown itself to be pretty hateful anyway. Isn’t it interesting that these folks have no capacity to feel deepfelt anguish over what happened to our soldiers while alsoliving within a moral choice to not join into and add to hatred?
First, I predict a capitalization using this rhetoric that will, no surprise, support the Bush team’s hidden agenda, staying in Iraq long enough to steal control of Iraqi oil. After all, we shouldn’t condone stealing from Saddam’s victims whom we were ‘rescuing’….but, now, after realizing how ‘depraved’ the Iraqis really are [no mention of what stresses our pre-emptive war has wrought], why, of course we civilized folks deserve to take what we covet.
Second, I want to say, God have mercy on all souls who get their kicks throwing gasoline on the fire. The righties want to lump those not jumping on their bandwagon into a category of ‘terrorist-lovers’. Whew, I have a hard time not lumping them into a category of ‘ perfect dance-of-evil partners for the terrorists.’
Sorry about the typos…need to do better with the tag features.
Maha,
Operation Yellow Elephant is a nice idea, but I mean a serious challenge – no cute names, a serious requests. The right-wing blogs should actively engage in military recruiting, those signing up should ask to go to Iraq, and they should encourage Bush to send them there in addition to the current troops. Keep up the pressure, see if they’ll put their money where their mouth is.
Of course we know it won’t work. They either won’t do it, or if they do, their usual posters aren’t courages enough to do anyhting.
“”Another rightie argues that “I strongly believe we must know and understand who we are fighting against.†OK, but we’d better understand ourselves as well.””
Barbara, today I watched the first two installments of the British series, The Power of Nightmares. This series came out in 2004 and may be well known to you, but I learned today that it tracks the parallel process and development of the Islamic Jihad and the Neocons. What I have seen does not seem to be hokey-pokey like Loose Change 9/11, and the information and conclusions it offers confirms most of what we all have been saying about the culture wars and terrorism. It is a kick in the gut and if you are familiar with it I would very much like to hear what you thing about it.
I would love to have a copy and start holding focus groups to discuss the implications for the coming elections.
Two things more: the video is available to view for free at http://www.archive.org/details/ThePowerOfNightmares;
To join with joanr16’s comment about eye for an eye–after 9/11 Thich Nhat Hhan said, with such succint wisdom, Darkness can never be conquered with more darkness.
Donna your comments were right on target.
One other thought… wouldn’t the right be helping the terrorists by showing a video like this? It is obvious that by putting these bodies out the terrorists wanted us to see these images or the terrorists would not have left the bodies to be found… so thank you righties for working WITH the terrorists to make sure their message gets out….who needs aljazerra when we have righties!!!!
justme, you hit the jugular on this phenomenon: it is the righties who are carrying the publicity water for the terrorists on this.
But, I think, right now, the right wingers are going to stay blind to their ‘supporting role’, not least because they are so self-satisfiedly full of righteous finger-pointing.
On a soul level, maybe they think they are gonna be reprieved [in the eyes of God and mankind] of their own guilty hate-mongering and support of Bush-created torture, because they can point to ‘the other side’ being worse.
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Ironic. This afternoon I ran across two massacres in WW II committed by troops of the U.S. 45th Infantry Division. General Patton was blamed for inciting both. As well as others. A non-com in one got life in prison but was discharged as a private, in the other, an officer was transferred. How many other massacres or atrocities were performed by U.S. troops in WW II, in Korea, in Vietnam, and now Iraq? All because of statements made by “leaders?” Remember at least one in the TV series “Band of Brothers?”
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