no justification

[incandescens]

What has been done in Fallujah is a war crime and should be prosecuted as such before the world court.

I'm aware that most of the people on my friends list have similar feelings. (After all, that's often why we friend people here; they agree with us.) I haven't bothered (how easy that word is) talking about Fallujah over the last few days, because (a) it would be preaching to the choir, (b) most people who read this are the sort of people who'd be keeping informed of the news in any case, either by broadcast media or on the internet (c) what could we do?

"I decided to swim … but I changed my mind after seeing U.S. helicopters firing on and killing people who tried to cross the river."
He watched horrified as a family of five was shot dead as they tried to cross. Then, he "helped bury a man by the river bank, with my own hands."
"I kept walking along the river for two hours and I could still see some U.S. snipers ready to shoot anyone who might swim. I quit the idea of crossing the river and walked for about five hours through orchards."
AP Photographer Tells of Flight From Besieged City of Fallujah

It feels sick and pitiful to be able to talk about anime and fiction and storytelling and games while this is happening and we are aware of it.

Comments

[lebateleur.livejournal.com]

What feels even more sick and not pitiful, but enraging, is that a majority of the people in my country thought the man who ordered this is doing such a good job he should be on for another four years. And I doubt many of them either realise or care to realise what's occurring in Iraq.

[innocent-man.livejournal.com]

Actually, a lot of them just voted for Bush because they couldn't handle that godless heathen, Kerry, in office. 'Cause, y'know, he'd let them homos do whatever they wanted.

I am ashamed for my country, and for my state (Ohio), which voted Bush even though we've suffered so much economically under him. It was all about "morals," which really means "Christian right."

Sigh.

[iamnikchick.livejournal.com]

It's a sad day when a Catholic who actually attends church is thrown over as "godless" for a man who professes to be Born Again and yet exhibits none of the accepted tenets of Christian belief.

I am anguished over the actions of my country and ashamed to be associated with these people who feel that might makes right and all is fair in war as long as "we" come out on top.

[innocent-man.livejournal.com]

I don't envy Kerry; being a Catholic and a Democratic candidate (which all but requires a pro-choice and pro-gay marriage stance) is a tough sell. But that's one of the reasons I like him; he has his beliefs and isn't willing to force them on others.

Of course, we'll never really know. Sigh.

[lebateleur.livejournal.com]

Absolutely. But at least my county voted 66%, I believe it was, for Kerry.

And anyway, given the choice between losing my car or letting two men wed, well, I'd give up the car in a heartbeat. Wouldn't you? ><;;;

[luxetumbra.livejournal.com]

And I doubt many of them either realise or care to realise what's occurring in Iraq.

Oh, I think they know. I just don't think they care anymore. You wouldn't have seen that hideously immoral "flypaper" theory being picked up and repeated endlessly by the media otherwise. Besides, stopping gays from getting married and more tax cuts are much more important than anything we might be doing in Iraq.

Makes me want to vomit, quite frankly.

[lebateleur.livejournal.com]

Has it been picked up by the media? Anyway, comparing the war coverage I saw while in the states with the war coverage I see here, I imagine most Americans aren't really aware that there are hundreds of actual people dying in Iraq.

[solaas.livejournal.com]

I have to admit I've been actively avoiding those news. I just can't take being that angry for that long, and yes--it's a pitiful position to take compared to what these people are going through. This is no better than the crimes committed by petty warlords and terrorists and governments elsewhere -- in a way it's worse, because we of the west like to think that we are better than that. Which is odd, you'd think the Crimean wars and WWI had cured all that.

[solaas.livejournal.com]

And oh, the terrorists in Fallujah get theirs too:
http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engmde140562004

War i s ugly.

[ashoka.livejournal.com]

Thank you for posting this. It's shown all the time on newscasts in America, but I find disgusting the apathy exhibited by the media - no questions about why we're there, no outrage over the civilian families still trapped there - and it's good to be reminded that yes, people do care, very much.

[multiplexer.livejournal.com]

I read last week through non-American sources that the US troops were using banned White Phosphorus rounds on so-called insurgents in Fallooja and burning them to death.

For every flaunting of International Law, the more people come in from Syria, Yemen, Jordan and Lebanon to pick up guns and shoot back at Americans. Many of these "insurgents" aren't even Iraqi. The Iraqis are just caught in the middle between US troops and Islamist fascists -- and dying.

So what do we have here? We needed to bring the Sunnis over to the side that "elections are good," but then we burn down the main Sunni city, their equivalent of Pittsburgh or Milan or any other industrial city. Hell, we bombed the falafal places flat, because we could. (Terrorist falafil?) We created 200,000 refugees who have fled either to other cities or to other countries, a massive human disaster, and blockaded the Islamic version of the Red Cross from rolling in water, food, and supplies. People trapped in the city are dying of cholera because they cannot get clean water to drink.

And the insurgents from other countries? They just picked up and relocated to Mosul, leaving a dead hulk of a city behind in their wake. What do they have to lose? They're fighting for Allah, and this is not their home, and these are not their people. A major city we will, no doubt, burn down and bomb flat to try to "get" them.

Meanwhile, Iraq only has trained 8 battilions of their own men, which is not enough to secure the city, let alone the country. There's no way, after this, the Sunnis will participate in any kind of election, which will end up plunging the country into an uncontrollable civil war that will inevitably end in more Islamo-Fascism.

Good job, guys.

Welcome to the New Vietnam, so much like the Old Vietnam.

[kagenami.livejournal.com]

And then there was last Friday's (or maybe Thursday's?) coverage on NHK's 10pm newscast in Japan, which included footage of a U.S. soldier in Fallujah firing off some rounds and then turning to the camera to give his thoughts about going into action. He thinks for a moment, and then announces, "It's fun!" Sure to do even further wonders for America's image...