|
Author
|
Topic: Killers in the classroom
|
Jerry West
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 1545
|
posted 15 February 2007 04:05 PM
quote:
Killers in the ClassroomBy Dr. June Scorza Terpstra 02/15/07 "ICH " -- -- During a heated debate in a class I teach on social justice, several US Marines who had done tours in Iraq told me that they had "sacrificed" by “serving” in Iraq so that I could enjoy the freedom to teach in the USA. Parroting their master’s slogan about “fighting over there so we don’t have to fight over here”, these students proudly proclaimed that they terrorized and killed defenseless Iraqis. They intimated that their Arab victims are nothing more to them than collateral damage, incidental to their receipt of some money and an education....
Link to full article
From: Gold River, BC | Registered: Oct 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
writer
editor emeritus
Babbler # 2513
|
posted 15 February 2007 08:43 PM
quote:
Not long into my stay in Iraq, I saw $100 in a house. I snapped up the bills and stuffed them in my pocket. A man who was being zipcuffed and led out the door shouted back at me angrily."Why are you taking that money? It's not yours." "This is American money," I told him. "You're not American, and you have no business having it." The money stayed in my pocket. Jewlery. Money, If it looked good, we helped ourselves. I stole whatever I wanted in the initial raids, but I stopped doing that after my first few weeks in Iraq. The more uneasy I felt about what we were doing there, the less I wanted to make matters worse. Others in my platoon looted to their hearts' content. One fellow collected jewelry and mailed it home to his wife. Another lugged a television straight out of an Iraqi house. Others took ornate knives, and I saw one soldier make off with a beautiful rug. Who was going to stop us? We were the army of the United States of America, and we would do whatever we pleased.
From The Deserter's Tale, by Joshua Key, who "witnessed the killing of a seven-year-old girl who was scrounging leftover army rations, and watched while dead bodies provided sport for US soldiers." [ 15 February 2007: Message edited by: writer ]
From: tentative | Registered: Apr 2002
| IP: Logged
|
|
Jerry West
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 1545
|
posted 15 February 2007 11:06 PM
quote:
oreobw:
I have met a lot of Americans over the years and none sounded like these soldiers.
Some do, the question is what percentage. Assuming that the article is true, it may not be representative of the majority of people serving in Afghanistan and Iraq. But, even if it represents a minority there is still the issue of placing people in this position in wars that are needless and ill conceived, and in the case of the Afghan/Iraq war, criminal. What certainly is true in the story is the point that our soldiers, Canadians and Americans are not now and have not been for a long time sacrificing themselves for our freedoms, at least in the way that the propaganda wants us to believe. If one considers that our way of life is built on the oppression of others, then yes, oppressing others is supporting our freedoms. More on this point here:
Link
From: Gold River, BC | Registered: Oct 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
Email this thread to someone!
