By Chris Hedges
War exposes the lies we tell ourselves about ourselves. It rips open the hypocrisy of our religions and secular institutions. Those who return from war have learned something which is often incomprehensible to those who have stayed home. We are not a virtuous nation.
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- Vierotchka
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- Highr0ller
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War comes wrapped in patriotic slogans, calls for sacrifice, honor and heroism and promises of glory. It comes wrapped in the claims of divine providence. It is what a grateful nation asks of its children. It is what is right and just. It is waged to make the nation and the world a better place, to cleanse evil. War is touted as the ultimate test of manhood, where the young can find out what they are made of. War, from a distance, seems noble. It gives us comrades and power and a chance to play a small bit in the great drama of history. It promises to give us an identity as a warrior, a patriot, as long as we go along with the myth, the one the war-makers need to wage wars and the defense contractors need to increase their profits.
But up close war is a soulless void. War is about barbarity, perversion and pain, an unchecked orgy of death. Human decency and tenderness are crushed. Those who make war work overtime to reduce love to smut, and all human beings become objects, pawns to use or kill. The noise, the stench, the fear, the scenes of eviscerated bodies and bloated corpses, the cries of the wounded, all combine to spin those in combat into another universe. In this moral void, naively blessed by secular and religious institutions at home, the hypocrisy of our social conventions, our strict adherence to moral precepts, come unglued. War, for all its horror, has the power to strip away the trivial and the banal, the empty chatter and foolish obsessions that fill our days. It lets us see, although the cost is tremendous.
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war is humanity..war is real..war was there before you were born..war will be there after you die..war dominated history..history is war..
peace can only be attained by using violence against another..
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- GodsnLiberals
- 5 months ago
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General Rick Sanchez Calls for War Crimes Truth Commission
By Jack Hidary
The General described the failures at all levels of civilian and military command that led to the abuses in Iraq, "and that is why I support the formation of a truth commission."General Rick Sanchez Calls for War Crimes Truth Commission
By Jack Hidary
The General described the failures at all levels of civilian and military command that led to the abuses in Iraq, "and that is why I support the formation of a truth commission."
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22750.htm -
You guys ever think about the story of Jesus as a concept of violence in human nature?
Jesus came to be king. To conquer all. He wouldn't have done it by sword but through forgiveness. The only way to truly have peace is to forgive those who wrong you. Eye for an eye makes everyone blind. He inverted the concept of power, and offered the world to the weak. The people of the world weren't trying to hear that so they tried to kill the message by killing him.
Kind of a short conceptualization of it, but do you get my point?
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- librelover
- 5 months ago
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we go to war for reasons and we should always support our troops they are fighting for us ,for us to have better lives and let them do their jobs ...you that are against wars then go to another country and see what you get
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- cindydupree
- 5 months ago
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Please tell me what your troops are fighting for?
They were sent to war on a lie by George W. Bush. They were sent to war by a draft dodger that stole the Florida election to steal the presidential office.....and he sent them to war to steal the resources of Iraq. He sent them to war against the Taliban in Afghanistan because they refused to let him run LNG (Liquified Natural Gas) across their country. To disagree with him was to make his troops get rid of them.
I am European. This is what everyone in Europe knows about the United States.
These wars have killed many innocent women and children.......left many wives without a breadwinner in a country with no social services to feed them...therefore destitute. These wars have had millions of land mines dropped on civilians from the air (renamed as "cluster bombs"). The results have been the infrastructure of the country has been damaged, antiquities have been damaged or stolen ( Baghdad museum)...........................Americans guarded the Ministry of Oil but not the museum.
Oh....to protect you. Well.....in fact there will now grow up a whole generation of fatherless young men whose sole purpose in life will be to avenge the deaths of their fathers.
America in 20 years will be falling apart with these young men avenging their fathers blood spilt by American troops.
You can't just go around the world trashing up the place and expect to be liked.
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our troops are very highly appreciated,and are doing their job to protect our country and save those in other countrys that are being tortuted and killed by these terriost groups ..whom are the reason we are over there ..have you forgotten sept.11..they hit us before we even knew what was happening and we cant let that happen....so to my daughter and her husband i thank you for being brave and in germany at the airforce base serving our country..and to my dad for vietnam,these people are the ones who deserve all our respect
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- cindydupree
- 5 months ago
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grow up and stop bawling about a few thousand Americans killed in 9/11.
Since then how many innocent people has America killed? Believe me, they are dropping bombs on civilians, breaking into peoples homes and shooting whole families,
andRAPE
TORTURE
KIDNAPPING
GUANTANAMO
ABU GHARIB.
Hang your head in shame because history will be very unforgiving.
I am aware that ten years into war and mayhem some Americans are waking up.
Pinch yourself and look at what you have done.
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- Highr0ller
- 5 months ago
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you are one of those tree huggers , and vote for abortion , and stood up during the sixteys and protested and treated our heros as they were dirt we dont need people like you bring our men and women down ...you have no idea what they endure or go thru over there......our men are killed everyday ...but we are not stupid enough to blow ourselves up while we take out two or three innocent people with us....so vierotchka.,check out why wars happen and never put our men of honor down again ...
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- cindydupree
- 5 months ago
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I have to tell you....Osama Bin Laden is no fool......he saw how America stole the resources of his country....how they backed the Al Saud dynasty ...............how the Al Saud spent the American dollars on whores, booze and gambling. His family built their wealth on the favor of those same Al Saud, but his family worked hard for what they earned, paid their staff and their bills.....which I assure you the Al Saud and Al Sudairy clan never did. Even I was robbed by Amal Al Sudairy and her brother Salman Al Sudairy. I speak from firsthand experience....and I witnessed many companies go to court to try and recover debts worldwide.
America trains them in torture techniques.
Do I have to say more.
Wake up people.
War is fear cloaked in courage: William Westmoreland
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and to those who do not understand the war and who do respect our men and women fighting everyday ...who are putting their lives on the line and going against crazy idiot people who are sucide bombers and they are the ones doing the rape ,torture,and just plane stupid and need to put under ,,,we need to just bomb the whole place and be done...ya tree huggers are not going to change a thing so sorry
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- cindydupree
- 5 months ago
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http://current.com/items/90149134_cheney-personally-oversaw-secret-congressional...
CHECK THIS ONE now at Number 1 on current
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"There never was a good war," said Franklin. There have indeed been many wars in which a good man must take part, and take part with grave gladness to die if need be, a willing sacrifice, thankful to give life for what is dearer than life, and happy that even by death in war he is serving the cause of peace. But if a war be undertaken for the most righteous end, before the resources of peace have been tried and proved vain to secure it, that war has no defense, it is a national crime: Charles Eliot Norton
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- Highr0ller
- 5 months ago
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Our troops are people just like us and war is just a dirty reality of our human condition. If anyone is to blame it is the politicians like Bush who are so willing to go to war and throw away human life, when they themselves did not go fight when it was their turn.
The presidency and the power to go to war are things that should be used sparingly and with caution. Bush did neither.
Support our troops, but do not support the fumbling idiots who sent them into harms way...
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- UrbanGypsy
- 5 months ago
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War is evil, but you do not know how many times I would have traded my peaceful existence for the chance to one day pick up arms and return to Cuba to overthrow the dictator that has for 50 years oppressed my people...
I would trade all the days of my life for the ability to have a chance, just one chance, to go back there and fight for my people's freedom and be able to say that I TRIED.
There is not one day that my grandfather does not regret having done nothing when he was in Cuba during the 1962 rebellion against Castro in Las Villas...
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- UrbanGypsy
- 5 months ago
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you people need to stop listening to the press , the news media all they care about is showing things that are not the way it really is if you do not respect our troops then and pray for them for saving our butts then its your problem .....to the MEN AND WOMEN WHOM ARE FIGHTING FOR OUR COUNTRY AND THE FREEDOM OF OTHERS WE LOVE YOU AND RESPECT YOU AND GREAT JOB YOU HAVE OUR PRAYS ......
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- cindydupree
- 5 months ago
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President Obama at least is trying. Try to support his efforts....he is hampered by a Congress on the payroll of AIPAC.
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US invites Islamist opposition to key Cairo address
The audience at Cairo University will include bloggers critical of the Egyptian government, Ayman Nour, the former presidential candidate whose imprisonment had strained relations between Cairo and the previous US administration, as well as independent deputies who belong to the banned Brotherhood, the country’s largest opposition group.The guest list marks an apparent US attempt to balance closer relations with Arab leaders with an outreach to civil society and opposition groups. Mr Obama has carefully refrained from criticising the Egyptian authorities even when pressed on their human rights record. And he arrives in Cairo after lavishing praise on King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia during a visit to Riyadh.
“I imagine that the US embassy had something to do with the invitations,” said Saad Al Katatny, the head of the Brotherhood’s parliamentary bloc. “We have a fifth of the seats in parliament, and we are present in society. It is natural that we should be invited; it is ignoring us that is not natural.”
Brotherhood members of parliament are usually not asked to official events in Egypt and they are almost never interviewed on state media. The group is the main target of a government crackdown intended to keep it on the defensive through a revolving-door policy of arrests and releases of its members.
“We welcome Mr Obama and his speech,” said Mr Katatny. “But it is a welcome mixed with caution.” On his arrival in Saudi Arabia yesterday, Mr Obama said he wanted to visit the place where Islam began and discuss “many of the issues that we confront here in the Middle East”. He said he had been “struck” by the Saudi monarch’s “wisdom” and “graciousness”.
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- Highr0ller
- 5 months ago
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short and sweet ....WAR HAS ALWAYS BEEN AND WILL ALWAYS BE IF IT WASNT FOR OUR GREAT PEOPLE WHO PUT THEIR LIVES ON THE LINE EVERYDAY YOU WOULD NOT HAVE THE FREEDOM TO DO OR SAY AS YOU PLEASE ....IF YOU WANT COMMUNISIAM THEN GO LIVE IN ANOTHER COUNTRY WHERE YOU WOULD UNDERSTAND HOW GOOD YOU HAVE IT NOW...those of you who do not believe in our wars then you really dont need to be here living with the freedoms you have...THE END!!!!! THANK GOD FOR OUR TROOPS!!!!
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- cindydupree
- 5 months ago
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Civilians killed in Afghan blast:
Six Afghan civilians, including two children, have been killed in a blast near a major US military base in eastern Afghanistan, officials have said.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2009/06/20096210227588373.html
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Afghan Member Of Parliament Rips U.S. For Killing Civilians:
The blast, she says, lifted her house off the ground and woke up the village. The curious went to see what happened. That's when the second drone struck, killing roughly 15 civilians, she says.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/02/afghani-member-of-parliam_n_210585.html
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US objects to UN report on military killings:
The Obama administration charged Wednesday that a U.N. investigator violated his mandate by accusing the U.S. of failing to properly investigate allegations of unlawful killings by American forces in Afghanistan and Iraq.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090603/ap_on_re_eu/un_us_military_killings-
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- Highr0ller
- 5 months ago
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