Reply #12: I can't help but wonder.... [View All]

[Boomer]

Imagine if the U.S. were occupied by foreign troops -- let's say China decided we were in need of a regime change before Bush unleashed his WMD on the world -- and the Chinese soldiers stationed in our urban areas were the target of American resistance.

How would we feel if the jittery Chinese soldiers kept blowing away American women and children every time they approached a checkpoint?

If they accidentally bombed civilian residences because they suspected an American "terrorist" was living there, but got the addresses wrong because they didn't understand the difference between street numbers and zip codes?

If they killed a local group of policemen when they were chasing some burglars?

If they fired on a wedding party because they mistook the festivities for a political rally?

If our hospitals were filled, every day, with mutilated children who had been caught in cross-fire?

Somehow I suspect we wouldn't be quite so generous in our compassion for the poor Chinese soldiers and their emotional strains as we expect Iraqis to be in contemplating their situation. It's all a matter of perspective, isn't it? I'm not saying either the hypothetical Chinese soldiers, or our all-too-real American ones, are not deserving of sympathy for the no-win situation -- but their emotional traumas tend to pale in comparison to the harm they are wreaking -- intentional or not -- on innocent Iraqi civilians.

--Boomer