Read, Then Weep.

[babylonsister]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/7/14/114222/873

Read, Then Weep.
by Maccabee
Sat Jul 14, 2007 at 08:48:17 AM PDT

We like to tell ourselves that the American people are a compassionate people and when given a chance, we will do anything to help others.

Iraq changed everything.

Here are a few extremely hard to face facts- one from McClatchy, the other from The Nation. The Nation sought volunteers from Iraqi war veterans to speak openly and honestly about the terrifying and vulgar reality on the ground that the American occupation is for the people there.

This is horrifying on many levels.

The sheer fact that Americans are terrorizing Iraqis; the fact that the US government covers this up; the fact that even if media outlets were allowed to report on this, then they wouldn’t.

Here’s an account after 39 Iraqis had been held for weeks in a shithole without charges and rioted.

" {They shot this guy} A head split open. One of them was...in the back of the truck. They open the body bags of these prisoners that were shot in the head and got an MRE spoon. He's reaching in to scoop out some of his brain, looking at the camera and he's smiling. And I said, 'These are some of our soldiers desecrating somebody's body. Something is seriously amiss.'

This is the sort of reporting we would see on NPR before they were compromised by the Scaife Foundation and other wingnuttery farms populated by wingnut bloggers and "analysts" who run from Army recruiters and prefer to fight the war from behind their laptops. You should read this article and you should subscribe to The Nation.

While some veterans said civilian shootings were routinely investigated by the military, many more said such inquiries were rare. "I mean, you physically could not do an investigation every time a civilian was wounded or killed because it just happens a lot and you'd spend all your time doing that," said Marine Reserve Lieut. Jonathan Morgenstein, 35, of Arlington, Virginia. He served from August 2004 to March 2005 in Ramadi with a Marine Corps civil affairs unit supporting a combat team with the Second Marine Expeditionary Brigade. (All interviewees are identified by the rank they held during the period of service they recount here; some have since been promoted or demoted.)

After a while, the soldiers get inured to horrors that you could only imagine, perhaps because they will never be aired other than on an arcane blog.

more...

[Warren Stupidity]

1. On a side note: do you ever sleep?

I am simply awestruck by your tireless efforts here to keep us informed, by the fact that in addition to all the wonderful posts you put up here, you obviously have spent far more time doing the research that goes into them. You are, if you don't mind my saying so, a DU treasure.

Now I am embarassed.

[babylonsister]

2. You're a sweetheart, and thank you. Yes, I got my 8 hours last night!

:hi:

[HysteryDiagnosis]

3. This is the sort of reporting we would see on NPR before

NPR is supported by..... NPR is supported by.... NPR is supported by..... NPR is supported by.... NPR is supported by..... NPR is supported by.... NPR is supported by..... NPR is supported by.... NPR is supported by..... NPR is supported by.... NPR is supported by..... NPR is supported by.... NPR is supported by..... NPR is supported by.... NPR is supported by..... NPR is supported by.... NPR is supported by..... NPR is supported by.... NPR is supported by..... NPR is supported by.... NPR is supported by..... NPR is supported by.... NPR is supported by..... NPR is supported by.... NPR is supported by..... NPR is supported by.... NPR is supported by..... NPR is supported by.... NPR is supported by..... NPR is supported by....

EVERY FIVE MINUTES..... and this is why I have been able to achieve a .05 second time period to reach the button to kill the radio in my car. It is beyond disgusting the amount of commercial ads, and the sad part is that they are often the same ones, over and over and over and over and over.