Michael T. Corgan, a Vietnam veteran who teaches international relations at Boston University, said it should be no surprise that, even after Abu Ghraib, some soldiers take gruesome pictures as war souvenirs.posted by clarknova at 4:26 PM on March 22, 2011 [8 favorites]
"They're proof people are as tough as they say they are," Corgan said. "War is the one lyric experience in their lives — by comparison every else is punching a time clock. They revel in it, and they collect memories of it."
Is it complex and emotional for the poor bastards who never did a goddamn thing to anybody who get killed by the poor, put-upon American soldiers who made the brave decision to join the most powerful military in the world for the purposes of making money for Halliburton?Nothing in this has anything to do with the individual soldier's thoughts; it's just a fact. The people profiting from our current wars are our military-industrial corporations, like Halliburton.
1. Who's "we"? Surely you're not lumping the many thousands of troops from many different nations in with this small group of sadistic psychopaths?Maybe your not aware of this, but a lot of civilians are getting killed over there, not just by psychos, but by regular soldiers by mistake.
2. Why does it have to be both? You seem to be implying that "we" are there to kill civilians, and that if "we" stop killing civilians, there's no other mission in Afghanistan.How can you have a war without killing civilians? Maybe 200 years ago it might have been possible, but today it seems unlikely.
The mission in Afghanistan is worth it- the country will collapse if left to itself and it will be worse off 10 years down the road.What does that have to do with 9/11? My guess is most current taliban fighters were just kids when the towers collapsed. And in fact there was a poll or something conducted there and most people in Afghanistan weren't even aware of 9/11. The idea that we're somehow getting revenge for 9/11 doesn't really make much sense. And anyway on a pure revenge scale we've extracted way more then enough pain from the people there to make up for it. Plus AQ just relocated to Pakistan anyway.
You know it's a worthless argument when you come to an inane comparison to the Nazis.When Goodwin came up with that rule, he was talking about Vi vs. Emacs and stuff like that. Not actual wars and actual killing.
Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total and BP — the original partners in the Iraq Petroleum Company — along with Chevron and a number of smaller oil companies, are in talks with Iraq’s Oil Ministry for no-bid contracts to service Iraq’s largest fields, according to ministry officials, oil company officials and an American diplomat.Your opinion is unsupported by reality.
The deals, expected to be announced on June 30, will lay the foundation for the first commercial work for the major companies in Iraq since the American invasion, and open a new and potentially lucrative country for their operations.
The no-bid contracts are unusual for the industry, and the offers prevailed over others by more than 40 companies, including companies in Russia, China and India. The contracts, which would run for one to two years and are relatively small by industry standards, would nonetheless give the companies an advantage in bidding on future contracts in a country that many experts consider to be the best hope for a large-scale increase in oil production. (source)
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posted by nevercalm at 4:04 PM on March 22, 2011 [1 favorite]