Ugly Americans

Are we really so naive that we didn't think our own soldiers were capable of the horrible acts that are coming forward from Iraq? If Americans are capable of beating a transexual American teenager to death, gang raping young girls, killing each other on the streets over "territory" or burning swastikas into the garage doors of Jews or Blacks in our own country why would we ever think terrible acts would not happen during a foreign war against people that follow a different religion? If we are so intolerant of differences at home, why would anyone think we would be tolerant somewhere else? I know there are good people over there fighting for the right reasons, but it was ignorant of us to think there would not be horrific acts carried out by at least some of our own soldiers. And I just love hearing the occasional justification in street interviews that "you know they're doing it to us too" as though that always makes it right. My guess is that if that person were there they would jump right in.

I'm also amazed that our government and military really thinks we are so gullible that we would believe there was no involvement from "higher ups". There may not be anything written down, but the fact that these soldiers had enough freedom and time to carry out these acts says someone was at least looking the other way, which is consent.

We are suppose to rise above our baser human tendencies and strive to be more than we are. We should all know the basics of right and wrong by the time we are old enough to serve in the armed forces. We should be able to control our urges to act in such uncivilized ways. Saying they do it to us is no justification. We are not there to do as they do, we are there to show a better way, a kinder way, a more civilized way if we are to believe what the government tells us.

So, even if the "higher ups" were supposedly not involved in these atrocities, where the hell were they while they were going on? Who was responsible for leading these troops? Who did they report to? Why did these "higher ups" NOT know what their troops were up to? Things like this do not happen in a vacuum. People knew and chose to let it go on, possibly even supporting it outright but certainly endorsing it by inaction.

Spin it how you like, we got caught doing just what someone should have known at least a few of us would do.