Re-awakening a sleeping giant??

[Bonnie]

If in the case of Iraq there has been any lessening of resolve among the American electorate, and to read the newspapers and listen to a great many television pundits one might certainly think there has, the events of the past 48 hours should put these doubts to rest.

American forces have recovered the remains of two soldiers, Privates Thomas Tucker and Kristian Menchaca, ambushed and kidnapped at a check point in the aptly named “Triangle of Death” south of Baghdad. Specialist David Babineau, died in the attack and was not captured.

Iraqi Major General Abdul-Aziz Mohammed Jassim, director of the Iraqi military operations room, stated “with great regret” that there is strong evidence that the soldiers in question had been captured alive, horribly tortured, mutilated, and then murdered. Major General Jassim described the way in which these brave soldiers died as “barbaric.” This probably means that they were beheaded.

A bulletin to the blissfully ignorant opponents of our commitment to the Iraqi people: this is the true face of the enemy. This is representative of the fate they have in store for all of those – American, British, Iraqi, soldier or civilian, man, woman or child, – whoever does not share their twisted and sadistic view of the world. Nowhere in scripture or practice do the jihadis see a limit to the scope of their ambitions of less than a global caliphate. It is only a matter of time and tactics for them.

If they have not already figured it out, and it is highly unlikely that they have, the murderers in Iraq have made yet another egregious error. Perhaps even a fatal one for their own cause. Americans don’t react to barbarity in the way in which our enemies hope. Americans still remember the Alamo.

Consider the aftermath of the Little Bighorn.

Consider the evidence of Pearl Harbor.

Too many would-be enemies forget the prophetic words of Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto following that attack when he said; “I fear that we have awakened a sleeping giant and filled him with a terrible resolve.”

Americans don’t react well or predictably to threats, murder, and treachery. This repugnance and stubborn resolve seems to be in our genes. Recently I have been re-reading a series of excellent books by Allan Eckert detailing the founding of America. In one of these books, The Conquerors, Eckert details the attempt in 1763 by Ottawa war chief Pontiac to lead a great uprising of tribes against British and American interests in the Great Lakes region.

Pontiac’s approach, much like that of the mullahs and terrorists in Iraq, was characterized by his fiery oratorical presence among the tribes and his ready resort to extreme treachery, barbarity, and viciousness. At the height of his influence Pontiac led the forces of 18 tribes, thousands of hardened warriors, from throughout the Great Lakes region all the way to the Mississippi. The American and British presence throughout the region was laughably small with the largest garrison of troops, fewer than 200 at the present site of the city of Detroit, Michigan. Pontiac and his legions, whose methods ran to wholesale destruction and bloodshed, disdained taking prisoners except for the purposes of slavery and horrendous torture. Pontiac’s onslaught on the frontier was exceptionally bloody and merciless.

But the reaction of the British governors of the region and, most especially, the Americans who populated this frontier, was far from that which Pontiac had expected. The American reaction especially was of outrage and retaliation. The frontiersmen fought back with an unparalleled fury. Within two years Pontiac’s great confederacy was a shambles. A few years later the once great war chief was murdered by a fellow Indian near present day St. Louis.

In Iraq the terrorist mastermind Al-Zarqawi is dead and his would-be successor Abu Hamza al-Muhajer has stepped into the dead killer’s shoes announcing that the heinous and unspeakable murder of these American soldiers is his personal doing. Perhaps he believes that by so doing he announces his own implacable opposition to American and Iraqi interests and his ability to strike at will.

Perhaps Al-Muhajer has what passes for an excellent grasp of supposed Islamic history. But what Al-Mujaher is severely lacking is an appreciation of American history and the nature of American willpower. Unless I miss my guess, he is about to find out. It will not be a pleasant lesson.

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles.php?article_id=5600

 

[Annie]

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles.php?article_id=5600

I don't know what it would take to 'reawaken' the US. :coffee3: Not 3k dead, so how many?

 

[dmp]

Such a great piece.

 

[Bonnie]

I don't know what it would take to 'reawaken' the US. :coffee3: Not 3k dead, so how many?

Your right. And yet it's still all about Abhu-Grahib

 

[Bonnie]

Such a great piece.

Darin you being a military man I need to ask you a question.

God forbid you were captured by terrorists, would you fight with everything you had just to keep them from having the pleasure of torturing you? Even at gunpoint. I was thinking about this today. I would hope that I would charge them even hand cuffed and have them shoot me rather than wait to be tortured. JMO

 

[Annie]

Your right. And yet it's still all about Abhu-Grahib

Now the Marines that have been held at Ft. Pendleton, mostly in shackles since May, are going to be indicted on murder charges:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/politics/3989574.html

That will set the moonbats off.

 

[ScreamingEagle]

Now the Marines that have been held at Ft. Pendleton, mostly in shackles since May, are going to be indicted on murder charges:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/politics/3989574.html

That will set the moonbats off.

Everthing's backasswards

The 'sleeping giant' has been drugged with liberalism.

 

[Annie]

Yep, here is my column of the day. Addresses both the soldiers and the military's snap to find wrong with our troops:

http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/torturers_hope_opedcolumnists_john_podhoretz.htm

TORTURERS' HOPE

By JOHN PODHORETZ

June 21, 2006 -- THE horrific deaths of two American servicemen kidnapped in Iraq on Friday may bring the war into a new phase - and force politicians, media stars and Americans generally to put real meaning behind the meaningless guarantee that "we all support the troops."

Previous American kidnap victims have been unarmed civilians - contractors and journalists who were not trained to kill. The decision to snatch soldiers changes things, which was almost surely the point. Privates Thomas Tucker and Kristian Menchaca, may God protect their souls, were taken from a checkpoint they were manning; one of their comrades in arms, David Babineau, was killed during the assault.

It's one thing to plant improvised explosive devices that wound and kill our armed forces. That kind of attack is what makes this a war. The insurgents can't fight us head on, so they use quick and dirty methods of assault.

But the kidnapping and apparent torture/murder of Privates Tucker and Menchaca may represent a new strategy. If similar kidnap efforts are successful, if this event was not a fluke but an ambitious new tactic to throw Coalition forces off-balance, then things are going to change in Iraq.

Al-Qaeda-in-Iraq likely hopes to make service personnel believe themselves at risk of death by torture from any band of Iraqis they encounter - so that they'll act differently: cautious, suspicious, with the hypervigilance of someone in the midst of a battle. If it works, civilians who mean our armed forces no harm may find themselves shot or killed by mistake as a result of the hair-trigger posture our forces will have to assume to keep themselves safe.

Could anyone blame them?

The answer, of course, is yes. If this is a new strategy, it exists not only to terrorize American and Coalition forces but also to divide them from Iraqis - to sow fear and hostility that will go both ways, to cause an upsurge in resentment and anger toward U.S. forces.

Here at home, we know there is a very serious constituency for stories about Americans committing massacres against Iraqis - from news magazines that print unconfirmed accounts and run them as gospel to congressmen like John Murtha who feel free to say that servicemen and women as yet charged with no offense in the Haditha incident committed murder "in cold blood."

Until now, it has been possible for Murtha and others to say their consuming interest in the alleged misconduct of U.S. forces is a fearless effort to get at the truth of what is going on in Iraq. They claim to speak on behalf of the servicemen and women who are, they believe, fighting in a pointless and useless war.

And even as they do so, they often can't help but draw a complete moral equivalence between the actions of U.S. forces in Iraq and the conduct of the insurgent terrorists. Consider these sentences, published yesterday by the liberal blogger Jeralyn Merritt: "It's hard to express the sinking feeling this news brings. What can you say to the families of these young men to help reduce their grief? When does it end? Torture is disgraceful. But the United States does not have clean hands."

Before word came that the two Americans of blessed memory were possibly beheaded, the ur-blogger Andrew Sullivan wrote that he prayed for the safety of our soldiers but wondered how America could say it would be wrong for the insurgents to torture our guys when we supposedly torture their guys.

What will such people say about the actions of the military men and women who must do their jobs now in the wake of the unspeakable murders of Tucker and Menchaca?

Will this increasingly passionate refusal to draw distinctions between the actions of Americans at arms and the behavior of Islamofascist monsters continue?

Will they show support for our troops at the moment they most need it - real support, as opposed to crocodile tears and the displays of profound disrespect for their mission? Or will they continue to use any means possible - including harsh judgments of the horrifying split-second choices made by young men in a dangerous situation who have put their lives on the line for the rest of us - to get at the president whom Sullivan, with his typical tone of reserved understatement, yesterday called "shallow, monstrous, weak and petty"?

Will the news media treat our men and women at arms well at such a time by giving them the benefit of the doubt, or will they make another choice?

We shall see whether "I support the troops" is a phrase that means something.

 

[USMCDevilDog]

Now the Marines that have been held at Ft. Pendleton, mostly in shackles since May, are going to be indicted on murder charges:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/politics/3989574.html

That will set the moonbats off.

CAMP Pendleton, Marines don't have Forts. :teeth:

I think that the people who are saying these things, comparing our troops to these insurgents (who the hell does that??) aren't real Americans. You can't sit here and slap a fucking "Support the Troops" sticker on your bumper and then go and say, "Well our troops are just as bad as they are." That's not support that's stupidity, aka, liberalism. Real Americans realize that the shit our troops are doing is being done because this is a fucking WAR. In WAR people die, civilians die, people get tortured, fucked up shit happens and that's that.

Here's the definition of WAR for those of you who think that what we're doing is wrong:

Main Entry: War
Pronunciation: 'wor
Function: noun
Usage: often attributive
Etymology: Middle English werre, from Old North French, of Germanic origin; akin to Old High German werra strife; akin to Old High German werran to confuse
1 a (1) : a state of usually open and declared armed hostile conflict between states or nations (2) : a period of such armed conflict

In war there is no fucking fairness. Like I've said before, you do not shake hands with your enemy, flip a coin, make rules and start playing war. It does not happen like that and for people to sit here and be so damn ignorant to the fact that this shit has happened in every American war since this blessed country has been established and every war before that, you can go back to fucking school and fill that empty ass skull of yours with the knowledge that WAR IS FUCKING HELL!

Understand that!

P.S.- I just got into the Marine Corps two days ago. I was sworn in to the Marines to fight for this country if need be. I said with my right hand in the air looking at the American, Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force flags that I, Joseph XXXX XXXXXXX, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to the regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.

I said those words with the thought that I will be looked upon as a proud member of the U.S. Military and not a war monger and baby killer. I swear that if I go to war and come back to the shit that some of our soldiers and Marines have to come back to, I will be extremely upset with the country I'm fighting for.

Some people need to grow up, realize that this shit is war and that there is NO peace...just break between war. That's life, get over it.

 

[Gunny]

Darin you being a military man I need to ask you a question.

God forbid you were captured by terrorists, would you fight with everything you had just to keep them from having the pleasure of torturing you? Even at gunpoint. I was thinking about this today. I would hope that I would charge them even hand cuffed and have them shoot me rather than wait to be tortured. JMO

I'll answer for him. They'd have to kill me because I wouldn't be going any-damned-where just to be butchered on film for their so-called holy war.

 

[Bonnie]

I'll answer for him. They'd have to kill me because I wouldn't be going any-damned-where just to be butchered on film for their so-called holy war.

I know it's an absolutely horrible scenario, but I would like to believe that I would make them shoot me in the back rather than give them the opportunity to torture me for the enjoyment of the terrorists?