This is sad and cruel!

[ProSense]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=385&topic_id=6882&mesg_id=6882



:cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:

[beachmom]

1. I saw that earlier today. I just want somebody to explain it to me.

I just don't get it. First off, is bottled water a prized possession in Iraq? I think it is, but I don't know for sure. So if the kids need the water why not throw it to them? If they don't need the water, and it's a game . . . I just don't get it. I found the thread in GD (it was there first) to be out of control. Here seems a safer place to try to understand what was happening there.

[beachmom]

2. My post above I suppose amounts to full scale "denial"

My denial that soldiers would taunt children with a bottle of water. It must be my lyin' eyes!! I can understand how people lashed out against Kerry in '71. It's SOOO much easier to call him a liar than to look truth in the eye.

This diary seems to go hand and hand with that video. It's about letters written by Iraqi children before the war started:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/11/21/171616/22


One cannot deny the oppressive nature of the Saddam regime on what the kids may have been told to write. However, there is some "realness" to them that leads me to believe they were genuinely felt letters, not propaganda.

[ProSense]

3. That's horrific!

The innocence and hope of those kids in no way justifies the invasion or its aftermath. As the poster asks, how many are now dead?

Whether or not the soldiers were taunting the kids, the audio and seeing the kids running is depressingly sad. Some game!


Not saying that's the intention of the post, but it's all too cruel for me to deal with.

[karynnj]

4. This is disgusting - and the soldiers' comments

and actions are just unkind - who reacts to kids that way? The sad thing is simply giving the kids the water - a act that wouldn't be filmed as it is so prosaic builds good will.

This is not Abu Ghraib, Hadifa, or the search & destroy missions, just a suggestion of routine disrespect. My guess is that some of the men in the truck knew better, but saying so would compromise their position in the group. More than anything it likely demonstrates that the soldiers have moved away from compassion for the Iraqis.

[beachmom]

5. Well said, Karynnj. It's not that it was "awful", just that, I don't know

would they treat American kids that way? It's just time to leave. We have two different cultures and the gap is getting larger.

[babylonsister]

6. The soldiers had to get their 'clowning around' on tape to show

their buddies, or families when they return home. Won't their parents and loved ones be impressed. Not!

[Blaukraut]

7. What the hell is wrong with those guys?

My husband says there are two types of soldiers; good ones, and bad ones. In times of peace, when they're all sitting around post and doing their daily duties, it is sometimes difficult to tell them apart, but in time of war the differences become aparent.
The bad ones are only too ready to shed their humanity, whereas the good ones, no matter how horrific their daily experiences might be, will always remember that the people they are fighting are human beings, and not some nameless, faceless entity. They follow their orders to shoot and kill, but take no pleasure in it. And that is as it should be.

[ginnyinWI]

8. nothing shocks me anymore.

After watching the Winter Soldier hearings on DVD, where they told about how the troops would use kids as target practice, shooting them as they rode along in their vehicles, nothing surprises me. It's how people get when they have power and become hardened to anybody's feelings--even their own. So sad.