Of rights and wrongs
People piss me off sometimes. OK, people piss me off quite a lot and rarely more so than when they spout their ignorant, thoughtless opinions and expect me to listen. So many people have it in their heads that all opinions are equal and that their ignorant, tabloid-fuelled, verbal diarrhoea is as valid a contribution to a debate as a reasoned, thoughtful opinion based on having weighed up as many of the facts as are available and forming a judgment based on this knowledge.
All day I’ve been listening to people commenting on the latest horror story to come out of Iraq. 99% of the great unwashed to whom I have been forced to listen hold opinions along the lines of ‘those Iraqi kids got what they deserved’; ‘a beating was too good for them’; you get the picture.
What the fuck? Are we living in some sort of moral vacuum now where it is OK for ‘our boys’ to commit acts of abuse as long as they aren’t quite as bad as the other side, because if we are can you stop the fucking bus so that I can get off and walk the rest of the way alone.
Our leaders have set us a really bad example by starting this immoral and illegal war in the first place but that makes it even more important that the rest of us maintain a high standard of decency, propriety and humanity.
Once the WMD justification for the invasion was exposed as an empty lie, forced upon a world either too gullible or too fucking stupid to stand up to Bush/Bliar and the insatiable appetite of their industrial war machine, we have been told that we’re there because Saddam brutally beat and oppressed his people. Doesn’t this impose on us some sort of obligation not to beat and oppress people ourselves?
I’m not justifying the actions of those rioters, they had sent a mortar bomb into the compound and were stoning our soldiers, but had some thought been put into the aftermath of Saddam’s inevitable defeat, some plan devised for winning the hearts and minds of the Iraqi populous then maybe, just maybe our forces would be seen as a liberating rather than an occupying force.
Violence only begets more violence. When the fuck will people learn?
All day I’ve been listening to people commenting on the latest horror story to come out of Iraq. 99% of the great unwashed to whom I have been forced to listen hold opinions along the lines of ‘those Iraqi kids got what they deserved’; ‘a beating was too good for them’; you get the picture.
What the fuck? Are we living in some sort of moral vacuum now where it is OK for ‘our boys’ to commit acts of abuse as long as they aren’t quite as bad as the other side, because if we are can you stop the fucking bus so that I can get off and walk the rest of the way alone.
Our leaders have set us a really bad example by starting this immoral and illegal war in the first place but that makes it even more important that the rest of us maintain a high standard of decency, propriety and humanity.
Once the WMD justification for the invasion was exposed as an empty lie, forced upon a world either too gullible or too fucking stupid to stand up to Bush/Bliar and the insatiable appetite of their industrial war machine, we have been told that we’re there because Saddam brutally beat and oppressed his people. Doesn’t this impose on us some sort of obligation not to beat and oppress people ourselves?
I’m not justifying the actions of those rioters, they had sent a mortar bomb into the compound and were stoning our soldiers, but had some thought been put into the aftermath of Saddam’s inevitable defeat, some plan devised for winning the hearts and minds of the Iraqi populous then maybe, just maybe our forces would be seen as a liberating rather than an occupying force.
Violence only begets more violence. When the fuck will people learn?
posted by phylos @ 19:34
3 Comments:
its good to be back...see your still pumping out fantastic entires...
Why are so many people surprised by "Our Boys" behaviour?
Anyone that has had the miss-fortune to live in a Garrison town will tell you that when the "Lads" come home, No-one else goes out drinking, because they are vulgar, viscious thugs hell bent on showing everyone how "Hard" they are.
If they can't behave themselves in their own country with their own people, why should they be trusted with the delicate task of protecting another people?
What do we think the investigation will conclude...? Not enough evidence?
Hear Hear...I've been drinking in UK garrison towns and seen what the army they hand out to the locals on the way home from the pub...the Iraqis got off light mate compared to your average Aldershot scally!
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