Lighting up a 'Ville........2006 Version (Mai Lai Pakistan)
DAMADOLA, Pakistan — A U.S. airstrike on a suspected Al Qaeda hideout in Pakistan near the Afghan border that killed at least 17 people targeted the terrorist network's No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri, but the suspect wasn't there, Pakistani officials said today.
Yesterday, in the grand tradition of Mai Lai, the Bush Crime Family "Lit up a 'Ville," in a new country.
The "suspect" wasn't there. Some innocent "suspects" were killed and some were maimed.
Yes, in an apparent attempt to reaffirm that this is 'Nam all over again, the old ritual of "Lighting up a 'Ville" was performed in Pakistan.
But this one was really a NEW ritual, differing in distinct ways from the old.....it's the new, improved, Bush version.
In Vietnam, if we suspected that some bad guys might be in a village, we'd lay all the ordinance we had into that 'ville and if anybody shot back we'd call in an air strike. When nothing was moving anymore, we'd go in and check it out and do a body count.
That COULD be dangerous. Mostly fatal to the indigenous population, but dangerous to us because some bloody somebody might still have the strength to pull a trigger or lob a grenade.
The new ritual, in honor of, and befitting a man who spent his own wartime National Guarding the friendly borders of Texas, posed no such dangers. Yesterday, we just sent a swarm of machines without pilots.......a swarm of drones. Unmanned war planes that struck (as Custer used to say until it happened to him) in a "surprise attack without mercy."
No danger to us. Safe as flying a remote control airplane. Safe as spending the war in Texas.
And, as usual, we killed the wrong people. Our intelligence was "flawed."
Our intelligence was "flawed???" Whoa! Heard that one before!!
So.....let's review.
Yesterday we did a cowardly, remote-control attack on a village of innocent people.....hoping some bad guys might be among them. We killed a whole bunch of innocent men, women and children.
So, other than the increased cowardice.......how does that differ from the Mai Lai Massacre?
But our Crypto-Fascist media (who condemned the Mai Lai Massacre) sounded positively giddy when first reporting this current massacre. Major networks, ABC, NBC, CBS were all sounding jubilant over this absolutely boneheaded and cowardly military action in Pakistan.
We can assume they are sad today. We missed the bad guys. Our intelligence was flawed.
Maybe we'll get them next time.
When will they ever learn?
posted by Wadena | 8:49 AM
10 Comments:
They make the same argument for the use of white phosphorous, ostensibly to identify would be assailants by forcing them to reveal their locations with screams of pain. Now when describing this practice, as in Fallujah, they are so careful to say 'this pertains to evacuated housing". Really? So the answer to the question "Have there been cases of WP use on civilians, in error?" would be a resounding no, corporal??? Or no comment?
So in the name of saving lives, which I can understand as we all want to minimize casualties (none would be preferred by this conditional pacifist's standpoint), they tip the scale to excessive casualties for civilians who never asked to be part of a war machine.
That is the way of the modern war. Smart bombs, guided missiles,less ground, more control room. Cleaner.
One wonders, when wars are fought by computer and nobody will have to see limbless infants crouched beside their dead parents- oh wait, we DONT see such images, do we? We think that we kill crazy jihadists that 'hate our freedom'. Not civilians that we've liberated! Wonder what makes them so upset with our version of liberation? Wonder what drives them to take up arms against us? I am not a terror sympathizer, but I think we need to look at who we label and what the criteria is.
Hiya, Wadena:
Thanks for your input. And, yep, your blog does go into a bit more detail on this subject, than mine. It was early in the morning when I found out about our glorious leader's latest military "victory". Hell, this guy, whom our really asinine electoral college system put in office, can now gloat over his... as you so aptly named it, "Mai Lai" battle.
It also does remind me, oh so much, of previous historical "victories" our country can lay claim to:
WOUNDED KNEE... THE WASHITA... SAND CREEK... etc.
You get the picture. History is, indeed, written by the victors....
I wonder, are the same companies getting rich, thanks to this glorious war, as was done during our little excursion into Southeast Asia, all those years ago?
Of course, we should bear in mind that we are fighting for "...Truth, Justice, & the American Way...."
Lily, I don't know what to say. I'm getting a bit frustrated again....might have to go look at that Jesus video again!!!
Hey Mohawk,
I guess we're fighting to make the world safe for democracy so Wal-Mart can start a few stores in Iraq.
I wonder if....when you force democracy on somebody, is that democracy or tyranny?
Tyrocracy. Another made up word.
Like I said, the ones available never seem to tickle me.
Consider yourself cross-posted, Wadena. In the blogosphere, thats what we do. LTN :)
Well...Gawrsh.....I'm honored.
I was a LITTLE nervous about what "cross-posting" might be.....
I knew what cross-dressing was, and I don't do that (much) and the term was new to me--but now that I clicked on the LTN thing I understand.
:D
Drones have one fantastic public relations aspect.
A drone can be shot down and nobody ever needs to hear about it.....it can simply disappear, as far as the public is concerned (they'll get the bill later, of course).
A manned aircraft goes down and all hell breaks loose. It's a big story. Why? Because the aircrew is dead, injured or missing.
See how that works?
I DO see how it works. Sadly.
They have a way of disposing of materials sold/given to enemy regimes as well. Sudden fires, that sort of thing.
I just posted my annoyed response to that idea. I try to transform outrage into sarcasm wherever possible. But it doesn't quite cut it.
One of the things I've regretted (and I'm riddled with regret) is that since this war began, I haven't kept a detailed count of the number of times government officials or news anchors have mistakenly used the word "Viet Nam" instead of "Iraq". I'm sure it would number in the 100's.
And if that doesn't tell us all something, I don't know what would.
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