Right Wing Lunatic

This has got to be one of the most biased article I've read in the mainstream
media  in a long time.  Take a look at the headline and then the first paragraph:

 

Newly released documents regarding crimes committed by U.S. troops against civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan detail a pattern of troops failing to understand and follow the rules that govern interrogations and deadly actions.

 

"a pattern of troops failing to understand and follow the rules.."  That sounds like a lot, if not most troops in my book.  But it's not the case:

 

The documents, released Tuesday by the American Civil Liberties Union ahead of a lawsuit, total nearly 10,000 pages of courts-martial summaries, transcripts and military investigative reports about 22 incidents. They show repeated examples of troops believing they were within the law when they killed local citizens.

 

22 incidents.  Out of the 4+ years we've been there, there have been 22 incidents involving almost 160,000 US troops.  That's not even 1/10th of 1% of all troops there, but if you read a headline and first paragraph of an article like that, you'd think that we were slaughtering Iraqi civilians and not following the rules en mass. 

If that were true, there wouldn't be an Iraq left.  We'd wipe the floor with these people.  But simply put, we aren't.  Yes, there have been crimes committed by troops, and those troops were court martialed for it.

 

Nasrina Bargzie, an attorney with the ACLU's National Security Project, said the documents also show that there is information being withheld from public scrutiny.

"The government has gone out of its way to hide the human cost of this war," Bargzie said. Releasing the documents now "paints at least a part of that picture so people at least know what's going on," she said.

 

How are these being hidden from the public?  If you can get these documents through the FOIA (Freedom of Information Act), then the government isn't hiding anything.  They simply are dealing with other issues that are more important than publicly outing soldiers who've committed crimes more then is already known.

Do you honestly believe that the government would hide something then turn around and hand over documents because of FOIA?

The simple fact is that in all wars, war crimes to occur.  When those facts come to light, those who are responsible are punished for it.  Our military has shown great restraint and concern for civilian life that any other nation on Earth wouldn't.  Yet 22 incidents out of 160,000 troops seems to be a "pattern" to the guy who wrote this article.

Travis

travis@rightwinglunatic.com

Labels: crime, Government, military

The one thing that George Bush said in this article that made me breath a sign of relief was this:

One thing the president promised not do was a direct bailout of homeowners facing foreclosures or of lenders with financial problems traced to portfolios of defaulting subprime loans.

Such bailouts, he said, "would only aggravate the problem."

Exactly.  It's the whole "you made your bed, now lie in it".  If you over extended yourself, sell your house and move into a smaller one or an apartment.  No one gets a government bailout for being fiscally irresponsible.

The same goes for Wall Street investors:

Also not prime candidates for government bailouts, in Baker's view, are Wall Street investors who the Bush proposals could help by giving defaulting borrowers an out through FHA refinancing.

Said Baker, "There should be zero interest in helping out Wall Street. You don't want money from taxpayers to go to people who made risky investments."

Exactly.  They made risky investments and those investments tanked.  Welcome to the wonderful world of Wall Street.  No one should get bailed out of their mortgage or their investments in a risky things like companies who loaned $400,000 to someone who works at McDonalds. 

Labels: financial responsibility, Government, mortgage