Friday, November 19, 2004

shoot the messenger - literally!

Freedom of the Press in 2004!

Repubs are demanding that the reporter who video-taped the soldier killing an unarmed, wounded Iraqi, at least be charged, and, in some cases, are demanding that he be killed himself!

I can't imagine life on a battlefield and I know that personally, I would not be able to survive because I could not bring myself to murder someone for my lying government. But these young people are taught to murder and that the enemy is less than human, so it is not surprising that something like this can and does happen all of the time. It shouldn't happen, because we are supposed to be better than that, but the soldiers are living in conditions that most of us can (thankfully) not imagine (so far anyway). Emotions and paranoia (some certainly justified) run high, so no one can really say what they would have done in this situation without having lived it themselves.

That said, the reporting of an incident like this should not be considered a treasonable offense and certainly should not be a call for the reporter's death! I think it is apparent that a majority of America has no idea what happens in war and what we have done to Iraq and it's people. Reporting in a war zone is important so that the people back home know why we are there and that we really are better than our enemies. Unfortunately, we have proven ourselves to be just as bad in a number of situations so far. Let's learn from the mistakes and make some changes!

By the way, every post from every repub site is filled with so much hatred and anger that it is astounding! The Dems are still trying to be positive and move forward with our agenda. Didn't they win? Don't they know that they are the ones in power? Where has all this vitriol come from?