maandag 21 mei 2007

May 21, 2007

On May 4 last, I sent you a story on the interdiction, torture and killing of foreign nationals by elements of the U.S. military based at Ft. Huachuca in southern Arizona. This, apparently, is not a surprise to others living in that area as witness the attached story from an Arizona paper.

In point of fact, torture of civilians, killing unarmed prisoners of war and civilians and other well-defined war crimes is more the rule in our modern army in the field rather than the exception. When the Iraqi war began, the United States possessed a well-trained and beautifully equipped rapid response force, designed to act as an international fire brigade.

Now, thanks to the criminal stupidity of George Bush, Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney, the ground forces, viz the Army and the Marines, are ruined. The casualty rates are terrible, and unreported, and equipment such as trucks, soft-skinned vehicles, tanks and other support vehicles, to include military helicopters, are mostly inoperative and under repair because o the known damage done to internal combustion engines by desert sand.

The heavy death tolls, basically minimized by the DoD, and the really appalling injuries suffered by troops in both Iraq and Afghanistan has removed tens of thousands of soldiers from the field. Now, the unscrupulous recruiters are filling the gaps in the troops caused by death, injury, desertion, suicide and mental collapse by enlisting mental defectives, drug addicts, gang members and persons with a criminal record. Anything that is warm is now acceptable. The higher standards of six years ago have been thrown over the side. As it stands now, the Mexican cabdrivers union could invade El Paso and the military can do nothing. In short, our defenses have been destroyed and it will take years to replace the missing soldiers and, as important, the destroyed and badly damaged equipment. The allegations of torture and worse being practiced inside the United States are only the tip of a very ugly iceberg lying in the path of the approaching Titanic. Bush has single-handedly ruined America’s world reputation, destroyed her ground forces, ruined their equipment and brought future decades of shame and disgrace upon us all. Former president Carter was dead-on when he said George W. Bush was the worse president in our entire history.

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