Well gee, thanks Uncle Sam! I'd like to fully love my country too. When I was a kid, I pretty early on recognized that I'd rather have been born here than anywhere else in the world. I felt honored to come into what was one of the most free and accepting societies that there ever has been, where the individual is mostly allowed to find their own way . Growing up I kept that love, even though hints of iniquity started to shine through from a past I had not previously witnessed until I encountered them in history class. Slavery, Civil Rights: "mostly" righted but still present. At least we're headed in the right direction.While only tangentially studied American Military History via my other historical pursuits and a lot of late nights watching the History Channel, there have been few people on this earth that I am in awe of more than the common soldier. From the musket-wielders to those trudging through the beaches of Normandy. From those pressed into the thick jungles of Asia to those now fighting in penance of an arrogant president. There's is to jump, headfirst, into situations I would have nightmares about. To be a proxy for their friends and family, their towns and counties, their states and country, so that others do not have to die. They are a spiritual manifestation of the will of the country and the physical manifestation that gets it done.
"What the Iraqi fighter found threatened America's vital alliance with Sunni militia.
A week ago in a police station shooting range on Baghdad's western outskirts, the American-allied Iraqi militiaman found what one or more GIs had been using for target practice -- a copy of the Quran, Islam's holy book.
Riddled with bullets, the rounds piercing deep into the thick volume, the pages were shredded. Turning the holy book in his hands, the man found two handwritten English words, scrawled in pen. "F*** yeah.""
I try not to let one bad apple spoil the basket, but when it is a symptom of a greater problem--that still after how many years the average soldier isn't instructed on proper keeping of the Quran, how important it is to remember that you're not only killing Muslims ("evil terrorists") but also working with them ("freedom loving police") or any damn thing about Abu Ghraib?!I've seen video and voice recording of the soldiers in Iraq, of their "F*** Yeah" attitude, blaring death metal while shooting 50 calibers into buildings, unapologetic hatred for the enemy--all of course normal in such extreme circumstance. However, this is yet another example of complete lack of leadership and personal responsibility. Another shovelful of dirt out of the grave plot I might be forced to bury my patriotism in. This is not the soldier that I can or should believe in, and it saddens me that a position of such honor, that carries such a burden, could sully itself--and that those who command it allowed it to happen in the first place.
Of course, the story I quoted from today's CNN.com piece has a turn for the better, as the religious leaders in the surrounding town were gracious enough, wise enough and loving enough to accept a humble apology from the commanding officer when they could have very easily demanded retribution. It was a scene not unlike many before it, where the sins of the few were forgiven by the few and the world is better for it.
