Is Something Rotten in Mespotamia? You Tell Me.
There's lots of talk these days about the opinions of our fighting forces in Iraq as far as the New York Times goes.
But a couple of weeks ago, an important Op-Ed appeared in the paper, where seven Non-Commissioned Officers criticized elements of the horrible misadventure war in Iraq. Wingnuts desperately sought to diminish it in the face of the Pollack/O'Hanlon fellating just before it, but the officers' words were mighty damning.
And now, in an ironic, and bizarre twist, two of the seven who spoke out were killed last week in Iraq. What are the odds of that? From Editor & Publisher:
Sgt. Omar Mora and Sgt. Yance T. Gray died Monday in a vehicle accident in western Baghdad, two of seven U.S. troops killed in the incident which was reported just as Gen. David Petraeus was about to report to Congress on progress in the “surge.” The names have just been released.
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Mora, 28, hailed from Texas City, Texas, and was a native of Ecuador, who had just become a U.S. citizen. He was due to leave Iraq in November and leaves behind a wife and daughter. Gray, 26, had lived in Ismay, Montana, and is also survived by a wife and infant daughter.
The accident in Iraq occurred when a cargo truck the men were riding in overturned.
We live in a time, in this country where as much as you want to take this sad report for what simply appears to be—a sad event— the mind can't help but drift to harrowing thoughts of possible foul play in the deaths. After all, people who support this war are championed for their threats of physical violence against those who do not. And this is a government that is still unwilling to share the details of the very questionable death of Pat Tillman. A death that was lied about, with much of the evidence destroyed. Every death of a U.S. soldier in Iraq is a tragedy. But these two are especially damaging because of the ugly thoughts that they conjure up in too many Americans. It's not tin-foil hat-ism to feel this way—when you smell something awful, it probably means something's rotten.
This administration and its enablers have so fouled the air of objectivity with their chicanery, that we find ourselves in dark territory indeed, even considering these things. Thanks for that, GOP. We'll never forget this. Really.
And if you think for a second that the wingnuts can lay any claim to the “Support The Troops” mantra, the behavior of prominent Montana winger broadcaster Dave Rye will make you want to throw something. Hard. Of course, his fellow freepi have nothing to say about this:
This is pretty ugly:
Pardon my skepticism, and certainly no disrespect for the dead Montana soldier, but in my time in the Army I never heard such a word as "recalcitrant" escape the lips of any Staff Sergeant. I doubt if it’s spoken all that much in Ismay, either.
The soldiers had the help and probably the encouragement of a writer with an agenda, from a newspaper which has always had one. Its continually declining circulation now mainly consists of those who want desperately to consider themselves sophisticated as well as compassionate, even if that means always branding the U.S. as the chief villain on the world stage—-in fact, especially if it does.
I hope a soldier just back from Iraq “pardons this clown's skepticism” with a steel-toe shoed nut-kick. He called the dead Montana soldier—who gave his life in this misbegotten war he pimps for daily, an unlearned idiot.
He “Fred Phelps-ed” the late Sgt. Gray, absolutely disrespecting a just-dead soldier, not yet in the ground. There will be no hue and cry or string of repudiations for this slam from his fellow wingnuts.
Just more of the same stench, from the party of death-eaters—your Grand Old Party, circa 2007.
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