NationStates Jolt Archive

Where do you see this horrible issue going? Will it spell further disaster for the Bush administration? Or be swept under the rug as Abu Graib was?

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/05/26/marines.haditha/

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060527/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_killing_crisis

http://www.unitedforpeace.org/article.php?id=3275

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/05/27/wus27.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/05/27/ixnews.html

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002199897

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,197168,00.html

Swept under the rug. Definitely. The same as Fallujah, and the same as Al-Qadim (I think) where they were torturing prisoners with music, which was then shown as "hahahahaha they're being mentally damaged by strobe lighting and 24 hours solid of tinny Barney music".

I find it surprising that so little attention is being paid to all this, to be honest. Maybe it's because there are no shocking pictures, but clearly this is a very big deal indeed on many levels (ultimately including the training and leadership standards in the Marine Corps, I'm afraid to say).

As for Bush...meh. People should stop associating him with many of these things, particularly in Iraq. It wasn't really his idea to go there, it wasn't his decisions that fucked everything up, and it's not his fault these things keep happening on the ground there. As head of government, he ultimately is somewhat responsible of course, but there are many a man who are much more at fault with all this than he is.

Attacking Bush will only divert attention away from them.

[QUOTE=Neu Leonstein]
As for Bush...meh. People should stop associating him with many of these things, particularly in Iraq. It wasn't really his idea to go there, it wasn't his decisions that fucked everything up, and it's not his fault these things keep happening on the ground there. QUOTE]

You can't be serious??? No one can be that naive...:rolleyes:

Attacking Bush will only divert attention away from them.
Aye, this needs to get taken up with the generals in Iraq, and also Rumsfeld. This and Fallujah should really have got Rumsfeld kicked out, to be honest, and half of the general staff fired.

Bush is irrelevant.

If a breakdown within the chain of command occurred and the deaths of those people were caused intentionally, that's an issue of justice being done, and of controlling the damage and the political situation there. It could involve some tricky diplomacy between two governments, and the Bush Administration will have to deal with it, but I think it's perverse to look at the situation as a political problem for Bush while we're still dealing with speculation and conflicting accounts of what happened. Whose approval ratings go in which direction shouldn't be a top priority in looking at this.

You can't be serious??? No one can be that naive...:rolleyes:

He's got a point. Bush is a figurehead, not an absolute monarch.

So much for the days of "The Buck Stops Here," eh?

So much for the days of "The Buck Stops Here," eh?
Indeed. I thought you had the right to bear arms for exactly that reason...

Indeed. I thought you had the right to bear arms for exactly that reason...
Huh? No, I was refering to the sign that Truman had on his desk, "The Buck Stops Here"-that he would not pass the buck, or pass on responsability, for what went on in his administration.

EDIT: Ah, now that I think on it, I get what you where going for...

I don't think this will hurt the Bush administration too much, but it might hurt the military. And I do hope the people responsible for any wrongdoing and extralegal executions are punished harshly. (Though I doubt it will amount to more than a reduction in rank, and perhaps 8 months in the brig or something...)

I think its a question of :sniper: first and then :headbang: later

Swept under the rug. Definitely. The same as Fallujah, and the same as Al-Qadim (I think) where they were torturing prisoners with music, which was then shown as "hahahahaha they're being mentally damaged by strobe lighting and 24 hours solid of tinny Barney music".

I think they were using Metallica and similar bands, actually. However, Barney music sounds much more torturous to me. That's what I would use to torture somebody.

My Lai, anyone?