THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD
(apologies to Keith Olbermann)
Rick Perry, Dana Loesch, & Pamela Geller
I’d drop trou and do it too. That’s me, though. I want a million cool points for these guys…. C’mon people, this is a war. Do I have a problem with that as a citizen of the United States? No, I don’t.
[W]hat I’m saying is what is really disturbing to me is just, kind of, the over-the-top rhetoric from this administration and their disdain for the military, it appears, whether it’s the secretary of state or whether it’s the secretary of defense. I mean, these kids made a mistake. There’s not any doubt about it. They shouldn’t have done it. It’s bad. But the — the — to call it a criminal act, I think, is over the top.
The Hamas liars of CAIR, say that jihad and pure Islam is “fringe,” “extremist.” So why do they CAIR about disrespecting the Taliban? According to CAIR lies, Taliban and jihadists do not represent Islam, they have “hijacked Islam”; so why would CAIR care about “respect”? CAIR calls these Marines immoral, but considers honor killings, clitorectomies, forced marriage, child marriage, polygamy, subjugation of women, slaughter of non-Muslims, and Jew-hatred moral? Would anyone have CAIRed if Marines urinated on dead Nazi soldiers during WWII? (Anyone besides CAIR and nazis, that is). I love these Marines. Perhaps this is the infidel interpretation of the Islamic ritual of washing and preparing the body for burial.
By now, you’d have had to be hiding in the mountains of Idaho not to have heard about, read about, or seen the video of four US Marines pissing on Taliban corpses in Afghanistan. That some in the media and political world are defending the actions of the Marines, or at the very least soft-pedaling them as if it’s much ado about nothing, is something I find every bit as reprehensible as the actions of the Marines.
Outside of the video, few of us have a full comprehension of the circumstances surrounding what took place. That said, what’s shown on the video is something every decent, thinking American should be appalled by. Yes, war may be Hell, but there’s nothing that could possibly justify an act so thoroughly disrespectful, immature, and counter to everything American soldiers are trained to do and be. Having been one (and an officer) myself, I think I can speak to this with some degree of authority.
Rather than devolve into a discussion of the laws of war and whether the act of urinating on vanquished corpses constitutes a war crime, I think it makes more sense to examine this act in terms of what kind of people we would choose to be. Do we choose to be the sort of people who accepts that this sort of thing is a byproduct of war (“Boys will be boys”)? Do we hold ourselves above those we defeat and regard them as “less than”, subhumans worthy only of our disdain and disrespect? Are we OK with fostering the sort of hatred and disrespect for the humanity, beliefs, and religion of others that would justify and excuse urinating on the vanquished corpses of our enemies? Or we choose to live by a higher standard, expecting victory when required, but also capable of recognizing and honoring the humanity of our enemies? Do we accept that it’s not people that are evil, it’s the ideologies and governments they fight on behalf of? Do we believe that victory on the battlefield does not ipso facto make us better people…just victorious people?
One of the things that differentiates and protects American soldiers in combat is the training they receive in the laws of war. Among other things, these laws protect uniformed soldiers who become prisoners of war once they’ve been captured and removed from the theater of combat. Post-9.11, of course, these laws have been stretched to degrees not anticipated by those responsible for the Geneva Conventions. American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan have more often than not faced an enemy that doesn’t conduct themselves by or honor the internationally accepted laws of war. They don’t wear uniforms, they mistreat captured combatants, and they target civilians. As odious as this reality is, it doesn’t provide a concomitant license for American soldiers to act in similar fashion.
Unfortunately, there are those- Loesch, Perry, and Geller chief and most vocal among them- willing to give the four Marines a pass. Perry thinks it was “boys being boys”, Loesch thinks it’s no big deal, and Geller hate any and all things Muslim so fervently and irrationally that she seems almost overjoyed by the actions of the Marines.
Of course, none of these three moral reprobates have seen a day’s combat. They have no concept of war, only the smug assurance that we, as Christian Americans, are infinitely superior to the heathen Islamofascists who hate and would destroy us for our freedoms.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) issued a statement condemning the actions displayed in the video, which shouldn’t seem a stretch to anyone in possession of even a modicum of humanity. They even called Geller’s site a “hate blog.” Go figure.
Not surprisingly, Geller doubled down on the hateful rhetoric:
So let me be perfectly clear. I DO love those Marines. We are at war with an enemy that means to slaughter us and overthrow the United States of America. I don’t CAIR that these Marines wee wee’ed on murderous savages.
When you view our enemies as subhuman, when you deny their basic humanity, you’re well down the road to becoming a carbon copy of that which you despise. Loesch, Perry, and Geller represent everything wrong with America today. Yes, this is a free country, and they’re certainly welcome to their point of view, just as I have the right to call them out for their unAmerican inhumanity. We deserve better than becoming that which we hate. Our religion, ideology, and nationality don’t make us better than our enemies; they just make us different. What Loesch, Perry, and Geller don’t recognize (and would refuse to accept even if they did) is that their rabid, foaming-at-the-mouth hatred of the Taliban and all things Islam makes them the chief spokespersons for the American Taliban. Congratulations; y’all have become what you hate and despise.
WE DESERVE BETTER.
