This is a something I have been mulling over for a while. My thoughts are finally coalescing into something that I can say is now my "opinion". I'm still open on the subject though (I think), so I thought I'd throw it out there and see what you all think (or should that be y'all?).
I mention it now as I just left KGB's "leaving" post and the topic was raised there.
Ok, so here's the gig....
Most, if not all, of us here have very strong opinions concerning child molestation. That opinion seems to change when it concerns the murder of children. The country I live in has almost from it's inception expected its soldiers to murder children. In the 1800's it was excused by the phrase "nits make lice" or young Native Americans would grow into adults, so better to kill them before they do (there are accounts of these brave warriors wearing the bloody uteruses of women as war trophys...a sign that there would be no more nits from that louse?). Shortly thereafter the brave boys in uniform murdered 600 Moro's in the Philipines (men, women and children) without taking any casualties with many accolades from President Teddy R (I think it was Teddy, forgive me if I ere). Many of us are more familiar with the carpet bombing of German cities in WWII *(ever seen any pictures? sickening stuff) culminating in the one of the greatest crimes of the 20th century (in my opinion), the devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with atomic bombs.
The real reason I can't leave this topic though is that one of my best friends and neighbor is slowly (well, not so slowly nowdays) killing himself with alcohol because according to him he can't live with the memorys he has of the children he murdered in Vietnam. For almost 25 years I have listened to his storys, most often, but not always, he is very drunk and sobbing.
The story he relates most often (I should mention he was a helicopter gunner, shot down 4 times, bronze star and I believe a silver star) is that of the regular practice of dropping incendiary grenades on grass huts and gunning down any who managed to get out before succumbing to the flames. Why? Well he says we had a quota to meet and they were the enemy. One of the members of his squad collected dead Vietnamese babys. When he told me this gem I asked "Why did the officers allow that?", he responded "We would have killed any officer that complained, they knew that, besides we were doing our job,and we were good at it They didn't care about dead babys"(fragging was common in Vietnam).
Some of you may have read about the suburb in Panama that was obliterated because a few soldiers there had the audacity to resist my countrymen who were invading their country.
History which is mostly hidden and largely ignored can even be dismissed while discussing this topic though. Sadly the policy which condones the murder of children is a current policy and one seemingly supported by a majority of my countrymen. It seems to me (I may be undecided on this one though) that we (we as in citizens, the government has an entirely different agenda imho) do it to exact vengence for the victims of 9/11. My personal feeling is that the first Afgan murdered by the "eye for an eye" mentality of my countrys cowardly leaders (I know a lot of vets who call them the "chickenhawks", never served nor any family members in the military but...oh, so ready to put others in harms way) put the US in the same camp as those who destroyed the WTC. Then we went on to murder the citizens of Iraq?
Hmmm, murder or molestation, is there a difference?
*I Remember reading the observations of a WWII German General who stated that although they were sickened at the loss of life in the cities from the Allied bombers, they were glad and relieved that their oil supply hadn't been made a priority. He was of the opinion that the war would have ended almost 2 years sooner if the Allies had just done that one thing.
Also of interest was a historian who commented about how curious it was that, although the Allies knew about the death camps, they never bombed the rail lines that led into them which quite obviously were being used to transport the victims. He was of the opion that millions of lives could have been saved by this simple act (these rail lines were mostly unguarded as well).