Guest Post by Ron Paul
Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) found himself in hot water recently over comments he made in defense of Navy SEAL Edward Gallagher, who faces war crimes charges over his alleged conduct while serving in combat overseas. Gallagher is charged with stabbing a 15 year old ISIS member while in custody, of taking photos posing with the corpse of the teen, and with killing several civilians.
Defending Gallagher recently, Hunter put his own record up next to the SEAL to suggest that he’s an elected Congressman who has done worse things in battle than Gallagher.
That’s where Hunter’s defense earned him some perhaps unwanted attention. While participating in the first “Battle of Fallujah” in early 2007, by Hunter’s own account he and his fellow soldiers killed hundreds of innocent civilians, including women and children. They fired mortars into the city and killed at random.
In the sanitized world of US mainstream media reporting on US wars overseas, we do not hear about non-combatants being killed by Americans. How many times has there been any reporting on the birth defects that Iraqis continue to suffer in the aftermath of US attacks with horrific weapons like depleted uranium and white phosphorus?
Rep. Hunter described his philosophy when fighting in Iraq:
“You go in fast and hard, you kill people, you hit them in the face and then you get out…We’re going to hurt you and then we’re going to leave. And if you want to be nice to America, we’ll be nice to you. If you don’t want to be nice to us, we’re going to slap you again.”
This shows how much Duncan Hunter does not understand about war. When he speaks of hitting people in the face until they are nice to America, he doesn’t seem to realize that the people of Fallujah – and all of Iraq – never did a thing to the US to deserve that hit in the face. The war was launched on the basis of lies and cooked-up intelligence by many of the people who are serving in the current Administration.
And that brings us to the real war criminals. Rep. Duncan Hunter and his fellow soldiers may have killed hundreds of innocent civilians and even felt justified. Their superior officers, after all, established the rules of engagement. Above those superior officers, going up and beyond to the policymakers, the lie was sold to the American people to justify a war of choice against a country that could not have threatened us if it wanted to.
Vice President Dick Cheney knew what he was doing when he kept returning to the CIA headquarters, strong-arming analysts to make the intelligence fit the chosen policy. John Bolton and the other neocons knew what they were doing when they made claims about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction they knew were false. The Pentagon’s Office of Special Plans played its role in selling the lie. So did the media.
Edward Gallagher will face trial and possibly jail for his actions. Rep. Duncan Hunter may even face punishment – though perhaps only at the ballot box – for his admitted crimes. But until those at the top who continue to lie and manipulate us into war for their own gain face justice, the real criminals will continue to go free and we will continue pursuing a suicidal neocon foreign policy.
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But, but, but way back in 1996 Madeleine Albright said it was O.K.: “… the price is worth it…”
She has a sweet government retirement also. How nice.
He forgot the crime of sending your youth off to “fight” for political and economical reasons that have nothing to do with the safety and security of this nation. The REAL war criminals are in DC.
Sorry, nobody gets let off the hook. “I was just following orders” didn’t fly for the Nazis, and it shouldn’t fly for anyone else. These are ALL volunteers with access to all the truth about this country, our military, and who we are REALLY fighting for.
It really is only through a 100 years of jewish propaganda used to defend the indefensible kangaroo court at Neurenburg that people have the absurd belief that “just following orders” is not a valid defense.
It absolutely is and the reason goes to the heart of hierarchy and leadership where subordinates are not equipped to make judgement calls, either through lack of ability or lack of complete information.
It’s kind of a chicken and egg thing. You could prosecute his commanding officers or the army chief of staff or the president who ordered it or the assholes who voted him in. Naw. Go after the poor deranged bastard who’ll have nightmares until his last day.
Err all war is a crime and history is written by the victors. Iraq “couldn’t have threatened us if they wanted to” Rand is full of shit on that one….Saddam was not going to sit in his cage forever and he was amassing a massive fortune despite the sanctions so it was just a matter of time before he went “rogue” again. This time maybe with Chinese missile technology, actual nukes from North Korea etc. I am not saying he had any of that or even had plans for any of that but it is just wrong to say he could not have been a threat….
Dead is dead doesn’t matter what killed you. We are a little jaded here in the USA as we have not had a conflict on US soil for more than 160 years. Just wait we will and we can share in the atrocity exhibition up close and personal.
Cheney and Bush and Rumsfeld should be prosecuted for war crimes…..no doubt about that. But then so should Obama and Clinton etc.
Libya was not threatening the US and in fact, had given all of their WMD programs and was assisting the US in fighting Muslim extremists. War crime….oh yeah. How about Obammy arming AQ and creating ISIS (with weapons from Benghazi) to fight Assad……”we was against AQ before we were for them” said Obama. War crime…including false flag murder of Syrian civilians to create a plausible reason for further conflict…..war crime Barry!
And so it has been since the beginning of time.
And so shall it remain forevermore.
Amen.
However, once in a while We The People get to kill the motherfuckers.
I hope I can shoot one in the fucken head before I die. The Lord revealed to me in a dream the letters A and O and C. Someday I will decipher it ….
I was thinking, there should be a goodbye boys assn. When you know you’re down to months to live, what have you got to lose. Take a bastard with ya. Traveling alone just isn’t much fun is it?
I think the term is “band of brothers.”
I knew such a band.
Am telling you, Stuckenheimer… these cowboys ain’t gonna take that shit when the bastards get here. They will be like that stinking chicken thief I caught the other day!
That pelt stayed on that nasty critter and ain’t going anywhere near an Alaska crash site!
But you and I know ONE coonskin who is gonna say goodbye to a bunch of old friends my husband and I had.
Then, he’s going on another journey.
And, that’s how one hunts rabbits, pal.
Seriously, even if you don’t want your spot by the pond, I would love to meet you.
ON THIS SIDE of the Big Muddy.
By the way… my son really hated seeing that BIRD calling his old Sunday School teacher, Miss Maggie aka Mom, be shit upon by such a loser of a man claiming to be an engineer. He wanted me to just stop posting here.
I explained one does not run from such. One stands on one’s own character.
The old guy at the veterans gathering told me he was a filthy shit-covered dick-licking ass-fucking limp-wristed noodle-swallowing Bird (I was indeed SHOCKED when I heard that) To get the insult correct, one must draw out the “ir” with the longest gutteral wretching sound imaginable as if vomiting on that loathesome blight. My father rarely used the term “Bird” about a man, but when he did? You knew he thought that person was lower than dirt.
He told me a boyfriend of mine was a bird. Then, he told me so was the catlicking father. (That’s “Big Joe” for Catholic.)
Would love to meet you and the missus. On THIS side of the Mississippi. Y’all come on down. Sit a spell.
The BIG DOG here got clipped. Not those… they were clipped LONG AGO. His fur.
Taken from the folks’ place across the road. We are hillbilly land barons because we have highway access, as you can see.
(The neighbor’s house can’t be seen from our house or the pond… so there is no violation of the “no other people in sight” rule)
That would be absolutely wonderful!
I have a feeling that it’s a possibility. When Mama Stucky passes into the Great Beyond …. Ms Freud and I are contemplating taking a month-long road trip to various places we’re considering moving. Ms Freud has never been to the Appalachian states so, seeing some locations will be very essential. Sooooo ……
Hey, does your pond have fish??
money trumps human suffering, perhaps it always has and always will,” the love of money is the root of evil ” no ?
Government power is the root of all evil.
A “slight” variance on the love of money because Government doesn’t exist without the PEOPLE’s MONEY, which gives them the power to take more.
“American Exceptionalism” means never having to atone for the war crimes you have been blatantly committing around the globe (and at home), for the past 160 years.
Sickening, isn’t it that the loss of states’ rights was so easily exchanged for convenience and safety.
Soon, we will have neither as Franklin said.
https://www.ourrepubliconline.com/Author/21
If you’ve not time to watch the whole four minutes, jump to 4 minute mark and consider the question asked about robotic warfare.
My husband taught a young airman in his AWACS Computer Classes who had PTSD from being yanked from training after Keesler AFB assignment and sent to be an “assistant” weapons controller helping guide direct hits on caravans of vehicles in Iraq via remote controlled drone, knowing the caravan had dozens of families with children.
Trying to hit one guy that MIGHT be there.
The good o USA doesn’t give a rats ass about the rules of war. There is NOBODY to enforce these rules. If there were, there would be half the whole USA rotting in jail now, or hanging by a rope. Incidentally, it seems they also don’t care about the rules of the “constitution” as there is NOBODY to enforce those rules either. I am sick of this “support your troops” bullshit, as there is NO ONE in the military that did not volunteer to be there. If anyone thinks these people are their friends, they are incredibly stupid.
Robots will be programmed by the same people who don’t obey any of these international laws TODAY. The US has not given a damn about the Geneva Conventions since Sherman’s march through the south.