Prove America is Great and Honorable
The United States of America is, in my opinion, the greatest country in the world. It is full of genuinely good people. I see them everywhere I go. Down to earth, honest to goodness gentle, loving people who are kind to one another, helpful and caring to the core of their being.
The great freedoms and success enjoyed by the citizens of the United States of America are not what caused this country to be so full of such good people. It's the other way around. We are great as a nation, and we enjoy such freedom and success because of the good people of this country.
It's not that this great country attracts good people, even though this is true. Rather, it's that good people keep this country on the right track.
But with all this goodness and freedom, it is also true that there are evil people in this country. There are heinous crimes committed all the time, gruesome murders that defy comprehension.
Thankfully, these crimes are the exception and not the norm. People wouldn't be flocking to this country from all over the world if brutal murders were a common, accepted part of American life.
We also have the greatest military in the world, perhaps the greatest military that has ever existed. Is there any that can withstand its might? And with all this dominant power our military conducts itself with unprecedented honor and humaneness. Ours goes out of its way more than any other military in history to avoid killing innocent civilians. We design our weapons and our tactics with this ideal as one of our top priorities.
What other military can legitimately make this claim?
Even while fighting an enemy that hides itself among civilians and actually targets civilians, we stay true to this lofty and honorable ideal. Again I ask, what other country or military can compare to this?
But just like our general population full of genuinely good people, our military population is bound to have a very small percentage of evil people. Certainly there are those in the military who, without any moral compass or guiding goodness, would commit brutal crimes against humanity.
So it is no surprise that in open warfare there will be occasions where genuinely evil people mixed in with the population of genuinely good military personnel will commit horrible crimes hoping the fog of war will provide them cover - especially in urban warfare where battles rage in the midst of civilian populations.
But the fact that it is understandable on a statistical level makes in no more acceptable on any level.
Reading the story on Townhall.com about the arrest of U.S. Soldiers for the rape and murder of an Iraqi girl and the murder of her mother, father, and little sister sickens me more than I know how to describe.
What kind of sick, twisted mind would premeditate this crime? What kind of sick, twisted mind would go along with a freak who suggested such a thing? Perhaps everything that happened wasn't premeditated. Maybe they didn't intend to murder from the beginning. But apparently they intended to rape from the beginning! And only a sick, twisted (have I said that enough?) mind would allow itself to go so out of control as these men allegedly did.
Now, there have been other claims of brutality on the part of the U.S. during this war. But usually those claims prove to be either entirely false or laughably overstated. But something in my gut tells me this one may be true.
I hope I'm wrong. I will not try to consider these soldiers innocent until proven guilty. I actually WILL consider them innocent until they have been proven guilty. They deserve that. We all deserve that.
But if this IS true, I hope the punishment is very extreme and very public. I hope the President addresses this particular case publicly, emotionally, and forcefully. It cannot be ignored by the administration or swept aside with token attention.
We are the greatest country in the world. We have the greatest military in the world. We are a force for good in the world. This case damages our country in the eyes of the world and in the hearts of our very own citizens.
And it should.
The burden we now have is to prove that we still are the greatest country in the world. We have to prove that this crime is not acceptable to the United States of America. We have to prove to the world that we are different. It has to be clear to everyone at the end of the day that in the United States of America this kind of behavior is abhorent, unusual, and despicable.
Our enemies will be using this incident, proven or not, to paint all of America as brutal murderers. We will be described as unholy imperialists trying to take the world over by force.
I encourage everyone to consider a few things when listening to such garbage:
What does your heart tell you? Does it tell you that America is an evil regime? A danger to the rest of the world? Or, generally, does America try to do good in the world?
Has your experience in the United States been one of brutality on a regular basis? Or, like me, would you have to say that nearly everyone you know is a genuinely good person and you feel unusually blessed to be lucky enough to live here?
What does it tell you about someone who would take an isolated instance of pure evil and use it to portray an overwhelmingly good country as evil? I remember my freshman trigonometry teacher, Mrs. Watkins, telling us to be very wary of statistical presentations and to ALWAYS CONSIDER THE SOURCE of every argument.
I hate that this brutal, evil crime happened. My God, we are trying to save those people not brutalize them!
But I still love this country. I still believe in our core values. I still believe that we are trying to accomplish very worthy goals in Iraq and the Middle East.
For those that agree with me, I encourage you to be strong and steadfast in your beliefs. Do not be discouraged by the coming onslaught of "America is the bad guy" rhetoric. Rather, be more determined to rebuke such nonsense.
Let us prove we are the greatest country in the world by rejecting the actions of these soldiers but also by not losing our resolve to complete the work set before us. Let us prove to our allies that we can be counted on. Let us prove to our enemies that we will continue the fight and not be discouraged.
Update:
Sweetness and Light had much more on this story a couple of days earlier.
The great freedoms and success enjoyed by the citizens of the United States of America are not what caused this country to be so full of such good people. It's the other way around. We are great as a nation, and we enjoy such freedom and success because of the good people of this country.
It's not that this great country attracts good people, even though this is true. Rather, it's that good people keep this country on the right track.
But with all this goodness and freedom, it is also true that there are evil people in this country. There are heinous crimes committed all the time, gruesome murders that defy comprehension.
Thankfully, these crimes are the exception and not the norm. People wouldn't be flocking to this country from all over the world if brutal murders were a common, accepted part of American life.
We also have the greatest military in the world, perhaps the greatest military that has ever existed. Is there any that can withstand its might? And with all this dominant power our military conducts itself with unprecedented honor and humaneness. Ours goes out of its way more than any other military in history to avoid killing innocent civilians. We design our weapons and our tactics with this ideal as one of our top priorities.
What other military can legitimately make this claim?
Even while fighting an enemy that hides itself among civilians and actually targets civilians, we stay true to this lofty and honorable ideal. Again I ask, what other country or military can compare to this?
But just like our general population full of genuinely good people, our military population is bound to have a very small percentage of evil people. Certainly there are those in the military who, without any moral compass or guiding goodness, would commit brutal crimes against humanity.
So it is no surprise that in open warfare there will be occasions where genuinely evil people mixed in with the population of genuinely good military personnel will commit horrible crimes hoping the fog of war will provide them cover - especially in urban warfare where battles rage in the midst of civilian populations.
But the fact that it is understandable on a statistical level makes in no more acceptable on any level.
Reading the story on Townhall.com about the arrest of U.S. Soldiers for the rape and murder of an Iraqi girl and the murder of her mother, father, and little sister sickens me more than I know how to describe.
What kind of sick, twisted mind would premeditate this crime? What kind of sick, twisted mind would go along with a freak who suggested such a thing? Perhaps everything that happened wasn't premeditated. Maybe they didn't intend to murder from the beginning. But apparently they intended to rape from the beginning! And only a sick, twisted (have I said that enough?) mind would allow itself to go so out of control as these men allegedly did.
Now, there have been other claims of brutality on the part of the U.S. during this war. But usually those claims prove to be either entirely false or laughably overstated. But something in my gut tells me this one may be true.
I hope I'm wrong. I will not try to consider these soldiers innocent until proven guilty. I actually WILL consider them innocent until they have been proven guilty. They deserve that. We all deserve that.
But if this IS true, I hope the punishment is very extreme and very public. I hope the President addresses this particular case publicly, emotionally, and forcefully. It cannot be ignored by the administration or swept aside with token attention.
We are the greatest country in the world. We have the greatest military in the world. We are a force for good in the world. This case damages our country in the eyes of the world and in the hearts of our very own citizens.
And it should.
The burden we now have is to prove that we still are the greatest country in the world. We have to prove that this crime is not acceptable to the United States of America. We have to prove to the world that we are different. It has to be clear to everyone at the end of the day that in the United States of America this kind of behavior is abhorent, unusual, and despicable.
Our enemies will be using this incident, proven or not, to paint all of America as brutal murderers. We will be described as unholy imperialists trying to take the world over by force.
I encourage everyone to consider a few things when listening to such garbage:
What does your heart tell you? Does it tell you that America is an evil regime? A danger to the rest of the world? Or, generally, does America try to do good in the world?
Has your experience in the United States been one of brutality on a regular basis? Or, like me, would you have to say that nearly everyone you know is a genuinely good person and you feel unusually blessed to be lucky enough to live here?
What does it tell you about someone who would take an isolated instance of pure evil and use it to portray an overwhelmingly good country as evil? I remember my freshman trigonometry teacher, Mrs. Watkins, telling us to be very wary of statistical presentations and to ALWAYS CONSIDER THE SOURCE of every argument.
I hate that this brutal, evil crime happened. My God, we are trying to save those people not brutalize them!
But I still love this country. I still believe in our core values. I still believe that we are trying to accomplish very worthy goals in Iraq and the Middle East.
For those that agree with me, I encourage you to be strong and steadfast in your beliefs. Do not be discouraged by the coming onslaught of "America is the bad guy" rhetoric. Rather, be more determined to rebuke such nonsense.
Let us prove we are the greatest country in the world by rejecting the actions of these soldiers but also by not losing our resolve to complete the work set before us. Let us prove to our allies that we can be counted on. Let us prove to our enemies that we will continue the fight and not be discouraged.
Update:
Sweetness and Light had much more on this story a couple of days earlier.
posted by Greg at 8:19 AM
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