When you heard G.I.'s killed kids, were you: Shocked? Sad? Angry?

[Philosoraptor]

Americans are accused of having short attention spans, and when the Abu Ghraib horrors came to light, it had a psychological effect on us all. We all go through stages of shock, denial, rage, sorrow, and sometimes just confusion.

You can't really grasp the horror of being there, but you can imagine that it's your own son who did these things to these innocent people. And you can imagine yourself as a kid, living this nightmare, or worse, imagine it happening to your own child.

Then you see the president him haw around and say he's "troubled" by it, and you see talking heads trying to justify it's context, and you realize that it's probably just one such atrocity out of thousands, and a few days pass, and you get tired of even thinking about it, and it fades into the fog of memory, and the next horror comes along to numb you.

There's really no reason for anyone to be shocked at this revelation, and anyone who read the account or saw the little girl calling for the torture and execution of the American soldiers who did it felt sadness. Then the anger sets in. Anger at war. Anger at the men who created it, and who now maintain it.

When will all this Shock, Sadness and Anger have an effect? How much more can we take as so called decent people?

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Sickened

I don't care about chain-of-command versus independent agents.

I don't care about built-up stress after 3 to 4 rotations.

I don't care about a knee-jerk retaliation for the murder of a popular comrade.

They killed children. A grandfather, double-amputee in a wheelchair holding a Koran. And others.

This is real. These are OUR soldiers.

[Vidar]

2. Very sad, but hardly surprized.

[soothsayer]

19. same here!

[NJCher]

3. I admit I was shocked

I really can't imagine that. I've put off watching the tapes because I know the sad, depressing emotional state will follow me for a long, long time. I will watch it but oh....




Cher

[adriennui]

4. to be honest i felt sad

for the victims and the marines who were forced into this horror by a president who doesn't give a shit about anyone. what is it going to take to get us out of there?

i don't see the light at the end of this damn tunnel.

[Philosoraptor]

6. They would have us believe that we CAN'T stop the wars.

All they ever say is we will finish the job, our resolve is strong, we will never back down, etc. When all they have to do is get the hell out of there.

[Tesla]

7. That's because this group are from the Dark Side!!!

No light can radiate around this guys, they even get past Natural Laws!!!

[izzie]

14. I also felt sad but not shocked.

What is a shock it has not come out before. Bush has set it all up in the things he has done with the world courts and all the rest of the stuff. It become part of how one lives as it passes into society. Plus the armies are not part of our society but a sub-culture and it has been studied that way. Now we not only have gov. armies but private armies. It is a bad thing I think. It is almost like the police and then bounty hunters. Bad way to do business.

[bklyncowgirl]

5. Saddened but not surprised. Angry? Of course.

I had said from the beginning that Iraq was Vietnam with sand.

A modern army cannot fight a guerrilla army in its own country that is supported by the local population. We proved that in Vietnam. The Russians proved that in Afghanistan. Hell, two hundred years ago George Washington's ragtag bunch showed that to the British.

Are the marines to blame for finally snapping under pressure and slaughtering innocent people? Of course. They must stand trial and be punished for this. But it is not where the true blame lies. The true culprits are the powerful men in the White House who saw gold and glory in Iraq and put patriotic young Americans into a situation where they are fighting an invisible enemy with no knowledge of the language or the culture of the country they are occupying.

The happiest day of my life would be the day that Bush and Cheney and Rumsfeld are put on trial for war crimes. That of course won't happen. They will all retire rich and free while the soldiers who snapped under the burden that they placed them under rot in prison.

[Smarmie Doofus]

10. But *misguided*. I think we have to deal with.....

>>>> patriotic young Americans>>>>


the 'misguided' part. And not just the marines but the whole country. Our media, our education system, the culture itself has conspired to produce this debacle and unless reformed, it will conspire to produce more.

It's on automatic.

[marions ghost]

27. agreed

'the culture itself has conspired to produce this debacle...'

That is the hard part that we have to face. Yes the B* administration deserves the primary blame, but
you really have to look at the culture that produced them.

[Smarmie Doofus]

31. That's the daunting part......

>>>>>>Yes the B* administration deserves the primary blame, but
you really have to look at the culture that produced them.>>>>>

..... people here on this part spend so much time ridiculing Bush et. al; and they ARE ridiculous; and repulsive. But he was elected and reelected ( ok... selected and possibly reelected, but he fought much more appealing and capable DEM candidates to a virtual draw in terms of popular votes).

Imagine what the republican machine can do with someone with brains and personal appeal. We've got lots of work ahead of us.

[FloridaPat]

8. This has been going on for 3 years in Iraq and 4 in Afghanistan.

I was upset and angry at the invasion. Nothing has changed except my amazement about how rotten, corrupt and evil the US gov't has become. And apparently always was. This Iraq invasion is a repeat of the Vietnam War.

[Cruzan]

9. Saddened, I suppose. Certainly not shocked.

These things happen, it's a war after all. It's a bloody business and when you've trained a soldier to kill so efficiently and he sees one of his buddies get taken down you should hardly be surprised he might react in kind to the nearest possible target, including children. The stress of combat and witnessing instant, horrible death is something militaries have never figured out how to effectively deal with. And with this war there has been so much of it, and so widely reported, that from a safe distance I've have become a bit deadened to it.

[durrrty libby]

11. I am disgusted, and not surprised at all

I'm quite sure this is not the only incident.

Our govt is not good at many things, but they are good at turning
young boys into killers, and I hold them responsible for
all the horror.

[bowens43]

12. No, yes, yes.

Not shocked.When you give kids a gun and train them to love to kill this is what happens. You can bet this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Sad? yes
Angry, you bet....

[mmonk]

13. Innocent children always die in war.

That's why you don't go to war except as a last resort. The American love for bloodshed is due to no wars being fought on our soil since the civil war and the killing efficiency of today's technology. Throw in the myths of American exceptationalism and the rightwing cult movement that has taken over many areas of the country, and you have what we have now. War with love of an idea of attacking yet another country.

Soldiers know the dark heart and soul of war. That's why you see some dissatifaction in this administration especially among former generals. And since this war is going to be "endless" and is embraced by members of both parties, we have a long road of darkness ahead unless we the people take iniative and say enough is enough. One thing is definite about our future. America will be less repected in the world for another generation. At some point, Nemesis await us all.

[Truthy Nessy]

15. I am angry and also ashamed to be an American

I am also furious at the American press how they are presenting this to the American public. This massacre keeps being reported as 24 civilians "possibly" killed by Marines. They speak of these civilians like they would of houses or dogs. They don't mention that there were children killed as I read in these news excerpts. I also saw a while back pictures of these babies bodies.

Does anyone have the link to those pictures saved?

Here are some news reports on the ages of these children.

"http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-marines27may27,0,7543928.story?page=2&coll=la-home-headlines
THE CONFLICT IN IRAQ
Photos Indicate Civilians Slain Execution-Style
An official involved in an investigation of Camp Pendleton Marines' actions in an Iraqi town cites `a total breakdown in morality

More from Washington Post
The girls killed inside Khafif's house alone were aged 14, 10, 5, 3 and 1

In the house with Ali and his 66-year-old wife, Khamisa Tuma Ali, were three of the middle-aged men of their family, at least one daughter-in-law and four children--4-year-old Abdullah, 8-year-old Iman, 5-year-old Abdul Rahman and 2-month-old Asia"

The two month old baby is alive, after her mother escaped the Marines carrying her baby. The 14 year old girl , 4 year old and 8 year old boys were shot but survived. The news media KNOWS that reporting the children's deaths will really make these murders so much horrible. The news media are doing the reporting as the Bush administration wants to. My brother was a Marine. He is a republican and hates the ragheads and always told me he wanted to see Iraq as a parking lot. We don't speak to each other any more. He said he would shoot me if he saw me ever again.

[DemonFighterLives]

29. What an A-hole brother

Welcome to DU!

:hi:

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

16. realizing the extent of this tragedy

it didn't stop with the killing of innocents. It stained the pscyhes of all those who participated, and will effect all those with whom they come into contact. It reminded me of a pane of glass being shattered in slow motion-you see the initial impact, and then watch as the cracks widen and spread, as shards of sharp glass fly out in all directions.

[Tesha]

17. We've been killing Iraqi kids since at least 1991.

Hundreds of thousands of them.

What else is new?

Tesha

[Philosoraptor]

18. Americans have ALWAYS killed innocent people, from the start.

Nothing new about it at all, but you'd think that no Marine ever killed a kid before by some of the reactions.

[ScreamingMeemie]

20. We're destroying our children...and theirs...in one easy war...

:(

[malaise]

21. Disgusted but

not surprised. I said in 2003 that Iraq would be Vietnam 2.

[barbtries]

22. yes.

shocked, sad, angry.

i believe that war is murder by proxy. the present administration has so, so much blood on their hands. but it saddens me to think about the innocents killed, or being orphaned, and being traumatized. it saddens me to think of the young women and men from my country who are being ruined over there. and maimed physically and killed as well.

and for what those goddam motherfuckers.

[cantstandbush]

23. Sickened, not surprised. And not surprised that there will a quick

swiftboating defense started for the killers and a swiftboat attack against Murtha.
There is no honor in what they did.

I feel saddened for the Marines as well. These kids are thrown into an illegal and unnecessary war to kill people who have done nothing to them or their country and who posed no threat to them or their country prior to our invasion. The Iraqi people must hate the US military for what it has done and continues to do to their women, children, and elderly and any Iraqi man above the age of 13 would not be worth his salt if he did not try to fight back at the invaders. It all a nightmare situation brought to us by the neocon Bushbots and their so-called Christian right leaders and dittoheads. There is enough blame to go around BUT THERE IS NO REAL DEFENSE FOR THIS KIND OF BEHAVIOR BY OUR SOLDIERS.

[w8liftinglady]

24. the night I realized my son had ptsd,he said something about shooting ...

at kids.."don't worry,mom-we aim low with the kids"
My heart bleeds for these Marines and their families-their own private hell created by these murderous bastards in the White House.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

25. Shocked? Far from it. Surprised that it's making such a splash.

Considering the amount of "collateral damage" already inflicted by our heroic troops and the general contempt for life by the military, I'm not shocked at all.

What is surprising is the amount of coverage given to this bit of carnage perpetrated by a band of killers.

Disgusted, as usual, by the politicians and generals bemoaning it as a PR problem rather than an atrocity that they are ultimately responsible for.

[Philosoraptor]

26. It's one of those "Duh" moments.

24? We've killed 24 innocent Iraqis? Good God stop the presses.

[Hubert Flottz]

28. I expected it before Bushco invaded!

I read about the same things that happened when the other Nazis invaded countries.

I'm not calling our troops nazi just their bosses.

[T Wolf]

30. Not at all surprised.

You turn human beings into killing machines and that is what you get. Anyone who has been around military people at all can tell you that there is no "pro-life" perspective in that group. There is no excuse for those crimes and anyone even mentioning "alibis" is condoning the murders.

The fact that it has been covered up for almost a year is just as damning. Amerika is no longer the high point of human civilization.

[emcguffie]

32. Kofi Annan knew what he was saying --

When this stupid war was starting, what got him in so much trouble, was his statement that "War is always a catastrophe." that was it for KA. He's had a really difficult time ever since.

Sort of like the waitress caught between the inefficient kitchen, maybe a little bit dishonest, and the more and more frustrated public who doesn't understand why they can't get their food when all those people who came in so much later have finished their meals.....

It has to be HIMMMMM!!!!!! HIM! It's HIS FAULT!!!

:sarcasm: