Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Stupid War, Stupid Lies; Stupid Lies about a Stupid War

From Editor and Publisher:
Now we learn that one of the first female soldiers killed in Iraq died by her own hand after objecting to interrogation techniques used on prisoners.

She was Army specialist Alyssa Peterson, 27, a Flagstaff, Az., native serving with C Company, 311th Military Intelligence BN, 101st Airborne. Peterson was an Arabic-speaking interrogator assigned to the prison at our air base in troubled Tal-Afar in northwestern Iraq. According to official records, she died on Sept. 15, 2003, from a “non-hostile weapons discharge.”

[...]

“Peterson objected to the interrogation techniques used on prisoners. She refused to participate after only two nights working in the unit known as the cage. Army spokespersons for her unit have refused to describe the interrogation techniques Alyssa objected to. They say all records of those techniques have now been destroyed….”

She was was then assigned to the base gate, where she monitored Iraqi guards, and sent to suicide prevention training. “But on the night of September 15th, 2003, Army investigators concluded she shot and killed herself with her service rifle,” the documents disclose.
A couple things here: for some reason I have been unable to ascertain, this war, or at least how it has been portrayed on television, has been essentially bloodless. In fact, until recently, the media hasn't been able to show pictures of caskets containing the remains of our dead coming home.

I have a problem with that.

Wars kill people.

Let me say that again in a different way: when nations go to war, people die.

Got it?

So, when a government hides the manner in which their servicemen and women die, it should make people wonder why they are withholding that information. What does the administration have to gain by keeping the cause of this woman's death secret? What about Pat Tillman's?

While I write a blog about Stupidity, I am not a stupid person. I know that there will be few people who will demand their government be honest with them. I mean, we haven't for the past six years, have we? Those who have demanded such a thing have been called "traitors" and "America haters" by those sheeple who prefer to remain ignorant (and who, in an odd twist of fate, also have the biggest mouths by far).

If the administration would lie about these relatively insignificant things*, what wouldn't they lie about?

Oh...wait....I think we haven't reached the bottom of the barrel of what they'll lie about.

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*For the record (and I include this because somebody's going to pooh their pants saying The Stupid Girl said the death of our servicemembers is insignificant), the death of any human being is not insignificant. The death of any of my brothers and sisters affects me and the family of humans. However, while their deaths are significant, the manner of their death is merely a small detail relative to the fact that they died in a war.

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