Friday, October 10, 2008

"Support the Troops," Juden

This is the army whose troops we are all 'supposed' to blindly 'support:'

The Army later acknowledged one drill sergeant had ordered Handman to remove his yarmulke, which he wore with his uniform, as he ate in a dining hall. Another drill sergeant had called him "Juden" — the German word for Jews.

...Handman began basic training Aug. 29 and soon wrote a letter to his parents in which he said, "I have just never been so discriminated against/humiliated about my religion." He said he feared some of his fellow trainees "wanted to beat the (expletive) out of me... And the only justification they have is because I'm Jewish."

Handman's parents contacted U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., who forwarded their concerns to the Army. Four days after commanders interviewed Handman about being harassed, he was beaten.

Sherry and I watched an intriguing movie about the fundagelicalizing of the armed forces known as Constantine's Sword that this news story forced me to recall. Frightening stuff.

6 comments:

  1. You purchase a copy of Constantine's Sword directly from the filmmakers's at a discount. www.constantinessword.com.

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  2. Who says we should "blindly" support the troops? That's just sloppy speech. No one says this. No one. For chrissake, we have courts martial that put our soldiers in jail. Not even the Army "blindly" supports the Army. That's just nonsense. And, moreover, why was this turned into an anti-"support the troops" post in the first place? There may well be blindness here, but not the eyes to which you refer.

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  3. Anyone who has turned on the Super bowl, fox news, or hell, the Democratic or Republican National Conventions, or the rear end of some very high proportion of SUVs in suburbia has seen commands to "support our troops."

    I say 'blindly' because of the this statement is issued as a command, not as an invitation. If you have been missing this, I don't believe that you have had your finger on the pulse of the American temperament of the past 7 years.

    Yes, we do have a courts martial system and we do have congressional review and we do have other mechanisms of oversight including a 'free press' which makes our system better than many, yet nonetheless, scenarios like this, and the corruption mentioned at a later post, and like Abu Ghraib still occur.

    As our military turns, however slowly or quickly, into an ever larger arena for a singular faith, corruption, and a venue for heinous crimes (that maybe aren't illegal anymore, but are still crimes), it becomes ever more difficult to stomach the yellow ribbons and the commands of the super bowl fly over to 'support our troops.'

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  4. You paint with a brush so broad that humiliation and humanitarianism are indistinguishable.

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  5. Which stroke, exactly, do you take issue with Mr. Precision?

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