I'm not done with this. I've read the posts and gotten into some fisticuffs and I can't believe what I'm reading on dkos. Do you really believe that these four guys deserve what they got? Or as Morpheus puts it in a
post :
These HIGHLY PAID MERCENARIES were killed doing what they were paid handsomely for - paid enough each DAY, I might add, that the US could outfit a new GI with an armored vest, making 30 vests per month per mercenary . They're such great Americans, aren't they, these mercenaries?
So, to anyone - living or dead - who is in Iraq FOR PROFIT and thereby denying American GI's badly needed armor, I don't say screw them.
I say FUCK them up their greedy asses
Is that what you believe?
I for one don't and I have to believe that there are more kossians that aren't willing to let those who agree with Morpheus have the last word. Maybe some context will help.
Hamster finds that one of the "greedy bastards" who should be "FUCKed up the ass" was a local boy:
Aloha Dela Rosa, Batalona's younger sister, said her husband, Fredo, tried to talk Batalona out of going to Iraq at a February birthday party for a family member in Haina. It was the day before Batalona left the Big Island for the Middle East.
Batalona, who lived with his wife, June, in Pa'auilo, wouldn't consider staying home, his sister said.
"He said, 'Braddah, you know, it's not your life. I gotta go,'" Aloha Dela Rosa recalled. "He was worried about the (Iraqi) kids up there. He said he needed to be there to help them."
A couple of points:
- I was deeply offended by kos' remark and now I am frankly appalled at the type of comments it has elicited from the likes of Morpheus. And I'm ashamed of the enabling I see from the kos community in the posts. The kos community should be better than this. We are not the rightwing; we should be held to a higher standard and if we don't do it, who will? In my opinion, comments like the one above from Morpheus are beneath contempt and shows that Kerry was right to distance himself from it.
- Those of you that prefer to stand by Kos and Morpheus, here's the litmus test: Are you so willng to stand by their words that you are willing to write Batalona's family and repeat what Kos and Morpheus wrote? I bet a little internet search or two will turn up his family's address. If you aren't, I would bet it's because it's easy to say "FUCK them up the ass" or "screw them" in the abstract, but it's a lot tougher to say it to a grieving mother or wife or child. It's a lot harder to dismiss someone else's life when you actually find out they had one.
- As for Batalona and other "mercenaries," it is ridiculous to claim that they somehow denied the regular troops badly needed armor. That would be the fault of Rumsfield, the joint chiefs, and ultimately the commander in chief. As we all know by now, they were working on this from day one. They had plenty of time to plan this one right and they didn't. The fault is theirs, not Batalona's.
- I'm surprised at the poor level of discourse around the subject of mercenaries. I've yet to see anyone ask why is there even a market for ex-military like Batalona. Kossians should know better than most that it's because there aren't enough troops in Iraq. Why? Umm, that would be the fault of Rumsfield, the joint chiefs, and ultimately the commander in chief.
- Kos, you're ex-military. Do you honestly believe that Batalona and other ex-military went to Iraq solely "FOR PROFIT," as Morpheus so emphatically puts it? Or could it be that some are patriotic ex-military who were hoodwinked by Bush's bullshit and thought they could do some good?
- Batalona and his colleagues are there because our leaders decided not to send enough troops to do the job right. These guys are pawns just like the regular troops are, pushed around the board by a radical ideology that has endangered our troops and tried to outsource warfighting as if it was another market-driven corporate enterprise. And for this administration, it probably is.
- I've read quite a number of people say that this is kos' blog, so he can do what he wants. Not anymore it isn't. He gave it to us to make it a community out of. Otherwise, why Scoop? Why Diaries? Why Comments? This isn't Instapundit. We aren't called kossians for nothing.
I expect to have the usual suspects come out and tell me to fuck off, or go away if I'm so ashamed, etc. If Morpheus speaks for all of you, then I will. But I gotta believe this place is better than that.