Jay Redding has a tribute to the three identified men who were killed in Fallujah a couple days ago. As I first saw from Bill Hobbs, leftist blogger Kos doesn't care that these men were burnt, killed, mutilated, and desecrated.
They aren't in Iraq because of orders, or because they are there trying to help the people make Iraq a better place. They are there to wage war for profit. Screw them.I'd like to point out that that I, myself, am in a similar position. I'm not in the military, but I work in the defense industry. I make money doing it -- more than our brave soldiers make -- but it's not all about the money. I'm proud to use my education and abilities to further "American hegemony", because that means encouraging democracy, capitalism, and liberty all over the world, including Iraq. I don't carry a rifle or push buttons to launch missiles, but I'm doing my part to equip our military with the tools it needs to carry out its mission.
Are you, Kos, indifferent to my life as well? Well screw you.
Update:
It looks like Kos has changed/removed the post in question. Here's a screenshot, via IP.
I refuse even to call him "Kos." I prefer Kotze, which is German for "puke."
Why get your knickers in a twist over a moronic leftist scumbag? He's about to lose most of his readership and most of his advertisers, be written down as a major cad without even brains enough to conceal his darker nature, and generally sink into the Slough of Internet Irrelevance. Chuckle, point him out to your spratlings as a bad example, and pass on.
Or, to put it more succinctly: Screw him.
FWP: A bold prediction. Hmmm... I'll keep my eyes open, but I doubt he'll suffer the dire consequences you've listed off.
He probably meant to delete the post, but all he's actually done is bury it. You can still find it by following this link and scrolling down about 19 screens - or just hit <ctrl>-F and search for the term "screw."
Actually, his commenters are giving him a big "right on, Bro... remember Rachel Corrie."
I don't think this will hurt him in the least. Well, except for the ad revenue, which will be down for a while, until this all blows over. Then it will be forgot.
That's the rule. A Republican jaywalks, he is damned forever. A lefty commits a major gaff (like quitting the KKK but forgetting to abstain from dropping N-bombs; or making hay off mutilated dead defense contractors) and it's no biggie once the furor blows over.
I suppose that's the consequence of adhering to standards.
I hope you will help me stick it to Kos's advertisers.
http://michael-friedman.com/archives/000311.html
Kos clarifies what he was thinking here. See also his own post on the tragedy (the quote is from a comment that he made to someone else's post as his site allows users to enter their own entries). The comment that he got in trouble for was definitely not his best work to put it lightly.
To your own concern as to whether Kos is indifferent to your own life, I think its safe to say that that isn't the case. His beef is with the mercenaries who don't have to follow any of the rules that the military has to and make obscene amounts of money as guns for hire.
One of the things that I really like about the blogosphere is that people say what they are really thinking. There is no filtering due to an editor or for fear of a firestorm. It has helped me see how people who don't agree with me think much better than anything else out there. With blogads and what not, the medium is starting to get corporatized, but there are still many great outlets out there.
As I see it, there is a parallel to the brou hau hau caused by the Rachel Corrie incident. There were a lot of people who seemed to have celebrated her death which I found a little difficult to stomach, but I kept reading.
I hope that people won't participate in the ad boycott. I'm personally against this kind of thing whether it applies to Rush or to Kos.
People around these parts trashed Rachael Corrie for two reasons. One, she hated the country that I love so dearly. Two, she sided with people who purposely murder innocent women and children. To me, and many others, there was nothing honorable about her stay here on this planet.
The four men who were killed were all ex-military. Men who gave more and risked more for this country than a 100 of the deadbeats of the left. They deserve respect, in life and in death. The statements made are sickening, but not surprising. The worst tragedy out there is that a singe soldier dies to protect the freedoms of scum like Kos.
Manish: Kotze's follow up post was not much better than the original. He should apologize for the entry in its entirety. Instead he repeated the "mercenary" libel, as did you. For shame.
XRLQ: Spare me the moral indignation. You've added the "suicidal libel" (as you might refer to it) to Rachel Corrie yourself. But of course, its o.k. to refer to Corrie that way, but not o.k. to refer to the people who died in Iraq as mercenaries. And you absolutely exude maturity be refering to Kos as kotze..has anyone mentioned that to you?
Luka..You're repeating the tired "Anyone who disagrees with me, hates America" line. Israel has killed far more Palestinian civilians than Palestinian suicide bombers have killed Israeli's..neither side is innocent in all of this. And quite frankly, America never destroyed the home of Tim McVeigh's, Terry Nichols, or Eric Rudolph's family..why do we condon Israel doing so?
Manish: No, Israel hasn't killed more Palestinians... Palestinians have. And we didn't destroy the homes of domestic American terrorists because their families weren't supporting and facilitating their actions, nor were their communities or local governments. It's a totally different situation.
Michael..Palestinian deaths are under-reported in the Western media. FAIR has an article about a particular incident here. According to this article there have been 2926 Palestinians killed and 898 Israelis since 2000. My point is that neither side is innocent in all of this, not to compare death tolls.
And even if family members were involved in a terrorist strike in the US (and Terry Nichols brother definitely seemed sympathetic to what Nichols did) we would not tear down their home. We would get an arrest warrant, charge them, give them a fair trial, sentence them and give them the right to appeal if warranted. At some point Israel will have to realize that two wrongs don't make a right and that their actions like tearing down homes and conducting military strikes in civilian areas fan the flames rather than quell them. They certainly have not been successful with these tactics to date and America gets tarred by those actions on the Arab street as a staunch allie and aid giver.
Manish: nice try. Real mercenaries fight wars as professionals. These guys didn't; their job was to guard food, of all things. Real mercenaries owe no allegiance to any nation, and will fight for the highest bidder. These guys would never have worked for the remnants of Saddam's regime, or any other group hostile to the U.S. So if you don't see the difference between them and "mercenaries," I have to question whether you really want to see it.
Rachel Corrie is a totally different matter. She knowingly and deliberately placed herself in the path of an oncoming bulldozer to protect a terrorist house. Her death was proximately caused by her own suicidal behavior. Thus, there is nothing "libelous" about describing her death that way.
Your last example, calling Markos Zuniga's site the "Daily Kotze," is the silliest of all. Unless you can find any reader who interprets my statement as a serious representation that Zuniga literally barfs on his computer every day, it doesn't even belong in a discussion about libel.
Manish: You brought up death tolls, not me. But you don't seem to realize that Israel and America are in qualitatively different positions: they're at war, we're not.
Michael...Israel can't have it both ways. They can't on the one hand open their borders every day to the Palestinians to go and work for their companies and then claim that they are at war with them. They can't build settlements and occupy a country and then claim that they are at war. Even the US is issuing warrants for people in Iraq. And even with the overhyped war on drugs, we still bestow most of the rights that accused should be getting under the Constitution. Simply saying that "we're at war" is not an excuse for vigilante justice.
If Israel truly wants to be at war, they should declare that they are at war and seal the border and evacuate the settlements or they should proclaim victory, annex the land and bestow Israeli Citizenship to the people of the occupied territories. Instead, Israel is at peace when it suits them and at war when that suits them better.
Manish: Oh please, if Israel did that all the bleading-heart anti-semites in the world (read: Europe) and the virulent anti-Zionists (read: all Islamic nations) would flare up instantly. Israel is fighting a war under severe political restraints, because it's only hope of staving off external interference is to look like it's playing along with the "road to peace" or whatever it's called these days.
We're not at war with Iraq anymore, and we have total control of the government apparatus. Israel doesn't have that control in the Palestinian areas -- the Palestinian police forces are basically terrorist thugs who are actively working to destroy Israel.
But don't worry! As soon as Israel finishes their fence around the West Bank they plan to lock the doors as you suggest and pull completely out of both the West Bank and Gaza.
if Israel did that all the bleading-heart anti-semites in the world (read: Europe) and the virulent anti-Zionists (read: all Islamic nations) would flare up instantly.
I presume you are refering to annexation. Actually one of the reasons that Israel won't do that is because the Palestinians are close to outnumbering the Israeli's and have a higher birth rate. This is one of the reasons cited for why Sharon did a 180 on pulling out of the occupied territories. He wanted to do so before the Palestinians started calling for annexation.
I'm not sure what your threshold for being "at war" is but the US is certainly more "at war" than Israel. Since "Mission Accomplished", we've certainly taken more casualties than Israel has. By government control, are you talking about places like Fallujah? Israel and the US are both occupying another country. The IGC is a group that the US does control, but it doesn't necessarily have control over the rank-and-file nor does the IGC have control over the entire country in any meaningful way, though it does have control over certain areas.
In terms of Palestinian police being terrorist thugs, it comes down to believing what you want to believe. The Israeli's claim that this is the case, the Palestinians deny it. There probably are rogue elements as to whether there are orders from the top is anyone's guess.
The problem with the fence is that it encroaches on Palestinian territory. And the plan is to only pull out of Gaza completely and the West Bank partially (or is that the other way around). And no, they can't simply close the gates. The Israeli economy is highly dependent on Palestinian labour and the little economic activity in the occupied territories is driven by Palestinians with jobs in Israel. Ironically, both countries need each other.