Blogtown, PDX

Monday, May 14, 2007

Politics “We Are Not ‘Whiny-Ass’ Babies.”

Posted by Amy J. Ruiz on Mon, May 14 at 10:56 AM

A letter I posted last week—from a Portlander currently stationed in Iraq—blew up over the weekend with comments. The soldier, Aaron, stopped by to respond to some commenters, and is currently going back and forth with Jimmy Kaufmann.

To Mr. Jimmy Kaufmann, ‎
We are not “whiny-ass babies”. We are people who have put ‎our lives on the line for a cause we may or may not believe ‎in. We have seen more death than anyone should for being as ‎young as most of us are. Some of us, myself included, have ‎seen true evil. And we have done a duty that others have ‎refused to do. Respect is not given freely, it is earned, ‎and damnit, I think we’ve earned it. Would you bad mouth a ‎fallen solider with those kind of insults? Better yet, ‎someone who saved the life of the man next to him, but in ‎the process killed four Iraqis? Should he be condemned? ‎Should he be labeled a killer, or a hero?

to which ~~Jimmy Kaufmann~~ Alex-jon replies:

“Should he be labeled a killer, or a hero?”

Killer.

I’m tired of people trying to justify the entire thing. It’s assuming that the right and just path includes killing our enemies in an offensive.

If you’re so liberal and enlightened, tell me why a lot of what you’re saying seems to be a blatant lack of humulity. What you’re doing isn’t for altruism, it isn’t for the better good, it’s for yourself.

Weigh in.

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Comments

So Jimmy Kaufmann, in a kill or be killed situation... You would be killed?

Posted by dsavickas11 | May 14, 2007 11:28 AM

Slander! I'm pretty sure some dude named "Alex-Jon" said those words. My response was less crazy hippy and more lovable cynic.

But to answer dsavickas11, I've had numerous opportunities to either kill or be killed, and so far the tally is 11 kills, 23 been killeds. So I guess the short answer is "most likely."

Posted by Jimmy Kaufmann | May 14, 2007 11:39 AM

Crap! Fixed.

Posted by Amy J. Ruiz | May 14, 2007 12:15 PM

there is something else that made Vietnam fail... lack of support for the people fighting there. I have family that were in Vietnam, and to them it didn't matter that the public did not support the war. It was the people who spit in their faces and called them hateful names when they returned. This is the piece of history that everyone needs to focus on.

Really? We shouldn't focus on the deaths, which were in the hundreds of thousands in Vietnam and are now almost certainly in the hundreds of thousands in Iraq? We should focus on the spitting that never really commonly happened? We should focus on a few soldiers being called baby-killers instead of hundreds of innocent people being tortured by Americans for five straight years? Really?

Posted by focus on spitting | May 14, 2007 12:51 PM

there is something else that made Vietnam fail... lack of support for the people fighting there. I have family that were in Vietnam, and to them it didn't matter that the public did not support the war. It was the people who spit in their faces and called them hateful names when they returned. This is the piece of history that everyone needs to focus on.

Posted by focus on spitting | May 14, 2007 12:52 PM

Focus on spitting, I hear what you're saying, but I think what this soldier is trying to say is that not every soldier has tortured an Iraqi or agrees with it. I come from a large family and many of my cousins joined the army to get out of trouble and try to earn money for school. We shouldn't be angry with the soldiers who were just trying to better their lives, we should be angry with our government for putting them into the position of kill or be killed under false pretenses.

Posted by unpaid intern | May 14, 2007 1:10 PM

Humility. Damn my itchy trigger finger.

Posted by Alex-jon | May 14, 2007 6:55 PM

Seriously, is there any way to organize a "ship stuff to soldiers" thing for Aaron? I'm glad to contribute. If Larry Flynt can do his duty and send the soldiers some pr0n, the least we can do is pass on some other treats to them! C'mon, Merc, let's do this thing!

Posted by Banana Lee Fishbones | May 15, 2007 4:22 PM

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