senseiman said:
Kidnapped? No. But the overwhelming majority of Iraqis held by coalition forces are innocent of any crime (60% according to the US military, 90% according to the red cross). They have just been 'swept up' (ie grabbed off the street) in big securtiy operations because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. There is no presumption of innocence or right to legal counsel, the troops can just grab whoever they want at any time, which is pretty much tantamount to kidnapping. Given the massive difference in scale (thousands vs. dozens) I would say that the coalition has little right to be taking the moral high ground.
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When you say 'held' what exactly do you mean? I bet it's a bit of a step away from being paraded around with blindfolds on, or told to read messages to your home country to try and get them to pull out of the country. Or being executed.
For starters, the only Iraqi TV channel is run by the Americans. Secondly, no TV channel has shown the images of people being executed, they have all cut the footage before the actual killings. Thirdly, pretty much all the US and European networks showed the EXACT SAME footage of the hostages as the Arab networks did. I'm afraid your ignorant racism and bigotry are not supported by the facts on this one, unless you are saying that Europe and the US are primitive, backwards, religion-inspired cultures too.
According to the last I heard from the news on TV here, there was a video shown on the TV.
If I'm wrong, then I apologise and take that back.
However, the mere fact that they show some of the tape with the terrorist's demands on it is cooperating with them anyway. They know very well that the rest of the world will see that part of the tapes and that many people in Iraq will cheer when they see it aswell.
Also, if it's true that they haven't shown the videos of the westerners being executed, yet are happy to show the deaths of Iraqis, it shows double standards on their part. They claim not to have shown the death of the Italian security guard because it was 'too gruesome' but I suspect the real reason is because he struggled to get his blindfold off, said something similiar to 'you want to kill an italian? I will show you how an italian dies...' to stare the terrorists in the eyes before they killed him.
Europe and the US aren't backward, religion-inspired cultures, on the whole (I can't say that for the Bible Belt) and this is evident from more than just what we show on TV. I fail to see the racism or bigotry. If I said 'all Iraqis are scum because they are Iraqi' then that would be racism.
The demand of "The Italian government should apologize in the name of its prime minister on Arabic news channels for all its actions against Islam and Muslims." made by the 'Mujahedeen Brigade' is good enough example of the difference in culture. Islam needs to be wiped off the face of the earth for humanity's sake.
I said nothing of the sort. I used to be a soldier myself and I know that if I was in their shoes I would have been disgusted by what went on in those prisons. Those were not "front line soldiers", they were MPs (rear-echelon troops in military jargon) working in a fortified prison camp. They were not gloating over the corpses of Iraqis they had just killed in a tense firefight, they were gloating over the corpses of unarmed, bound and gagged Iraqis they had just beaten to death for their own sick pleasure. These gaurds were absolute scum of the earth and I make no distinction between them and the Al-quaida scum who cut the head off of that Korean contractor. Murderous scum is murderous scum.
I meant that your own post was an explanation of the difference.
I'm aware that the first lot of pictures had REMF's in them but not the more recent ones. Still, I don't see the big deal over it. Unless you're telling me that the Iraqi's in the photos were innocent people. And I've yet to see any evidence of actual torture on UK TV/newspapers. How do you know they were beaten to death by those people?
As for that nonexistant god, every American and British troops who prays to get out of that hellhole alive is praying to the same god.
I doubt it, but nevermind.