PROVOCATION

As the investigation and potential courts martial continue for three Navy
SEALs, consider this view of war. For those who have ‘been there and done
that’ it may be of particular interest. I offer no comment; make of this
what you will.

Wall Street Journal
December 23, 2009
Pg. 21

The Real Rules Of War

By Warren Kozak

Five years ago, a particularly gruesome image made its way to our television
screens from the war in Iraq. Four U.S. civilian contractors working in
Fallujah were ambushed and killed by al Qaeda. Their bodies were burned,
then dragged through the streets. Two of the charred bodies were hung from
the Euphrates Bridge and left dangling.

This barbaric act left an impression that our military did not forget: In a
special operation earlier this year, Navy SEALs captured the mastermind of
that attack, Ahmed Hashim Abed. But after he was taken into custody in
September, Abed claimed he was punched by his captors. He showed a fat lip
to prove it. Three of the SEALS are now awaiting courts-martial on charges
ranging from assault to dereliction of duty and making false statements.

This incident and its twisted irony takes me back to an oddly serene setting
many years ago. When I was in college, I joined my parents on a trip to
retrace my father’s wartime experience in Europe. We drove from France,
through Holland and Belgium and on to Germany-the same route he had taken
with the U.S. Army in 1944-45. At a field outside the Belgian town of
Malmedy, we got out of our rented car where my father described something I
had never heard before.

During the Battle of the Bulge, in the bleak December of 1944, the Germans
had quickly overrun the American lines. They took thousands of prisoners as
they pushed through in a last chance gamble to turn the war around. One
unit, part of the First SS Panzer Division, had captured over a hundred GIs.
They were moving fast, and they didn’t care to be burdened by prisoners. So
the SS troops put the American soldiers in that field and mowed them down
with machine guns.

Around 90 Americans were killed in that barrage. The Germans then walked
through the tangle of bodies, shooting those who were still alive in the
back of the head. The few that survived were brought to where my father was
located in the nearby town of Liege where word of the massacre quickly
spread.

My father was never a talker. And in spite of the fact that we were on a
trip to look at his past, he didn’t open up much, or couldn’t. When I asked
him what the reaction was among the U.S. troops, he answered without
emotion: “We didn’t take prisoners for two weeks.” I immediately understood
what he meant, and had the sense not to press the issue any further. I just
looked out at the field, now green and peaceful on a beautiful summer day,
and realized he was looking at the same field and seeing something quite
different.

In the weeks following the Malmedy massacre, U.S. troops clearly broke the
rules of the Geneva Conventions. Justified or not, they were technically
guilty of war crimes.

My guess is that the American correspondents imbedded with those troops knew
all about this and chose not to report it. So did their officers. They
understood the gravity of the war, as well as the absolute importance of its
outcome. And they understood that disclosing this information might
ultimately help the enemy. In other words, they used common sense. Was the
U.S. a lesser country because these GIs weren’t arrested? Was the
Constitution jeopardized? Somehow it survived.

You don’t have to dig too deep to understand that war brings out behavior in
people that they would never demonstrate in normal life. In Paul Fussell’s
moving memoir, “The Boys’ Crusade,” the former infantryman relates a story
about the liberation of Dachau. There were about 120 SS guards who had been
captured by the Americans. Even though the Germans were being held at
gunpoint, they still had the arrogance-or epic stupidity-to continue to heap
verbal abuse and threats on the inmates. Their American guards, thoroughly
disgusted by what they had already witnessed in the camp, had seen enough
and opened fire on the SS. Some of the remaining SS guards were handed over
to the inmates who tore them limb from limb. Another war crime? No doubt.
Justified? It depends on your point of view. But before you weigh in,
realize that you didn’t walk through the camp. You didn’t smell it. You
didn’t witness the obscene horror of the Nazis.

Rules of war are important. They are something to strive for as they
separate us from our distant ancestors. But when only one side follows these
rules, they no longer elevate us. They create a very unlevel field and more
than a little frustration. It is equally bizarre for any of us to judge
someone’s behavior in war by the rules we follow in our very peaceful
universe. We sit in homes that are air-conditioned in the summer and warmed
in the winter. We have more than enough food in our bellies and we get
enough sleep. The stress in our lives won’t ever match the stress of battle.
Can we honestly begin to decide if a soldier acted in compliance with rules
that work perfectly well on Main Street but not, say, in Malmedy or
Fallujah?

In his book, Mr. Fussell probably sums up the feelings of many soldiers when
he quotes a British captain, John Tonkin, who experienced a great deal of
the war. “I have always felt,” Capt. Tonkin said, “that the Geneva
Convention is a dangerous piece of stupidity, because it leads people to
believe that war can be civilized. It can’t.”

Mr. Kozak is the author of “LeMay: The Life and Wars of General Curtis
LeMay” (Regnery, 2009).

Michelle Obama trip…….Interesting Information! ….It explains a lot!

I had not even thought about the reason Michelle didn’t do the whole trip with Obama until reading this.

I do not know who originated this message, but it sure is a possible explanation.

I was at Blockbusters on Saturday renting videos, and I was going along the wall and there was a video called “Obama”.
I told the men next to me that I wouldn’t waste my time.
We started talking about Obama.
These guys were Arabs, and I asked them why they thought Michele Obama headed home following her visit in France instead of traveling on to Saudi Arabia and Turkey with her husband.

They said she couldn’t go to Saudi Arabia , Turkey or Iraq .
I said “Laura Bush went to Saudi Arabia , Turkey , Dubai.”
They answered, “Obama is a Muslim, and by Muslim law, he would not be allowed to bring his wife into the countries that accept Sharia Law.”

Just thought it was interesting that the Arabs at Blockbuster’s accept the idea that we’re being led by a Muslim … who follows the Islamic creed.

They also said that’s the reason he bowed to the King of Saudi Arabia .. It was a signal to the Muslim world. Just thought you would like to know.

Odd, I thought HE SAID he was a Christian.

Now he wouldn’t lie to us would he?