Lt General Chuck Pitman, USMC Retired Apologizes--And He's No Murtha
This "Letter of Apology" was written by Lieutenant General Chuck Pitman, US Marine Corps, Retired**: For good and ill, the Iraqi prisoner abuse mess will remain an issue. On the one hand, right thinking Americans will abhor the stupidity of the actions while on the other hand, political glee will take control and fashion this minor event into some modern day massacre.
I humbly offer my opinion here:
I am sorry that the last seven times we Americans took up arms and sacrificed the blood of our youth, it was in the defense of Muslims (Bosnia, Kosovo, Gulf War 1, Kuwait, etc.).
I am sorry that no such call for an apology upon the extremists came after 9/11.
I am sorry that all of the murderers on 9/11 were Islamic Arabs.
I am sorry that most Arabs and Muslims have to live in squalor under savage dictatorships.
I am sorry that their leaders squander their wealth.
I am sorry that their governments breed hate for the US in their religious schools, mosques, and government-controlled media.
I am sorry that Yassar Arafat was kicked out of every Arab country and high-jacked the Palestinian "cause."
I am sorry that no other Arab country will take in or offer more than a token amount of financial help to those same Palestinians.
I am sorry that the USA has to step in and be the biggest financial supporter of poverty stricken Arabs while the insanely wealthy Arabs blame the USA for all their problems.
I am sorry that our own left wing, our media, and our own brainwashed masses do not understand any of this (from the misleading vocal elements of our society like radical professors, CNN and the NY TIMES).
I am sorry the United Nations scammed the poor people of Iraq out of the "food for oil" money so they could get rich while the common folk suffered.
I am sorry that some Arab governments pay the families of homicide bombers upon their death.
I am sorry that those same bombers are brainwashed thinking they will receive 72 virgins in "paradise."
I am sorry that the homicide bombers think pregnant women, babies, children, the elderly and other noncombatant civilians are legitimate targets.
I am sorry that our troops die to free more Arabs from the gang rape rooms and the filling of mass graves of dissidents of their own making.
I am sorry that Muslim extremists have killed more Arabs than any other group.
I am sorry that foreign trained terrorists are trying to seize control of Iraq and return it to a terrorist state.
I am sorry we don't drop a few dozen Daisy cutters on Fallujah.
I am sorry every time terrorists hide they find a convenient "Holy Site."
I am sorry they didn't apologize for driving a jet into the World Trade Center that collapsed and severely damaged Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church - one of our Holy Sites.
I am sorry they didn't apologize for flight 93 and 175, the USS Cole, the embassy bombings, the murders and beheadings of Nick Berg and Daniel Pearl, etc....etc!
I am sorry Michael Moore is American; he could feed a medium sized village in Africa.
America will get past this latest absurdity. We will punish those responsible because that is what we do.
We hang out our dirty laundry for the entire world to see. We move on. That's one of the reasons we are hated so much. We don't hide this stuff like all those Arab countries that are now demanding an apology.
Deep down inside, when most Americans saw this reported in the news, we were like - so what? We lost hundreds and made fun of a few prisoners. Sure, it was wrong, sure, it dramatically hurts our cause, but until captured we were trying to kill these same prisoners. Now we're supposed to wring our hands because a few were humiliated?
Our compassion is tempered with the vivid memories of our own people killed, mutilated and burnt amongst a joyous crowd of celebrating Fallujahans.
If you want an apology from this American, you're going to have a long wait! You have a better chance of finding those seventy-two virgins.
Chuck Pitman
Lieutenant General, USMC
***
Resources: http://www.usmc.mil/genbios2.nsf/0/EA7025F431B3DF8C85256A40007188C6?opendocument
http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/pitman.asp
http://www.hannity.com/forum/showthread.php?referrerid=50368&t=42155
Photo Credit: http://www.juedische.at/_TCgi_Images/
juedische/20050813110110_LtGenChuckPitman.jpg
***
**This has lots of sources listed - though Snopes isn't done investigating whether the author truly was Lt Gen Pitman. Regardless of attribution, the point is an excellent one and should be shared with everyone in this great Country and everyone fighting for freedom. If Lt Gen Pitman didn't write it, I bet he wishes he did. I know I'd be proud to have put words together in such clarity of thought and purpose.
posted by Hairpinandarrow_blog at
5:01 PM
2 Comments:
When will people stop linking 9/11 to the war in Iraq, and using the anger from that day to fuel their arguments for this war. They were NOT the same group. By simply labeling anyone that bombs as a "terrorist" and grouping them together as if they are one country or one unified group is absurd. If that's the case, then you have to also throw in crazy militant groups in the U.S., white supremacists who commit racial assaults...in the end you are grouping together people who don't even like each other. 9/11 had nothing to do with Iraq. And everytime that someone uses it as an excuse for American's to be behaving badly now, it's total crap.
My humble opinion
Dear SnS, The first attack on the World Trade Center WAS made by Iraqi terrorists.
There's not a false statement in Pitman's letter. Click on General Pitman's link (at his name in the blog to see his years of experience, bravery, honors and expertise on international conflicts.) I'm assuming you speak from experience and not from the left wing "talking points" that I thought heard in your response. What is your humble opinion based upon? It came from somewhere.
I wonder if you think that if we "behave badly" that we can cause people to want to kill their own countrymen... like Saddam did. See, I believe that both the religious Islamo Facists and the non religious Facists were blowing up innocents in their own country while jockeying for political power.... and that they maybe didn't like each other, but that they do not like Christians and Jews more. Because of religious history.
The Iraqi public is terrified of its past leaders and we cannot allow the bravery it took for them to come forward to vote, along with the hope that the future holds for them to be in vain again. We would behave really badly if we were to abandon the hope they have for a civilized future.
And, btw, anyone who sets off bombs in a public place IS a terrorist. Whatever group it belongs to. If they are paid by an Islamo Facist then I have to assume they are one too. What you say does not matter, it's what you do that counts.
Wake up and realized that Islamo facists want everyone else dead or at least under their control.
In our country when crazy militant groups go awry of the law, there is a consequence... one that is meant to protect society from the lawlessness of those who create crimes against the citizens of the country.
That's one reason you'll see laws protecting the general public in the USA and why you'll see laws protecting the dictatatorships in Islamo Facist countries.
So, it's not total crap and American's are behaving bravely, giving their lives for something larger than their own personal goals. If you can't see the value in that, I'm sorry for you.
You didn't say where you are from and I haven't checked, but I'm going to guess a couple of things: You are under 40, you are the product of an education system that did not include Civics in the school curriculum, you probably live on one of the coasts and not in the middle of the USA--if you are in the USA at all, you are not a member of a "military" family, you are a member of the Democratic party but you like Ted Kennedy more than Hillary Clinton or Joe Lieberman, you might be a member of a minority group, and you vote according to what the country can do for you, rather than what you can do for your country.
I based these guesses on something in your response, what did you base your response upon? Hope it WAS more than superficial leftist "Talking Points."
Post a Comment
<< Home