To No Man’s Land, I thank you for this discusion, and as you see well thinking people allways come some where on the line to gether, well we are all people like this poverty ridden tribes, lets try to stay human, and help them where possible.

And what you wrote about soldiers absolutly thru, slowly they become animals, thats why no wars, if it wash only to keep OUR young men sound in body and mind.

Salutations.

Johannes:

I accept the point you were trying to make. However, the SS were a group agents specifically formed to carry out a brutal policy of ethnic extermination across the whole of Europe. They were not the same as a few Soldiers who threw a small party and took some pictures.

I definitely do not consider the U.S. angelic. Far from it. And I will criticize it where and whenever it deserves it. Iraq is a perfect example of the worst decision we ever made. At the same time, though, when the problems of failed states like Afghanistan spill across their borders affecting people around the globe and drag other nations into it, I find it problematic at best to equate that response to a Nazi blitzkrieg and the systematic extermination of 6 million people in an attempt to produce a master race.

I too have traveled the world and some of the best, most humble and honest people I’ve ever met were in the middle east. However, I have also seen the sheer depravity that many of them live in, while kings and princes absorb the wealth of their people. Many cannot even afford a drink of water simply because they were brought in from other countries to do manual labor and aren’t considered “citizens.” Is it any wonder people under these conditions are susceptible to extreme belief systems like these? Who wouldn’t be? Is it fair to say the United States is soley responsible for the plight of these people? It is no more fair or accurate than it is to say that we are completely innocent.

I appreciate and share your frustration with current events and many of the United States’ actions. But that is not what this article is about. I prefer to see our soldiers as victims of the same militaristic culture you rightly point out. The problem I have with this article is that it assumes that the problem stems from the fact that these people were contractors. I argue that people do all sorts of strange things in war zones regardless of the clothes they wear. Its about how people react to the situation around them and whether or not we, as Americans and human beings, are ready to try and understand human behavior on a more constructive level.

To No Man’s Land, I am not confusing its you, I know soldiers are no angels, but their are bounderys, if they geth surpast thats a blame on the country where this soldiers game from.

I toke the SS as an sample of bad behavior of men in uniform.

I know the Country’s I have traveld them on foot in the end of the 60ties, and my travel impressions of that time are not bad at all, they are not educated, and you never see a woman, they keep them as domestic animals, well its the middle ages, but thats not a reasen to kill them all.

And don’t take your country as the cradle of freedom and civilisation, I know where I am speeking about I am well reed and educated, its never a good thing to put somebody down with who you are discussing an item, never put your self on a high stool, thats bringing you closer to lethargie, on wise speeking.

Salutation

Johannes,

You are confusing two different issues. One is about individual behavior and the other is about national policy. I fail to see how the antics of a few guards equates to the Nazi SS, as popular and overused as that comparison is. I recommend studying the holocaust a bit more closely.

I certainly don’t agree with many of America’s national policies. However, do not confuse my criticism of my country with sympathy for an extreme religious political movement that brutalizes its own people.

I am curious about one thing, though. Where was your outrage when women were being stoned to death in soccer stadiums for peaking out of their burkas? Where was your sense of personal violation when the entire population of Afghanistan was forced into extreme religious servitude at gunpoint and dissenters were summarily executed? Where was your righteous indignation when heads rolled in public squares for educating girls? And as the corruption spread from province to province and the heroin was sold so blissfully to the rest of the world, did you raise your voice? Did you take a stand? And what of the slavery, indentured servitude, and sex trade that is so prevalent throughout the middle east, especially among the royal families? What are you doing about that? Should I accuse all the people of the middle east of being among the SS because a prince likes to have sex with 12 year old boys, or some poor soul from Malasia isn’t allowed to leave Kuwait because his “sponsor” has confiscated his passport until he has declared his debt “paid”?

My guess is that you look happily the other way with respect to all of this—worrying about your own affairs. So do not preach your brand righteousness to me. I am unafraid to criticize not only my government and culture, but any movement I believe to be abusive. If you choose to view the United States as the epicenter for all the world’s problems, perhaps you should get out more. A good party might do you some good too.

By the way. Common ground is found between individuals long before it is ever found between governments. It is simply a matter of being willing to find it. Some people find it in prayer, others in sports. And yes, some people find common ground in the brief escape of a party and through sex. Get over it.

To No Man’s land

With what right are you bringing your filthy criminal non humans to invade other country’s, your thinking of finding comen ground, is creathing graveyards, and also culturel graveyards.

I allways wash with the American’s but with me are lots of people who are seeing the USA becoming a more Facistic militairie power with some soldiers behaving like the good old SS, it is creathing negatief thinking, and put their friends of.

salutation.

sorry for the double post. i posted under an unregisterd name and when i didn’t see my comment, i logged in and posted it again. oops.

I am truly amazed at how shallow this conversation is. This is not about a person’s “status” as a contractor, government employees, members of the military, or any other clothes someone wears. Nor is this about “Frat Boy” antics. On the surface, this is about human behavior and the way various elements of culture, situation, and poor education are expressed through sexuality. This is about how powerlessness, insecurity, absolute boredom, and escape manifest into the dehumanization of not only the enemy but all kinds of people in this world. Its about the ways cultural melding sometimes takes place and how people find common ground in a place where there is none.

This is really more about us though. This is about a puritanical culture that is more offended by human sexuality than the corpses and depravity it creates. This is about an American pulbic that contents itself with watered down sexual education from a high school gym teacher, if it happens at all. This is about a people who won’t bat an eye when a Predator drone levels a wedding, but is moved to act only when their narrow definition and understanding of sexuality is exited. This is about how economic depravity force people into impossible situations, including prostitution and military service to name a couple. This is about Veterans, be they contract, military or otherwise, who will return home unable to discuss anything because of the visceral reaction and intrinsic offense they sense from something as trivial as this when compared to the other events they witnessed or participated in. This is about a public that 30 years from now will still be asking why Veterans can’t talk about their experiences, become homeless, end up in prison, or some other form of social dysfunction.

Finally, this is also about what a horrible role the media plays in any national discussion that should be serious. A word for Micah from “Morning Joe” on MSNBC. You are clearly unqualified to be discussing such a complex subject in any sort of national or public medium. As a national voice, you have a responsibility to elevate the discussion to a higher level of understanding. Whether you like it or not, you are a source of information that people rely on to help them make sense of the world around them. You would do better to save your comments for the block mothers association or to retire to the convent where you may immerse yourself in the faux safety of explicitly defined social order and the sexual propriety you so ardently espouse while you pray the truth of your college days never sees the light of the same.