Vertigo
You shouldn't keep souvenirs of a killing. You shouldn't have been that sentimental.
--Vertigo (1958), Hitchcock
_________
On rhetorical police, deconstructing a random article on Iraq from last week ("Troops Kill Scores of Insurgents"). Topic: defining al Qaida in Iraq (AQI):
[1] The subhead says, "Iraq battles involve al-Qaida militants." O.k. -- Ranger agrees; they are militants.
[2] "Iraq's Defense Ministry said in an e-mail Sunday afternoon that Iraqi soldiers had killed 44 terrorists over the past 24 hours. The operations were centered on Salahuddin and Diyala provinces and around the city of Kirkuk, where the ministry said its soldiers had killed 40 and arrested eight. It said 52 fighters were arrested altogether."
The Army arrested eight. If the Army was involved and the 52 were "fighters," then wouldn't they be "captured" (not arrested), and wouldn't (shouldn't) the Geneva Conventions apply?
Conflict: are they terrorists or militants?
[3] "In a separate operation, U.S. forces killed two insurgents and detained 21 others during weekend operations to disrupt al-Qaida in Iraq networks in the Tigris River Valley."
This indicates that AQI is insurgent, since the killed reflected an action to disrupt AQI.
In this one small AP article, AQI is alternately militant, terrorist and insurgent.
Ranger would feel a lot better if he knew what his Army was doing in Iraq.
Labels: insurgent labels, militant, terrorist
posted by rangeragainstwar at 5:10 AM
5 Comments:
when i hear these reports, and watch the renewed fascination with the odious body count i can't help but flash on the old vietnam boonie rat joke which made it into full metal jacket.
"it's easy to tell them apart. if they run, they're VC. if they don't run, they're well disciplined VC."
line of departure lads, rock and roll.
I think our Army would feel better if THEY knew exactly what they were doing in Iraq.
How can the AQI be "insurgents" when most of them are Saudis?
Minstrel, let me remind you that I carefully spelled out the Viet Nam rules several times at my blog.
If there is a weapon near the body it is mainline VC. If there is no weapon it is VC cadre or infrastructure. If the body is female or juvenile, it is a VC sympathizer.
yeah lurch, those were the days right? we knew who the enemy was, it was all of them. nothing salves a nagging conscience more than an ex post facto declaration of free fire zone. one of the more worrisome things for me is having seen the situation and mindset of the troops in the RVN deteriorate over the course of my tours i can only anticipate that same deterioration happening in iraq. now with camp "victory" getting mortared and katushad there will be holy hell to pay. even a dedicated remf like petraeus is going to have to realize that there ain't no rear for the gear over there.
And, from the quotation, I thought we were going to compare ear collections. (Just joking!)
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