where did we go wrong?
During WWI hostages were treated with a gentleman's code.
A French soldier being held hostage in Germany was under casual arrest. He was allowed to wander around the small German town and get to know the locals, and to write to his family about his experience.
Today standards are so very different. Despite our having an ACTUAL code written up on how hostages and prisoners are to be treated (a la UN), whereas back in the day it was all just an informal agreement that everyone adhered to.
POW's are treated like crap, even the United States (which prides itself on it's democracy and humanitarian-ism), treats their POW's more like animalss than human's. I'm not saying other countries are any better (except for Canada and Switzerland which really don't have any, haha...well Switzerland for sure has none, and Canada I'm pretty damn sure we have none), but the US should bel eading my example.
Tragically Hassan, the British Aide Worker has been purportedly killed, though no one has come forward to claim it as fact, so right now it's merely rumour based on a video tape of a woman being shot in the head (however she was blindfolded and there was no audio. It could be something to demoralize people).
That is wrong. Just as wrong as shooting an unarmed, injured enemy soldier. That is no more right than shooting a volunteer.
I mean if I were in iraq I would accept the inevitablity that I am going into a country where 170 foreigners have been, since the US invasion, taken hostage....and of those 170 they have been killed.
Maybe the American's out there won't be getting bent out of shape if their enemy, although unarmed and wounded, were killed in what I consider to be cold blood. But let's say it was one of their own troops? They'd be outraged.
I mean I know when the US bombed Canadian soldiers a few years ago. We were all outraged, and all the pilot that pressed the button received was a slap on the wrist.
It's hard for me to remain objective in this situation, when I have seen the American media downplay the needless death of Canadian soldiers who were killed because an American pilot was too stupid to know that Canada was on the same side as him. And so, yes, my cynicism is going to make a rise here. And yes I am going to say that American's are going to be hypocritical in this situation.
If a human being is not an American it's okay to kill them and not feel remorse.
That pilot never voiced or acted out with remorse when he discovered that he had killed 3 and injured 10 soldiers that had been registered for military games practice that night overseas.
Perhaps it's my innocent optimism that makes me wish that he had demanded the ultimate penalty for one of the biggest mistakes he could have ever made. I think all he got was a court martial and dishonorable discharge for that, which to me is not even close to repaying for the three lives he took away. Three families no longer have a father, brother, son, etc. because of that soldier.
It's still a hot button iwssue, that issue, and I know I got thrown off into a tangent.
We can forgive so much in the name of war, but I am part of a country that is, for the most part, a peaceful country. And whenever any of our soldiers die, I think that it is a tragedy, NOT a statistic, NOT an inevitablity.
Take me back to before the World War's, to when there was real ethics, real moral codes. There was no UN, there was no NATO. There was a great lack of education and equal rights, true. But if I can go back to a time when the US was humble and modest and had respect for those that shared their borders, I would trade everything for that alone.
I'm sorry for the American's that I have as friends. I'm not saying all of you are like that, and most of my problems are centered around your government, and the propoganda that spews out of your country, and the hypocrisy as well.
A French soldier being held hostage in Germany was under casual arrest. He was allowed to wander around the small German town and get to know the locals, and to write to his family about his experience.
Today standards are so very different. Despite our having an ACTUAL code written up on how hostages and prisoners are to be treated (a la UN), whereas back in the day it was all just an informal agreement that everyone adhered to.
POW's are treated like crap, even the United States (which prides itself on it's democracy and humanitarian-ism), treats their POW's more like animalss than human's. I'm not saying other countries are any better (except for Canada and Switzerland which really don't have any, haha...well Switzerland for sure has none, and Canada I'm pretty damn sure we have none), but the US should bel eading my example.
Tragically Hassan, the British Aide Worker has been purportedly killed, though no one has come forward to claim it as fact, so right now it's merely rumour based on a video tape of a woman being shot in the head (however she was blindfolded and there was no audio. It could be something to demoralize people).
That is wrong. Just as wrong as shooting an unarmed, injured enemy soldier. That is no more right than shooting a volunteer.
I mean if I were in iraq I would accept the inevitablity that I am going into a country where 170 foreigners have been, since the US invasion, taken hostage....and of those 170 they have been killed.
Maybe the American's out there won't be getting bent out of shape if their enemy, although unarmed and wounded, were killed in what I consider to be cold blood. But let's say it was one of their own troops? They'd be outraged.
I mean I know when the US bombed Canadian soldiers a few years ago. We were all outraged, and all the pilot that pressed the button received was a slap on the wrist.
It's hard for me to remain objective in this situation, when I have seen the American media downplay the needless death of Canadian soldiers who were killed because an American pilot was too stupid to know that Canada was on the same side as him. And so, yes, my cynicism is going to make a rise here. And yes I am going to say that American's are going to be hypocritical in this situation.
If a human being is not an American it's okay to kill them and not feel remorse.
That pilot never voiced or acted out with remorse when he discovered that he had killed 3 and injured 10 soldiers that had been registered for military games practice that night overseas.
Perhaps it's my innocent optimism that makes me wish that he had demanded the ultimate penalty for one of the biggest mistakes he could have ever made. I think all he got was a court martial and dishonorable discharge for that, which to me is not even close to repaying for the three lives he took away. Three families no longer have a father, brother, son, etc. because of that soldier.
It's still a hot button iwssue, that issue, and I know I got thrown off into a tangent.
We can forgive so much in the name of war, but I am part of a country that is, for the most part, a peaceful country. And whenever any of our soldiers die, I think that it is a tragedy, NOT a statistic, NOT an inevitablity.
Take me back to before the World War's, to when there was real ethics, real moral codes. There was no UN, there was no NATO. There was a great lack of education and equal rights, true. But if I can go back to a time when the US was humble and modest and had respect for those that shared their borders, I would trade everything for that alone.
I'm sorry for the American's that I have as friends. I'm not saying all of you are like that, and most of my problems are centered around your government, and the propoganda that spews out of your country, and the hypocrisy as well.