US soldier withdrawn from Iraq after brothers killed
A United States soldier has been withdrawn from Iraq after his two brothers were killed in action.
Jason Hubbard will return to his family's home in Northern California after his younger brother Nathan was killed in a Black Hawk helicopter crash in Northern Iraq on Wednesday, 22 August 2007.
Another of his brothers was killed three years ago by a roadside bomb in Fallujah.
He has been withdrawn from service under the US military's "sole survivor" policy, which is aimed at preventing parents losing all of their children to war.
Copyright AFP/BBC.
I am sure his parents feel a mixture of relief and grief, and whole-heartedly endorse the war in Iraq. Yeah, right. Losing 2/3 of your children in a futile war (ALL wars are futile) must want them to fly the Stars and Stripes proudly on their front lawn.
However, there are thousands of cases - families losing ALL their children in an instant as some fuckwit suicide bomber pressed the button in a crowded market. Civilians going out to buy food, ladies dressed in compulsory Hijab sporting shopping bags.
Bang. Screaming. Blood on the sidewalk. Blood on the floor in the market. Body parts everywhere.
I vociferously CURSE the US Administration that sends young soldiers, airmen to die in a strange land. I do not curse American people, on the contrary, I have met many Americans here in China. In 41 years in Australia I never met one. However, the ones I have met here in China are generous, kind, humorous, realistic, open-minded, Critical of the Bush Administration (earns approval from Jamieson).
As I type this I am listening to George Benson off the CD. Does that make me a lackey of America ? Nah, It is a pirate copy CD). Oh yeah smoking fake Marlboro cigarettes bought in Suzhou for USD$1.40 a pack. Virginian US tobacco, my arse/ass.
Met two, ahh three - inc. daughter (Neighbours, Hubby worked for Borg-Warner) in Singapore, 1972. I will never forget it. My Dad bought me a Mamod steam engine as a Christmas gift. I was 10 years old. It is a tiny boiler with a steam powered piston mechanism and a flywheel. A rather inappropriate gift for an inexperienced child, I would say.
The fuel for the burner under the boiler was alcohol, methylated spirit. I crossed the road to display the device to their 5 year old daughter, start it up and she accidentally got the alcohol in an eye when I was not looking. All hell broke loose. Furious eye flushing event... Never forget... even 35 years later.
Let us examine why China has declined to get involved in this mess and not send - even peace-keeping troops - to Iraq ?
It is as obvious as the nose on your face. The U.S. will probably never get the oil under the sands of Iraq despite its frantic efforts. Neither will China.
This is a wise decision by the Chinese Government.
Fuck Haliburton. Fuck Dick Chaney.
Yeah, I have views that are contestable, if you wish (with polite language, of course, staying firmly within the bounds of political correctness), we can have an on-line debate.
However, a debate must have an amicable ending, with a solution, a winner decided by an impartial judge panel of 5 judges, not Chinese or American. I am thinking German, Finnish, Swedish, Cuban and Irish.
You decide ?
Let me re-iterate : This is a wise decision by the Chinese Government.
An extract from a real young lady living in Baghdad.Rather Grim, I am afraid.
"I always hear the Iraqi pro-war crowd interviewed on television from foreign capitals (they can only appear on television from the safety of foreign capitals because I defy anyone to be publicly pro-war in Iraq).
They refuse to believe that their religiously inclined, sectarian political parties fueled this whole Sunni/Shia conflict. They refuse to acknowledge that this situation is a direct result of the war and occupation. They go on and on about Iraq's history and how Sunnis and Shia were always in conflict and I hate that. I hate that a handful of expats who haven't been to the country in decades pretend to know more about it than people actually living there.
I remember Baghdad before the war- one could live anywhere. We didn't know what our neighbors were- we didn't care. No one asked about religion or sect. No one bothered with what was considered a trivial topic: are you Sunni or Shia? You only asked something like that if you were uncouth and backward. Our lives revolve around it now. Our existence depends on hiding it or highlighting it- depending on the group of masked men who stop you or raid your home in the middle of the night.
On a personal note, we've finally decided to leave. I guess I've known we would be leaving for a while now. We discussed it as a family dozens of times. At first, someone would suggest it tentatively because, it was just a preposterous idea- leaving ones home and extended family- leaving ones country- and to what? To where?
Since last summer, we had been discussing it more and more. It was only a matter of time before what began as a suggestion- a last case scenario- soon took on solidity and developed into a plan. For the last couple of months, it has only been a matter of logistics. Plane or car? Jordan or Syria? Will we all leave together as a family? Or will it be only my brother and I at first?
After Jordan or Syria- where then? Obviously, either of those countries is going to be a transit to something else. They are both overflowing with Iraqi refugees, and every single Iraqi living in either country is complaining of the fact that work is difficult to come by, and getting a residency is even more difficult.
There is also the little problem of being turned back at the border. Thousands of Iraqis aren't being let into Syria or Jordan- and there are no definite criteria for entry, the decision is based on the whim of the border patrol guard checking your passport."
http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/
(Banned in China) - use anonmymouse.org as a proxy to pole-vault over the nanny concern.
Jamieson.Yeah, he does give a shit.
