Sometimes people are too close to something to be able to see things clearly. Other times people are too far away to be able to notice the details. No perspective is perfect, but those who want a clear picture will move forward or step back as needed.

I was talking with two guys at work, both of whom were in the United States Marine Corps. We were talking about this incident in Fallujah where a wounded Iraqi fighter was shot in the head in a Mosque. Some call him a prisoner because the day before, the Mosque was cleared and 5 wounded men were left for a follow up detail of Marines to take care of them. However, it is not fair to call the dead man a prisoner as he had not yet been detained, guarded or processed.
Regardless of that, an apparently unarmed and wounded man was killed in a holy place. And that kind of thing is the last thing we need to happen, let alone become publicized. But my coworkers were more bothered by the publicity rather than the actions.
If the guy was faking being dead then fine, the Marines shouldn't take a chance. And war is an ugly business. But our latest stated goal being there is to bring Freedom and Democracy to Iraq. Shooting unarmed and wounded men is not the best way to achieve that. And war being ugly and violent, should still be fought according to a certain set of rules, a code of honor if you will. If not for the sake of those we fight, than at least for the sake of those who fight for us.
Abusing prisoners, shooting the unarmed or the wounded, or detaining people indefinitely with no legal recourse are all anathema to our stated cause and to the principles that this country was founded upon.
This is the shit that tore the American people apart during Vietnam. We want and need to be the good guys. It is part of our national self-image. Part of that is also the ass-kicking cowboy. But the cowboy in the white hat. That's where Bush lost almost half of this country. The actions we take around the world are viewed around the world, and believe it or not, the world wants us to be the cowboy in the white hat.
And whatever the circumstances of this incident, as much as it may at first add more dirt to that white hat, our willingness to expose that, our willingness to investigate such incidents is something that we are also fighting for. In most of those movies, it was the small town newspaper printer who spoke the truth about the man in the black hat. That printer with the glasses and the visor who championed truth and justice, only to be killed or have his place torched. And that's when the man in the white hat would be spurred into action by the sacrifice of those who speak the truth, no matter the cost.
So let the truth be told and what will happen, will be.

Music. That's what has been missing and contributed to my bloglessness.

Right now I am listening to this song, that fills me with an almost blank emotion, makes me wish I could get in a fast and comfortable car with a good sound system, and drive down an empty highway across space and time, through long distances and remember the past and across endless roads and dream of the future all in one ceasless unending drive, blankly driving, oblivious to all around me and yet absorbing it all in, it fills me with inspiration and worry, woe and joy, fear and hope, like a swirling vortex, a hurricane with a calm center. And that is what I want to be, a hurricane of outside action and inner peace.

Well I have removed the Vote for Kerry link. And I couldn't have picked a better day, more fighting in Fallujah, the Alaskan Oil Reserve has been opened up, and Colin Powell, probably the only person in the Bush Administration with any sense, has (unfortunately Or not) resigned. It was a matter of time, how much more could he stomach. It's bittersweet really. I mean here is this very loyal man with a strong sense of what the country should be doing, yet he can't speak up and by all accounts, when he does, he is treated with disrespect and pushed aside in favor of the Chicken-Hawks.
It would have been nice if he resigned in protest a few years ago. Or in some deluded way, some of us would like him to stay and be the voice of reason. Yet that certainly seems so futile, that it would only further crush his spirits.
And to top it off the talk is that Condoleeza Rice, Bush's biggest lackey will replace him. Anyone in the intelligence community that was in charge either during 9/11 or the invasion of Iraq should NOT be allowed to move up, hell she should have resigned along with former CIA Director George Tenet. And Take Rumsfeld with her.
This would be the ultimate of stupid moves for Bush. No world leader could possibly respect her knowing her position as a yes man. And hey, I don't care, the position is called yes man even if you are a woman.
Amazing.
Just wait until he starts appointing Supreme Court Justices. Thats when the real fun begins.