Jun 20, 2006

Fallen Soldiers

If you think the Abu Ghraib torture scandal didn't have any effect on how American troops are regarded in the Middle East (and specifically, Iraq), think again:
Maj. Gen. Abdul Aziz Muhammed-Jassim, head of operations at the Iraqi Ministry of Defense, said the soldiers had been "barbarically" killed. U.S. officials would not confirm or deny that the men, who were identified Monday as Pfc. Kristian Menchaca, 23, of Houston and Pfc. Thomas L. Tucker, 25, of Madras, Ore., had been tortured by their captors.

"Coalition forces have in fact recovered what we believe to be the remains of our two soldiers," said Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV, spokesman for U.S. forces in Iraq, at a Baghdad news conference.
My condolences go out to the Tucker and Menchaca families. The brutal death their sons endured was completely unnecessary, at the hands of an incompetent commander in chief and his cadre of warmongering imbeciles.

UPDATE 2:55 p.m.: Oh hell no. Courtesy of Peter Daou's blog The Grit, some right-wing blogger was quick to criticize the uncle of one of the fallen soldiers who blamed his nephew's death on the U.S. government's lack of a plan in Iraq. Click the link to get to that right-wing blog. I won't link to it. Here's a link to the WaPo article instead.

I'd say the uncle's criticism was fair, wouldn't you? Further proof that this theory of "liberal infallibility" is misdirected and a total bunch of horsesh*t.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

My deepest sympathy goes out to the families of these two soldiers. Their brutal death shows us how little Islamic radicals value human life.

Laurie said...

The fact that no effort was made to rescue them shows how little the Bush administration values life. "Go in therr, and get 'em boy. Fight fur yur cuntry. Captured? Too bad, so sad."