Purposely aiming bombs at children: "It kind of opens our aperture."

[woo me with science]

Ignoring it does not make it go away. That the President is a Democrat does not make it morally conscionable:


http://www.thenation.com/blog/171582/us-military-approves-bombing-children

...But a Marine official here raised questions about whether the children were “innocent.” Before calling for the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System mission in mid-October, Marines observed the children digging a hole in a dirt road in Nawa district, the official said, and the Taliban may have recruited the children to carry out the mission.

Shockingly, the article quotes a senior officer saying that the military isn’t just out to bomb “military age males,” anymore, but kids, too:

“It kind of opens our aperture,” said Army Lt. Col. Marion “Ced” Carrington, whose unit, 1st Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, was assisting the Afghan police. “In addition to looking for military-age males, it’s looking for children with potential hostile intent.”

“Opens our aperture,” indeed.

[leftstreet]

1. Good God

Unbelievable

As if the 'aperture' that sucks $700+ billion through the DOD hole wasn't bad enough

[roguevalley]

35. WTF. I hope he can live with this on his conscience because I would have to kill

myself.

[leveymg]

2. Kids, don't play in the road, and don't bury your pet turtle. Don't.

[woo me with science]

3. Don't go outside.

In fact, don't live here.

Now we are getting Third Way threads attempting to justify AIMING bombs at children.

[leveymg]

6. This is just madness. The longer we stay, the more death we bring.

I used to believe somehow that Americans had values, even in war. So much for my last remaining illusions of national exception.

[UnrepentantLiberal]

21. Where did you get that crazy idea?

[leveymg]

27. I recall that photo was taken during the dying months of the Vietnam War.

Won the Pulitzer Prize in, what was it, 1974? Also remember reading somewhere the little girl died of the napalm burns. What a waste. We haven't really learned anything about becoming human in my lifetime.

[UnrepentantLiberal]

29. Thankfully she survived.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phan_Thi_Kim_Phuc

[leveymg]

37. Thank you for that.

[Luminous Animal]

4. All are suspect. Bombs away.

We are monsters.

[WinkyDink]

5. They hate us for our freedoms.

[woo me with science]

8. Even the little ones, apparently.

They are smaller targets, but they can't run as fast.

[sabrina 1]

7. It is beyond words. And the ease with what they admit compared to ten years ago when

at least they tried to hide these things.

Well, there is no one left in this country to speak out against these horrors done in our name. At least when Bush was president the Left was loudly opposed to all of it.

[leftstreet]

11. Excellent point. Under Bush people would be screaming

The antiwar movement = on vacation for 8 years apparently

[Hydra]

19. Think of what they don't hide now

Torture, Drone Assassination, Billions in embezzlement, Spying on us everywhere...and now killing children so we can eventually wipe them all out. AKA: Genocide.

We have me the enemy, and they are running our Gov't.

[CrispyQ]

44. This:

"At least when Bush was president the Left was loudly opposed to all of it."

[Whovian]

9. Holy fuck I hate to hear things like this. I hate that these things are happening.

Under any presidency. Xan we just get the fuck out of there already????

[woo me with science]

10. Have we had enough yet? nt

[Melinda]

12. This is horrifying. No words.

[Arugula Latte]

13. And yet if you say anything slightly critical of the U.S. military, even here on DU,

you will get piled on and told that you are a disgrace.

[rhett o rick]

14. What has happened to America? nm

[Fantastic Anarchist]

18. This is not new. We've always bombed kids, even purposely.

I harbor no illusions that this is just something that happened recently.

[rhett o rick]

31. I think it's getting a lot more blatant. nm

[Jackpine Radical]

51. We used to have the grace to be ashamed of it.

Some days I just want to slink away somewhere and hide.

[6spokewheels]

38. It's sick

We chose to drop the H-bomb on every man, woman, child and creature in Hiroshima. And we've come up with some duzies, to explain it away. Cold-blooded murder, in the name of payback for an unfortunate targeted attack to a military installment.

Chickenhawks?...no, sometimes more like chickenshithawks.

[rhett o rick]

40. I am guessing that the big corporations in Japan conspired to have the bombs dropped on civilians nm

[MynameisBlarney]

15. Oh my god.

This is horrible.
We MUST get out of there NOW!

[whatchamacallit]

16. Only a sick fuck nation

would allow this in it's name.

[Orrex]

17. Thank god we killed them before some evil terrorist got to them

They might have gotten hurt!

[ReRe]

20. This day on DU is continuing to go down the drain

Too much bad news......

[mckara]

22. Criticize the Politicians Sending Our Troops to War

Not the commanders protecting their personnel at any cost. If you want mortality, send in the State Department, not the Defense Department. The military's tool is a hammer, not a silk glove. Criticize military leaders after you've lived a year in their reality.

[Downtown Hound]

25. I don't live in their reality and I never will because I refuse to participate in this slaughter

If every American stood up and said that they wouldn't join the military and actually stuck to it, we'd be out of Iraq and Afghanistan before you could blink an eye.

Too many people out there willing to feed the machine in the name of country, honor, or just too much testosterone. We need to stop glorifying the military and war.

[truedelphi]

28. That's my feeling too.

I hate war because the longer any nation is at war, the more likely that its service people start to become monsters. War is the most de-humanizing aspect of life on the planet. The best way to avoid being a nation of baby killers is not to have wars.

The last necessary war the people of the USA engaged in was WWII. The rest have all been wars for profit.

[zipplewrath]

26. Absolutely

I've been appalled at our CIVILIAN leadership in the last 4 years. They keep choosing war, repeatedly. What this world needs is not more war, but more law enforcement. Take some folks to the Hague. Put people on trial in our courts, or any courts, for murder. Arrest people like Bin Laden, don't assassinate them.

Problem being of course is we might be asked to be judged by our own standards, and I'm not sure we'd survive that.

[LeftyMom]

34. No, let's criticize everybody involved in murdering children. I repeat: MURDERING CHILDREN.

[woo me with science]

46. Thank you.

Good god.

[Solly Mack]

23. k/r

[actslikeacarrot]

24. According to the Marines they saw three children digging...

...They couldn't send out Q.R.F to see what the hell was going on? Maybe followed the children home with a UAV and send a patrol there to ask some questions? Fuck escalation of force protocols I guess.

[DaniDubois]

30. And those same troops often come back home to be police officers dealing with OUR loved ones.

[Marrah_G]

32. Those guys no longer see Afghani's as human beings

Those children are, in their minds, not real children like THEIR children.

sigh

[woo me with science]

33. From the article: "ages 8 to 12"

That's approximately how old Malia and Sasha were when Obama was elected.

[riderinthestorm]

36. Afghani average age is 18 years old. Child soldiers are a fact of life in EVERY war.

Who do you think the Taliban (or any region in civil strife) are going to recruit? And we make for easy recruiting with our drone strikes and other despicable actions?

We needed to be out of Afghanistan years ago.

That we are still there is the crime

But statistics don't lie. Between the average Afghani age these days, and the FACT that child soldiers have ever been in "militaries" (sic) from since war began, then our best bet to be on the "right" side of this is to GET THE HELL OUT!

[Bonobo]

39. I'd like to close that bastard's aperture. nt

[progressoid]

41. Oh c'mon.

Our President got a Nobel Peace Prize.

[xchrom]

42. du rec. nt

[Cherchez la Femme]

43. Jesus God....

[woo me with science]

45. Kick. Ignoring it does not make it go away.

The fact that our President is a Democrat does not make it conscionable.

Our DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENT is allowing this.

We have a problem.

[sabrina 1]

48. Yes, the silence from the 'left' has been deafening. I also wonder what happened

to the Committees that were supposed to deal with torture and the restoration of Habeas Corpus and the firing of the US Attorneys, and Karl Rove's subpoenas?

What happened to Sen Leahy's Committees? It seems that as soon as we got them all elected in 2008, everything stopped. So, was it all just politics after all?

[woo me with science]

47. Kick. Ignoring it does not make it go away.

[woo me with science]

49. Kick. Ignoring it does not make it go away.

[ZombieHorde]

50. Wow. nt

[jollyreaper2112]

52. Ok, this is now my new euphemism for doing terrible things

To have one's aperture opened: to seriously contemplate the unthinkable.

Usage: "I never would have thought of having sex with a corpse but man, she was really hot and just lying there, still warm. Apertures opened, brah!"

"I'd never really considered harvesting organs from foreign orphans but then I realized nobody can tell the skin color of the person the organ came from. It kind of opened my aperture."

"I had real qualms about working for the Republicans but then they talked compensation. Opened my aperture like snorting wasabi."

[woo me with science]

54. I think I will do that, too.

Thank you.

[bananas]

53. k&r - Just came across this searching for something else. nt