May God Bless help America; are we winning the Hearts and Minds?
By Michael Webster Oct 19, 2009 1:00 PM PDT
Op/Ed
I rarely offer up an opinion piece to my readers, but after seeing this video I felt compelled to address this issue.
Our government has lead us to believe that a big part of the war on terror, now called something else, is at least in part, to win the hearts and minds of the people we are there to help.
“Hearts and Minds” is a euphemism for a campaign started by the Bush Administration and United States military, intended to justify and win the popular support by Americans for the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan.
When an oppressed people live in fear of local warlords or thugs, liberating forces like the U.S. Army are sent to try to protect and help them in order to direct their allegiance away from dangerous extremist groups such as the Taliban in Afghanistan and Al Qaeda.
An important part of the U.S. military action in the Middle East is to try and win the hearts and minds of its people, so when I saw the attached video I was not only shocked and dismayed but was very disappointed in our troops’ actions. The video depicts our troops in Iraq taunting and mocking Iraqi children in the public streets. Having these kids repeat degrading and derogatory chants against their own country and religion just so they can get some treats is not amusing. Encouraging Iraqi street kids to chase our military armored vehicles down dangerous streets, risking life and limb, by running behind these vehicles for long distances just to have bottles of water chucked at them by American GIs who are laughing the entire time, is not the image most Americans have of a US soldier sent to liberate and serve.
Another American GI, video tapes and makes fun of a disfigured Iraqi boy and calls him, “the ugliest kid” he had ever seen while laughing and pointing at the boy who was in obvious need of some sort of assistance.
