A Right-wing meme on ingratitude

I flipped the AM radio dial this afternoon, and heard the creation of a right-wing meme to discredit the Christian Peacemaker Teams. Two different talk show hosts, Michael Medved and Neil Bortz, condemned the Christian Peacemaker Teams for not expressing gratitude for their military liberators.

I can only imagine what the Hannitys, Limbaughs, and O'Reilys said today.

What did the CPTers say that upset the right-wingers so much?

Go to the CPT website to find their statement: CPTers freed.

It appears the thought crime they committed was trusting God for protection, and believing that the occupation of Iraq is the root cause of insecurity in Iraq:

Harmeet, Jim and Norman and Tom were in Iraq to learn of the struggles facing the people in that country. They went, motivated by a passion for justice and peace to live out a nonviolent alternative in a nation wracked by armed conflict. They knew that their only protection was in the power of the love of God and of their Iraqi and international co-workers. We believe that the illegal occupation of Iraq by Multinational Forces is the root cause of the insecurity which led to this kidnapping and so much pain and suffering in Iraq. The occupation must end.

Oh, the audacity! "The occupation must end."

Or perhaps their thought crime was not glorifying the military sufficiently in their statement. They must not be truly grateful since they continue to stress non-resistance to evil and refusal to hate.

Meanwhile, the world is learning that US Marines committed an atrocity on November 19, 2005 in Haditha: In retaliation for a roadside bombing which killed one Marine, 15 Iraqi civilians were killed in their homes, including seven women and three children. Many were wearing their nightclothes.

The story from this weeks edition of Time magazine: One Morning in Haditha.

An excerpt:

...Eman Waleed, 9, lived in a house 150 yards from the site of the blast, which was strong enough to shatter all the windows in her home. "We heard a big noise that woke us all up," she recalls two months later. "Then we did what we always do when there's an explosion: my father goes into his room with the Koran and prays that the family will be spared any harm." Eman says the rest of the family—her mother, grandfather, grandmother, two brothers, two aunts and two uncles—gathered in the living room. According to military officials familiar with the investigation, the Marines say they came under fire from the direction of the Waleed house immediately after being hit by the ied. A group of Marines headed toward the house. Eman says she "heard a lot of shooting, so none of us went outside. Besides, it was very early, and we were all wearing our nightclothes." When the Marines entered the house, they were shouting in English. "First, they went into my father's room, where he was reading the Koran," she claims, "and we heard shots." According to Eman, the Marines then entered the living room. "I couldn't see their faces very well—only their guns sticking into the doorway. I watched them shoot my grandfather, first in the chest and then in the head. Then they killed my granny." She claims the troops started firing toward the corner of the room where she and her younger brother Abdul Rahman, 8, were hiding; the other adults shielded the children from the bullets but died in the process. Eman says her leg was hit by a piece of metal and Abdul Rahman was shot near his shoulder.

The Marines claimed the civilians were killed by the roadside bomb. An Iraqi doctor contradicts them:

Dr. Wahid, director of the local hospital in Haditha, who asked that his family name be withheld because, he says, he fears reprisals by U.S. troops, says the Marines brought 24 bodies to his hospital around midnight on Nov. 19. Wahid says the Marines claimed the victims had been killed by shrapnel from the roadside bomb. "But it was obvious to us that there were no organs slashed by shrapnel," Wahid says. "The bullet wounds were very apparent. Most of the victims were shot in the chest and the head--from close range."

Anything prefaced with the phrase "Marines say ..." or "Marines claimed ..." is false.

Aparisim Ghosh, chief international correspondent for Time, contributed to the report. He was interviewed on Democracy Now! on Tuesday, March 21--transcript and audio links here.

An excerpt:

When we first approached the Marines with this evidence, they responded in quite a hostile fashion. They accused us of buying into enemy propaganda. That aroused our suspicions even further, because it seemed to be excessively hostile on their part. And we dug even more. We spoke to witnesses. We spoke to survivors of this incident. And then we became quite convinced that these people were killed by the Marines. What is left to be seen is whether they were killed in the course of the Marine operation as collateral damage or by accident, or whether the Marines went on a rampage after one of their own had been killed and killed these people in revenge.

Fairly recently, I praised the Marines for their apparent lack of involvement in torture and other atrocities. I see that I praised them too soon.

God our security,
who alone can defend us
against the principalities and powers
that rule this present age;
may we trust in no weapons
except the whole armor of faith,
that in dying we may live,
and, having nothing, we may own the world,
through Jesus Christ. AMEN
--Janet Morley, All desires known, 1988