Article

2003-12-08 Fifth Column

Anti-War Parents and Military Kids in Iraq

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Posted by Cyber Sarge (VRWC CA Chapter) 2003-12-08 11:59:14 AM|| || Front Page|| [2 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Mr Suarez del Solar: I canât imagine his pain but he really needs some counseling. He sounds like he is really is going over the top.

This comes as no surprise - many immigrants from Latin America are fiercely anti-American, but their children are (usually) very patriotic. (That's the beauty of America - assimilation in one generation). This is why the military has a large Hispanic contingent.

Posted by Zhang Fei 2003-12-8 12:08:40 PM|| 2003-12-8 12:08:40 PM|| Front Page Top

#2 I feel sorry for these kids. I only hope they don't come to feel the amount of contempt for their parents that a lot soldiers feel about these people.

Posted by BH 2003-12-8 12:28:14 PM|| 2003-12-8 12:28:14 PM|| Front Page Top

#3 Found a description of the corporal's memorial service at Camp Pendleton's website. I hesitated to post the link, but the father comments that the *only* reason they came to the U.S. (from Mexico) was his son's desire (from the age of 10) to be a Marine. It sounds like he would have been very vulnerable to groups like Global Exchange (who suck for exploiting that vulnerability).

Posted by snellenr 2003-12-8 12:43:15 PM|| 2003-12-8 12:43:15 PM|| Front Page Top

#4 the occupation authorities have staged an expensive public relations stunt by removing the monolithic stone busts of Saddam Hussein

Weren't they really cast bronze?

Nitpicking, sure, but if the "reporter" can't get that kind of detail right, I wonder about his honesty. Seriously, if it was a "publicity stunt", it should have been dirt-simple to check the information.

Posted by Robert Crawford 2003-12-8 1:31:40 PM|| [http://www.kloognome.com] 2003-12-8 1:31:40 PM|| Front Page Top

#5 Nitpicking, sure, but if the "reporter" can't get that kind of detail right, I wonder about his honesty.

Note that the source of this story is the Independent, another of the UK's left-wing papers.

Posted by Zhang Fei 2003-12-8 1:45:07 PM|| 2003-12-8 1:45:07 PM|| Front Page Top

#6 âHe was proud to be a Marine, but he wanted to be remembered as an Aztec Warrior Marine,â Fernando Suarez del Solar, his father. âUpon graduating bootcamp he went to Tijuana and bought a small shrine of an Aztec warrior and said âfather this is me.ââ

Snellenr If Montezuma had a few more of these guys we'd be using a round calendar.

Posted by Shipman 2003-12-8 2:15:58 PM|| 2003-12-8 2:15:58 PM|| Front Page Top

#7 Shipman

Moctezuma had thousands and thousands like him. But bravery is not a substitute for military competence and adequate weapons. At that time the Spanish soldiers were head and shoulders above the rest of Europe (eight centuries battling the Moors had sharpened their tactics). In addition wooden maces emebedded with sharpend stones were useless against Spanish armor while Toledan swords easily pierced cotton armor. Read "Carnage and culture" by Victor David Hanson for a complete discussion.

Note: I read Spanish and I have visited the site of this guy and my conclusion is that he is a fascist. He regrets the Aztecs who had the habit of sacrifying thousands and thousands people (eighty thousand in one ocacsion): the reason the Aztec empire fell to a few hundred Spanish is that everyone else hated them. But this guy loves them.

Posted by JFM 2003-12-8 3:52:19 PM|| 2003-12-8 3:52:19 PM|| Front Page Top

#8 JFM -- I've been getting the impression that lots of Mexican fascists admire (or at least profess to) the Aztecs. For example, La Raza and the Aztlan nutcases.

Posted by Robert Crawford 2003-12-8 4:31:10 PM|| [http://www.kloognome.com] 2003-12-8 4:31:10 PM|| Front Page Top

#9 Whoa! Which website? I was looking at (I think) Camp Pendletons? I'm missing something.

Posted by Shipman 2003-12-8 5:24:16 PM|| 2003-12-8 5:24:16 PM|| Front Page Top

#10 Ah! Okay... I was looking at the URL snellenr posted. Yes.. hmmm..

Posted by Shipman 2003-12-8 5:26:00 PM|| 2003-12-8 5:26:00 PM|| Front Page Top

#11 Michael Lopercio says, "they are not covering what is really happening to Iraqi people and to the Iraqi infrastructure and how this affects our chances of success here. Itâs very important to understand the frustration of the average Iraqi and how unhappy they are with their progress over the last eight months."

Well, since the guy went all the way to discover information available on a host of blogs what is his recommendation to improve things? If he visited Santiago, Chile, he might find many of the same problems.
I, personally, am banking on the Iraqis waking up out of their nightmare and beginning to get things rolling, economically. I think that will be the jewell of the Middle East within 10 years.

Posted by Super Hose 2003-12-8 6:08:13 PM|| 2003-12-8 6:08:13 PM|| Front Page Top

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