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Fifth Column
Can we really support these troops?
2007-02-15
by June Scorza Murtha Terpstra

Sunday, February 11— A room full of students listened as a US Marine told of the invasion of Baghdad and Falluja and how he killed innocent Iraqis at a check point. He called them “collateral damage” and said he had followed the “rules.”

A Muslim-American student in front of him said “I could slap you but then you would kill me.” A young female Muslim student gasped “I am a freshman; I never thought to hear of this in a class. I feel sick, like I will pass out.”

I knew in that moment that this was what the future of teaching about justice would include: teaching war criminals who sit glaring at me with hatred for daring to speak the truth of their atrocities and who, if paid to, would disappear, torture and kill me. I wondered that night how long I really have in this so called “free” country to teach my students and to be with my children and grandchildren.
What really happened, most likely: Prof. Terpstra went on a spittle-flecked rant about "war crimes" and those Marines decided not to just sit there and take it--and they out-debated her without breaking a sweat.
Nor did the Marines curse, nor were they rude, nor did they use anything other than quiet, simple logic to break her down. That's what so infuriating, ya know ...
The American military and mercenary soldiers who “sacrificed” their lives did not do so for the teacher’s freedom to teach the truth about the so-called war on terror, or any of US history for that matter. They sacrificed their lives, limbs and sanity for money, some education and the thrills of the violence for which they are socially bred. Sacrificing for the “bling and booty” in Iraq or Afghanistan, Philippines, Grenada, Central America, Mexico, Somalia, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, or any of the other numerous wars and invasions spanning US history as an entity and beginning with their foundational practice of killing the Indians and stealing their land.

Many of the classes that I teach now include students who “served” in the US military and security corporations. There are also many students who intend to join the US military upon completion of a degree because with the degree they get a bigger “sign on” bonus of ten to fifty thousand dollars. Their position is supported by many of the student body, who, vegetating according to the American Plan, believe they should “support their troops.”

The excuses that they give for joining or intending to join the US military terrorist training camps are first and foremost motivated by a desire for money.

. . . And now, here they sit in my course on social justice, terrorist war criminals, wanting high paying “criminal justice” jobs in a university Justice Studies program. They want approval, appreciation and honors for terrorism, torture, and murder. They want a university degree so they can get an even higher salary terrorizing more people around the world with security companies such as Blackwater or Halliburton. They want that appropriately named “sheepskin” so they can join the CIA, FBI, and other police and track down and terrorize US residents here.
"But I'll get my revenge, I will. Remember, I control what grade you get in my class! You'll never graduate as long as I have anything to say about it! Bwahahahahahaha!"
These military and mercenary terrorist-students are trained in terrorist training camps all under the USA, funded by American taxpayers. In fact, people under the USA are “sacrificing” their health care and their children’s educations while donating their tax dollars to these terrorist training camps. These terrorist camps train money hungry working class stiffs to murder, steal and plunder for the power hungry US corporate war lords.

There is a saying that “if you do the crime, you do the time”.
"Only if you don't have a good defense lawyer."
My response is that “If you do the war crimes, you will do time in hell, whether the hell of war trauma and shock, of diseases such as those caused by depleted uranium, the old-fashioned traditional hell, fire and brimstone assigned to malefactors…or the hell of sitting in a social justice class and discovering what the hell you are in hell for, or are about to be.
She's got a point: an hour in her class certainly would pass for the sixth circle of Hell per Dante ...
There's only one comment to the article, but it's a good one.

Our esteemed author has also penned a piece entitled "War and Ideology" with Husayn Al-Kurdi--ostensibly a Kurd--from 7/15/05. The conclusion is predictable, but says all we need to know of the good doctor:

"This is war. It is a war based on the ideology of might makes right to plunder planet and people. The bad guys are the greedy, powerful men who have and have used the weapons of mass destruction and operate the means of mass distraction to divert the potentially dangerous thoughts and passions of oppressed and exploited vast majorities everywhere. The good guys are those who fight back by all the means available to them. They are fighting the eternal good fight against tyranny and oppression. "

One could presume she made up her mind about how much she hated U.S. soldiers long before she posted her vapid blog piece.

These "good guys" kill fellow Iraqis now more than they kill U.S. soldiers. These "good guys" kill journalists by beheading or disembowlment.

What a fool.

When the Angry Left claims to support the troops, this is what they really mean. They support the bad guys.
Posted by:Mike

#10  HHHHMMMMM, HHHHHMMMM, WTC destruction + 3000 dead Amers = winning the WOT by:
(1) doing nothing.
(2) let our enemies attack us at their unilater will and discretion. Victory = Success = Peace > letting your enemy kill you or control you.
(3) pretending that fatwas/declarations of war + violence/terror against Amer is = invited to party at McDonalds + local barbecues, etc.
(5) GOVT and ONLY GUBMINT WILL DE FACTO PROTECT ALL AMERICA FROM A DE FACTO THREAT AMER PRETENDS DE FACTO DOESN'T EXIST TO BEGIN WITH.
(6) A TEXAS STATE GUBNOR IS ALWAYS MORE RESPONSIBLE FOR NATIONAL ISSUES THAN A NATIONAL PRESIDENT.
(7) A DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS IS NEVER RESPONSIBLE FOR IMMIGRATION-CUSTOMS-BORDERS NO MATTER WHAT THE LAW SAYS - once again, a Texas STATE Gubnor is more responsible for national issues than an elected National Congress.
(8) Are winning in the ME, ergo Amer people = voters must be told are losing. ETHICS/TRUTH > DOING SOMETHING WITHOUT NEED OF EXPLAINING OR JUSTIFYING WHY TO THE VOTERS.
(9) Universalism + World-wide/Global Equalism = a pre-selected Few are not affected by any consequences-outcomes. The Majority have the Right to have no Rights.
(10) Being blamed for Nothing = Taking credit for eevrything = John Wayne + "Damn the Torpedoes" Farragut.
(11) OWG > "USSA, NOT USSR, ergo USSA must surrender or be destroyed by USSR". Amers can unilaterally, singularly war for Empire and ditto pay for Empire, but Amer taxpayers just can't rule the empire they are fighting for = paying for.
(12) Just to make sure that America is properly defended, Amer must recognize and work in collusion wid those nations that wilfully provide advice, materiel, weapons, $$$, tech and manpower to the Nation(s), Govt(s), or group(s) that attack and kill us.
(13) Competition = Substitution of Nations > ONLY AMER IS NOT ALLOWED TO CHANGE = BLAMED FOR ANY AND ALL CHANGES.
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2007-02-15 23:40  

#9  Surprise she is a moonbat among moonbats. Follow her links to many LLL Mo0nb@+ pages where Cindy Sheehan and other praise Lt "Traitor" Watada as if her were Jesus Christ (if they believed in that). I would bet the after the Lt serves his time in the brig he will become a very well paid public speaker on the LLL Moonbat teaching circuit.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge   2007-02-15 18:37  

#8  Ahhh...but the good Doctor did allow this post to stand - at least when I was there. I wanted to leave a comment, but was not about to "register" at her site.

The class is taught at a Catholic institution just down the road from me but I find little evidence of any sort of commitment to a Catholic approach, social justice or in general. The profound ignorance of the laws of war that seems so widespread is clear and evident in the post. Let me spell it out.

As policy, intentionally, the anti-Iraq forces (as they are termed by the elected government of Iraq and by our own forces) daily commit war crimes. One of their crimes is to not wear uniforms. They blend in with civilians. It is this blending in that allows them to keep fighting but the strategy comes with a price, dead civilians who are mistaken for the enemy. This is why the rules for wearing uniforms were adopted world-wide. The moral fault for these tragedies of war are the war criminals who refuse to follow norms and do not wear uniforms.

Everybody in the military understands this and, like every bureaucratic institution, they develop shorthand terms of art to speed communication. In this case, the resultant civilian casualties due to those war crimes by the enemy are called "collateral damage". I didn't pick the term but I care about truth enough to learn it. The good professor did not bother.

There is no search for truth, no commitment to justice, no Catholic commitment to the souls of *everybody* shown in this article. It is a betrayal of the faith and the ideals of the institution and is just plain sad. One can certainly be against the war and do it in a way that is faithful to Catholic social doctrine but this isn't it.


Smart guy.
Posted by: Bobby   2007-02-15 17:22  

#7  ...This whole thing smelled of some serious BS from the very beginning. I'm guessing that this was that Massey idiot - IF it was a Marine (curent or former) at all.
And dear sweet Jesus in heaven above:

who, if paid to, would disappear, torture and kill me.

If the Nutty Professor can show me ONE instance where this has happened to ANYONE, Iraqi or American, on orders, I'll defend her to the death.
But I don't really expect to have to deliver on that one.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski   2007-02-15 16:32  

#6  Shades of John Kerry.
Posted by: JohnQC   2007-02-15 15:50  

#5  That wasn't hard. Could it be this guy?

Former Marine Staff Sgt. Jimmy Massey served with the 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines, in Iraq for nearly a year during 2003. During that time, he claims, he and other Marines (whom he labeled "psychopathic killers") deliberately gunned down innocent Iraqi civilians, fired on peaceful protesters, and shot a 4-year-old child through the head at a checkpoint. Or was it a 6-year-old?

"How is a 6-year-old child with a bullet in his head a terrorist, because that is the youngest I killed," Massey told an audience at Cornell University. Or was it a girl? "That's war: a 6-year old girl with a bullet hole in her head at an American checkpoint," he told a Vermont audience.

Except, as Massey later acknowledged to the Post-Dispatch, he'd never actually shot any child, boy or girl. "I meant, that's what my unit did," he explained. Except that it didn't, according to Massey's fellow Marines and the journalists who covered them. Nor did they target civilians and protestors. In fact, as the Post-Dispatch documents, each one of Massey's claims is "either demonstrably false or exaggerated --according to his fellow Marines, Massey's own admissions, and the five journalists who were embedded with Massey's unit."
Posted by: tu3031   2007-02-15 15:38  

#4  A room full of students listened as a US Marine told of the invasion of Baghdad and Falluja and how he killed innocent Iraqis at a check point. He called them “collateral damage” and said he had followed the “rules.”

Since you make this accusation and don't include a name of our intrepid Gyrene, I have no choice but to assume this just another lefty wet dream.
But I think I've heard this story before and will try to find it...
Posted by: tu3031   2007-02-15 15:12  

#3  Grr... Google is, of course, my friend. The answer to my question: Loyola University in Chicago
Posted by: eLarson   2007-02-15 14:41  

#2  For what fine institution does this paranoid schizophrenic work? Not that I'm looking to get her canned... more for knowing where not to send my kids.

Posted by: eLarson   2007-02-15 14:39  

#1  June Scorza Terpstra is an idiot who enjoys the freedom of this country.
Posted by: JohnQC   2007-02-15 14:37  

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