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Loading ...U.S. Soldiers accused of executing gay Iraqis
07.30.2009 4:19pm EDT
(Lebanon) U.S. soldiers have been accused of aiding in the execution of gay Iraqis, the Washington Blade reports. The accusations were made by two unnamed, gay Iraqi refugees during a fundraiser event at the Human Rights Campaign headquarters.
Several violent images of a beheaded gay Iraqi were shown to the audience by one of the men, who goes by the name “Hussam.” He shocked the audience by claiming U.S. soldiers have also detained and executed Iraqi men perceived to be gay.Images were shown of a U.S. soldier standing over a group of naked men chained together who Hussam claims were gay. Hussam said he possesses images of their execution but did not show them to the audience.
“When it comes down to our armed services … who potentially have contributed to atrocities like that, I’m just appalled,” said Dana Beyer, a transgender activist and Chevy Chase, Md., resident who attended the event. “And I hope that we will pursue this through the government, through the State Department and through the Department of Defense because this just can’t be left standing.”
Several members voiced their skepticism of the events that Hussam detailed in his speech.
“It’s very difficult for me to believe that my country would allow its military to engage in the conduct that has been apparently documented,” said Chris Farris, a gay D.C. resident who also attended the event. “I would urge the U.S. government to react.”
This warrants an investigation. That is all I have to say about this.
Chris Sullivan: I don’t know of any other species on earth that has intellectual disagreements to kill over. The most intellectual things in the social structures of other animals are who gets to breed and who owns which territory.
Natural selection has made it so that most other species on earth are not able to “destroy the world as we do” because the the species which can cause the most damage to an environment are often not native to it. Literature is rife with cases, though, where a species from one area was introduced into another and it caused widespread ecological destruction in that area. To argue that humans are the only species that damages the environment is nothing short of silly.
Your general misanthropy sickens me. If you’re so convinced that problem with humanity is that we fight over inane things, don’t post here. Go do something to benefit humanity.
If I recall correctly, you’re an atheist and I really don’t have a problem with that. But if you’re convinced that religious arguments are a huge problem and are stifling social progress, bashing religious people instead of doing research or volunteering means you’re no different.
Kelson: It might not reach the mainstream media if it’s not verifiable. Most of the mainstream media won’t cover a story if it can’t be fact-checked to a reasonable degree.
Unless there is proof that our military committed these atrocities, I am very skeptical. Remember, our judicial system is built on the premise that we are innocent until proven guilty. If they are guilty, then show the proof of their guilt and take appropriate action. Until then I think everyone deserves the benefit of doubt.
Anyone want to place a bet that this store will NEVER reach the mainstream media? AND, the military will use this as a smoke screen to justify NOT repealing DADT. Will the military and congress go along with it? Of course they will.
So I do not recommend anyone holding their breath until this is exposed to the general public even if you do look devine in blue.
This is a systemic problem – when you have a homophobic country that has homophobic laws in place (e.g. DADT) and we have seen the autracities that this country has committed in our past 2 centuries and some still go on today – this isn’t hard to imagine happening elsewhere in the world. This is definately another reason that the US needs to get its act together surrounding gays in the military – start treating gays equally, with dignity and respect and maybe you’ll see this type of behavior subside.
While I don’t think that the American soldiers engaged in systematic round-ups of gay Iraqis I do not think that it is unreasonable to assume that at least some soldiers may have engaged in some of the actions that they were accused of. Just look at what occurred in Abu Ghraib. As some of the other commenters pointed out, our military consists of many different types of people, including a lot of homophobes. Hell, the official policy of who can serve in our military is the homophobic DADT policy, which can be interpreted by some people as condoning intolerance towards the GLBT community.
I often think how we fluff up our feathers as some sort of superior species and yet, look what a tragic, arrogant mess we’ve made of our home. We destroy our environment, we kill and torture people all the time because we don’t agree with them, we “play God” and place judgment on each other at every turn. No other species kills over intellectual disagreements. No other species destroys the planet the way we do. We think we’re so much better because we have so more more potential – but so much of it is wasted on B.S. – the endless drumbeat of “my God’s better than your God”, “My countries better than your country”, “I’m stronger than you are”, “I have more money than you do”, “I’m more attractive than you are”… blah, blah, blah… it all means NOTHING. We aren’t even EQUAL to the other species on this planet if we cannot live here without destroying it and each other in the process.
Imagine what we could have accomplished if we took all that time, money and effort and used it for GOOD! For science, medicine, space exploration etc. But NO, instead – we have F’d up Islamic nutjobs blowing themselves up because they’ve been brainwashed by their cult that their “God” will approve of this. We have teh “holier than thou” types who can;t get past their fairytale “religious” books from thousands of years ago and are on an endless pursuit to divide and hurt people because they think THEIR “God” would approve. So much suffering, so much waste – so much potential squandered. We’d be a lot more “God-like” is we stopped playing as if we ARE God and have all the answers… clearly we do NOT.
What some people forget to acknowledge is that the military, like many other institutions, is composed of many different peoples. Chris, I think your observation is most astute at giving the various backgrounds from which enlistees come and I thank you.
It is not unfathomable to think that zealots who vehemently practice their beliefs would commit such a heinous act. What we need now as a community is a full and complete non-biased investigation into these accusations. If they are found to be true through the various facts that have been/have yet to be released then these soldiers should be punished to the fullest extent of the law.
Chris:
Hell – gay soldiers get tracked down and killed ON BASES HERE IN THE UNITED STATES!!
Imagine how these rednecks would react to the chance to do it to Iraquis.
R U Kidding me??? Why is this so unbelievable? Most of the guys who enlist are from uneducated backgrounds, frequently come from areas that are far from pro-gay and most often come from families whose religions are vehemently anti-gay! The U.S. military has a MAJOR problem with prosteletizing their christian viewpoints, to the point where atheists and agnostics had to sue them!
If this is even true a little bit, they have brought great, GREAT shame on themselves, their families and this country!
IN the very least, our military rank and file should be looking into this aggressively!
DISGUSTING!
Karl:
“I’m really skeptical that US soldiers have rounded up gay people to murder them.”
Gee – if only that is what the accusaition was.
Perhaps you should re-read the article – and the claim. No one claimed that the soldiers ’rounded up and executed’ the victims. The claim is that they ‘aided’ in the detentions and did nothing to prevent the executions.
GayIthacan: I don’t think we can really measure how “bloodthirsty and violently murderous” a country is. And I’m likewise skeptical that we’d rank poorly even if we could.
I don’t find it all that impossible to believe, especially since the records of the treatment of prisoners….
I’m really skeptical that US soldiers have rounded up gay people to murder them. Why? Because it would be a waste of time and resources and the brass wouldn’t tolerate such a flagrant dereliction of duty.
I do not doubt that the US military has *killed* gay people in Iraq because:
1. There have been more than 10 civilian casualties. Statistics indicates that the probability of gays having died is high.
2. Gay men in Iraq are often forced by militant groups into committing acts of terrorism in order to atone for their ’sins’ by becoming a martyr. Those that refuse are killed anyway.
However, suggesting any deliberate movement on the part of the US military to seek out gays to kill is a bit of a hard sell.
““It’s very difficult for me to believe that my country would allow its military to engage in the conduct that has been apparently documented,” said Chris Farris, a gay D.C. resident who also attended the event.”
Why?
this is one of the most bloodthirsty and violently murderous nations in world history – especially against groups it has little respect for.