Saving their Souls in Fallujah?
I don't know what to make of this one. The Seattle Times story describes Marines apparently proselytizing as Christian missionaries in Fallujah.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...qgospel29.html
Would this not play into the hands of Al Qaeda's claims that the war in Iraq is cover for a war against Islam? I'm just sort of wondering out loud why a soldier or marine in an Islamic country would think this is a really good idea.
Sounds like some idiot's trying to do something he
has no business doing -- American Soldiers and Marines excel at that. :wry: -- and some NCO is NOT doing his job of making sure that doesn't happen... :mad:
Heh. I foresee reverbrations descending from E-ring to the fire team level...
Nah, LTs need to do LT stuff -- that's an NCO
failure, pure and simple. I have little doubt his first line boss knows he's doing that -- and NO doubt that he should know and should've never let it happen.
If, of course it happened at all...
I think the answer is probably no
Quote:
Originally Posted by
selil
The unformulated question in my mind is could this be an example of America producing our own radical Christian analog to Al Queda? That is likely a poor way to phrase it, but this Marine went against all of his training, did something so far from mission, and all of this following another severe incident involving the physical destruction of the Koran.
If it isn't psyop/IO on the part of Al Queda they aren't trying hard enought.
It could just be media sensitivity to the issue rising from the previous incident.
When patterns start to emerge there is usually agency behind them even if we don't understand it.
Musings sorry.
The key things to remember here are
1- Soldiers have a mission and that is to secure a population so that it's governance can learn how to take care of it.
The key thing missing in the thought processes behind both incidences (besides perhaps a little bit of psychosis in one) is the understanding that for that population the one thing they have felt secure in throughout all the crap in their recent history is their faith(emphasis added). As a soldier the issue of whether their faith is correct or even fair is irrelevant but as a human being our soldiers also carry beliefs which help them make it through trying times.
The real question is how to get everyone to accept that if you truly believe what you believe then it can and will speak for itself through your actions, words. I don't think this soldier sat at home making up those coins but probably some very caring individuals here who don't know the culture nor see the implications on a mission they don't understand probably provided them.
That said there is a point at which we should set forth limits for our actions in so far as if we become expected to put aside our own beliefs and yet are required to be receptive to the local messages then we are failing to set the example of freedom of religion within our own ranks. This is an area where we simply let actions speak louder than words. We probably just need to work harder on making sure our soldiers know what that really means.
(more musings)