Collateral Friendship!

Collateral Friendship!

It makes me sad when I see a majority of the threads on this website regarding the war in the middle east contain nothing but anti-US and anti-troop remarks. It makes me even more sad that a majority of our members think that treason is more heroic than the men and woman in uniform putting their lives at risk.

Below are some images of the other side of the picture. A more positive outlook on what has been a long and strenuous mission in the middle east.
























If you have any other pictures you would like to post, please feel free to do so. *snip*




edited to resize images and except formal debate.


[edit on 30-8-2010 by NeutronAvenger]

Thanks for posting this! S & F It's nice to see the flip side of the coin. All we ever see is the ugly face of war, and get bombarded with negative images. War is not pretty, but there are good people out there trying to make a difference, and we should not forget that.

Edit to add these pics I found on the web:

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/4f53f5a2e3d1.jpg[/atsimg]

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/754c5b433b1e.jpg[/atsimg]

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/7e0a3509bb62.jpg[/atsimg]

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/145ae69e4322.jpg[/atsimg]

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/233db130896f.jpg[/atsimg]


[edit on 29-8-2010 by TortoiseKweek]

Thanks for a nicer thread about what our troops are doing overseas! Yea we have some bad apples in the military but that is true everywhere. Some of our guys and gals do some real good things. Kindness is just as human as cruelty.

Your last image was at one time altered and used as a propaganda image:



Here is the story behind the image:

None of these photos has been as badly misused as the picture of the soldier and child, however. As PRWatch recently found, the partisan Iowa Presidential Watch PAC (motto: "Holding the Democrats Accountable") lifted the image without credit, replaced the baby's head to make it appear to be gazing adoringly at the soldier, and turned it into a pro-war poster.

Had any of these war propagandists bothered to research the picture, they might have found its context placed it more on the peacenik side of the fence. The soldier holding the child was Navy Hospital Corpsman Richard Barnett, who told the full story to the Ventura County Star a few months later. He was the medic for a company of Marines that were at the forefront of the push from Nasiriya to Baghdad. "We were literally the tip of the spear," Barnett recalled. The boy and his family were in a sedan driving towards them with an Iraqi army truck close behind. They were human shields. After a gun battle, the Iraqi soldiers fled into the desert -- but no one emerged from the bullet-riddled car.

"They looked in the vehicle and they found a family," Barnett said, tears reddening his eyes at the memory. "They were horrified by what they found. They were all hit."
The agonized cry of the Marines who found the mother, father, and two children still haunts Barnett.

"It was that horrifying a cry," Barnett said.

The first victim the Marines carried back to the medics was a little girl about 6 years old who had been struck in the head and chest. As the medics worked to stabilize the little girl, they realized that the entire family had been hit from behind, meaning the Iraqi soldiers had fired on their own human shields.

Barnett immediately tended to the next young gunshot victim, a boy of about 3 or 4.

"The little boy I was holding was covered in blood, just covered in blood," Barnett remembered. "He was stiff as a board, like a frightened animal, breathing 100 miles an hour."

It was this moment that was captured by the photographer, Barnett told the Ventura County Star. He examined the boy, but could find no wounds. "Then we realized that the blood had come from someone else." The child was drenched in his dead mother's blood. Barnett still wept as he remembered the scene months later.

An embedded reporter from his hometown paper was also on hand that day as Barnett watched a MEDIVAC helicopter take away the boy and his injured sister and dad. "If anything good comes from this nonsense, I haven't seen it yet," he said.

As this image apparently is a great favorite with Pentagon brass, wouldn't it be nice if each copy of the picture included that quote?

www.monitor.net...

reply to post by clay2 baraka


I didn't know, that is actually pretty damn sad when images are altered like this.

Makes one wonder what other images may have been tampered with. So much for honesty now days??

I still do believe that there are many good doers over there, and faked images like that shouldn't take away from the work they are doing.

[edit on 29-8-2010 by TortoiseKweek]

reply to post by clay2 baraka


Well he showed the non-propaganda image.

Thank you OP!

I wish we didn't fight, but the world is ugly.

Blessings,admiration, respect, and salutations to the troops!
Just to be clear,,,
My issues are with the politicians, the destruction of the middle class,
and the national debt. I have no issues with you. Nor will I ever.

However it must be stated that unending wars, trade imbalances,
(that is "free" trade) rather than fair trade, are rapidly undermining
the strength of the United States of America.

In fact, that IS the the biggest threat to our National Security, and the
future of American children, grandchildren, and other Natural Resources.

Food for thought,,, Read what Aristotle had to say about how important
a healthy middle class was to a nations EXISTENCE.

What you are doing for humanity is historical. I can only pray that Uncle
Sam compensates you accordingly when you return to our beloved U.S.A.

Originally posted by NeutronAvenger
Collateral Friendship!

It makes me even more sad that a majority of our members think that treason is more heroic than the men and woman in uniform putting their lives at risk.

I am sorry but there is nothing heroic about invading another country that has done nothing to you. I am sorry you fell for the high school recruiters crap but most of you did. You were raised on Hollywood making the warrior look heroic so when this crap happened you would be primed.

We raised a generation of people that have been raised to glorify war.

BYOB (Bring Your Own Bombs)

reply to post by LoneGunMan


I appreciate your input and understand your point of view, but as I asked in my opening post I didn't want this to turn into an anti-troops debate. There are plenty of other threads for that.

If you have any other pictures you would like to post, please feel free to do so. And please refrain from turning this into an anti-troops/US debate!

edited to refine spelling.

[edit on 30-8-2010 by NeutronAvenger]

Originally posted by NeutronAvenger
reply to post by LoneGunMan

 

I appreciate your imput and understand your point of view, but as I ask in my opening post I didn't want this to turn into an anti-troops debate, as there are plenty of other threads to do so.

If you have any other pictures you would like to post, please feel free to do so. And please refrain from turning this into an anti-troops/US debate!

I ask you.

Why do they always send the poor?


Because the poor buy the propaganda easier. They target them to be soldiers because the poor just don't get it. If the elite want war they should send there kids first.

I dont care that you asked to control the content of this thread but that is not how it works in America. Maybe in George Orwell's Oceana but this is not that place yet. We still have to wait until your generation has the power. Then we will see what modern propaganda and media have done to us all.

The machine is corrupt. Throw yourself on it and stop the gears.

[edit on 30-8-2010 by LoneGunMan]

If you had not said the following I would have stayed out of your thread.

Originally posted by NeutronAvenger
It makes me even more sad that a majority of our members think that treason is more heroic than the men and woman in uniform putting their lives at risk.

You eluded that people that want to change our country are not heroic but treasonous. This nation and its multinational corporations are killing the planet and because some people that see the light want to change it you called them treasonous.

Young people that go to war are not heroic they are full of testosterone and have not the experience to understand what they are doing. They are not doing this to be heroes. If you want to be a hero go save an innocent life. A hero does not go shooting up a country full of people.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/48bf7aafbc90.jpg[/atsimg]

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/0d5a48cc1f58.jpg[/atsimg]

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/13a84e410444.jpg[/atsimg]

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/1123e6d6cc10.jpg[/atsimg]

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/5c7e26f2f526.jpg[/atsimg]


[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/5184109ebe27.jpg[/atsimg]

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/351cd097a773.jpg[/atsimg]

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/d6448f5e2f12.jpg[/atsimg]

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/6ed3c71194aa.jpg[/atsimg]

Images courtesy of Flopping Aces


[edit on 8/30/10 by makeitso]

I never had any problems with your troops its the Macnamaras,Kissingers,Eagleburgers and Rumsfeldts of the world that dont do much for me.Recently Australia has lost several soldiers in Afghanistan and public sentiment is growing anti-involvement my cousin is special operations in Afghanistan and he says people forget its a professional military people train as soldiers because that is what they want to do and that we are doing a good job there,people seem to forget these are professionals doing their best to represent their country and as such should be supported regardless of what you think of who sent them there.

Thank you so much OP for posting this, it really made me think about my uncle.

He served 3 tours in Afghanistan working in artillery infantry(?) and the groups chef. But he said when he was there he met this little boy, he was in southern Afghanistan on tour and a boy walked up to him. The child was naked and was about 5 years old, he was part of a group of young kids 2-7 approximately and they had a dog. The children were homeless and lived literally on the side of the dirt roads.

So he said the kids were hanging around a lot and he began to take to the kid. So he called up his mom back in the states and told her to buy some kids clothes and some shoes for the boy. She sent it to him and he gave it to the kid. He said they were nice clothes, a couple of outfits, and a pair of Nike shoes.

He said he would play ball with the kids when they weren't doing anything and would give them some food, which his superior turned his back on. But he said he really liked that little boy, he doesn't know his name and the kid doesn't have any parents or a home. But he said he wanted to bring him back to the states but since we are at war in Afghanistan he isn't allowed to bring any kids back home. He says it is still painful for him.




Some troops do terrible things like kill innocent people and animals, others just do their jobs and some help the kids of the area by giving them food, candy or just attention.

I am not an anti-troop American, I am an Anti-War American. These men and women are dying for an unjust cause and we should lock everyone up in the entire Congress that approved the war and all members of the Bush and Obama administration that supported it too. They should be locked up for murdering the innocent Afghans and Iraqi's and killing our troops and risking their lives. Honor our troops by bringing them home and not sending them into wars for profit.

Bring all our troops home from around the world and keep them here with their family and fellow Americans and don't let any troop ever go homeless or without medical help. They should be guaranteed the top of the line everything for serving us!

[edit on 8/30/2010 by Misoir]

I agree.
Most are pawns.
Most are mislead.

Most know Not who they Are.
Yet, one still has a choice when confronted with their conscience.
A 'gift' of their Creator.

Every action has a reaction by design.
Do those react with 'Reason' to 'that' reaction?
Most human beings seem quite flawed do they not?
You should know what I mean.

Just Do the Right Thing.
You 'should' know what that is.
That little voice inside.
It speaks though does one listen?

I'd rather be Here than in combat though this is only a 'recent' example of creativity gone.....Right.
Maybe that's just me.
To each his own that will be know.


[edit on 30-8-2010 by Perseus Apex]

there is nothing heroic to be done in Iraq. If you are a soldier than you should question the war, and if the answers are not satisfying, get out. Get the troops out of Iraq, all they are doing is helping the zionist agenda. It is not treason to abandon an army if the army is doing wrong, it is treason to human life to stay.

reply to post by NeutronAvenger


You show some pictures of troops holding children who they've helped and that makes up for all of the horrid things that comes along with war and those who volunteer to go kill people in a battle that will never end for reasons they don't even understand?

Please, give me a break.

The collateral damage is on the front lines and it is the women and children who are not even apart of the war (more so dragged into it or just in the wrong place at the wrong time) who are being killed from bombs and flying bullets.

More bad is being done than good - and if you think otherwise you're very close minded.

Yes there are good people that are enlisted but they are being used as puppets and some of those troops are OK with it, go along with it, and even participate fully knowing what they are doing is wrong.

Peace>War

Originally posted by anglodemonicmatrix
people seem to forget these are professionals doing their best to represent their country and as such should be supported regardless of what you think of who sent them there.

"represent their country" is it new sport? Is there World Cup in Iraq? Did i miss something ?

reply to post by highlyoriginal


It makes me wonder what populace of this website failed basic reading in school. Let me make a few things clear...

1. This thread is not create to promote or in any way glorify war. Quite the opposite.

2. I created this thread to show some respect for the men and woman of the armed forces (of all countries) currently working / in combat overseas.

A governments agenda does not necessarily reflect that of the troops serving. Therefor, I believe some form of respect is shown to these men and woman volunteering!

pure propaganda... showing respect for soldiers is also glorifying war

let me remind you about the real world of war:

collateral murder



there is nothing romantic about war and you may call it anti-american or whatever

but I call it anti-human

[edit on 30-8-2010 by donhuangenaro]