From Allah, via John Hawkins comes this UK news televised video of Iraqi soldiers manhandling three terrorists caught with mortar rounds in Baghdad. Oh, the humanity! Oh, the brutality! Oh, the f*cking insane, pretentious, addlepated, ignorant, self-aggrandising, arrogant, stupid, hypocritical jackassery of the newsreader.
Thanks, Terry. Here’s Andrew’s take:
I have no idea what Mickey Kaus believes about the Iraq war (never have, actually). It is not a subject he is much concerned with. He is much more interested in weightier topics such as yours truly. His latest swipe is about this post, where I show a British Channel 4 video showing Shiite soldiers beating Sunnis on a joint patrol with U.S. forces. I describe the victims as “civilians,” which gives Mickey an opening to ignore the point I was making and accuse me of inaccuracy. Hey, it gets him up in the afternoon. I referred to them as civilians because they are residents of the neighborhood, not in uniform, and unarmed, as compared with the soliders in Iraqi army uniform. Mickey protests because the video clearly shows the beaten men had mortars in their car. So they’re not civilians, right? That depends on who is or is not a civilian in a messy civil war like the one we’re now policing. The insurgents are civilians in as much as they are not in the Iraqi army, not in uniform, and often residents of a neighborhood. But they are not civilians in as much as they are engaged in a violent insurgency – actively or passively.
The whole point of the video and the posting, however, was that it illustrated how almost exclusively Shiite forces are beating Sunni residents, and clearing Sunni neighborhoods, with tacit U.S. support.
It’s so absurd, I don’t even really know where to begin, ya know? It’s like Kerry calling the US an international pariah at Davos or meeting with Khatami. It’s just not surprising, anymore. On the masthead he cites Orwell: “To see what is in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle.” Terrorists. They are TER.ROR.ISTS. I tried, I really did try not to type this, but you know what’s in front of your nose, Andrew? Islamofascist pubic hair, you dumbass.
Damn right. Since they don’t know what to do with it.
I second the commenter over at Hot Air: I didn’t see any beheadings!
And the other one who said this reporter must never have gotten a beating, or even a wedgie, when he was in school, or else he wouldn’t call this a “beating”.
Damn effeminate “Cool Brits”. Almost worse than the French.
Andrew Sullivan posted this video late last week and was SHOCKED and DISGUSTED by what he characterized as attacks on Iraqi “civilians.”
When called on it by Mickey Kaus, Sullivan posted one of his usual circular-reasoned, and meaningless, nonresponses.
About time the Iraqis started standing up. Where’s that media blackout when you need it?
I fucking love this tape. Bad guys, good guys, good guys kill bad guys, except for a couple that they haul away. I want more of this!
http://www.local6.com/video/10844390/index.html
Oh, hat tip to AoS for that.
Podhoretz’s Letter of the Day. . .
Thank you so much, Andrew Sullivan. You are the light that illuminates the path to reason. You are, in fact, the reason that the light shineth at all. Because of you, I have come out of the closet. Because of you, I oppose outing. Because of you, I voted for Bush. Because of you, I voted for Kerry. Because of you, I supported the war in Iraq. Because of you, I oppose the war in Iraq. Because of you, I have sleep apnea. Because of you, I have cured my sleep apnea. Because of you, I believe in a conservatism of doubt  although because of you, I must of necessity doubt the conservatism of doubt that represents the doubtful provenance of my conservatism. Because of you, I have entirely jettisoned my sense of humor, as it gets in the way of my self-regard. I owe it all to you. Or, should I say, You.
Thanks Meg.
I’ll let the lads know you’re right behind them.
furriskey–
I don’t think she means the lads.
Who’s the news presenter?
And that fucking tie.
Quite right. There are still decent Brits around, God bless them, many in Iraq and other hot spots. I was/am mocking modern types all too prevalent in this age of “Cool Britannia”.
The news reader is a long-term wanker called Jon Snow, whose performance I agree is cringe makingly pathetic.
He is in his own small way the Robert Fisk of ‘presenters’ rather than reporters, although he used in his youth to be a neatly coiffed ‘reporter’.
Stop depressing yourself. Cheer up and watch my video instead. Bad guys get targeted by good guys who then kill all the bad guys. Except for a couple of bad guys who they severely injure and capture. It is really a feel good video.
Fair enough. To those of us still hanging on to sanity, the personification of lying, hypocritical, “Cool Britannia” is the man who tried to popularise that phrase, Tony Blair. Sadly he is apparently still respected by a lot of otherwise sound Americans.
Back when I was going through the Fort Benning Home for Wayward Boys, the first thing they told us you never said with POW’s was “Sergeant, take care of the prisoners.”
So I’m just gonna chalk this one up as a learning experience. I’m sure they had a very strongly-worded AAR.
Hey, those guys could all still walk just fine after the “beatings”, even climbing back up in the trucks.
If punks like these were caught with explosives at the end of WW2, they’d be lined up and shot dead. I have seen the films, no more post-Nazi problems after that procedure.
So those are al-Sadr’s boys “spreading democracy” while our guys cheer them on?
I thought they were the bad guys this week?
Those are Maliki’s boys killing some Sunni insurgents on Haifa Street. Probably not Sadr’s boys yet.
If they were carrying explosives I assume they will be executed after interrogation.
Unarmed. Except for the fucking mortar rounds. What would he consider armed? Would Sully mind me waltzing through his ‘hood with an AK? And isn’t it a faux pas to be caught in war zone with military ordinance while out of uniform? Don’t the Geneva Conventions specifically mention that as something of a no-no? I’m going to let the whole ‘resident of the neighborhood’ pass because I’m sure some of Sully’s neighbors are supporters of Saddam also. not that that would bother him.
Thank God nobody was smeared with fake menstrual blood or draped with an Israeli flag, or we’d never hear the end of the gob-smackingly vile heart-ache.
Or charged with rape, Sean?
No, they’re fucking up murderers, as those charged with keeping the peace are wont to do. Apparently, kissy-face justice hasn’t taken root in Iraq yet. Little wonder that you’d be their champion, alphie. How are things on the other side? Y’all seem so unhappy these days.
My God. Is he dead? No wonder he’s seemed a bit down in the mouth.
Dammit, Dan, haven’t you watched ANY Matt Helm movies? Terrorists are supposed to run around in snappy jumpsuits with their evil cause’s logo on the pocket, and maybe jazzy little plastic helmets and matching boots.
If they’re not doing that, they OBVIOUSLY aren’t terrorists.
It’s a major one. Like, big-time, shoot-on-sight one.
Unless you believe in the “law-enforcement” approach to fighting jihadis.
If Andrew Sullivan had any more self-regard, he’s need a mirror held up in front of him at all times.
Andrew has spent so much time looking for eeeeeeevil Christianist theocrats lately, that he’s forgotten that the real enemy tries its best to blend in (like, uh, ‘civilans’
. Fortunaltely, Glenn gets a suitable rip in at Andrew’s expense.
Andrew is very confused.
He still thinks he’s a Catholic.
He probably forgot what these civilians would do to him (hint: rocks – target practice with Andrew as target or wall – demolition with Andrew observing from underneath) given a chance.
Having said that, I think we should scrupulously follow the Geneva Convention and shoot these terrorists.