The Aerie
My first mistake was viewing the video at this site. It's yet another video of Iraqi fighters killing a US soldier and then defiling the body. You don't want to watch it.
I watch these things occasionally because I get angry at our media for refusing to air anything like them. Okay, these are pretty darned intense, but the only footage I ever see on our 'free' and 'liberal' media is of two types. The first is determined soldiers receiving a day-brightening care package sent to them from some US based nonprofit. The other is an enlistment portrait of a local soldier with a brief squib listing his name, age, and the circumstances of his death.
The media is ignoring the other 99.9% of the Iraq experience, because it doesn't sell soap and might piss off our government.
Anyone seeking additional information is liable to be victim to the propaganda of the other side. You'd think that the U.S. media would want to avoid compelling its citizens to seek out enemy propaganda, but apparently selling soap is more important than "winning" the war. Or maybe the government doesn't believe that any 'decent' citizen would WANT to know anything more about Iraq than they're being officially told already.
Whatever, there I was, watching yet another of those horrid films. The subject matter is bad enough. The film quality is execrable. Over it all they lay these inevitable droning Arabic chants. If the U.S. filmed and mutilated Iraqi fighters, would we turn it into a music video? Okay we might, but would we select "Onward Christian Soldiers" for the soundtrack?
Okay, we might. If it were a cover done in metal or rap.
But the worst of it is that over the bad video and droning chants is the sound of everyone present - usually the cameraman but occasionally others can be heard - repeating "Allahu Ahkbar. Allahu Ahkbar. Allahu Ahkbar." Over and over.
Is Allah really happy about this? Really? I think Allah is spinning in his grave, frankly. I think it would be annoying to be God and have soldiers from either side pointing at the corpses and saying "Hey, I did this for you, God!" Somehow I don't think death, slaughter, and mutilation were what God had in mind for Her Creation.
On the other hand, She doesn't seem to be doing much to stop it. Yes, I know, 'Free Will."
So a short time later I'm watching the news when I see this article. Note the ending:
Before the service, nine picketers from the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., picketed across the street. The group, including children as young as 10, wore T-shirts and displayed signs with anti-American and anti-gay messages.
Westboro member Fred Phelps said the church believes the war and the deaths of U.S. troops are God's punishment for a nation too accepting of gays.
"This is God's punishment of this nation, mocking what the Bible says about this vile issue," Phelps said.
I've been trying to think of a polite way of saying this, but... that's just fucked up.
I don't know who is crazier - this guy, or his crazy followers, including his granddaughter Jael Phelps. She's studying to be a nurse - it will be interesting to see how long she holds her job, particularly if she has any gay patients. Wouldn't that be a lovely little visit - you're gay, you're feeling sick, and you get Jael Phelps as a nurse.
So on the one hand, you have these Iraqi fighters - or more likely, these foreigners fighting US Soldiers in Iraq - chanting "God is great." "God is great." "God is great." over and over again as they pick like vultures through a dead soldier's belongings. On the other hand you have this absolute Waco-style nutjob Phelps, picketing like vultures through a dead soldier's funeral, all the while claiming "God Loves IEDS" and "God Hates America."