The Iraqi government has proposed an amnesty for all Iraqi resisters who have killed US troops, as a method of trying to halt the civil war currently burning across that country.

The primary news story is in a WaPo article published June 15th. We won’t directly link to WaPo stories until Fred Hiatt resigns in disgrace for his deliberate acts that have reduced much of the WaPo to nothing more than the print equivalent of Fox News.

The articles examines Iraqi Prime Minister’s attempt to end the civil war there by granting amnesty to the gunmen, thugs, and resisters who have spread violence across the nation country. The amnesty would extend to those who have killed American and other allied troops in Iraq.

The Huffington Post has a list of some Republican Senators who are on the public record as stating that granting amnesty to those who killed US troops is fine with them. It’s nice to see that these Senators have finally come around to the understanding that these Iraqis are right in resisting the illegal occupation of their country by the US.

I titled this article “Traitorous Republican Senators” because that is how the wingnuts should immediately designate them. After all, they support our illegal war and occupation in Iraq. It seems to me that they should revile the Senators of their own party, shouldn’t they?

Shakespeare’s Sister has published an email sent by a trooper in Iraq to his wife:

I am one of the soldiers that these proposals are dishonoring.

Did any of these men ever serve??? Have to go through memorial service after memorial service day after day for comrades they knew and loved???

Have they had to live in fear every moment of every unchanging, horrible day, waiting for a never-seen rocket or a mortar to kill them—or worse, kill those to whom they are close???

Have they bore body armor in 120 degree heat in the face of an unrecognizable enemy, one who uses terrified civilians as shields?

Have they seen the remains of tanks, HMMWVs, BODIES!!! that were rent asunder by invisible bombs, planted by fanatical zealots???

Have they truly seen the shatter lives of Iraqis, these lives broken by the very people they propose to grant amnesty?

Have they had to pull the trigger with the aim of killing another human being, someone you have never met or seen before, never knowing if the target was truly an enemy?

Do these gentlemen wrestle at night with the nightmares of guilt and second-guessing?

Every IED that injures or kills an American soldier exacerbates the normal soldiers' attitude toward those who he is sent to help and protect. Every sniper shot hardens our hearts.

Propose accolades for those who have lived through this hell, not for those who have opposed them in the shadows, in the dark.

When an insurgent—a terrorist—an enemy combatant—call them what you will—strikes at an American, he attacks Iraq.

When we these "right, honorable" gentlemen realize that we are in a war we should have never entered—one where our very presence provokes and increases the enemy's resolve and recruitment—perhaps then I will consider their words.

But until then, tell these paper warriors to go to Walter Reed, to Landstuhl, to Sam Houston and face the soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen whose lives have been drastically altered or ended.

Tell them to face the families of the fallen and propose their accolades to our foes.

Instead of resolutions that honor those who are trying to kill us, these senators, these congressmen should devote their efforts, their words, their very lives to try and figure out how we can extricate ourselves from this war.

Perhaps then they can look themselves in the eye and admit Iraq was a mistake and commit all our energies to saving American lives, instead of worrying about mollifying our enemies' rage.

Sean Frerking
A soldier serving in Iraq

Winger trolls have a lot of work ahead of them: They have to tar-and-feather a whole bunch of Republican Senators for abandoning the troops, and they also must begin sliming Sean Frerking for resenting the treason of these Senators.

That much work is a man’s job.

The winger trolls certainly are not up to the job.