One Radical Opinion

by "Radical" Russ Belville
Thursday, February 10, 2005

"Radical" Russ Belville was born on the first day of the Tet Offensive of the Vietnam War in the town of Nampa in the "red" state of Idaho, where any opinion to the left of Reagan gets you labeled as "radical". He currently resides in the suburbs of Portland, Oregon (a.k.a. "Little Beirut") where he works in Information Technology. In his spare time, he enjoys writing about current events, playing the six-string bass guitar, and volunteering for liberal political causes. You can contact him via e-mail at letters 'at' radicalruss.net.

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On July 8, 2004, five of our bravest troops infiltrated the home of a suspected insurgent, seeking information about his objectives and terrorist contacts. After dismissing the man's wife and child, these five men handcuffed the insurgent and beat him mercilessly. They demanded that he surrender the information they wanted, but he claimed to know nothing. They continued pistol-whipping and kicking him, trying to coerce him into signing a confession. They threatened to electrocute him with wires connected to his testicles, burn him with a cigarette lighter, and execute him with a gunshot to the back of the head. Their sadistic exploits were caught on tape, but they were not out of the ordinary. Extreme measures must be undertaken during wartime.

In another incident, our troops attacked another insurgent stronghold in a stunning pre-dawn raid. They burst into the home with "flash-bang" grenades that create a deafening blast of sound and a blinding flash of light. A father and his teenage boy and the boy's teenage girlfriend were all successfully apprehended in the raid, and they were later found to be willing participants in terrorist activities. The mother, however, was shot and killed when the armed forces broke into her room and she attempted to defend herself with a small firearm. It's a sad, yet undeniable fact that people are going to be killed in wartime, despite all the best intentions of our armed forces.

Other wartime deaths can accrue due to the hardships and limitations brought about by war. One 27-year-old terrorist recently died in U.S. custody. He was a quadriplegic, confined to a wheelchair, but he was an instrumental member of a terrorist network. His death is attributed to the lack of proper medical attention at the U.S. facilities. Another terrorist, a popular leader in his movement, died in custody when he was denied his medication and was found asphyxiated on his own vomit. A third terrorist suspect, a 56-year-old woman, committed suicide rather than face incarceration at the hands of our forces. We try our best to treat our prisoners of war humanely, but this is a war and we have to expect that there will be unintended casualties.

Sometimes innocent civilians are killed during war. One 75-year-old cleric died when troops raided his home. The old man was tackled and left face-down on the floor, where he died of a heart attack from the fear and physical abuse. Only later did we discover that faulty intelligence had led our forces to the wrong home. A similar fate befell a 57-year-old woman when forces raided her home and set off the "flash-bang" grenades; she died of a heart attack, too, and our forces were at the wrong home again. In separate instances a 46-year-old man and a 45-year-old man were both shot to death in their houses. Our forces in both cases were at the wrong address and both the victims were defending themselves against what they feared were insurgent attacks. We always try to have the best intelligence when it comes down to tracking and raiding the homes of terrorist insurgents, but sometimes that's easier said than done in warfare, especially urban warfare.

The saddest deaths in wartime are the children. Completely innocent children whose only crime was to be born to or living with a terrorist. It breaks your heart to read about an 8-year-old boy who was caught in the crossfire between his terrorist relative and our forces. Or an 11-year-old boy shot in the back as he laid face down on the floor, following the orders of our troops as they raided an insurgent stronghold. Or a 14-year-old girl shot while driving her father's car when our forces mistook her for her father. It's tough to stomach the death of children, but they occur in every war.

Our own forces also suffer great losses; many are killed in the line of duty as they fight the forces of terrorism. Twenty-nine year old Ron Jones of Mississippi was killed trying to apprehend a suspected terrorist in his home. Thirty-six year-old Keith Ruiz of Texas was shot during a raid on a suspected terrorist enclave. Thirty-two year-old Arthur Parga of California was shot and killed in another raid, and it was later determined that the home and the residents had absolutely no ties to terrorism. These men make the ultimate sacrifice to defend our way of life, so it is especially sad when some may die in a mission compromised by poor intelligence or flawed execution.

These are the kinds of sacrifices we must accept when we decide to go to war. Some "bad apples", under implicit direction from superiors, will savagely beat and torture prisoners. Some prisoners will die due to lack of adequate medical care. Some mothers, fathers, sons, and daughters will watch as their loved one is gunned down by our forces. Some innocent civilians will be killed when we accidentally raid the wrong house. Some innocent children will get caught in the crossfire. And some of our own brave forces will die in ill-conceived and poorly-executed missions. These are the human costs we must bear in order to fight The War On (Some Countries That Had Absolutely Nothing To Do With 9/11 Or) Terror.

Except for one small detail. I'm not referring to our war in Iraq. I'm referring to The War On (Some Americans With Certain Non-Pharmaceutical) Drugs – a war we've been fighting on our own soil against our own people for over six decades. In each paragraph above just take the words "terrorist" or "insurgent" and replace them with "pothead" or "medical marijuana patient". Then take the words "forces" or "troops" and replace them with "police" and "SWAT teams". "Strongholds" and "enclaves" are your average American "homes" and "apartments". "Faulty intelligence" is actually "tips from informants", many of whom are criminals who will say anything to try to cut a deal. The stories above are absolutely real; only some of the nouns have been changed to make a point.