Great Men foolish words

[tdwebste]

I received this in a recent email. I know this is a popular point of view. But is it productive?

In a recent interview
General Norman Schwartzhopf
was asked if he thought
there was room for forgiveness
towards the people who have harboured
and abetted the terrorists who perpetrated
the 9/11 attacks on America.

His answer was classic Schwartzkopf.
The General said, “I believe that forgiving them is God's function.
Our job is to arrange the meeting.”

In his words he does not condemn them, he just kills them.
He says it is God's function to forgive them, implying they are innocent.

From the mouth of this man, a great leader of men, comes complete foolishness.

To those who's life fill with hopelessness, he only offering a reason for revenge,
psychotic desire to destroy this painful place will be all that remains.


He should have said the opposite and his actions unchanged.
His words should have been:

"I am sorry for every innocent person who loses their life.
To terrorist and their supporters I say;
Love your innocent children and sort out your corruption and violence NOW!!!
Don't destroy their innocence with your love of death.”

 

[scoutfinch]

Are you on glue?

A soldier's job is not to kiss and make up.  A soldier's job is to eliminate the threat posed by an enemy through lawful means.

We leave the kissing and making up to the politicians... that is their job, not ours. 

 

[mckee19]

In his words he does not condemn them, he just kills them.
He says it is God's function to forgive them, implying they are innocent.

in no way does he imply there innocent,  he is just stating that it is God's  job to figure whether there innocent or not.
i think the same way, harbouring and abetting terrorists is directly supporting them and there cause, if they had no where to hide they would be forced with in a certain area closed on and destroyed, exactly what a soldiers job is.

i think your looking to much into the innocent part of this, if the question had been about civilian lives lost I'm sure his answer would have been completely different, but in this case the question was about the Terrorists and there supporters and was answered accordingly.

 

[ExSarge]

He should have said the opposite and his actions unchanged.
His words should have been:

You worry to much about his words. If you want words go to a politician. If you want action go to a soldier. 

 

[Wookilar]

TD,

You do realize that this quote from Gen. Schwartzhopf is a few years old. This was from an interview given (if I remember correctly) about two months after the 9/11 attacks.

While I understand your sentiments, I unfortunately cannot agree with you. Your mindset seems to be similar to the Afghan/Canadian journalist that did a piece on CBC's The National last night. You can go on about the inneffectiveness of violence and how soldiers alone can not get the job done all you want, but until those that are trying to destroy our culture lay down their arms, we can not.

I will gladly not go to Afghanistan (Cambodia, Kosovo, Eritrea, insert unstable state here) and watch my kids grow and not miss any more aniverseries/birthdays/watching my kids learn how to walk. You go talk to the dudes beheading teachers and stoning women, get them to join the 21st Century, teach them what human rights are, then get back to us.

No more semantics, no more posturing. All these people that want the killing to end, but are unwilling to negotiate with the bad guys should crap or get off the pot (and I mean that in all possible ways).

Wook

 

[Danjanou]

Are you on glue?

Actually a review of his(her?) post history would tend to suggest some other form of recreational pharmaceutical.

 

[tdwebste]

I regret what I said, it was STUPID!!

 

[Michael OLeary]

You have to wonder why, with all the information available on the internet, someone can't check the facts before passing something like this on.

Thanks to  Google:
and Snopes:

http://www.snopes.com/military/norman.htm

Claim:  General Norman Schwarzkopf authored a pithy quote about whether we should show forgivenesss towards those who harbored terrorists.

Status:  False.

Example: [Collected on the Internet, 2002]

In a recent interview, General Norman Schwartzkopf was asked if he didn't think there was room for forgiveness toward the people who have harbored and abetted the terrorists who perpetrated the 9/11 attacks on America.

His answer was classic Schwartzkopf. He said, "I believe that forgiving them is God's function. Our job is simply to arrange the meeting."