Well, let's just examine one single aspect of what David L. Bahnsen has to say about Lew Rockwell's views:
"You will read that the men and women serving our military are despicable little immoral creatures, trained to kill innocent parties..."
First, one should understand
who exactly is leveling the above charge - and in checking Mr. Bahnsen bio info on the referenced site, we find that he is
"a Senior Vice President in the private client group of one of the premier Wall Street firms in the country."
For those that don't understand the significance of that statement, and what a "private client group" is, allow me to share the following with you:
"Private banking is a term for banking, investment and other financial services provided by banks to private individuals investing sizable assets. The term "private" refers to the customer service being rendered on a more personal basis than in mass-market retail banking, usually via dedicated bank advisers.
Historically private banking has been viewed as very exclusive, only catering for high net worth individuals with liquidity over $2 million, although it is now possible to open some private bank accounts with as little as $250,000 for private investors."
IOW, he's a bankster - and not the sort of people who normally hang out here on EO (although I have little doubt that
some here would no doubt fawn all over him ....
and perhaps offer to lick off the soles of his handmade Berluti shoes with their own tongue, lest poor Mr. Bahnsen pollute them with common filth)
IOW, this guy could have a very big
vested financial interest against the very things that Ron Paul (and Lew Rockwell) stand for. He surely sounds (and smells)
neocon ....
Now the question is: Is there any data whatsoever that could lend validity to the views that Mr. Bahnsen claims Lew Rockwell holds ? ...... leaving aside for the moment the fact that what Mr. Bahnsen claims are Lew Rockwell's views, are simply
Bahnsen's characterization of them, and are, in fact, largely just an
ad hominem attack Lew Rockwell, and an attempt to tar Ron Paul through his association with Lew Rockwell ..... which of course is a
logical fallacy ..... something the author
freely and
unashamedly confesses to, right in the article when he says the following:
"I want to start my indictment of Ron Paul where I will surely end it: With the linking of Ron Paul to the American fanatical lunatic, Lew Rockwell. It is dangerous ground when one seeks to take down a person by simply associating him with someone else. As we all know, it is actually a logical fallacy of the first order."
Of course, the Turkey Choker, being the
very honest fellow that he is, made sure to include that second sentence containing the author's confession in his selective quoting
..... Wha ? .... oh wait ..... nevermind .... he didn't include it .... he purposefully left it out ....
Well Turkey, looks like no "honest broker" status for you today either .....
And of course, all of the above is even more ironic and hilarious (
to say nothing of being utterly hypocritical) when one considers that it was posted by someone who not but a couple of days ago was literally squealing about lack of civility, ad hominem attacks, yada-yada-yada ....
Each of the following I believe is a separate incident, except the first, which is referenced again at the end:
"A U.S. diplomatic cable made public by WikiLeaks suggests that U.S. troops executed at least 10 Iraqi civilians, including a woman in her 70s and a 5-month-old infant, then called in an airstrike to destroy the evidence, during a controversial 2006 incident in the central Iraqi town of Ishaqi."
WikiLeaks: Iraqi children in U.S. raid shot in head
"US special forces soldiers dug bullets out of their victims’ bodies in the bloody aftermath of a botched night raid, then washed the wounds with alcohol before lying to their superiors about what happened, Afghan investigators have told The Times.
Two pregnant women, a teenage girl, a police officer and his brother were shot on February 12 when US and Afghan special forces stormed their home in Khataba village, outside Gardez in eastern Afghanistan."
US special forces 'tried to cover-up' botched Khataba raid in Afghanistan
"WASHINGTON - A string of alleged atrocities by U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan is testing the military justice system and raising the possibility that American soldiers may face the death penalty for acts in countries where every street can be a battlefield.
Not since World War II have members of the U.S. military faced murder charges for killing prisoners. Not since the My Lai massacre during the Vietnam War have U.S. soldiers formally been accused of indiscriminately slaughtering innocent civilians.
In recent days, seven Marines and one sailor have been charged with the April murder of an Iraqi civilian in Hamdania, while four Army soldiers face premeditated murder charges for the deaths of three Iraqi detainees at Iraq's Thar Thar canal.
The military also is looking into allegations that several Marines massacred up to two dozen civilians in Haditha, Iraq, in November.
Eleven other soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan already have been tried in connection with the death of someone in their custody, but none received a death sentence. The one convicted of the most serious charge - premeditated murder - was sentenced to 25 years. Several others were convicted of, or pleaded guilty to, lesser charges.
A look at criminal cases stemming from the deaths of Iraqis since the war began in 2003:
CONVICTIONS:
-Staff Sgt. Cardenas J. Alban, convicted of killing a severely wounded 16-year-old Iraqi during fighting in Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood. He was sentenced to one year's confinement, demoted to private and given a bad-conduct discharge.
-Staff Sgt. Johnny Horne Jr., pleaded guilty to unpremeditated murder in the same case as Alban. He was sentenced to three years in prison, had his rank reduced to private, forfeited wages and was given a dishonorable discharge. His prison sentence was later reduced to one year.
-Cpl. Dustin Berg of the Indiana National Guard, convicted and sentenced to serve 18 months in prison for the shooting death of an Iraqi police officer.
-Spc. Rami Dajani, convicted of making a false statement following the fatal shooting of an Iraqi translator. He was sentenced to 18 months' confinement and given a reduction in rank and bad-conduct discharge.
-Spc. Charley L. Hooser, convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the same case involving Dajani. Hooser was sentenced to three years in prison and given a reduction in rank and bad-conduct discharge.
-Capt. Rogelio "Roger" Maynulet, convicted of assault with intent to commit voluntary manslaughter in the shooting death of a wounded Iraqi. He got no prison time but was dismissed from the armed forces.
-Pvt. Federico Daniel Merida of the North Carolina National Guard, pleaded guilty to killing a 17-year-old Iraqi soldier after the two had consensual sex. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison, given a reduction in rank and dishonorably discharged.
-Marine Maj. Clarke Paulus, convicted of dereliction of duty and maltreatment in a case stemming from the death of an Iraqi prisoner who was dragged out of his holding cell by the neck, stripped naked and left outside for seven hours in 2003. Paulus, who commanded a Marine detention camp in Iraq, was dismissed from the service but received no prison time.
-Sgt. 1st Class Tracy Perkins, acquitted of involuntary manslaughter in the alleged drowning of an Iraqi man but convicted of assault for forcing the man and his cousin into the Tigris River. He was sentenced to six months in prison.
-1st Lt. Jack Saville, pleaded guilty to assault and other crimes in the same incident as Perkins and was sentenced to 45 days in prison.
-Pfc. Edward Richmond, convicted of voluntary manslaughter for shooting an Iraqi in the back of the head. He received three years in prison.
-Sgt. Michael P. Williams, convicted one premeditated murder and unpremeditated murder in the deaths of unarmed civilians during operations near Sadr City. He was sentenced to life in prison and given a reduction in rank. His sentence was later reduced to 25 years.
-Spc. Brent May, convicted of unpremeditated murder in the same incident as Williams. He was sentenced to five years.
-Chief Warrant Officer Lewis Welshofer of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, found guilty of negligent homicide and negligent dereliction of duty in the death of Iraqi Maj. Gen. Abed Hamed Mowhoush after interrogation at a detention camp. A military jury ordered a reprimand and forfeiture of $6,000 of his salary, and restricted him to his home, office and church for two months.
CLEARED/ACQUITTED:
-Marine 2nd Lt. Ilario Pantano, cleared of murder charges in the shooting deaths of two Iraqi civilians. Pantano had been accused of riddling the two with bullets and hanging a warning sign on their corpses as a grisly example to insurgents.
-Staff Sgt. Shane Werst, acquitted of premeditated murder in the shooting death of an unarmed Iraqi. Werst said he fired to save a fellow soldier.
PENDING CASES:
-Hospitalman Third Class Melson J. Bacos, Sgt. Lawrence G. Hutchins III, Lance Cpl. Tyler A. Jackson, Pfc. John J. Jodka, Cpl. Marshall L. Magincalda, Lance Cpl. Robert B. Pennington, Lance Cpl. Jerry E. Shumate, Jr. and Marine Cpl. Trent D. Thomas are charged with premeditated murder in the shooting death of an Iraqi man in Hamdania. All eight are also charged with kidnapping, conspiracy and other offenses.
-Pfc. Corey R. Clagett, Spc. Juston R. Graber, Staff Sgt. Raymond L. Girouard, and Spc. William B. Hunsaker are charged with the premeditated murder of three male detainees. Clagett, Girouard and Hunsaker are also charged with obstructing justice for allegedly threatening to kill another soldier who was a witness in the case.
-National Guard Sgt. Milton Ortiz, Jr. and Spc. Nathan B. Lynn are charged in the shooting death of an unarmed Iraqi man near Ramadi. Lynn is charged with voluntary manslaughter. Both he and Ortiz are also charged with obstructing justice. Ortiz also faces charges of assault and communicating a threat in a separate incident involving another Iraqi man.
-Chief Warrant Officer Jefferson L. Williams, Sgt. First Class William Sommer and Spc. Jerry Loper are charged with murder and dereliction of duty along with Welshofer in the incident resulting in the death of Maj. Gen. Mowhoush. The Army dropped the murder charges against Jefferson Williams and Loper in exchange for their testimony against Welshofer. The murder charge against Sommer was also dropped. Both Sommer and Williams face possible administrative discipline.
Iraq murder charges raise specter of rarely used military death sentence
The above is what I found in just
a couple of minutes of searching with Google.
It doesn't include the butchery and wanton slaughter contained in the Wikileaks Collateral Murder Video.... but the first article does reference the scandal most recently confirmed by Wikileaks, via a State Department cable, where US Armed Forces in 2006
summarily executed an entire family,
after disarming them .... and then called in an airstrike
to destroy the evidence:
"As revealed by a State Department diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks last week, US forces committed a heinous war crime during a house raid in Iraq in 2006, wherein one man, four women, two children, and three infants were summarily executed."
Article can be found at the following link:
Cables Reveal 2006 Summary Execution of Civilian Family in Iraq
And original State Department cable can be read in it's entirely here:
06GENEVA763, COMMUNICATION FROM SRS ON ESA EXECUTIONS REGARDING
The US government and military has been repeatedly caught attempting to
deny,
cover up, and
lie about various incidents such as above. And the above is only
some portion of what is known and documented ... there's no telling how much
more there may be that is still being concealed.
Or how much more I might have found had I spent more than 5 minutes on searching - the above barely scratches the surface on Afghanistan.
Of course, if one is of the
fanatical, bloodthirsty, "kill-em-all-and-let-Allah-sort-em-out", devoid-of-any-shred-of-humanity mindset, then the above is just merely something to flippantly attempt to explain away as being "necessary" or "an accident" .....
as they stand in reverence before Old Glory, contemplating how "heroic" and "great" our armed forces, and we as a nation, are ... with a tear rolling down their cheek ... (gag, vomit)
And Bahnsen wants to characterize Lew Rockwell as a lunatic .....
really ?
....... are you freakin' serious ?
Bahnsen is a lunatic, not Rockwell .... and by your own previous comments here on EO, I have little doubt as to where you fit into that picture.
BAM !