Kos Hates America

Kos has started a nasty firestorm with his comments about the four contractors killed in Fallujah. Instapundit and everyone are all over it like a cheap suit. So he printed a retraction, which is just as horrifying as the original post.

I was angry that five soldiers -- the real heroes in my mind -- were killed the same day and got far lower billing in the newscasts. I was angry that 51 American soldiers paid the ultimate price for Bush's folly in Iraq in March alone. I was angry that these mercenaries make more in a day than our brave men and women in uniform make in an entire month. I was angry that the US is funding private armies, paying them $30,000 per soldier, per month, while the Bush administration tries to cut our soldiers' hazard pay. I was angry that these mercenaries would leave their wives and children behind to enter a war zone on their own violition.

The post is bad enough, but the comments are unfuckingbelievable. I’ve never seen so much anti-American hatred anywhere, even on Islam boards. Just go read it! You’ll see comments like these.

Damn these money grubbing mercenaries!

Remember Rachel Corrie!

You're citing personal concern and risk of loss. Absolutely true. Saddam's family probably grieves the deaths of Uday and Qusay, too.

But anyone over there sucking up big money is... well. Everyone has a price. Or so they say.

I have only the minimal human sympathy for their deaths and their treatment... and the pain that their kin are in.

If you want to play the self-interested game, fine: they made a bet, and lost. They didn't have to take the risk. It's kind of like a gambler who loses his whole life savings in the pursuit of the big payoff. He should never have taken the risk in the first place, and my sympathy for him is seriously compromised. His wife and kids still suffer, but that doesn't engender sympathy towards him so much as disgust.

They do pay that kind of money to black ops specialists, people who kidnap, torture, kill, plant bombs that kill innocent passersby, etc. The idea that they're doing the same kind of work, just getting more money for it is absurd.

As for providing for their family, let them get honest jobs. Nobody's got a God given right to make that much, especially if it entails criminal activity that civilized nations have pledged themselves to stop.

Is the USA never wrong? Do we never get what is coming to us? We're fighting our pretty war with hired goons, the kind of people that advertise in SOLDIER OF FORTUNE magazine. It's like Mother England and the Hessians in 1776. Is every dead American a martyr and a patriot? When are we going to wake up and see that WE ARE THE FRICKING BAD GUYS in this war...the agressor and the attacker. This is jingoism ancient Rome style, man. It's not about liberalism, it's about justice.

You can’t be much more direct than that, can you? These people hate America and everything it stands for, and would gladly have poured gasoline on any of those four people who were killed in Fallujah.
There are quite a few arguing against these vermin, though, with posts like

Its like its no longer proper to spit on vets so people are trying to backdoor the sentiment in any way they can.

Which is a pretty apt description of what’s going on in the thread.

On the other hand, the Arab News sources are generally horrified at what happened in Fallujah. For example, here’s an article from the Arab News of Saudi Arabia.

The spectacle of the mutilated remains of four American contractors being paraded through the streets of Fallujah will have turned the stomachs of all who saw this savagery on their television screens. This was mob violence at its worst.

Those who participated in the butchery must be punished. The mob may oppose the Coalition occupation. They may support the insurgents. They may count the death of soldiers as victories. But there is no understanding the brutish slaughter of four unarmed men who were working to rebuild their country. It was a senseless crime of great barbarity.

The Fallujah mob has soiled the reputation of Iraqis. It also appears to misrepresent the true feelings of most Iraqis, if an independent opinion poll commissioned by the BBC is to be believed. Some 70 percent of Iraqis thought their lives were better since the ouster of Saddam. A majority was optimistic, though perhaps significantly the least optimistic people were the citizens of Baghdad. There was also a preponderance of Iraqis who said that while they did not like the coalition being around, they wanted the troops to stay for the foreseeable future to combat the tide of violence.

It’s pretty bad when you find more reality and pro-Americanism coming out of Saudi Arabia than from Kerry supporters.

But many Americans will take the crazed mob in Fallujah as typical of all Iraqis. Their government has told them too often that Iraq equals terrorism, that Muslims are terrorists. We must not allow that to happen. Many people in Iraq may hate the American-led occupation, but that does not mean they can behave like rabid dogs and tear apart the bodies of innocent civilians who were there to build up, not beat down, Iraq. It is hard at such times for the voice of moderation to make itself heard. Nevertheless, honest Iraqis, including those in the city of Fallujah, and all honest Arabs, owe it to themselves to say loudly that Wednesday’s carnage was wrong.

Now why doesn’t Kos think like that? Can it be he hates America more than the Jihadis?