Greetings,

When I first found this video, I showed it to friends in Los Angeles who are in
the movie business. They were impressed with the technical aspects of image,
editing, sound, continuity and impact. Obviously, the people who took many of
the photo's were in close proximity to the action and were therefore US. Some
of the photo's were on the Internet before the video came out, but by no means
were all of them published before hand. People that I know who have seen this
video came away with a persisting, repetitive emotion, from the impact of the
images and the beat of the music. This was a professional effort, but not made
in Hollywood.

http://johnmccarthy90066.tripod.com/id362.html

My purpose of placing it on my website was to provide those being recruited for
the wars in Iraq/Afghanistan with the truth that the mainstream media will not
provide. I have not received one negative comment or a suggestion that it should
not be shown. Combat veterans experience extreme emotions when viewing this
work. They are the first to notice and remember that a simple rocket propelled grenade
can stop a multi-million dollar main battle tank and kill those inside.

Those being recruited don't get to see that except
on sites such as mine.

I have morphed into a pacifist. A very pissed off pacifist.

The lies that led to this war are coming home to roost in black spades, body
bags and tens of thousands of wounded, some grievously. The total incapacitated
so far exceeds 65,000 US. God only knows the real number of Iraqi casualties.

That figure does not address those infected with Depleted Uranium radiation poisoning.

The arrogance of the American's who say they 'don't do body counts' flies in the
face of the bald face lie of bringing 'democracy' to the Cradle of Civilization,
just as the excuse for not allowing photo's of the returning flag draped coffins
because it might 'offend the families of the dead'. That squirmy reasoning
makes about as much sense as forbidding anyone from attending the funeral of a
fallen soldier. How stupid do they think we are? It's the COUNT they want to
hide.

And the mid-term elections are SCHEDULED for November 6, for those who voted for the War
Powers Act---unless, of course, the Constitution is suspended because we are at war....


Bests,
John McCarthy
vpocv@comcast.net

Rudyard Kipling's poem, "Arithmetic on the Frontier" ought to be read more often by those deciding to send troops to Afghanistan and Iraq:

A great and glorious thing it is
To learn, for seven years or so,
The Lord knows what of that and this,
Ere reckoned fit to face the foe --
The flying bullet down the Pass,
That whistles clear: "All flesh is grass."

Three hundred pounds per annum spent
On making brain and body meeter
For all the murderous intent
Comprised in "villanous saltpetre!"
And after -- ask the Yusufzaies
What comes of all our 'ologies.

A scrimmage in a Border Station --
A canter down some dark defile --
Two thousand pounds of education
Drops to a ten-rupee jezail --
The Crammer's boast, the Squadron's pride,
Shot like a rabbit in a ride!

No proposition Euclid wrote,
No formulae the text-books know,
Will turn the bullet from your coat,
Or ward the tulwar's downward blow
Strike hard who cares -- shoot straight who can --
The odds are on the cheaper man.

One sword-knot stolen from the camp
Will pay for all the school expenses
Of any Kurrum Valley scamp
Who knows no word of moods and tenses,
But, being blessed with perfect sight,
Picks off our messmates left and right.

With home-bred hordes the hillsides teem,
The troopships bring us one by one,
At vast expense of time and steam,
To slay Afridis where they run.
The "captives of our bow and spear"
Are cheap, alas! as we are dear.

-------

The Afridis and Yusufzaies are two tribes from what is now the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, a jezail is a musket and a tulwar a type of sword.

It comes from Departmental Ditties and Other Verses, published in 1886. It was written about the aftermath of the First Afghan War.