Political correctness: respecting the right of other cultures and belief systems not to respect the rights of other cultures and belief systems Thats a rather narrow definition. I'd put it as Political correctness: Trying too hard to look like you are doing what you think others might think could possably be "right". Off topic At the Beeb we had so much "protection of the rights of minorities" (most of whom didnt want treating any differently in the first place) that everyone ended up being some minority or other. My wife tried starting a society to point out how ludicrus this was. It was shut down rather swiftly. It was called "Straight Pride"... and in some departments of the BBC that is DEFINATELY a minority!
That Californian might be able to hold this Alabamian's coat. Now I'm pissed! Beat this Texan if you can!
Now I'm pissed! Beat this Texan if you can! I think Col Howard did. Count them. Col. Howard was one heck of soldier and Lt Murphy wasn't too shabby, either. Both deserve our utmost respect.
Reminds me of a pome. The Grave of the Hundred Head Rudyard Kipling. There's a widow in sleepy Chester Who weeps for her only son; There's a grave on the Pabeng River, A grave that the Burmans shun; And there's Subadar Prag Tewarri Who tells how the work was done. A Snider squibbed in the jungle- Somebody laughed and fled, And the men of the First Shikaris Picked up their Subaltern dead, With a big blue mark in his forehead And the back blown out of his head. Subadar Prag Tewarri, Jemadar Hira Lal, Took command of the party, Twenty rifles in all, Marched them down to the river As the day was beginning to fall. They buried the boy by the river, A blanket over his face- They wept for their dead Lieutenant, The men of an alien race- They made a samadh in his honour, A mark for his resting-place. For they swore by the Holy Water, They swore by the salt they ate, That the soul of Lieutenant Eshmitt Sahib Should go to his God in state, With fifty file of Burmans To open him Heaven's Gate. The men of the First Shikaris Marched till the break of day, Till they came to the rebel village The village of Pabengmay- A jingal covered the clearing, Caltrops hampered the way. Subadar Prag Tewarri, Biddin' them load with ball, Halted a dozen rifles Under the village wall; Sent out a flanking-party With Jemadar Hira Lal. The men of the First Shikaris Shouted and smote and slew, Turning the grinning jingal On to the howling crew. The Jemadar's flanking-party Butchered the folk who flew. Long was the morn of slaughter, Long was the list of slain, Five score heads were taken, Five score heads and twain; And the men of the First Shikaris Went back to their grave again, Each man bearing a basket Red as his palms that day, Red as the blazing village- The village of Pabengmay And the "drip-drip-drip" from the baskets Reddened the grass by the way They made a pile of their trophies High as a tall man's chin, Head upon head distorted, Set in a sightless grin, Anger and pain and terror Stamped on the smoke-scorched skin. Subadar Prag Tewarri Put the head of the Boh On the top of the mound of triumph, The head of his son below- With the sword and the peacock banner That the world might behold and know. Thus the samadh was perfect, Thus was the lesson plain Of the wrath of the First Shikaris- The price of white man slain; And the men of the First Shikaris Went back into camp again. Then a silence came to the river, A hush fell over the shore, And Bohs that were brave departed, And Sniders squibbed no more; For the Burmans said That a white man's head Must be paid for with heads five-score. There's a widow in sleepy Chester Who weeps for her only son; There's a grave on the Pabeng River, A grave that the Burmans shun; And there's Subadar Prag Tewarri Who tells how the work was done.
I think Col Howard did. Count them. Col. Howard was one heck of soldier and Lt Murphy wasn't too shabby, either. Both deserve our utmost respect. Col. Howard had the good sense to leave Alabama though, he died in Texas. For the Record Lt. Murphey wasn't even old enough to buy a beer when he was awarded his Medal of Honor.
Well, it's not like the good Ghurka stuffed a link of sausage in the poor de-headed Talibaner's pie hole when he turned it in to be identified.
This is what StrategyPage has to say on the matter: Gurkha Soldier Arrested For Battlefield Bravery July 21, 2010: In Afghanistan, a British Gurkha is facing court martial for beheading a dead Taliban gunman. The trouble began when the accused Gurkhas unit had been sent in pursuit of a group of Taliban believed to contain a local Taliban leader. When the Gurkhas caught up with the Taliban, a gun battle broke out and several of the enemy were killed. The Gurkhas were ordered to retrieve the bodies of the dead Taliban, to see if one of them was the wanted leader. But the Gurkhas were still under heavy fire, and the Gurkha who reached one body realized he could not drag it away without getting shot. Thinking fast, he cut off the dead Taliban's head and scampered away to safety. When senior British commanders heard of this, they had the Gurkha arrested (and sent back to Britain for trial), and apologized to the family of the dead Taliban. The head was returned, so that the entire body (as required by Islamic law) could be buried. The British are very sensitive about further angering pro-Taliban Afghans, and go out of their way to collect all body parts of dead Taliban (especially those hit with bombs), so that the body can be buried according to Islamic law. The Taliban use accusations of Western troops disrespecting Islam as a major part of their propaganda efforts. When there are no real cases of such disrespect, which is usually the case, they make it up. As far as beheading goes, the Taliban often do that on living victims, which even horrifies most Afghans. The Gurkhas also horrify most Afghans, as Gurkhas have been fighting Afghans for centuries, in the service of Britain or Indian princes. Gurkhas, who tend to be Hindus, featured prominently in an Indian effort to stop Moslem armies from entering India 1,300 years ago, and pushing the Moslems out of Kandahar (which was then an Indian border town). Gurkhas are tribal people (of Tibetan and Mongol origin) from the mountains of Nepal, and have interacted, and intermarried, with Indians for thousands of years. Britain fought a war with the Gurkha kingdom two centuries ago, and found them such formidable opponents that they began hiring them as mercenaries, and continue to do so. India has even more Gurkha mercenaries than Britain, and Gurkhas are popular security operatives worldwide. Most Afghans are somewhat amused at the British punishing a Gurkha for simply doing what Gurkhas have been doing to Afghans for a long, long time.
Gurkhas are tribal people (of Tibetan and Mongol origin) from the mountains of Nepal, and have interacted, and intermarried, with Indians for thousands of years. Britain fought a war with the Gurkha kingdom two centuries ago, and found them such formidable opponents that they began hiring them as mercenaries, and continue to do so. India has even more Gurkha mercenaries than Britain, and Gurkhas are popular security operatives worldwide. Most Afghans are somewhat amused at the British punishing a Gurkha for simply doing what Gurkhas have been doing to Afghans for a long, long time. As am I.
Yeah that makes sense, not wanting to further antagonize your enemies during a war. Wouldn't want to do that. They might get mad.
It looks utterly crazy but it does make some kind of sense, war is (sometimes) organized madness anyway. What we want is Afgans stop thinking killing westeners is "the thing to do", while we should stomp on those that are actually shooting as hard as we can not getting the rest of the population to join them is also a priority.
Insurgents behead 6 Afghan police The Associated Press Posted : Wednesday Jul 21, 2010 10:56:58 EDT Insurgents beheaded six policemen after attacking their checkpoint in northern Afghanistan, NATO said Wednesday. The military coalition said the militants attacked a number of government buildings Tuesday in Baghlan province's Dahanah-ye Ghori district. The attackers overran the checkpoint and decapitated the six policemen, NATO said....... Insurgents behead 6 Afghan police - MarineCorpsTimes.com Goose and Gander, pots calling kettles black and all other Hypocrissy metaphores fail to capture this level hypocrissy.
Hi Ref the Gurkha and the Taliban, why all the fuss, we are at war they can blow us to pieces and yet we must let them meet their 72 Virgins in one pioece (It does not stipulate what piece!) Anyway, didnt our own SAS carry out similar "Atrocities" in Malaya by bringing back parts of the dead terrorist for identification? Miek (Rotherfield)
Here is a first hand account from Royal Marine Bill Balmer who spent some time in Malaysia during the Emergency. Dead Terrorists Our patrols operated in the jungle along with Iban trackers from Borneo who dressed in the same uniforms as us except they did not wear boots or shoes. One day the patrols killed three terrorists and because of the difficult terrain they were operating in the patrol photographed the bodies for identification and propaganda purposes and then cut the heads off the bodies to provide the evidence. That day we escorted a patrol back to their base in the Cameron Highlands which was located beside the Hospital. One of the nurses wanted to know what the patrol was carrying in a sack and was horrified when three human heads rolled across the ground. That was the first time I had seen such a sight and I was equally horrified. In some areas it was a lot easier to carry a head in a bag rather than a whole body. If you were out on a six-day patrol there was no need to carry a terrorist’s corpse for the full patrol. There was a risk to the patrol if they had to detail four men to carry one body over difficult terrain. If we walked into an ambush under those conditions we had weakened our response and defensive fire-power. After much political pressure in 1952 we were ordered to recover the full corpse of any terrorists we killed.
There isn't much you can eat on a head afterwards, as you surely can't eat the brain for Creutzfeldt-Jakob's fears.
If you say I eat weird things again I will accuse you of disrespect for my cultural traditions and sue you for a bazillion for psychological damages
Looking around the web there are a lot of people denying that decapitation is part of the Gurkha fighting culture.Since I was first old enough to read about these brave chaps stories of them removing heads in complete silence abound. In Afghanistan the Western Nations wish to impose our standards on a nation that does not want or need them. After we have left things will slide back to what it was..Tribal Allegiances, Corruption and general ignorance and poverty . That also sounds like a big part of Africa.
