3/29/2007
Red2Alpha Hates the Internet
Red2Alpha says,
I hate the fucking internet. This opinion has been brewing inside my dome for years but recent events have finally forced it to the surface. Way back in the old time days of 1995 I first became aware of this internet thing. At the time I was still in the 82nd ABN Div and living in the barracks on Ardennes. No one had a connection to the net. I only became aware of it once I got out. I had driven one of my HS friends to Chico State and he took me to the computer lab and showed me how to use Yahoo to look things up. Now, growing up I had a Commodore 64 which I used to play really crappy games on. There was one computer in my grammar school which we used to draw pictures on with LOGO, in between playing that educational game Oregon Trail. There ends my computer education until the Chico State computer lab. In that lab I, and at a loss of just what to look up, I typed in Robotech ( yes, I am a geek). Hundreds of Robotech related sites popped up, mecha specs, character info, and pictures. I was amazed. Wow! nearly anything I was interested in was on the net for my enjoyment. A whole new world opened for me.
Now the net is everywhere and you can find anything on it. Including video and pictures from the war. It seems the one modern technology that Haji has mastered is the internet. You can watch video of American Soldiers getting blown up by IEDs, killed by snipers, civilians getting their heads cut off all in the comfort of your home. I try to avoid that kind of stuff, it saddens me and makes me very, very angry. A few weeks ago I made the mistake of looking up sniper videos from Iraq. I had consumed a few to many adult beverages and… Well, lets just say it was a mistake. Since returning from Iraq I have been aware that there was video of my friend Arnold Duplantier II being shot by the sniper motherfucker that killed him. My buddy Doc had seen it and told me that I shouldn’t watch it and for over a year I resisted, until that night. And I found it. I watched my friend die on my laptop followed immediately by the footage of my squad leader being shot in the neck by the very same sniper. In the video is the HUMMVEE that I was on, I was gunning that day. You can watch Doc interacting with SSG Cooper then step away, out of picture, before Cooper is hit.
I vomited that night, it brought back all the feelings of that day, punched me right in the face with all those repressed emotions. I called Doc after and told him that I was glad he was alive.
Then, today, driving home from work I hear that the Iranians have video of them taking the British crew that they now hold hostage. And you can see it on the fucking net. Just like you can watch my friend die, along with other American Soldiers and Marines, just like you can watch Nick Berg, Daniel Pearl, and that poor Korean dude get their heads cut off by those sub-human bastards we are fighting.
Enough.
I don’t want to see this shit anymore. It hurts to much. Now, I can hear you saying,”Well, R2A, if you don’t like it, don’t look it up and don’t watch it. Stupid.” And your right. I was wrong, I shouldn’t have gone looking for it and I sure has hell shouldn’t have watched. But I did. You can’t control the internet and, you know, I really don’t want to control the net. Once you do that we are no better than North Korea or Iran. But it doesn’t stop me from hating it and hating the content that is available on it and from knowing that some sick bastard is getting off on watching people die on it.
I need a drink…
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25 Responses to “Red2Alpha Hates the Internet”
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There is nothing I can say to take the pain away - I wish to God there was. I’m so, so sorry you had to see that… sorry it was so easy to find… I hate it, just hate it… My heart breaks for you.
(hugs) We love you and are praying for you, always.
The hardest part is controlling ourselves sometimes, you know? Of course you hate and who can blame you? But, you’ve lived it, now you’ve seen, you try to put it in a place where it can’t hurt so much.
That’s my best motherly advice for the day.
May God bless you and comfort you.. and may you know peace—Sending my love and prayers to you, Liz
Don’t know what to tell you. Bunch of sick bastards out there. Makes me wanna puke.
Drive on….
Mojoe
AS… no… no, I wouldn’t chide you for looking… sometimes… sometimes you gotta’ walk through it to let it go… not always… not even most of the time… just, sometimes…
You got a chance to tell a comrade that you’re glad he’s alive. I’m sure he was glad to have a chance to say the same to you… and if he didn’t, you know he meant to, it got lost in the rest that needed to be said too.
Yeah… I purposely avoid YouTube and Flikr and LiveClick for this very reason. It’s just too easy to stumble across. Sadly, disgustingly, humans can be very inhumane.
And, so… life among the so-called civilized, who have been steadily losing their religion is like sitting with stupid people who can never be told the truth. And I wish I wasn’t picturing the fools I bump into just walking around America.
The people who misuse the internet, hurting anyone they can, as much as they can, collateral damage being exactly the point, deserve my pity, for they were betrayed by their parents. Their parents never showed them the boundaries that would make them citizens in this their country. You know, rather than just shoppers.
I know the videos you saw came from our enemies, and those are the images that torment you… us. I don’t bother concerning myself with the motives of those killers who post the videos of killing. Why try talking to people so disconnected from their spiritual payload that they seek death like honey? I now… that’s a why question… sorry… I usually avoid those.
I’m saying a prayer over you in a few minutes, as I’m about to go to bed… I’ll lie awake for bit, searching the corners of the ceiling for the words that will say it just so, such that I finally am more confident than not that God will favor it.
Try… try not… try not to drink… alone… at least.
I’m gonna’ hug the teddy bear my Grandma gave me tonight… pretending it’s you….
I understand why you had to look. Once you found out it was there, it was like shrapnel just under the skin, it was always there. Now, that shrapnel has ripped out. Unbearably painful, leaving an open wound. I can’t imagine having lived through the pain once, only to have it shown to you again. Please allow this wound to heal, don’t keep picking at the stitches. All of us wish we could help carry this burden for you, but all we can do is shout our encouragements and hope it helps.
I also wish that those genius computer hackers out there that can write these devastating viruses that can bring down business would turn their attention on these websites that have these horrific images. Society comdemns our ancesters for their brutality in the Colosseum watching death, and the Inquistion with their inventive ways of torture, all through the ages there has been a fascination with watching unimaginable horrors. It so sad that there are those who haven’t evolved and still need to see this evil. I’m sorry that these websites exist, I’m sorry that you had to re-live such horror. I wish I could take your pain away.
Good entry. I can’t even imagine the thoughts that went through your mind when you saw the crap you saw, on the net of all places. You are in a tough situation and I don’t envy that situation. Maybe all I can say is that I definately don’t look down on you guys that are out there as there has to be a cause. Maybe it’s not the cause that the politicians spew or maybe it is, but there’s got to be a reason. Right on to you. Keep on living.
I am so sorry you had to see what you saw in real time and then again on video. The good thing about these videos is that maybe, just maybe, it will wake up people to see just what we are fighting. That these people are evil and their acts not acts of war but acts of cold blooded murder, plain and simple.
Still praying for you…..
Its horrible that people can be that sick and that its so easy to put stuff like that out for the general public. I’m sorry for the loss of your friend, R2A. You’re in my thoughts and prayers.
damn. im sorry man. i can’t even begin to imagine.
the internet can be a powerful tool, for good or for bad. but we really need to wipe these mothers out, who get their kicks murdering, torturing, and putting it up for all to see.
I know, it sucks. I am sorry for you having to have that traumatic f&%cking experience, of seeing friends get killed. I would however, in response to Chads response about needing to wipe people out, point to the thousands of US-forces web-videos showing the victorious US units that the hajj have to endure. Check out Riverbends blog for a female Iraqi perspective on it all. Getting relatives/friends killed is equally traumatic for all people
MK - Go fuck yourself, you anti-war shit bag.
Shit happens in war. Does that give them the right to plant IED’s in retaliation? Let me remind you we are in a war in that country and shit does happen. Believe it or not, we try to do as much as possible to not bring harm to the innocent, but who really is innocent there? I guess you’d know typing your shit from the comforts of your home and never seeing the reality of war.
MK - I dont know riverbends blog. but if the type of people she hangs out with like to self detonate in cafe’s, and plant IEDs in trash on the road, and shoot RPG’s into area’s swarming with civilians… then I’ll repeat myself when I say we need to wipe these bitches out.
American soldiers are the ones who fight honorbaly, by protecting civilians, and often getting themselves killed while doing it. Iraqi’s are the cowards who hide behind women and children. So, frankly, I couldn’t give a damn what some iraqi bitch thinks about it. whats right is right, and whats wrong is wrong.
hey i feel your pain as most dont know those that are usually left behind to watch that crap are the wives and kids and yes i am the wife of a soldier so i know what its like to worry so those of you who dont understand this guys pain have never really had true enough friends to watch your back and still loose their lives and you be the one to come home. sorry for your loss brother in arms just remember drink water drive on and pray for my husband because he will be where you were again soon. lots of love from a soldiers wife
pam
and to those who can speak for the evil in iraq and speak negativly against our soldiers you should not be so ungreatful to them when they are fighting so ou can stay home and talk shit. thats just my opinion since my husband risks his life for you and you can only say horrable things
Amen Chad! R2A, I am so sorry you had to see that. Just know that there are people here for you.
I can’t believe CNN showed the shit on their network. How sick is that to show our guys getting sniped from beside the scum shooting at us and putting it on public TV? I can’t believe anyone with any respect will ever watch their network or buy their sponsors crap ever again. I’m with you about the Net, but even more sick about CNN!
we need to get out of there, have no business being there in the first place. you can’t tear up someone’s home and expect them not to retaliate. time to wake up to the reality that the boys in DC hoodwinked you, me and everyone out there…
For those boots walking in the dust
no shadow can mask your strength
words from your lips touch our spirits
wounds you succumb
are felt on every bended knee in prayer for your strength & endurance with a request of Angels to keep you SAFE
Sux. Imagine all the Hajis watching those flashy whiz-bang GETSOME rock videos…. wonder how many Haji’s are at the receiving end of THAT shit. You’d think you battle-hardened real men would have figured out by now that war entails death and pain endless suffering for EVERYONE on the battlefield, but you still refuse to see beyond your own little owies.
Well, lucky for your Soldier, we’re killing raghead evildoers at a ratio of like, oh, 100 to 1? Sure none of those 60,000+ Iraqis have anywhere NEAR the feelings you are having. They’re just dumb terrorist evildoers. No feelings. No courage. Nothing. Shoot em all baby.
Red2Alpha, I can only imagine how upsetting watching those sniper videos must have been with the personal involvement you had. sorry that you lost some friends.
I have also watched some of those sniper videos, JUBAL’s specifically. It was apparent from watching them that you guys are sitting ducks over there with all civilian activity on the streets, cars, pedestrians etc. I could see how it would be very easy to take out soldiers standing around at various locations doing all the things that are being required of you.
What I don’t understand after watching it is why there are not many, many, many more dead Marines from snipers seeing as how easy it would be to stay concealed in all that civilian activity. I could easily see a Washington D.C. sniper approach where the shooter is in the trunk of a car shooting out the a hole in the trunk, or maybe hiding behind some street level vendor stall, only to drive away or slip away after taking the shot.
I hope, for the soldiers sake in harms way over there that the Iraqi insurgents don’t go on a sniper recruitment drive. Good luck in getting over the post traumatic stress.
well, to comment on Chad, if iraqi’s had taken america 200 years back (because that’s where their culture and society is at right now), the same thing would be happening.
shit happens when people get religious, shit happens when people feel their country is no longer theirs, shit happens. So yeah, leave iraq and let them shoot themselves, sooner or later someone will gain power, extort the entire populace, and destroy the country, just like afghanistan, where the USA and the Russians fucked things up just as bad as Iraq is getting fucked up right now.
I’m proud my nation doesn’t fight in this ‘war’. And u know what, my countrymen ARE helping there to rebuild, educate, etc. And there’s thousands, while none are getting killed. So tell me, why do only americans and british soldiers get targeted and killed? Exactly, they’re the ones who started it all in Iraq.
Multiguy,
If I ever go back to Iraq that guy, Juba or whatever his name is, is my #1 target. I will kill him. He’s not the only man with a high powered rifle in that country. I have my M-14 too.
Oh, and Riverbend is a whore for the Ba’ath Party, Mr MK. F you very much. Love, R2A.
Red2Alpha, I hear you BUT my point was I HOPE that the insurgents don’t go on a sniper recruitment drive. Can you imagine 500 of them using the American sniper manual for training and then being sent out, equipped with the only objective of getting in one good shot every 3 days. 2 months later with that kind of strategy and we all of a sudden have another 10,000 casualties. Watching those videos made it look like that would be VERY possible because of all the civilian activities on the streets.
Regarding Riverbend, how do you know she is some undesirable Ba’athist mouthpiece. It didn’t seem like that from my reading and on that note isn’t the new strategy being used by the US now to bring in Ba’athists to the government after the realization it was a HUGE mistake 4 years ago to summarily get rid of anyone who was a Ba’athist?
Our government running the show has screwed up so many times we don’t know whether we are coming or going it looks like to those of us watching from the outside. Mistake after mistake was made right from the initial invasion and the refusal to stop the looting.