Mark of the Beast: Evil Symbols in Afghanistan
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22 November 2011
US Army MEDEVAC helicopters in Afghanistan are marked with Red Crosses. Helicopters sporting a Red Cross are not allowed to be armed. The enemy knows this. The enemy tries to shoot down these unarmed helicopters with the added advantage that our people cannot shoot back. And so, we push people into combat while advertising to the enemy that our people are unarmed. The best that can be said for this policy is that it’s wrong. The worst that can be said might be that it borders on criminal.
We like to think that after a decade of counterinsurgency, we have learned something. Have we? What does a cross on a helicopter mean? For some Afghans, it’s a mark of the beast. The poster above was hanging on a wall in eastern Afghanistan.
Of the approximate fifty evil symbols, most are crosses. Even the shape of an anchor is seen as unholy.
An Afghan friend translates:
*Destroying the cross is an Islamic obligation*
1. Christians want to publish and spread their unholy and cursed religious logos and signs in different shapes and appearances in clean and holy Muslim society.
2. These Christianity signs (Crosses) have affected our Islamic society too
– even our mosques and our Menbers are not safe from those Christianity signs (Crosses).
(Further note from my Afghan friend explaining “menber”: When you enter a mosque, the menber is a chair in the most forward point. After the prayer is done, a mullah sits on that chair and enlightens people. Talking rubbish about how to be a good muslim or other nonsense. That chair is higher than the regular ones in terms of height. It’s higher in order to enable the mullah to see all the folks and the folks seeing mullah – even the ones sitting far away. Menber is the written name of it.)
3. The respected Ulemas agree over the fact that destroying these crosses is an Islamic obligation and on whatever object or surface where there is a cross, praying is a sin.
4. —– had a gold cross in his neck and prophet Mohammad told him to remove that ‘idol’ from himself and is narrated from Aisha that prophet Mohammad never allowed anything in his house with a cross on it and used to destroy or throw it away.
6. For further explanations, refer to …. / …. / …. (Names of references given)
*Some of the names on the crosses:*
1. Cross of George
2. Cross of Andrew
3. Cross of Lauren
4. Cross of Jerusalem
5. Cross of Anthony
6. Cross in shape of the Nazi logo
7. Catholic Cross
===End of Translation===
The US Army will defend the Red Crosses on the helicopters by falsely bringing the Geneva Conventions into the conversation. They will say, “According to the Geneva Conventions…”
Nothing in the Geneva Conventions forces us to put Red Crosses on medics or helicopters. I’ve never seen a medic in Iraq, Afghanistan, or the Philippines who was wearing a Red Cross. I don’t recall ever having seen an American service member wearing a Red Cross. Importantly, the US Air Force, Marines, and the British do not put Red Crosses on their helicopters.
This puts the Army’s argument about Geneva Conventions into an interesting light. By bringing the Geneva Conventions into the discussion, the US Army implies that the Marines, Air Force and the British all are violating the Geneva Conventions. They are not violating the Geneva Conventions. Meanwhile, the Army is shamelessly hiding behind those conventions to forward an internal political fight about who controls those helicopters.
The Army has not a single valid reason for sporting the Red Crosses. Army leadership should hang its head in shame for willfully endangering troops and the mission by sending unarmed troops into combat, signaling to the enemy that they are unarmed, all while elegantly marking our helicopter with what to many Afghans is a mark of the beast.
If the Army insists on sending unarmed troops into combat, it should at least remove the crosses that alert the enemy that the helicopter is unarmed, all while inflaming local passion to shoot it down.
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Comments
http://www.pbase.com/bmcmorrow/image/58012995
http://www.pbase.com/bmcmorrow/image/58013006
Still we'd be better off without enabling their deluded crusader fantasies and with armed medivacs.
I'm assuming the mark of the beast refers to the devil or is the beast something else in islam?
1. He does not specify who "we" is. Nonetheless, Christian or not he should keep his proselytizing to himself, if only as a common courtesy. Presuming others want to hear about your religion is unfathomable arrogance.
2. Your failure to see the irony in the fact we're fighting fanatics who believe god is "commanding" them to push their religion on others is a bit scary...
-allah akbar
I read his post as a response to the OP, specifically " Christians want to publish and spread their unholy and cursed religious logos and signs in different shapes and appearances in clean and holy Muslim society."
I assumed he was making the point that Christians are actually commanded to do this and that, etc....and that those Muslims who accuse them of degrading "holy Muslim society" are really misrepresenting Christians, intentionally or due to ignorance.
In other words, I thought Scott was simply offering his view as a Christian, which was certainly relevant to the topic at hand.
Did anyone else recognize the symbol on the lower right as the "expoding buthole" patch of 13th COSCOM? Also the picture of the anchor in the middle is funny, good thing Afghans are landlocked or all their boats would drift away for lack of anchors!
These folks are deployed in a nation where the vast majority of the locals are followers of Islam to one degree or another. These folks have a long-held animosity toward anything military carrying a cross-based emblem.
The medical symbol that prevails in Islamic nations is the red crescent. If the U.S. Army is so bound and determined to strap a target on its medical response equipment, why don't those units exposed to combat in an Islamic nation use the red crescent instead?
If the idea is to blatantly state that the medical response folks are unarmed, would it not be a teensy tich safer to use the internationally recognized symbol that the locals are at least slightly less likely to blaze away at Pavlovian-style?
. . . Or would that get Army command shorts in a knot, too?
Frank is correct though the toughest sell would be the US citizens who would say it was because Obama wants to convert us to Islam.
Also, it may stop "some" of the locals from shooting at the helicopters, but I don't believe it would stop the majority.
I would proffer we need our own propaganda campaign, highlighting how the helicopters save all faiths, and not just our military, but the Taliban choose to kill wounded Afghans and Nato forces. Even the uneducated recognize that morality of not killing someone who is no longer a threat.
A while ago....Richard the Lionheart's tactical skills and military training played a substantial role in the capture of Acre in 1191 by the Crusaders. But Richard the Lionheart was ruthless and after the capture of the city he marched 2,700 Muslim soldiers onto the road of Nazareth and in front of the Muslim army positions, had them executed one by one.
Go have a look at pictures depicting Richard the Lionheart...suc h as..http://www.military-art.com/mall/more.php?ProdID=16606
and you'll see how easy it is to 'get the message'. Maybe the obvious is just too difficult for military commanders to understand sometimes?
But the faint background of an American arm smashing a cross onto Afghanistan with a Muslim sword cutting off the top is interesting. Perhaps this is distributed by the Taliban?
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