Now tell them it's not a religious war

[Kirkus]

Muslim radicals insist we're fighting a religious war against them. U.S. contractor and American rifle scope maker, Trijicon, helps their cause by printing bible verse references on scopes that are being used by American troops and given to Iraqi and Afghanistan police forces.

In August of 2005 Trijicon was awarded a $660 million dollar, multi-year contract to provide up to 800,000 of its Advanced Combat Optical Gunsight (ACOG) to the U.S. Marine Corps. According to Trijicon, the ACOG is "designed to function in bright light, low light or no light conditions," and is "ideal for combat due to its high degree of discrimination, even among multiple moving targets." At the end of the scope's model number, you can read "JN8:12", which is a reference to the New Testament book of John, Chapter 8, Verse 12, which reads: "Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." (King James Version) (ABC News)



http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/slideshow?id=9580847

We need to cancel their contract now.

[jjnow]

Putting Jesus quotes on guns. Now that's class.

[mmmm8]

I think I saw a piece in the biginning of the Iraq war about putting stuff like "USA #1" on bombs in Iraq and thought that was bad enough, although I guess that's been going on for numerous countries since WWI.

[owendonovan]

Ugh, I'm so sick of religion infiltrating everything.

[dryrunguy]

I'm inclined to think the scripture references are there solely for the purpose of pacifying the religious right and sustaining that demographic's support for the war... Unless this particular contractor is run by religious zealots, which is always possible.

But I still say this war has always been about padding the accounts of defense contractors who were convening "rebuilding Iraq" conferences before 9/11 even happened. We're Americans. We don't go to war because it's the right thing to do. If that were the case, we'd be all over Africa and many other parts of the world stopping genocides and all types of injustices. We go to war because there's money to be made. Just my 2 cents, though.

[Kirkus]

I'm inclined to think the scripture references are there solely for the purpose of pacifying the religious right and sustaining that demographic's support for the war... Unless this particular contractor is run by religious zealots, which is always possible.

But I still say this war has always been about padding the accounts of defense contractors who were convening "rebuilding Iraq" conferences before 9/11 even happened. We're Americans. We don't go to war because it's the right thing to do. If that were the case, we'd be all over Africa and many other parts of the world stopping genocides and all types of injustices. We go to war because there's money to be made. Just my 2 cents, though.

Africa has no oil.

[dryrunguy]

Africa has no oil.

And the diamond trade is already spoken for.

[missinandre]

I'm not so inclined to fight over this if....this contract was specifically for this war and those bible verses provide any measure of comfort for the soldiers manning them. It was placed there for comfort to the soldiers. Should we fall into a hole of radical muslims insisting we are waging holy war against them because of this?

But....I don't think this contract should have been awarded in the first place nor should we be in this war.

Lets go to the root of the problem and not some "band aid" that's been placed on it, especially if the band aid is for the troops that will be doing the actual bleeding.

[Drop-shot]

Africa has no oil.

Libya, Angola anyone?

[catz33]

Muslim radicals insist we're fighting a religious war against them. U.S. contractor and American rifle scope maker, Trijicon, helps their cause by printing bible verse references on scopes that are being used by American troops and given to Iraqi and Afghanistan police forces.




We need to cancel their contract now.

Unfortunately, It won't do any good just cancelling their contract. It's more complex than that.

Trijicon, Is a company that was founded by Glyn Bindon. He was a member of a group called the " Military Religious Freedom Foundation, that eventually in the 70's merged in with the group called "The Family". I mentioned this group just the other day because of Pat Robertson.

Wikipedia has a slight history of them:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fel...n_organization)
if you've the stomach for it.

Or if you want to be chilled to the core read Jeff Sharlet's book The Family: The Secret Fundmentalism at the Heart of American Power

Imo, it is a religious war.

[Kirkus]

I'm not so inclined to fight over this if....this contract was specifically for this war and those bible verses provide any measure of comfort for the soldiers manning them. It was placed there for comfort to the soldiers. Should we fall into a hole of radical muslims insisting we are waging holy war against them because of this?

Although I totally get your point, I'm not sure I agree with it.

Even if the verse references were placed there as 'comfort to the soldiers', what about the American Muslim soldiers, or the Jewish soldiers, or the Mormon soldiers? Or, heaven forbid, the atheist soldiers? Where's their comfort?

Not to mention the fact that we're giving these weapons to people we know are Muslims.

IMO, it's nothing more than another case of a radical Christian ignoring the religious freedom afforded to others in order to further their own beliefs.

I'd be curious to know if the scopes had these references on them before the contract was awarded.

[missinandre]

Although I totally get your point, I'm not sure I agree with it.

Even if the verse references were placed there as 'comfort to the soldiers', what about the American Muslim soldiers, or the Jewish soldiers, or the Mormon soldiers? Or, heaven forbid, the atheist soldiers? Where's their comfort?
Not to mention the fact that we're giving these weapons to people we know are Muslims.

IMO, it's nothing more than another case of a radical Christian ignoring the religious freedom afforded to others in order to further their own beliefs.

I'd be curious to know if the scopes had these references on them before the contract was awarded.

Totally agree with you there Kirkus. I'm really speaking from a standpoint of comfort. People in war zones facing the end of their lives will turn to anything that will give them what they need at that moment. But I agree about other religious freedom.

And I'm more curious about.....if the verses were a condition of the contract...was this something that was agreed upon or was it mandatory that they have them in order for the contract to be awarded?

And naturally, I'm curious as to .....who had a hand in this.....

[catz33]

Totally agree with you there Kirkus. I'm really speaking from a standpoint of comfort. People in war zones facing the end of their lives will turn to anything that will give them what they need at that moment. But I agree about other religious freedom.

And I'm more curious about.....if the verses were a condition of the contract...was this something that was agreed upon or was it mandatory that they have them in order for the contract to be awarded?

And naturally, I'm curious as to .....who had a hand in this.....

They weren't a condition of that contract.

"Tom Munson, director of sales and marketing for Trijicon, which is based in Wixom, Michigan, said the inscriptions "have always been there"

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/us-mil...ory?id=9575794

[missinandre]

They weren't a condition of that contract.

"Tom Munson, director of sales and marketing for Trijicon, which is based in Wixom, Michigan, said the inscriptions "have always been there"

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/us-mil...ory?id=9575794

Then it's a company thing. If the company did this because of....the company's policy then...it's a "what the heck" kind of thing for me.

Unless of course...the contract was given to them for reasons other than the bid they put in....

[missinandre]

Unfortunately, It won't do any good just cancelling their contract. It's more complex than that.

Trijicon, Is a company that was founded by Glyn Bindon. He was a member of a group called the " Military Religious Freedom Foundation, that eventually in the 70's merged in with the group called "The Family". I mentioned this group just the other day because of Pat Robertson.

Wikipedia has a slight history of them:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fel...n_organization)
if you've the stomach for it.

Or if you want to be chilled to the core read Jeff Sharlet's book The Family: The Secret Fundmentalism at the Heart of American Power

Imo, it is a religious war.

catz, this link doesn't work.....Is there really such an organization?