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Noasalira,
If you click on the truthout link, you'll find a
disclaimer but I don't understand it:
"Many of our readers have pointed out to us that
the article originally published on this page did
not match the headline put forth in the newsletter..."
Do you think there could be a mistake that these
"soldiers" are Iraqis? If they were POWs, some
international agency would have to be informed. This
is blackmail what this maniac chaplain is doing - and
takes us back to the Inquisition!
But from the article it doesn't sound as if they were
POWs. They could of course be US 'green-card soldiers'
of any nationality, including Iraqi, in which case they
are US residents.
If you know more about who these soldiers are, could
you please post it. - I tried google but couldn't find
anything.
I would write to the Red Cross Committee at the UN, if
they are Iraqi POWs (RedCrossCommittee@un.int).
Elga
------------Original Message------------
From: Noasalira@aol.com
Subject: [casi] Iraqis Required to be Baptized before being given
food and water
Date: Sun, 6 Apr 2003 18:42:56 EDT
[12] http://truthout.org/docs_03/040703A.shtml
(*Editor's Note: In all of the stories that have come and gone in recent
months, this could well be the most offensive of them all. ''It's simple,"
says Evangelical Christian Army chaplain Josh Llano. "They want water. I
have it, as long as they agree to get baptized." In so many ways, this
represents the true mindset of the individuals who have pushed this war.
It
is right down the line with the actions of this administration over the
past three years; recall that, when our airmen were being held in China
back in 2001, Mr. Bush was only concerned with whether or not they had
Bibles. - wrp)
Army Chaplain Offers Baptisms, Baths
By Meg Laughlin
Miami Herald
Saturday 05 April 2003
CAMP BUSHMASTER, Iraq - In this dry desert world near Najaf, where the
Army
V Corps combat support system sprawls across miles of scabrous dust,
there's an oasis of sorts: a 500-gallon pool of pristine, cool water.
It belongs to Army chaplain Josh Llano of Houston, who sees the water
shortage, which has kept thousands of filthy soldiers from bathing for
weeks, as an opportunity.
''It's simple. They want water. I have it, as long as they agree to get
baptized,'' he said.
And agree they do. Every day, soldiers take the plunge for the Lord and
come up clean for the first time in weeks.
''They do appear physically and spiritually cleansed,'' Llano said.
First, though, the soldiers have to go to one of Llano's hour-and-a-half
sermons in his dirt-floor tent. Then the baptism takes an hour of quoting
from the Bible.
''Regardless of their motives,'' Llano said, ``I get the chance to take
them closer to the Lord.''
A blue-eyed 32-year-old with an abundance of energy, Llano goes out every
day to drum up grimy soldiers for his pool.
He talks to truck drivers, tank drivers, computer specialists -- anyone
and
everyone. He goes out to the combat zone to the fighting soldiers and the
combat support soldiers who keep them in supplies.
''You have to be aggressive to help people find themselves in God,'' he
said.
He calls himself a ''Southern Baptist evangelist,'' and justifies the war
and killing with a verse from the Gospel of Matthew, which he often
recites: ``Give unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and unto God the
things that are God's.
''This means we are called upon by our government to fight and that is
giving unto Caesar, as the Bible tells us,'' he said.
Earlier this week, word went out that portable showers might be installed
here soon, but Llano was undaunted.
''There is no fruit out here, and I have a stash of raisins, juice boxes
and fruit rolls to pull out,'' the chaplain said optimistically.
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