[Vision2020] Iraq Abuse Business As Usual

[Just Lighting a Cndle in the Darkness]

Even Rumsfeld admitted that these "detainees" should be treated within the 
standards established by the Geneval Convention as prisoners of war.  The 
Geneva Convention does not, in any way, make allowances for the inhumane 
treatment given to those prisoners of war in Iraq.

And to justify it by saying that it is alright for us to do it overseas because 
we do it at home in our own prisons lacks any semblance of decency.

Yes.  War is Hell.  It is not pretty.  But, we punish our own for violations 
reflected in those several photographs.  Or have you forgotten My Lai?

Tom Hansen

> 
> Visionaries:
> 
> Anyone who understands the nature of warfare in the context of the history of 
> US treatment of third world people should not be surprised one iota by the 
> prison abuses in Iraq that are now such a scandal.  I find it astonishing 
that 
> there is so much moral outrage, as though people believed the "War on Terror" 
> would be fought by agents of the US with the "play nice" mentality of a 
> kindergarten teacher.  We invade Iraq and kill and maim thousands and now 
there is a 
> moral crisis regarding our conduct because of some photos showing abuse at a 
> prison?  Anyone who studies US prisons knows that homosexual rape of men, for 
> example, used implicitly and informally as a tactic of control and 
discipline, 
> is not exactly rare here right in the 
> 
US!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
> 
> When the "War on Terror" first became a "new" US policy after 9/11 there was 
> frank discussion in the media about the use of torture to gain information 
> from suspects.  One of the tactics suggested to preserve our noble moral 
standing 
> as a nation that refrains from torture during interrogations (what a laugh!) 
> was to let other nations not bound by our human rights qualms do the dirty 
> work while US observers looked and listened.  But anyone with a sense of 
reality 
> regarding the treatment of suspects in the "War on Terror," who defends the 
> polices of the Bush administration, should be justifying the use of these 
harsh 
> tactics depicted in the Iraq prison photos, to gain information that could 
> save US soldiers and US citizens lives in the War on Terror.  Right?  
Consider 
> that Bush warned us of nuclear "mushroom cloud" over America that threatened 
us 
> from Iraq if we did not invade quickly.  One of those Iraq prison inmates 
> might just lead us to those immanently threatening WMDs, if we use effective 
> techniques of "persuasion," right?
> 
> The Bush administration is caught in the contradictions of the its foreign 
> policy, between the demands, the realities of fighting a "War on Terror," 
while 
> we posture that we are bringing our noble and superior values to the middle 
> east through the use of force.  War is an ugly nasty business that degrades 
and 
> destroys the veneer of civilized respect between human beings that is far 
more 
> easily stripped away from any one of us than most of us would admit!  Put the 
> average Jane or Joe into a situation where their comrades are being killed 
> and blown apart by an "enemy," give them power in a prison over the group of 
> people who are seen as the "enemy," give them military training to kill and 
> injure and break down the "enemy" in warfare, and supply a high moral 
motivation, 
> "The War on Terror," and many of us, the kind and generous residents of 
Moscow, 
> Idaho, for example, would be posing in those photos.  
> 
> Waging warfare is NOT consistent in its conduct with democratic values or 
> human rights.  Those who think we can function as a nation in a "war" mode 
with 
> soldiers dying and losing arms and legs daily, and not resort to ugly 
treatment 
> of the "enemy," are living an illusion.
> 
> Ted Moffett
> 


---------------------------------------------
This message was sent by First Step Internet.
           http://www.fsr.net/