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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
Thank you for publishing these photos. Although difficult to look at, I agree with you that we have to demand that Americans care about this. I am very ashamed and horrified that this deplorable incident, like so many others perpetuated by the Bush administration in our name,
solicits no outrage, almost no public response. Bush and his people refuse to be accountable about anything and we don't demand it. Our Vice President literally shoots somebody in the head, and doesn't feel any need to talk to anyone about it for four days. But after skilled Matlin coaching, he creates a story for us, and we're OK with it. What the hell is happening to us? Are we so busy, so rich, so passified by pop culture fantasy, that we have no humanity left?
It was conforting to read this and see that there are still a few people, like me, who see this entire chapter in our history as almost the worst ever. Not even the constitution matters to these guys. JFK described our leaders as the "best and brightest" - not only are the Bush guys definately NOT the best we have to offer, they are just plain mean. They are doing irreparable damage to all of our futures.
any decent investigative reporting on the middle east?
Historically, I have looked to Salon to report on what the mainstream press is afraid to. I am a liberal democrat, and feel that in letting perverse acts take place at Abu Ghraib our government has let us down. However, I also feel that Salon has let us down by not digging into
some of the things going on in the Middle East currently.
FOX news might not cover things that the White House calls them and asks them not to cover, any many outlets in the mainstream press might fail to publish what might lose them sponsors. I feel Salon fails to cover aspects of conflict in the Middle East that they think might not appeal to their left-wing liberal readership. In doing this, Salon risks losing its hard-won credentials and readership.
But there are some topics that Salon could be looking at and hasn't been:
1. The content of Hamas's educational programs for Palestinians. When Americans hear "education" they think the three r's, or maybe in Hamas's case, the 4 r's (ie--add religion). But Hamas describes its program as an "education of resistance". What is that, really?
2. Were the "cartoon" protests in the Arab world spontaneous or planned? Did all those people get so upset by a picture of the Prophet with a firecracker in his turban? There is evidence that Muslims (or their clerics) were shown the 12 cartoons published in the Danish newspaper + a few others which were much more offensive (ie a dog sodomizing Mohammed (PBUH).
3. Why did Iran and the Arab American League "react" to the cartoons by seeking or printing anti-Jewish ones?
I would urge SALON to consider an editorial re-think of your selective focus on Middle East issues.
Sincerely,
Elizabeth Ross
Newton, MA
former Salon Premium Subscriber
I am ashamed to be American sometimes when I see stuff like this and want to strongly point out that the people who did this atrocity should be hung in public. Also, as a secondary thought. All High School and colleges should be freed from having recruitment offices in the schools. No mothers want to lose their children and nobody wants any future hardheads that might apply to brutalize anyone.
Thank you for publishing the Abu Ghraib photos. They sicken me, but it is important that the activities of our troops and government be made public so we can begin to get a glimpse of what our country is really up to in this war on terror. So we should all look, and then look again, every one of us. We should look long and hard at what our government has allowed to happen in the name of freedom, liberty, democracy. What has become of great America? I just want to hang my head and cry.
Most of this material is similar to what was shown before.
Several people were tried and sent to jail for their role in this.
What is the point in publishing these photos, including the one of the fake electrocution with a hood which everyone has seen a hundred times at least even if they were trying to avoid seeing it?
It does increment the page hit counters for Salon, and advertising sales perhaps? So it is not totally worthless.
If you are trying to rile up the followers of the religion of peace, they have moved on to protest free speech and the cartoons. They are busy blowing themselves up, trampling each other and burning the USA flag in the streets of the hovels where they exist under that merciful lifestyle they have devised for themselves.
If you are trying to stir up liberal guilt, tsk, tsk isn't the US just awful sentiments at home, most of us have moved on. It is a bunch of people we have sent to kill others over there in "AI Rek" and they are trying to entertain themselves doing something, anything for a laugh to pass the hours at that prison.
There is nothing these pictures will do to change one thing about any government on the face of the earth. They are three years old. Face it, they have changed nothing.
The pictures remain revolting, shameful, and inhuman. So is the war over there.
We have moved on and accept these things as collateral to supporting our troops and keep quiet. Some even defend it as fraternity hazing as if that were a defense.
But it would make no difference in the universe, if we took to the streets, howled like coyotes, and started burning used tires.
Why doesn't Salon print some 4 1/2 year old photos of the impacts of the 3 airplanes at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon? This is the kind of reminder that America needs. Many of the posts to this article have said that they are ashamed of America for the Abu Gharib abuses. I agree that they are terrible, but the people who did this have been punished. The shame should go to those who have forgotten about the "animals" who took the lives of nearly 3,000 INNOCENT lives on 9/11/2001. The vast majority of our men and women in the armed forces are serving honorably in our place and we all should be grateful and proud for their service.
God Bless the USA!
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
219 Democrats and one Republican join in favor of the legislation, which passed by a narrow margin
Salon headlines in your mailbox
