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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
Publishing these pictures is necessary. However it is also necessary to tell people that we have betrayed our country's history and standards. We were always the country that was generous and horrible even to our enemies. We were the ones who made friends instead of enemies. That has been our protection in the world for 200 years. When and if Iraq gets its act together they can demand damages and reparations from us for invading a country without weapons to defend themselves, much as was demanded of germany after WWI and led to their bankruptcy and degradation that led to WWII. Setting a standard of invading any country that insults is dangerous if any country ever feels strong enough to conquer us.
I feel instead of wailing like lost little babies in the wake of 9/11 we should have laughed it off and rebuilt saying "these criminals are little boys committing tantrums". Instead we have wasted lives and resources to the breaking point and showed all terrorists how easy it is to hurt the great United States.
Britain fought terrorists for decades and finally had to negotiate an agreement. Israel has been fighting terrorists since 1948 and still hasn't learned to make an agreement that will allow them to live in peace. Fighting terrorists is not a virtue, but an exercise in stupidity.
Some day our descendants will curse the names of the people who led us into this but they will die fat and happy with all the money they have "earned" from letting out war contracts. Why do we let people make money off of our loss of face in the world?
Salon.com and similar media outlets continue to try to tarnish our troops at any cost. The first Abu Ghraib photos said everything that had to be said about this situation. These prisoners come from the same flock that is currently killing our troops with roadside bombs and this mud-raking only adds fuel to the fire to encourage more deaths of our troops. One could make a case that this whole prisoner treatment was a direct result of the continuing terror campaign by these Arabs who hate us because of our long-term support of Israel.
While I don't agree with the treatment of these prisoners as depicted in these photos, if I were on a jury deciding the fate of any of our troops who engaged in this behavior, I would find them NOT GUILTLY. We are a war with these people and until we either win or retreat, almost anything except rape goes in my book.
In my view, most of the writers condemning the Abu Ghraib situation really just hate America, hate George Bush, hate our military and on and on. Well, they had their chance in 2000. However, they were TOO dumb to fill out their ballots in Florida correctly. In 2004, there just were not enough of them. Perhaps it's time for them to MOVE ON and wait for 2008 rather than just doing the 8 year whine.
...by exposing what some of them are doing? So, it's Salon's fault that our sons and daughters are torturing prisoners in Iraq?
I'd like to think the horror of what we are now is just too much for some people to handle which, in turn, causes these people to jump through hoops of logic that's as tortured as the human beings in these photos, but I know that's being overly charitable.
"...almost anything except rape goes in my book."
Okay, that's twisted and evil, but we also know that the torturers raped young boys. So now that they've crossed your line, I guess that means you've crossed over to the side of reason?
Reading the critics of Salon printing the pictures -
The critics
1) Are trying to deprive other people of seeing data they might want
for making up their own mind.
2) There are female prisoners at Abu Ghraib, the Iraq's claim some where raped, after seeing the photo graphs - what do you think? Could the men who did this do the same to the women? Would have ever thought that if you hadn't seen the photos?
3) Numbers of US service women are saying they have been assaulted by fellow soldiers in Iraq - to the point of a strange article - claiming deaths of a couple of service women was due to dehydration, because they were afraid of having to go to the bathroom at night, because they would be raped by fellow soldiers.
4) We know that a couple of 14 year olds were in the Cuban prison, of course we didn't find out until after they were released. After looking at the pictures, are you sure that every naked male is not a minor? After seeing these pictures would you believe our troops capable of hurting minors in custody?
Books like Susan Brownmiller's - Against are will , document pretty graphically what our troops have done in Vietnam, with a president who didn't want to say he would use torture, do you think our troops are purer now then they were in past engagements?
Yes these acts are done in our name, yes as Americans we are responsible for every act ---- or we are no better than the enemy we are fighting.
.. of many of the posts here is that they confound what happened
on September 11, 2001 with Iraq. Iraq was not involved in the September
11th hijackings - the hijackers were Arab and Egyptian followers of a
Saudi Arabian millionaire. Why do we persist in thinking otherwise,
and why on earth are we in Iraq?
May God help the peoples we have maimed and murdered in a war of deception
and hubris. And may God help us - we have as a nation
taken leave of any sense of morality.
To the Editor:
On the matter of newly revealed photos of abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison, your attention is respectfully drawn to Article 13 of the Third Geneva Convention of 1949 and Article 27 of the Fourth. In part, these provisions provide respectively that prisoners of war and civilian detainees are to be "protected against insults and public curiosity." Article 14 of the Third Convention and 27 of the Fourth further require respect for a protected person's honor.
By publishing the photographs of Iraqi POWs and civilian detainees, you dishonor them and subject them to public curiosity. As violations and war crimes go, these are relatively mild ones. But please, you should care a little more about the people you want to help and the law you want to uphold.
Ewen Allison
Member, District of Columbia Bar
#456308
3040 Idaho Ave., N.W., Apt. 104
Washington, DC 20016
(202) 744-1786
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
Once seen as a lunatic fringe, reactionary anti-women groups are courting respectability
Salon headlines in your mailbox
