I wonder how many Liberals would agree with that study against how many Conservatives?

It is becoming increasingly frustrating to read Greenwald's columns. It is IMO beyond dispute that American officials committed war crimes (albeit at a smaller scale than for example Taylor Jr mentioned in this article... but that's like saying "Well, let's not prosecute hom for murder, he only killed one person, it's not like he's a serial killer").

But how do we act on this? What will it take to have justice served?

Why do you not immediately, as a Gentleman of High Order, come to the aid of fainting Lady Tommy, who slumped for many moments at saucer and table cloth from the noxious fumes of the surly louts that breathed upon her with soured mouths still chewing?

Who invited these ruffians, with their barbaric refusal to "see both sides" of every issue, their coarse petticoats of unrefined outrage brushing against Tommy's porcelain skin like unweeded burrs elbowing sharply onto the Royal Walking Path?

The tortured logic (I mean the logic exposed to enhanced interrogation techniques) that the American culprits use to justify their conduct is pathetic. At least the Liberian thug's justification -- although wholly inadequate -- was factually correct.

Torturers and their enablers always have their justifications which do nothing to remove the black stain on their soul.

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: Now in that mythology of the cosmic order [the original mythos of earth], the whole sphere of the universe is the womb of the goddess mother whose children we are. She is the primary divinity. She is the one that is represented: the Great Goddess World, and the deities by whom she is fecundated are represented usually in animal form. They are secondary to Her. And the early deities were were Her consorts.

But with these warrior people, you have a masculine god as the dominant figure, not one who prays to the Goddess to bring forth the fruits of the earth, but one who comes in and takes them: the Thunder Hurler, whether his name is Zeus or Yahvay (ph) or Indra, they are all of the same order. And they despise the other people.

So you now have a very interesting conflict between a culturally inferior but physically more powerful people of patriarchal orientation coming into an area of much higher sophistication and assimilating their mythologies.

One of the most interesting things about the Bible that turns up throughout the researches of the 19th century is that all the Old Testament themes come right from the Sumero-Babylonian complex and can be equated there and shown to be there.

And now look what happens as a result: the myths that originally pointed to the Goddess as the source of All point to the God. This is a curious transformation. And it's one of the baffling things in our tradition.

Symbols talk spontaneously to the psyche. You know what they're saying down here. But the person who presents the myth to you [he chuckles] talks a different language. He says, 'It's Daddy,' and your psyche says, 'No, it's Mother.' So then we go to the psychiatrist. [Laughter]

All of our symbols are speaking a doubletalk. Joseph Campbell Audio Collection Volume 4 Man and Myth Disc 1 Man and Myth [Bold emphasis added]

Myth-jacking is the state of the art in manufacturing consent.

The Eritrean Government has fabricated a national mythology by demonizing neighboring Ethiopia, for the central purpose of garnering complete compliance with his autocratic domestic policies. By channeling Eritreans' patriotism into hostility toward Ethiopia, the government ensures that [it] can rule as it likes, without public opposition. Democracy and economic opportunity remain purely theoretical concepts for the people of Eritrea.http://www.state.gov/p/af/rls/rm/90573.htm

Check out this State Department assessment of Iran from 1961. I wonder what the report on the US looks like?

Good and Evil

There are certain key concepts of the world which are born and bred into Iranians which unfortunately tend to sharpen the terrible psychological dilemma outlined above. They are rooted in Iranian history, and can be traced back to Zoroastrianism and picked up again in the Iranian interpretation of Shi'a Islam.

Persians tend to believe in the all-pervasive presence of a powerful force of evil in the world. All actions, all motives, are divisible into good and evil. It is probable at any time in history that the forces of evil control the world, while the good man, like the hidden Imam, is forced to hide and remain inconspicuous, to lie and pretend if need be, until the moment arrives for battle. Thus, most Persians cannot ascribe political actions with which they disagree to error, or to grant good intentions to the author of such actions. The term "political compromise" cannot be translated into colloquial Persian without a connotation of "sell-out".

Two results follow from this--first, since the forces of evil are strong and organized, actions by others which one disapproves are not isolated, they are linked together in a mesh of intertwining conspiracies with an overall evil motive behind them. Second, public and private morality are inextricably confused--no politician with a reprehensible private life can be other than evil in his public actions, and no saintly man can be really wrong in his public life.

As a corollary of the above, Persians tend to follow blindly a man who has convinced them that he is on the side of right, without examining political issues critically. Since members of the urban middle class have deep aggressive drives against the traditional ruling class and the Westerner, it is natural to associate a saintly leader with opposition to these two forces. All the ingredients are present for what we would call demagogic politics directed against them as scapegoats and as evil forces.

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ho/frus/kennedyjf/xvii/17704.htm

Hamas is our scapegoat of the hour.

IMHO, the only way out of this loop is to push Obama into initiating an investigation. That investigation may have to begin with a commission to break ground with American public opinion (see Scott Horton).

One mechanism to prompt Obama in this direction has been featured by Digby here:

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2008/12/ask-question-by-digby-theres-been-lot.html

I would make Digby's instructions a bit more crisp.

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