From: Jonathan Davis (jonathan.davis@lineone.net)
Date: Mon May 17 2004 - 03:39:17 MDT
The US does not have that much economic misery. The US economy was primarily
shaped by the Clinton years.
It is not Bush who talks about the US economic recovery (from the slight
recession that started in the last years of the Clinton Administration) but
the press. Here is a typical report from a South African publication -
http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=2076154&fSectionId=631&fSetId=3
04 . Yes the Abu Ghraib abusers came from poor backgrounds, but then again
virtually all non-ranking soldiers are drawn from the domestic poor. This is
why blacks and
Hispanics are so over-represented in those ranks.
The contempt shown world wide for these wrongdoers was coloured by a
familiar bigotry. Not only did these people commit these wrongs but worse,
they "hillbillies", "backwoodsmen" or "trailer trash". America's white rural
poor are the only group one can attack with impunity and let loose the full
broadside of bigotry and group hatred. Even the gentlemanly Boris Johnson
could not check himself.
Lynndie England is in many ways exemplary. Born to extreme poverty, she
worked and planned her way out of poverty. She could have been a perfect
American Dream candidate. Need she be imprisoned and heavily punished? I do
not think that would be just. Catch the people who might have murdered
prisoners. Catch the people who might have tortured them.
But the people who frightened and humiliated them - people like Lynndie
England - their wrongs in my mind and not even crimes. This is the reality
of war and interrogation. I suspect that England and company were directed
by Military Intelligence and that these interrogation methods were
successful.
If it were discovered that these interrogations saved US lives, would that
make a difference? Given a choice would you accept this: One of your
soldiers lives saved for 10 of the enemy humiliated?
I think we ought to stop the hypocritical finger pointing at these
miscreants and face up the messy task of fighting enemies that not only do
not share our values or restraint but actively use them against us.
It is time to adapt and that adaptation might mean that the gentlemanly
rules of engagement and prisoner care developed by and for civilised people
be not apply when facing enemies that scorn those rules.
An enemy whose Commander in Chief personally apologises for the wrongdoings
of a tiny number of renegade soldiers sets the upper standard. An enemy that
beheads captives, ransoms body parts or flies whole plane loads of its
prisoners into buildings, sets the opposite, lowest standard.
Regards
Jonathan
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-virus@lucifer.com [mailto:owner-virus@lucifer.com] On Behalf Of
rhinoceros
Sent: 16 May 2004 22:52
To: virus@lucifer.com
Subject: virus: Re:Banality of Evil and Digital Photography
Some interesting thoughts about "smiling Lynndie England".
Matter What
by Naomi Klein
May 15, 2004
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=40&ItemID=5530rhin
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