|
Up to the minute notes on the current state of free thinking and free living: Kentucky moonshine - original analysis and reporting from MoreThings, and all round pop culture museum of sight and sound - photo galleries, mp3 and video downloads.
Al Barger and MoreThings - getting people's goats since 1998.
Live free or die!
----
|
December 27, 2004
Sackcloth and ashes and prisoner abuse
Matt Welch has a new article at the Reason website about the reaction of conservative pundits to the various allegations of American soldiers abusing prisoners.
At the risk of being called a libertarian torture apologist, I question the apparent basic premise of this article. Welch seems to be assuming that anyone who isn't worked up into high outrage over these scattered reports of prisoner abuse is somehow commiting an offense themselves.
For my part, however, I feel absolutely no urge to don sackcloth and ashes.
Perhaps he lacks perspective. We're fighting a WAR. In a war, bad things happen. We're sending soldiers over to kill people and blow things up. That's what they do. It's near impossible to just turn that off, and say that they should be nice to the enemy.
We struggle to keep our soldiers on a short leash, but they're only human. If, say, you've just captured someone who was trying to kill you, there's going to be a chance that even the good guys will get rough from time to time- even more so if you think they've got information that will stop their compatriots from killing you.
Best I can read from the tea leaves though, our troops have largely been well disciplined and appropriate with prisoners and detainees. Most of the world, specifically including many Americans, want US to fail or be brought down. If there really was much serious abuse, there'd be eyewitness testimony and specific dates and acts all over CBS and Al Jazeera, rather than mere broad hints and allegations.
I'm less concerned with great outrage over any American violation of the Marques of Queensberry rules than I am with stopping people from KILLING US.
I object to the broad sweeping lumping together of any and every whiff of anything stressful as "torture." A lot obviously depends on the exact individual circumstances, but I'm not real distraught over a little sleep deprivation for an Al Qaeda member. That's not even torture. It might not be particularly nice, but war is heck.
Nor do I automatically give credence to every passing whiff of an allegation.
When there is specific evidence of truly egregious abuse, then discipline the soldiers through the regular channels of the military justice system. The End. Other than that, we ought to be supporting our troops and giving them every reasonable benefit of the doubt.
I strongly suspect that most of the outrage comes from people who are much more opposed to our war effort entirely, rather than being concerned with human rights abuses. If human rights were your main concern, I would think you'd be mostly talking about the truly BAD people that we're fighting, and supporting our efforts to stop them from abusing not just prisoners but entire populations.
America, F*&% Yeah!!!
posted by Al at 12/27/2004 11:17:00 PM
Link Soup
morethings master
photo gallery index
MP3
new album
releases
lyrics
sammy davis
little richard photos
buddy holly pictures
fats domino images
chuck berry pictures 01/
02/
03/
04/
05/
06/
07/
08/
09/
10/
11/
12/
01/
02/
03/
04/
05/
06/
07/
08/
09/
10/
11/
12/
01/
02/
03/
04/
05/
06/
07/
08/
09/
10/
11/
12/
01/02/
03/
04/
05/
06/
07/
08/
09/
10/
11/
12
01/
02/
03/
04/
05/
06/
07/
08/
09/
10/
11/
12/01/
02/
03/
04/
05/
06/
07/
08/
09/
10/
11/
12/08/
09/
10/
11/
12/
la
24
lucille ball images james
blunt photos
clint eastwood pictures lena
horne images team
america pictures
robert mitchum photos
bruce springsteen pictures
mariah carey pictures
ann coulter photos
george clooney images
loretta lynn pictures
beatles pictures
white stripes pictures
andy griffith pictures
kill bill pictures
beverly hillbillies pictures
robin williams
frank zappa pictures
jerry lee lewis pictures
richard pryor photos
june carter johnny cash pictures
vic mackey shield pictures u2 photos
four seasons images
james cagney images
elvis presley pictures
country music
blog
dolly parton pictures
olsen twins photos
tom petty photos
tori amos pictures
joaquin phoenix images David
Bowie photos
Quills movie images
reese witherspoon pictures rolling
stones photos
fiona apple images kim
novak images ray charles photos marx
brothers pictures
prince rogers nelson pictures blazing
saddles images
sinead o'connor images
eddie murphy photos aretha
franklin photos
south park pictures homer
simpson images
bob dylan pictures elizabeth
taylor photos madonna
images
saturday night live pictures willie
nelson images hee
haw pictures james
brown images pete
townshend photos
tina turner pictures
dixie chicks photos
margaret thatcher photos
guns
n roses pictures
paula abdul pictures
jodie foster photos
amy winehouse
eminem
frank sinatra photos
van
halen images
satan
blondie photos
joni
mitchell pictures
merle haggard
images
rocky horror pictures
monty
python
|
|
