December 08, 2004

Prisoner Abuse Continues, As Does Harrassment of Those Against It

This is appalling. Bush and Rumsfeld are the lowest of the low, and we're stuck with them for four more years.

Posted by armand at December 8, 2004 10:20 AM | TrackBack | Posted to Politics


Comments

Well your link wont work because it wants me to subscribe...but keep in mind that these "prisoners" are the same insurgents that would have killed our soldiers had they gotten to them first. I dont feel sorry for these people honestly. If these people would have stayed home and not caused us problems over there then they wouldnt even be in prison to begin with.

Posted by: big country at December 8, 2004 12:19 PM | PERMALINK

If these people would have stayed home and not caused us problems over there then they wouldnt even be in prison to begin with.

Same thing would be true if we'd stayed home and not caused them problems over there. Staying home isn't much of an answer, in any event, when your "home" is liable to be raided at any moment by occupying soldiers.

The abuse is bad, but the fact that the abuse was evidently continuing even while Bush and Rumsfeld publically deplored it and swore they'd get to the bottom of it is so much worse. It means either a) they're completely full of shit (my vote), or b)that they have lost control of the united states military, united states intelligence, and their crony-run civilian contractors (which is, incredibly, their best case scenario from a P.R. point of view, since their response in all cases is to shift culpability as far from the white house and friends thereof as possible).

Posted by: joshua at December 8, 2004 12:42 PM | PERMALINK

then of course there's this (no registration required), which concerned allegations of abuse at gitmo going back to 2002, where it's become rather clear we imprisoned hundreds of innocents largely because of their religious and national affiliations. i daresay that many of the people detained at gitmo in no way resembled combatants seized on the battlefield. apparently, however, acting illegally against combatants was only half of the story; abusing mere suspects was apparently the other half.

we ought to be ashamed. and we ought to demand a true accounting.

Posted by: joshua at December 8, 2004 12:55 PM | PERMALINK

"Prisoner" does not necessarily equal "insurgent". Remember that lots of the people that were in Abu Ghraib at the time it became infamous hadn't really done much, if anything.

And that's only part of the issue here. I have HUGE issues with the treatment of these DIA personnel. That kind of intimidation of people who are working for our government, risking their lives in a war zone, is just appalling.

Posted by: Armand at December 8, 2004 12:57 PM | PERMALINK

So joshua we should have stayed home and let Saddam keep killing them but when we kill them then it needs to be done right? What logic. Saddam killed innocent Iraqi's for 40 years and the only people we are trying to kill are those that are standing in our way of rebuilding that country. It's a world of difference.

Posted by: big country at December 12, 2004 08:30 PM | PERMALINK

sometimes taking the moral highroad requires holdings oneself to a higher standard than one's opponent holds himself to. this it-could-be-worse rationale is wholly unpersuasive. when we won't afford our iraqi captives the same treatment we afford our english and australian captives (remember those guys, sent home after those countries complained?), let alone the treatment our constitution (or even the rules of war, for that matter) provides, how is that consistent with us preaching the gospel of our way of life?

we need to be setting an example, not racing everyone else to the bottom. it's unbecoming the world's only superpower.

Posted by: joshua at December 13, 2004 11:26 AM | PERMALINK
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