Giving Birth to Terrorists
INTRODUCTION/ UPDATE (8/9/11):
This post has become my most visited post from my blog, with a vast majority of visits coming from over seas. I don't really understand the allure, with the exception that I am self critical of my own nation and perhaps I am attracting an audience looking for vindication of personally held beliefs. For the most part, I stand by what I said in this post. Foreign policy needs to be conducted carefully. At the same time the record of the US, has been and continues to be one that often goes further to prevent, civilian death, abuse, disrespect, etc. than most foreign forces have in a time war.
Some might argue that Guantanamo Bay ultimately has proven itself with the resulting systematic dismantling of Al Qaeda, and killing of Bin Laden, which apparently would not have happened with out the some times controversial information gathering techniques.
I'm not sure I'm informed enough to pass a verdict on the appropriateness of water boarding (apparently it has been done for years- and until recently had not been a concern). What did trouble me was the "who" was getting water boarded, and why. I stand by that concern.
A lot of rhetoric has been thrown around comparing the US to various notorious war criminals- and this is patently unfair, and not what I intended to suggest in this post. Rather I wanted to stress that the US needs to continue to set the bar for rules of engagement and should not get sloppy, which I think they did.
Many flaws in policy continue today under our new administration. Arguably to some extent poor tactics have even been amplified as Obama has instituted an increased reliance on drone attacks resulting in civilian death. It is different now with a president that the Western media supports. He has a "cool" image that the youth admires, and the continued use of GITMO, the continued Middle East conflicts- (now expanded to Libya), the increased civilian casualties in Afghanistan, and increased violence in Afghanistan have failed to tarnish this president, because many who were critical of Bush were doing so more because they were critical of his domestic social policy- and not his foreign policy. The criticism of Bush, that should be equally (if not more) applicable to Barack Obama, is absent. The objective was to remove Bush from power- not to end the war. Many American detractors were more concerned about ending the war so the funds could be redirected towards providing defined "rights" to citizens (health care, free secondary education, food, public jobs, etc.,) Those who were devoted protestors of the war now are strikingly missing, or are attending the rallies they really care about- those supporting Unions, Social Justice, and other Leftist movements.
To be fair I have left the original post, althoug I can't deny that the temptation to just erase it entirely has not weighed heavy on me.
ORIGINAL POST:
While this is here say, the United States track record lends more credence to the journalists and witnesses involved in the latest war atrocity.Apparently reckless policy is fast becoming a favorite past time due to continued screw-ups by decision makers.
Afghan journalists claim that U.S. troops opened fire at a crowd and proceeded in essentially a 6 mile long "drive by" shooting of pedestrians. To confirm this, free lance photographers for the Associated Press claim that the U.S. soldiers had them erase or destroy film and photos taken. The flawed, ill thought, and careless policy of the U.S. defense department is serving to do nothing more than amplify hatred, towards the U.S. with indignant, selfish, and bloody policies. Ignoring Geneva conventions and torturing captives who were in the wrong place at the wrong time will likely create more terrorists. Randomly firing into crowds shows the same disdain for life that terrorists show when they strap a bomb to themselves and kill who ever happens to be there. I understand mistakes happen, however if there has been an attempt to "destroy evidence" as journalists are claiming, this was more likely an action of blind hate fueled vengeance on the part of U.S. troops.
The superior officers, and the people who direct the war strategies are to blame for this more so than the soldiers in my opinion. I feel that not enough is being done to discourage these war crimes, and historically it has been shown that it is a chain of commands that was at one time traced all the way back to Rumsfeld. Hopefully Gates is not of the same vein, but I kind of feel he probably will be.
This stuff will likely continue to happen, and I don't want to see the "Spit on Soldiers" mentality of the Vietnam War come back, but you can be assured that it will, if it isn't already here. Most American soldiers likely have decent commanding officers in charge, but there are always bad apples. In these cases soldiers are likely pressured to do as their told regardless of how morally reprehensible it may be, or receive the threat of facing court marshaling or dishonorable discharge.
America CAN NOT take the moral high ground, unless we make the often difficult choices to make the right move, rather than give in to what emotions may tempt one to do. If we let our desire for instant retribution take over, if we let cultural differences turn into hatred, than we are no better than the enemy.
ANN COULTER: MONSTER (Just in case you weren't already aware)I don't know how any one can tolerate this woman. She definitely is a bizarre form of political pundit. Like Marlyn Manson and Madonna, Coulter gets attention through shock factor. Her words know virtually no boundaries. The latest Coulter has to do with her very publicly using a profane slur to describe John Edwards. It doesn't even make any sense either, it just makes her look incredibly unintelligent... although, one may argue that the press she gets from it may actually make it a savvy move on her part. All I know is, I hope that one day, and some day soon she goes too far. Something similar to this caused commentator Michael Savage problems in the past, so one can hope eventually the same troubles will befall Coulter. Some other gems (sarcasm intended) Coulter has provided us throughout the ages:
"My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the New York Times Building."Coulter referring to the prospect of a nuclear-equipped Iran, "What if they start having one of these bipolar episodes with nuclear weapons? I think our motto should be, post-9-11: raghead talks tough, raghead faces consequences.""I think [women] should be armed but should not vote... women have no capacity to understand how money is earned. They have a lot of ideas on how to spend it... it's always more money on education, more money on child care, more money on day care."And apparently the recent allegation isn't Coulter's first use of what appears to be one of her favorite words:On the July 26, 2006 episode of CNBC's "The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch" Coulter made a statement that Clinton shows "some level of latent homosexuality." On the July 27, 2006, edition of MSNBC's Hardball, host Chris Matthews asked Coulter, "How do you know that Bill Clinton is gay?", in reference to her comment the night before. Coulter responded, "I don't know if he's gay. But Al Gore -- total fag."Ann Coulter, wrote in a syndicated column on September 12 that in responding to terrorists "we should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity." Feel sick yet? There's plenty more!"God gave us the earth. We have dominion over the plants, the animals, the trees. God said, 'Earth is yours. Take it. Rape it. It's yours.'"---Coulter on Hannity & Colmes, 6/20/01 Sadly I think this statement is rather revealing into the true beliefs of die hard ultra right wing people who refuse to grasp the concept of global warming."The swing voters -- I like to refer to them as the idiot voters because they don't have set philosophical principles. You're either a liberal or you're a conservative if you have an IQ above a toaster."So in other words... Ann thinks if you actually take the time to think about what you believe in rather than blindly accept the platform of one of the two ridiculous parties (parties who's agendas are based mainly on taking a side opposed to the other....) that this makes you an idiot. “They’re [Democrats] always accusing us of repressing their speech. I say let’s do it. Let’s repress them. Frankly, I’m not a big fan of the First Amendment.” Wow... no comment needed, this, I mean... wow....MY NICE WEEKEND:To move away from the horrifying hot air of Coulter, now to talk about my weekend.
I had a great weekend. Saturday I got some needed errands completed. I threw out a lot of paperwork, did some needed filing and even dusted a bit in my room. Kate came over for supper and we went to this pizza place in Malden that I discovered recently, which I think has some of the best pizza around. It's called New York Pizza. Simple name, for simply great junk food. Mmmm mmmm!
Sunday we watched some quality food channel television, later went into town. Then for supper we went to Brighton to a Chinese restaurant outside of Cleveland Circle called Chef Choy's House. The food was excellent! We had nice combo dishes which came with rice, an appetizer and soup. Both Kate and I had hot and sour soup and Kate ate pretty much all of her soup with the exception of a couple of chunks of tofu (I was so proud). The vegetables in the dishes were nice and crispy, and the servings were plentiful. We got beef teriyaki as an appetizer, and with the exception of Golden Temple in Brookline, and Kowloon in Saugus, not too many places around Beantown really do them right... they were spot on here. I'm jealous of Kate being so close to such good Chinese food!
Anyway I have a busy week ahead of me, probably... so I'm going to sign off and bid you all well!
no worries, its probably just me.
