Submit your comments on this article |
Home Front: WoT |
Wretchard: Reaction to Interrogation Scandal is "Last Grasp" At Civilized Standards |
2004-05-08 |
My first thoughts at the news of the Abu Ghraib abuses, the Taguba Report and the Presidential mea culpa which followed was whether posterity would recall the incident in the same way the Christmas Truce in the first year of the Great War is remembered today. The last grasp at enforcing civilized standards of conduct before the brutality of the trenches coarsened men completely. The fraternization of that first December so alarmed the generals that "special precautions were taken during the Christmases of 1915, 1916 and 1917, even to the extent of actually stepping up artillery bombardments" to prevent its recurrence. |
Posted by:Mike Sylwester |
#5 Mistreatment should be punished so the angry gal in the photos is likely to be pretty sorry she chose to work out her issues this way. Second... These prisoners are locked up because they are Saddam's guys so excessive sympathy is like crying for Hitler's SS if they had to spend some time locked up at Auschwitz. At least these prisoners know they won't get the same bullet to the back of the head they dealt out with such frequency... Third... Considering the misogynist nature of many excesses underpublicized in this culture I'd say the Islamic world could use some pictures of a woman soldier... not a woman in a burkha... not a woman with genital mutilation... not a woman beaten up... not a woman slaughtered for "honor"... so help me out here... I think these photos would discourage the misogynist Islamic terrorists just as General 'blackjack' Pershing stopped the Islamics by burying them with pigs... After all... what could be worse to them then to be paraded around by a woman soldier? |
Posted by: DANEgerus 2004-05-08 7:08:30 PM |
#4 I have another take a little diferent than Belmont club. Elite society in West (political/journos/some economic like that Soros clown) seems bunch of children with bad faith and loosing standarts. There are an increasing disparity between Human rules(facts) and "Civilisation" rules (papers). The default hate of western civilisation will finish one of the great achivements of that civilisation: functional countries that also granted security to their citizens. Next war : will be an World Civil War it's starting in Nigeria, Sudan, Indonesia |
Posted by: Anonymous4602 2004-05-08 5:29:18 PM |
#3 My advice to you badanov is to Duck. |
Posted by: fury one 2004-05-08 3:17:44 PM |
#2 Wonderful sentiment, Jen. Just one problem: Al Qaeda is a terrorist organization and not a signatory to any of the Conventions on the laws of war. They are infact illegal combatants. Does anyone wanna try to get Al Qaeda to sign on to these things? I don't and I seriously doubt it would be militarily prudent to do so. Al Qaeda fights without honor or rules. Our soldiers fight with both. When a tiny group goes outside that constrictive box, we discipline the doers, remove and cashier the officers and we go on to victory. What we shouldn't do is to saddle our combatants with more, new rules after the war has begun. Let's let the military defeat these folks first, then we can begin a national debate on how to be even nicer to crazy terrorists as we deprive them of the only thing they have consistently rejected: their own lives. |
Posted by: badanov 2004-05-08 1:20:03 PM |
#1 Wretchard is quite the philosopher and he may well be right, as usual. He does remind us that we're at war and "war is hell." Our enemy doesn't scruple about how he kills us, treats our hostages and prisoners or mutilates our dead. We should at least take heed of that. And if we promise to abide by the Geneva Convention and ensure that POWs are treated humanely, is it too much for us to ask--just ask-- of Al Queda that they do the same for us? It can't hurt. |
Posted by: Jen 2004-05-08 12:29:45 PM |