The torture of a twelve year old girl? Time to leave...

Senggüm:

While I strenuously disagree with what was done in retribution for Abu Ghraib, it was done in retribution. I strongly believe that if this entire clusterfuck hadn’t happened that US soldiers and contractors (and just what in holy fuck are contractors doing over there, anyway? another thread. . .) would be merrily killed at a rate that would be less than the rate of Iraqis and Arabs killed, allowing the numb schmucks who run what passes for international relations to claim some sort of victory. However, what’s done is done, the bell can’t be unrung, and what I believe needs to happen is that the US needs to roll over and take it like a man and fix what can be fixed then turn the entire thing over to the UN. The sooner the better.

Waste

Noun 1. retribution - a justly deserved penalty.

Notice the word justly

Ding ding ding! We have a winner!

All too predictable.

Noted, Senggüm. And while I cannot condone what happened to Mr. Berg, it served as retaliation (as best I can tell) for the abuses (note that plural) at Abu Ghraib.

Better?

And while neither of us can see what happened as just, I think I can imagine the kind of mind that would think that.

Waste

FYI: I saw McCain on Larry King Live say that he just needed to hit the head while Inhofe was speaking. Of course he did make sure to add that he didn’t at all approve of Inhofe’s speech. After seeing an excerpt as the show faded to a commercial break, I have to say I agree.

About what did you agree?

Immediate antecedent: McCain didn’t approve of Inhofe’s speech. So it was with that that I agreed.

I think it was some spider-hole I wandered into off of the Drudge report. Ran across the idea a couple of times as the senate hearings were starting up. Still, searching “McCain” and “recuse” (the word used) on google news returns nothing relevent, so it was a pretty low level murmuring. -Good for a case of the willies, but not enough to specify coordinates for your loathing.

Not to belittle Mr. Berg’s misfortune, I must urge the following

He was killed in the course of which killing he was heard to scream.

I would submit to you that those who killed him, could, at their whim, have produced many, many more screams between initiating and completing the killing.

For instance, the drawing and quartering of braveheart (altho of course Mel G doesn’t scream, but don’t let’s get distract4ed…)

What I’m saying is, torture is like, drawn out, ya feel me? This dude was murdered, on the rizzle, but he was not tortured.

Originally posted by alaricthegoth

Ofcourse not. This dude died a happy death. I hope mine will go that smoothly. :: rolling eyes::

Some good lead-off quotes in Tuesday’s issue of the Information Clearing House Newsletter:

“I went down on my knees and prayed to Almighty God for light and guidance … and one night late it came to me this way.… We could not leave (the Philippines) to themselves–they were unfit for self-government–and they would soon have anarchy and misrule over there worse than Spain’s was.… There was nothing left for us to do but take them all and educate the Filipinos, and uplift and Christianize them.”
: President William McKinley

=

Our men . . . have killed to exterminate men, women, children, prisoners and captives, active insurgents and suspected people from lads of 10 up… Our soldiers have pumped salt water into men to “make them talk,” and have taken prisoners people who held up their hands and peacefully surrendered, and an hour later. . . stood them on a bridge and shot them down one by one, to drop into the water below and float down, as examples to those who found their bullet-loaded corpses."
: Philadelphia Ledger newspaper in 1901, from its Manila [Philippines] correspondent during the US war with Spain for the control of the Philippines

=

“The only place you and I disagree . . . is with regard to the bombing. You’re so goddamned concerned about the civilians, and I (in contrast) don’t give a damn. I don’t care.”
. . . “I’d rather use the nuclear bomb. . . Does that bother you? I just want you to think big.”
: Richard Nixon to Secretary of State Henry Kissinger on the Watergate tapes

=

"This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation’s homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice and love
: Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

alaricthegoth:

You and I are on the same side inre these instances, but the above quote is stepping way outside of the lines.

And just so it’s on the record, Inhofe is a jingoistic twit.

Waste

Sure, he’s a jingoistic twit. But why?

Because it works, that’s why.

American’s don’t want to feel bad, to feel guilty. They will fervently and whole-heartedly support the man who relieves them of that feeling. Some of us on the hopelessly optimistic left imagine that America will change course, will see the error of our ways, and rise up to throw the scoudrels out. Not likely.

Those of us who already see what’s wrong will be even more committed, but our one vote each remains one vote each. There is no net gain. The Forces of Darkness have long abandoned any notion of changing our collective hive mind, which share but a single thought. They will concentrate thier energies on retaining the part of the electorate that they hold, to keep them energized and motivated.

The people who denigrate our heroes are unpatriotic scum. Our enemies are vile and loathesome. They are motivated not by nationalism, nor religion, nor any sense of injustice. They are motivated by hatred of “our freedoms” and our moral superiority. They have no moral standards themselves, and manipulate our humane instincts to weaken our resolve, sending phalanxes of “human rights do-gooders” to undermine Our Heroes.

In an ordinary, straight-forward, play-by-the-rules war, stuff like the Geneva Convention are worthy constraints. But our enemies have cast all of this aside, therefore all bets are off, we are no longer so constrained, indeed, it would be suicidal to do so. They fight dirty, so we must as well. Morality is for fuzzy-thinking, Volvo driving, latte drinking Fondas. This is war. War is for hard-headed realists who aren’t too prissy to get thier hands dirty. Or gory. Same difference.

This is the party line, brothers and sisters, pals and gals, straight and bent, and it will work. Bet on it. It will work.

Shit like this makes the Baby Jesus puke His little guts out.