Disgusting
I was in the midst of a long post, contemplating how we could win Iraq by going about it as enlightened imperialists, but that sort of thing disgusts me too much right now when I read things like this:
(Via Josh Marshall)
I will add how this hurts our efforts in Iraq. This is disgusting, and I hope the soldiers involved are court-martialled. But this isn't their fault. This is the fault of the military leadership and pentagon that doesn't train our soldiers to treat these people like human beings, and just from a practical standpoint, if you want to occupy a country, you have to have respect for the locals. Otherwise you get increasing and increasing insurgency. When you have an occupying army that treats the indiginous people as less than human, those people will rebel. I should hope they rebel. I should hope human nature includes enough dignity to not stand for such treatment.
And if the military didn't officially treat Iraqis as less than human, there is no chance a soldier could get away with riding a 70 year old woman like a donkey.
So forget a "how can we win" post. It'll do no good. It won't change the military treating Iraqis as untermenschen, and as long as that happens, we can't win. The longer we're there the worse it'll be. So fuck national hubris. We need to get out of Iraq. Now.
I was in the midst of a long post, contemplating how we could win Iraq by going about it as enlightened imperialists, but that sort of thing disgusts me too much right now when I read things like this:
U.S. soldiers who detained an elderly Iraqi woman last year placed a harness on her, made her crawl on all fours and rode her like a donkey, Prime Minister Tony Blair's personal human rights envoy to Iraq said Wednesday.
The envoy, legislator Ann Clwyd, said she had investigated the claims of the woman in her 70s and believed they were true."
...
"She was held for about six weeks without charge," the envoy told Wednesday's Evening Standard newspaper. "During that time she was insulted and told she was a donkey. A harness was put on her, and an American rode on her back."
Clwyd said the woman has recovered physically but remains traumatized.
"I am satisfied the case has now been resolved satisfactorily," the envoy told British Broadcasting Corp. radio Wednesday. "She got a visit last week from the authorities, and she is about to have her papers and jewelry returned to her."
(Via Josh Marshall)
I will add how this hurts our efforts in Iraq. This is disgusting, and I hope the soldiers involved are court-martialled. But this isn't their fault. This is the fault of the military leadership and pentagon that doesn't train our soldiers to treat these people like human beings, and just from a practical standpoint, if you want to occupy a country, you have to have respect for the locals. Otherwise you get increasing and increasing insurgency. When you have an occupying army that treats the indiginous people as less than human, those people will rebel. I should hope they rebel. I should hope human nature includes enough dignity to not stand for such treatment.
And if the military didn't officially treat Iraqis as less than human, there is no chance a soldier could get away with riding a 70 year old woman like a donkey.
So forget a "how can we win" post. It'll do no good. It won't change the military treating Iraqis as untermenschen, and as long as that happens, we can't win. The longer we're there the worse it'll be. So fuck national hubris. We need to get out of Iraq. Now.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home