Sunday, July 19, 2009

Methinks Thou Doth Protest Too Stupidly

Wait a minute, wait a minute. So the US condemns a video of a soldier captured in Afghanistan? Why? Is he stacked up naked with other prisoners while a burqa wearing female points at his genitalia? Is he forced to stand naked while dogs snap at his body? Is he being forcibly sodomized by a guard? No? Than really what do we have to condemn?
Oh. I see. It's a violation of international law. While I feel for the soldier, and his family, for the understandably traumatic experience they are having to endure, the US lost it's right to complain about international law violations a long time ago. This is why anti-torture advocates have been so vociferous following the revelation of the US using "enhanced interrogation techniques". Because, someday, sooner or later, our soldiers, fighting in the global war for enduring hegemony, are bound to be captured by the enemy, and perhaps, they won't be forced to eat rice and bread, drink tea, and wear traditional grey, loose-fitting Afghan shalwar kameez clothing.
The US, under the Obama administration, had an opportunity to change the way that the US operates, but, as with much else with in our foreign policy, has opted to continue the same policies of the Bush administration. (So much for "change we can believe in). So the current administration, as with the previous, can blather on about how our troops are handled as if they really care. But the truth is, if they really cared, they would put an end to this policy before some other serviceperson is captured by a group that cares even less than we do about international law. Fortunately for us, the only other country that cares less than we do about international is Israel, and they are our ally.
Cross posted at American Insurgency

3 comments:

Tom Harper said...

Oh come on, you still don't understand. America is Number One and we can do whatever we want when we want. Those swarthy third world peasants, on the other hand, had better toe the line. International law only exists when the U.S. chooses to invoke it.

Anonymous said...

Poor guy. Imagine how he feels knowing the death of Michael Jackson kicked him off the front page. Now the media has decided to focus on him until the next celebrity scandal comes along.

Kathy said...

The media should have been saying what you did, or at least reminding people that the soldier is damn lucky his captors aren't treating him like we did the ones in Guantanamo.