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My personal musings about anything that gets on my radar screen--heavily dominated by politics.

2004-05-10

Time To Speak Out

I have been reluctant to comment on the Abu Graib/abuse thing. I'm not really sure why--mostly because the whole thing shows Americans being repugnant and I hope that these Americans face the full force of the military legal system.

That said. . . ENOUGH WITH THE APOLOGIES ALREADY! And I'm getting pretty damn tired of the concern for the "Arab Street."

Saturday Dan Caplis had a discussion about the release of the new, worse photos and videos out of Iraq, and his point was that these should be repressed because it could cost Americans lives. While I love the motive, the logic doesn't hold. What? If the "Arab Street" sees these are they suddenly going to start targeting civilians for murder? Oh, no, wait--they already do that. Well, maybe they'll be so angry that they'll start indiscriminately blowing stuff up. Oh, no--doing that already, too. Well, it make them so mad that they kill people, burn their bodies, behead them, drag them through the streets, and then hang them from bridges. Oh, no--did that one too. Well maybe they'll stab them, then shoot them, then beat them, then kick them, then burn them, then kill them. . .

My point is, I don't think the monsters engaged in the insurgency really give a rip about what Americans do to prisoners.

However, in that the worst front of this war may be the domestic political front, I think these pictures could do irreparable damage. Already we've seen some monumental bloviating in the Senate (Al Jazeera headline: Senior US Senator Announces "Saddam's Torture Chambers Open For Business), and a big bloc of Senators refusing to support the funding of the war effort. If these pictures become a My Lai-type rallying point for the Dems, then the domestic support for this war could collapse and THAT ENDANGERS AMERICAN SOLDIERS' LIVES, not to mention the potential damage to defending the homefront.

I hate censorship. But consider the American support of the war effort had pictures of mothers and children lying in the streets of Dresden been front page stuff in 1944 or 45--would we have had the stomach to finish the war then? I'm pretty sure our stomachs are more delicate today. And this war is too important to back away from because it's messy.
Posted by: Michael / 5/10/2004 11:34:00 PM

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