Loading ...A small rant
June 4th, 2004 by SteveNormally, I’d be linking things left and right; however, I just want to have a personal little rant here. Something has been sickening me recently, and I need to get it off my chest.
To all the people who have been trying to justify the “distasteful” and “regretable” events at Abu Ghraib prison (or as the Geneva Convention and International Court like to call it, “torture” and “war crimes”): what is wrong with you? I’m serious, there has to be something wrong. Are you such blind ignorant nationalists that you’ll support your country no matter what? That’s the only thing I can think of, either that or you hate Arabs. or Muslims. What pisses me off the most is the most common defense to this. You may be wondering what that is? Here it is:
“[Militant group] killed [civilians]! Why isn’t the ‘humanitarian left’ outraged about this?”
I can debunk this argument very, very simply. First off, I’m not outraged as much as I am saddened. Very saddened. The senseless loss of human life and dignity is always depressing. Second off, there’s the matter of what I can control. I’m not a member of a militant group currently killing civilians. Sure, I can apply some international pressure, and I try, but I’m somewhat limited. On the other hand, who is in charge of what is happening at our detainee camps? The American military. Which is controlled by the American government. Which is supposed to be representative of us. Therefore, we the people of the United States are very indirectly responsible for this… and we need to take responsibility. We need to stand up and tell the world “NO! This is wrong! We oppose this!” Instead, we fall back to the argument that “well everyone else is doing it!” Apparently the same excuse Johnny uses when he comes home drunk excuses this nation from any wrong-doing. Is that what we’ve come to? Is this what we want to be known for? Just “doing what everyone else is”? Torture? Humiliation? Executing prisoners?
Or another argument, the 2nd most popular one: “If your son/daughter was in Iraq and under attack everyday, wouldn’t you want them to do everything possible to stop the attacks?” Let me turn that around. If your son/daughter was captured by anti-occupation militants, wouldn’t you want them to treat your loved one with decency and respect? We’re setting the bar horrendously low, and the mutilation of 2 dead bodies and 1 decapitation pales, in the eyes of the world, in comparison to the execution of 30+ prisoners and the death of 10000+ civilians. This is something which torture defenders don’t seem to understand. No matter how brutal the militants are, all they have to do is point to American torture, American murder, and they seem like the lesser of the two evils. How horrible is that?
And even that misses the point. The point is that these are living breathing individuals. I know we were all scared by the recent terror attacks on our country. The whole world was. A French government official, in early September 2001, stated “Now we are all Americans.” But this fear does not, cannot, justify the abandonment of respect for civil rights, for human rights. We have violated the Geneva Convention. We have violated the Internation Court. These are treaties we signed. They are, according to Article VI of the Constitution of the United States of America, “the Supreme Law of the Land.” Our military, our government, and our people have broken the Law… and you are trying to defend that.
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