[lit-ideas] Re: Hersh and the Devil's Advocate
- From: John Wager <johnwager@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 18 May 2004 05:06:19 -0500
This message didn't go through the first attempt. (For some reason, over half
of the attempts at sending messages to this list do NOT get sent.) But here's a
second try:
Reporting-MTA: dns; comcast.net
Arrival-Date: 16 May 2004 20:03:14 +0000
Final-Recipient: rfc822; lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Action: failed
Status: 4.4.7 Unable to contact host for 1 days,
Diagnostic-Code: smtp; Persistent Transient Failure: Delivery time expired
Last-Attempt-Date: 16 May 2004 20:03:14 +0000
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject:
Re: [lit-ideas] Hersh and the Devil's Advocate
From:
John Wager <johnwager@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date:
Sun, 16 May 2004 15:03:53 -0500
To:
lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Scribe1865@xxxxxxx wrote:
> . . . . If the US wins it can always improve its standards and
> practices; if the US loses, you better brush up on your [insert
> current enemy here].
>
> To insist on legal niceties in an unprecedented situation is like
> driving your car off a cliff because the map you have says a road
> should be there.
>
The problem isn't "legal niceties." It NEVER was about legal niceties.
The whole point of international treaties AND international conventions
(like the "Geneva Conventions") is enlightened self-interest. WE agree
to not mistreat THEIR prisoners so that THEY will not mistreat OUR
prisoners. "Legal niceties" are the way this is put into practice.
War has ALWAYS seemed "extraordinary" enough that it has ALWAYS been
tempting to bend the niceties a bit. But THEIR side also sees war the
same way: THEY are always just as tempted as we are. So we got wise
enough to come to some international agreements that we would agree to
be bound by regardless of how tempting it is to bend them. The reason
for this is that it has, so far, been better for US to follow the
conventions. Slitting the throats of "detainees" is not the norm at
present BECAUSE of these kinds of treaties, despite their occasional
horrible breaches.
The other problem in the current war is more specific: We are not in a
war to destroy a country's war-making abilities; we are in a war to
"bring freedom" to Iraq. This strikes me as an impossibility on the face
of it, but that's the way the U.S. president has put it. So in THIS war,
we have to be ESPECIALLY careful not to alienate those we are seeking to
liberate. The photos of the detainees have done more strategic harm to
U.S. interests than the loss of a major battle, and supplied more
"reinforcements" to the enemy than they could have gotten from a whole
division of new troops.
It is not in the U.S. national interest to resupply the enemy's forces;
THAT is why the actions in the prisons were so harmful.
------------------------------------------------------------------
To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
Other related posts:
