[lit-ideas] Re: The torture graph
- From: "Lawrence Helm" <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 6 Apr 2006 20:57:16 -0700
In the old days we used to fight our enemies and not our own troops. This
focus upon holding our own forces to a higher standard than our enemies
seems all wrong to me. If we were playing baseball and had to get 100 runs
while our opponents only had to get 2, we would recognize the inequity and
squawk. But we have forgotten how to fight, a fact well-known and
well-publicized by our Islamist enemies. No guts, no willingness to fight,
too timid by far, Osama says. And true to his assessment we anguish over
the fact that we are human, that a small percentage (as occurs in every
fighting force) is going to misbehave. We say never mind about the enemy,
what about those of us who misbehave? We say never mind about the people
trying to blow us up, what about the use of excessive force in trying to
find out whom our enemy is.
In the meantime, the enemy continues to blow up innocent people. They
especially like to do that, and we say nothing in the way of criticism, but
that's okay I guess, they are saying nothing even louder in Europe!
Lawrence
-----Original Message-----
From: lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Robert Paul
Sent: Thursday, April 06, 2006 8:18 PM
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [lit-ideas] The torture graph
Lawrence wrote:
> If you put all the world's torture of the past ten years into a graph,
> what do you think it would look like? Wouldn't that graph look largely
> Muslim green? Of course it would. Now look at that little sliver of
> non-green down there. That's the combined torture committed by the
> British and American forces combined. Why is it that so many
> Lit-Idears want to talk about that tiny sliver and not about the rest of
> the graph?
Never mind that no evidence is offered to support the greening of the
graph: I'm concerned about (although I don't particularly want to talk
about it here) what's done by US (and British) forces because I'm a US
citizen who cares what his government does, ostensibly in his name, and
I'm dismayed and concerned by the lack of accountability my government
has shown and by the secrecy that it invokes when questioned about what
it's up to. I don't have a voice in 'Muslim' affairs. I'm supposed to
have one in virtue of my citizenship (not to mention my age).
Robert Paul
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