US SOLDIERS KILLED IN EXPLOSION IN IRAQI WAR : THE NEW QUAGMIRE
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LEVEES BREACHED IN NEW ORLEANS AFTER HURRICANE RITA
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IRAQI CIVILIAN INJURED IN WAR
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NEW ORLEANS FRIDAY SEPT.23/05: A NATION IN DISTRESS ???
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USA S.O.S.
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BRINGING HOME THE DEAD FROM IRAQ
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' Ambrose Bierce, in his entry under Patriotism in his Devil's Dictionary (1881-1906), wrote: "In Dr. Johnson's famous dictionary patriotism is defined as the last resort of a scoundrel. With all due respect to an enlightened but inferior lexicographer I beg to submit that it is the first." ' Qoute from The USA PATRIOT Act and American Libraries
by Robin Rice.
And so time for another bit of ranting of my own .
Anyway the above quote does seem apt in the case of George W. Bush & his cronies & the Religious Right as they move ahead with their plans for an Authoritarian Theocracy run for the most part by an elite of the most wealthy of American society though some might argue this would not be much of a change since the USA has always operated in this way. Though I would argue that at times America seemed to be on the verge of being a just & fair nation but these times have rarely lasted very long.
On Saturday in Washington there was a large demonstration by those who are against the American War in Iraq. 100,000 people took part in the demonstration. The American media barely mentioned the event though they gave equal time to groups demonstrating today in Washinton who support the war their numbers were less than a thousand. The war is no longer supported by a majority of Americans as the death toll of US troops rise & the violence in Iraq continues on a daily basis & Iraq begins to seem more & more like the Quagmire Vietnam became.
Revelations of more abuse by American soldiers of Prisoners leads to more questions about the morality & justication for the war. There were no Weapons of Mass Destruction & no connection between Sadam Hussein & Al Qeda & the United States was no in imminent risk from Sadam Husein & the people of Iraq. The War on Terror has not been won nor is it any nearer to being won . The beatings & torture of suspected terrorist if anything undermines the High Ground which the USA & President Bush had immediately following 9/11. To fight terror with terror leads the world down the road of endless conflict. The abuse of prisoners by American forces in the end only helps Al Qeda & other terrorist groups in their characterization of the United States & other countries in the west as being immoral & as being enemies of Islam . American unfortunately lack any cultural sensitivity towards cultures & religions different from their own. When the Religious Right characterizes Islam as a Religion that preaches war & intolerance they merely fuel the suspicions of many Muslims who already question the aims & ultimate agenda Of George W. Bush & his administration.
As I have discussed in previous posts the History of the United States is not without its own dark side from Slavery to Lynchings to the Jim Crow laws of American Apartheid which lasted in legal terms into the 1970s . McCarthyism & the abuses over the decades by the FBI under J. Edgar Hoover & the interference in democratic sovereign nations by the CIA & its dirty wars in countries like Chile , Gautemala , Honduras, El Salvadore & Nicaragua amongst others. The Us has had a History of supporting Brutal Dictators & authoritarian military governments as in the Phillipines, Iran & South Africa & Indonesia & many others. To American Presidents & their administrations whether Republican or Democrat have believed that there is no ethical problem in supporting such brutal regimes which terrorize their own people as long as these foreign governments support American interest. On the one hand they condemn a country like the Soviet Union for its violations of citizens civil rights & yet supports & helps to train or advise death squads operating in countries who are their friends.
The United States has shown in its actions a complete disregard for the Geneva Convention & other treaties on international law & the International Court & the United Nations General Assembly which they merely see as institutions which they use for their own benefit to promote America's goals abroad & the goals of its large interlocking corporations .
And here are some excerpts from the article based on the report of Human Rights Watch on the latest accusations made by US soldiers who served as guards for the POWs or detainees accused of being Terrorists as revealed in the Washinton Post .
New Reports Surface About Detainee Abuse/Mistreatment Was Routine, Soldiers Say
By Josh White/Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 24, 2005
Washington post
The residents of Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad, nicknamed soldiers at the nearby base "the Murderous Maniacs," New York-based Human Rights Watch said. "The soldiers considered this name a badge of honor."
It said soldiers in the elite 82nd Airborne deprived detainees of sleep, food and water, subjected them to extreme heat and cold, stacked prisoners in human pyramids, kicked them in the face, and put chemicals on exposed skin and eyes.
One of the sergeants allegedly told the group that military intelligence personnel, eager for information, often instructed soldiers to "smoke" detainees _ called Persons Under Control or PUCs _ during questioning, the report said. "Smoking" prisoners meant physically abusing them until they lost consciousness.
"Everyone in camp knew if you wanted to work out your frustration you show up at the PUC tent. In a way it was sport," he reportedly said.
"One day (another sergeant) shows up and tells a PUC to grab a pole. He told him to bend over and broke the guy's leg with a mini-Louisville Slugger, a metal bat."
The soldier said anything short of death was acceptable.
"As long as no PUCs came up dead, it happened," he said. "We kept it to broken arms and legs."
The timing of some of the alleged tortures coincided with the prisoner abuse by American forces at Abu Ghraib near Baghdad in fall of 2003.
"These soldiers' firsthand accounts provide further evidence contradicting claims that abuse of detainees by U.S. forces was isolated or spontaneous," the report said. "The accounts here suggest that the mistreatment of prisoners by the U.S. military is even more widespread than has been acknowledged to date, including among troops belonging to some of the best trained, most decorated, and highly respected units in the U.S. Army."
The soldiers quoted in the report expressed much confusion about what types of treatment were allowed under the Geneva Conventions, which bar mistreatment of prisoners of war or civilian detainees. They said senior officers provided little guidance.
Human Rights Watch harshly criticized the U.S. military in its report, saying it has launched investigations and prosecutions of lower-ranking personnel for detainee abuse. But in most cases, the military used closed administrative hearings where they handed down light administrative punishments such as pay reductions and reprimands, instead of criminal prosecutions before courts-martial.
"The military has made no effort to conduct a broader criminal investigation focusing on how military command might have been involved in reported abuse, and the administration continues to insist that reported abuse had nothing to do with the administration's decisions on the applicability of the Geneva Conventions or with any approved interrogation techniques," it said.
Some of the photos showed naked prisoners stacked in human pyramids or on dog leashes. The Pentagon has characterized it as acts of bored military police working the overnight shift.
see: http://www.washingtonpost.com
and : http://hrw.org/
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH-DEFENDING HUMAN RIGHTS WORLWIDE
SEPT. 22-24, 2005
and Human Rights Watch article on prisoners in a jail in New Orleans who were left in locked cells for days without food & water as the flood waters were rising drowning an unknown numder prisoners.
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
(New York, September 22, 2005)
New Orleans: Prisoners Abandoned to Floodwaters
Officers Deserted a Jail Building, Leaving Inmates Locked in Cells
Americans Against World Empire, Americans Against Bombing
www.againstbombing.org/
Support of DICTATORS & Terrorists
Politics - USA. Support of DICTATORS & Terrorists. German · Our Links ...
Ronald Reagan and Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz meet at the White House 11/84 ...
www.betterworldlinks.org
History of US Interventions
US foreign relations · US and International bodies and treaties ... for this site
is slightly different to that of its original site (www.bevin.de/usa). ...
www.cooperativeresearch.org/
AlterNet: Bush's Pat Robertson Problem
American foreign policy almost always supports the Dictator over any people’s party
... RE: USA for Dictators. Screw the people. Posted by: Skipper ...
www.alternet.org/story/24747/
Anyway that's it for now,
GORD
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