Pinter: We have brought torture and misery in the name of freedom

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

The great poet Wilfred Owen articulated the tragedy, the horror - and indeed the pity - of war in a way no other poet has. Yet we have learnt nothing. Nearly 100 years after his death the world has become more savage, more brutal, more pitiless.

But the "free world" we are told, as embodied in the United States and Great Britain, is different to the rest of the world since our actions are dictated and sanctioned by a moral authority and a moral passion condoned by someone called God. Some people may find this difficult to comprehend but Osama Bin Laden finds it easy.

What would Wilfred Owen make of the invasion of Iraq? A bandit act, an act of blatant state terrorism, demonstrating absolute contempt for the concept of International Law. An arbitrary military action inspired by a series of lies upon lies and gross manipulation of the media and therefore of the public. An act intended to consolidate American military and economic control of the Middle East masquerading - as a last resort (all other justifications having failed to justify themselves) - as liberation. A formidable assertion of military force responsible for the death and mutilation of thousands upon thousands of innocent people.

An independent and totally objective account of the Iraqi civilian dead in the medical magazine The Lancet estimates that the figure approaches 100,000. But neither the US or the UK bother to count the Iraqi dead. As General Tommy Franks of US Central Command memorably said: "We don't do body counts".

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/article319540.ece

A link to some of his war poems:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5050820

[Inland]

1. "We don't do body counts."

"We'll kill them, but we won't count them afterwards. The number isn't important to us, and no sense pretending like it matters if it's a thousand vs. a hundred thousand."

[IndianaGreen]

2. Excellent essay by the new Nobel Laureate in literature

What do Bush and Blair actually see when they look at themselves in the mirror?

I believe Wilfred Owen would share our contempt, our revulsion, our nausea and our shame at both the language and the actions of the American and British governments.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/article319540.ece

[cassiepriam]

3. No No, in the name of OIL. Freedom had nada to do with it .