Opinion: "SHAMnesty " ("Torture is a standard feature of war" she says)

[Bluebear]

By Melana Zyla Vickers, a former member of the USA Today editorial board

.....Naturally, the Bush administration is berating the organization for such a ridiculous comparison. After all, Guantanamo Bay's guards are under the microscope of human-rights lawyers all the time. The inmates are fairly treated. The guard-throws-Koran-in-toilet story was false. And claims that the inmates' detention oversteps the boundaries of international law have been responded to at the highest levels. Besides, the 500-600 Guantanamo detainees wouldn't be there if Al Qaeda hadn't killed 2,948 Americans and others on Sept 11, 2001.....Which is why it's partly up to the U.S. public to keep some perspective on the torture and abuse issue.

First and foremost, torture, abuse, killing, good guys running amok, these are all standard features of war. They occurred in the past and will again in the future. "War is cruelty," Civil War Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman said, and its cruelty is part of the reason the U.S. tries to avoid going to war in the first place. But of course, we are at war.

Second, human-rights watchdogs and lawyers are a veritable cottage industry these days. Whatever the international conflict, there is always a group of them around, wringing their hands, making their names known to newspapers, and pointing out, as if for the first time, that war is hell (another Sherman quotation). They're often well-meaning. But they may be getting wagged by the Al Qaeda training handbook without even knowing - or refusing to believe - it could be so.

Third, it's essential to know the messenger. In this case, Amnesty, the hand-wringer of the week, is no friend of American foreign policy. The group, whose roots lie with early 20th century leftists both here and in Britain, has always bent over backwards to make the capitalist U.S. look bad. Consider that the "Americas Regional Overview" in this 2005 annual report goes on at length about the U.S. and its detention camp, the U.S. and its horrible friend the government of Colombia, the U.S. and its evil counter-narcotics efforts in the region, yet makes not one mention of communist Fidel Castro's abominations in Cuba. Also, the report bends over backwards to blame the human-rights abuses of the quasi-communist Venezuelan government on those trying to unseat President Hugo Chavez....

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[LiberalVoice]

1. Why even post this idiotic propaganda?

I mean she is lying so why bother with it.

[Bluebear]

3. "Why even post this idiotic propaganda?"

You should know that this young lady believes it is alright to torture in the name of war. She believes that 9/11 excuses anything our country does. She is not "lying", those are her feelings.

You have to recognize the ill in our society, not ignore it. She speaks for a while bunch of goose stepping Bush youth.

[LiberalVoice]

4. I guess you're right...

I just reacted too quickly...sorry

[Bluebear]

6. Don't sweat it

I guess I read shit like this and wonder what country I am living in anymore.

:toast:

[librechik]

2. hey, beeyatch! The Koran in the toilet story was NOT FALSE

in fact just about everything you said there STANK of revisionism.

so stop spewing your ignorant lies. Get a clue and stop drinling the koolaid.

[booley]

5. And this is how cons rationalize

we are at war, So everything WE do during the war is justified.

OF course, everything the enemy does during the war is UNJUSTIFIED and an OUTRAGE.

and those outrages of the enemy justify whatever atrocities "we' commit.

Thus War and it's crimes become thier own justification.

Perfect curcular reasoning, I beleive.

Of course, if anything is justifed during war,then why not load iraqis on trains to got death camps? Why not Nuke the Middle east , killing Billions?

Once you get into playing this game it soon becomes evident that there is absolutly NOTHING that cannot be justified, no matter row horrible.

Gods have mercy on us all.

[MisterP]

10. they attacked us!

who?
all browner people!

[DBoon]

7. If someone in her family were tortured

I imagine she might change her views a bit

[90-percent]

9. nuke middle east

I think the neocons are seriously contemplating using tactical mini-nukes.

Torture and nuclear weapons, whats more American than that?

-85%

[smoogatz]

8. Amnesty and Cuba

Here's a link to their website summary of Cuba's current human rights situation. There's no whitewash here. http://web.amnesty.org/report2005/cub-summary-eng

Also, Ms. Vickers fails to understand that as a self-proclaimed beacon of democracy and freedom around the world, it's reasonable to expect that the US might be held to a somewhat higher standard than dictatorships like Cuba, or our allies like Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Uzbekistan, where torture is commonplace. Ms. Vickers attacks the messenger without addressing the message--except to say that war is hell and torture happens. Some city on the hill we turned out to be. Some of us expect more from our government.