Guantanamo Reunion: He reached out on Facebook to apologize

[struggle4progress]

When they last met they were on different sides of a cage door at the world's most notorious prison. Now a former guard at Guantanamo Bay has reunited with two of his former prisoners from Britain after he contacted them on Facebook.

Former guard Brandon Neely wanted to get back in touch with Shafiq Rasul and Ruhal Ahmed to apologize for his part in their imprisonment. The three then agreed to meet each other again for a BBC documentary ...

http://www.thetakeaway.org/2010/jan/12/former-guantanamo-guard-reunites-detainees/

[knowbody0]

1. what a lovely bridge toward sanity

[NYC_SKP]

2. kick and rec.. nt

[Control-Z]

3. k&r n/t

[90-percent]

4. Hermann Goering quote

It's a familiar quote to us here at the DU, but it illustrates my point. (Other than the mass genocide and war crimes, I think Hermann was a pretty cool guy.)

"Naturally the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.”

All of us average people just trying to get along with life tend to get along well. It's when the leaders of our countries get a bug up their ass for some form of conflict that we fight people we might otherwise get along with just fine.

Like, I've never run in to a Vietnamese person that I didn't like, but my government killed over a million of 'em for reasons that remain dubious.

This is a wonderful story and speaks to the nobility, graciousness and forgiveness of the average person. It's too bad the nature of big institutions disproportionally attracts sociopaths to run them. The sense of decency and fairness of the average person precludes them from moving up to the top of most organizations.

-90% Jimmy