Look in a mirror
The bodies of the two missing GIs, Pfc. Thomas L. Tucker and Pfc. Kristian Menchaca have been recovered in Iraq. Initial reports from the Iraqi government suggest that they were brutally tortured before their untimely death. This is terribly sad news and my deepest sympathies go out to their families and friends.
Americans are outraged over this savage treatment as well they should be. I certainly am. However, I'm not surprised and I don't think we have much right to throw stones. Should we hold our enemies to a higher standard than we maintain ourselves? Can we, in good conscience, expect them to treat our soldiers well while we continue to use torture? Seems a bit hypocritical to me. I'm outraged alright... outraged at these barbaric insurgents AND outraged at our own policies. Torture is wrong no matter who is doing it.
posted by Aaron at 6/20/2006 04:06:00 PM
3 Comments:
You know what, I don't think it's possible for me to disagree with this post anymore then I do right now.
Can we, in good conscience, expect them to treat our soldiers well while we continue to use torture?
When torture is used by our military there are trials and consequences for each and every person involved in those activities. Does it happen? Yes. Are steps being done to correct those actions? Yes. When you fall into American custody, you are given a lawyer and a fair trail. When one of our boys fall into insurgent hands, it's a death sentence. Usually a very painful one. It is not fair to condemn our military by the actions of a few. I am thoroughly disgusted by the media's portrayal of this war and in general. They are held under a microscope by journalists just looking for something to go wrong. They are being shot at every single day and living in deplorable conditions. Until you are under those same circumstances you have no idea how you would handle the everyday pressure that they feel just trying to keep their lives. And to say, after the brutal death of these two young men, " I'm not surprised and I don't think we have much right to throw stones." You better believe we have the right to throw stones. You may not agree with the war, someone else might think it's a bad idea, but I would never under any circumstance compare one side with the other. Or in anyway try to justify the actions of the insurgents as you just did.
11:29 AM
I NEVER justified the actions of the insurgents! I condemned both sides. I think I was pretty clear in stating that BOTH sides are wrong.
You say that there are consequences for U.S military being involved in torture. Maybe you are referring to the mistreatment at Abu Grab. I hesitate to call that torture but it was inappropriate and it is being dealt with. However, this is not what I'm talking about.
There have been several documented cases of prisoners winding up dead and showing signs of torture. The medical examiner's report gets edited or buried and the M.E. reassigned. No charges are ever filed. We continue the practice of extraordinary rendition to countries like Uzbekistan where they have been known to boil prisoners alive. Bush signed a torture ban into law but included a signing statement amending the law so that he reserves the right to order torture when he feels it is in the interest of national security. We have used intel gathered through torture by other countries that we handed the prisoners over too. Rumsfeld and other top officials have defended the use of torture. I have not seen any trials involving torture (other than Abu Grab) and our administration clearly has not given up the right to use it.
You say "When you fall into American custody, you are given a lawyer and a fair trail.". We have had prisoners at Guantanamo Bay (including American citizens) that have been in custody for YEARS without even having charges filed much less a trial and without access to an attorney. It wasn't until recently that a partial list of names was released revealing who these prisoners are. Their families sometimes didn't even know where they had been.
I would tend to argue the other way about the media but I won't bother. Regardless of which way they slant, they have a valuable purpose. The government has been less than forthcoming (not just in this administration to be fair) and it is up to the media to keep the public informed. In this country, the government answers to the people, not the other way around. The media is one of our most indispensable tools of oversight. Somebody has to do the digging because the average Joe wont.
12:43 PM
One more thing in case I didn't make it clear enough. I am not comparing the U.S. military to Iraqi insurgents. They are clearly evil doers and, if not for them, we would be out of Iraq by now and many good American soldiers would be coming home alive instead of in coffins.
My only point is, as long as we use torture, we can not expect the rest of the world to not use it. We must lead by example and we are not setting a good example.
12:57 PM
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