Iraqi Abuses "College Pranks"?
I recently heard a radio commentator describe the Iraqi abuses as little more than "college pranks" and noticed similar sentiments in online articles.
If I saw pictures of Americans being similarly abused, I would be livid. Wouldn't you? The fact that these are our enemies does not change the offensiveness of the abuses ... except to jingoists.
Compared to Nazi war crimes and Vietnamese tortures, these ARE tame images. They are still patently wrong. I was raised to believe (although it seems so naive today) that Americans are only "better than" other nationals in as much as that we see all people as being created equal, and as a "free and democratic" people we insist on fair and equal treatment.
The degradation of the Iraqis was personally immoral, tactically foolish and strategically counter-productive.
And what's acceptable about degrading college pranks, anyway?
If I saw pictures of Americans being similarly abused, I would be livid. Wouldn't you? The fact that these are our enemies does not change the offensiveness of the abuses ... except to jingoists.
Compared to Nazi war crimes and Vietnamese tortures, these ARE tame images. They are still patently wrong. I was raised to believe (although it seems so naive today) that Americans are only "better than" other nationals in as much as that we see all people as being created equal, and as a "free and democratic" people we insist on fair and equal treatment.
The degradation of the Iraqis was personally immoral, tactically foolish and strategically counter-productive.
And what's acceptable about degrading college pranks, anyway?
posted by Author | 8:27 PM
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