"Feared, but Not Hated!"
- BOOK REVIEW -
Atrocities in Plain Sight
Andrew Sullivan says two new books on the prisoner abuse in Iraq "are almost numbingly exhaustive in their cataloging of specific mistakes, incidents and responsibilities."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/13/books/review/books-sullivan.html?th
................................
One of the assignments that I give to my introductory philosophy classes as a lead into explorations of contemporary moral theories is to read Machiavelli's The Prince and deliberate (with some selected contemporary world event in mind as an example) whether his suggestion that for rulers, the ends justify the means, is a valid claim.
Iraq this past fall was my students' primary example and they immediately saw that the U.S. was violating a number of Machiavelli's prime directives:
1) Only undertake a war if there is no other alternative per his Livy citation in my signature below.
2) Don't send troops to occupy a conquered nation -- they will resent your occupation and resist.
3) Use fear to intimidate, but don't become hated.
and a number of others relating to the qualities of various kinds of armies (mercenaries being particularly undependable when the going gets rough, etc., etc.)
Needless to say we have ended up in an horrendous mess in Iraq which more attention to Machiavelli's apparently eternal verities about carrying out wars would have averted. And the disastrous precedents being set by our criminal war crew in Washington will be around to haunt us for generations to come.
I recommend reading through Andrew Sullivan's review cited above, which pretty well covers the ground now exposed, leading to our tortures here, there, and elsewhere -- emblematic, I would add, of the dark side of modern America which has become accustomed to brutality at home (those 2.2 million incarcerated with guards who simply transferred our domestic prison practices overseas and the 3,000+ on our death rows).
What is sadly forgotten and/or denied by this unholy crew is that the psychic costs of torture are all too often a 'life sentence' of post traumatic stress which will impact upon many of our own troops as well as virtually all Iraqi children whom we are so maiming today, tomorrow, and the next day -- death squads now being ordered up? I hope not!!!!!!!!
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/letters/articles/2005/01/13/a_return_to_death_squads/
Only in Bush's Amerika must one ponder what next?!
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort
to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy)
--
Ed Kent 718-951-5324 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CollegeConversation
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PeaceEfforts
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EndingPoverty
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/440neighborhood
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/StudentConcerns
http://BlogByEdKent.blogspot.com/
Atrocities in Plain Sight
Andrew Sullivan says two new books on the prisoner abuse in Iraq "are almost numbingly exhaustive in their cataloging of specific mistakes, incidents and responsibilities."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/13/books/review/books-sullivan.html?th
................................
One of the assignments that I give to my introductory philosophy classes as a lead into explorations of contemporary moral theories is to read Machiavelli's The Prince and deliberate (with some selected contemporary world event in mind as an example) whether his suggestion that for rulers, the ends justify the means, is a valid claim.
Iraq this past fall was my students' primary example and they immediately saw that the U.S. was violating a number of Machiavelli's prime directives:
1) Only undertake a war if there is no other alternative per his Livy citation in my signature below.
2) Don't send troops to occupy a conquered nation -- they will resent your occupation and resist.
3) Use fear to intimidate, but don't become hated.
and a number of others relating to the qualities of various kinds of armies (mercenaries being particularly undependable when the going gets rough, etc., etc.)
Needless to say we have ended up in an horrendous mess in Iraq which more attention to Machiavelli's apparently eternal verities about carrying out wars would have averted. And the disastrous precedents being set by our criminal war crew in Washington will be around to haunt us for generations to come.
I recommend reading through Andrew Sullivan's review cited above, which pretty well covers the ground now exposed, leading to our tortures here, there, and elsewhere -- emblematic, I would add, of the dark side of modern America which has become accustomed to brutality at home (those 2.2 million incarcerated with guards who simply transferred our domestic prison practices overseas and the 3,000+ on our death rows).
What is sadly forgotten and/or denied by this unholy crew is that the psychic costs of torture are all too often a 'life sentence' of post traumatic stress which will impact upon many of our own troops as well as virtually all Iraqi children whom we are so maiming today, tomorrow, and the next day -- death squads now being ordered up? I hope not!!!!!!!!
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/letters/articles/2005/01/13/a_return_to_death_squads/
Only in Bush's Amerika must one ponder what next?!
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort
to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy)
--
Ed Kent 718-951-5324 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CollegeConversation
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PeaceEfforts
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EndingPoverty
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/440neighborhood
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/StudentConcerns
http://BlogByEdKent.blogspot.com/
posted by Ed Kent at 11:07 AM
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