Headlines and Their Implications
[I have spent the morning commenting on this and that and reading the headlines from here and there. One then sits back and thinks of the wider implications. From the reports below one learns:
1) that the U.S. has incarcerated thousands of Iraqi and apparently abused a good number of those along the lines of Abu Ghraib. One also learns that a smart Iraqi with the wherewithal to depart from Iraq -- particularly Sunnis -- are getting out of there as fast as they can. Why? The short term answer is that Iraq is one of the more dangerous places to be living at this time with a brutal religious war being waged. The longer term answer is that when the U.S. finally departs it will have left behind a Shia dominated government bent of revenge for the many years of persecution Shias suffered under Saddam Hussein -- and revenge is not a nice business over there -- no simple execution in many cases, but brutal killing with a stretch of torture thrown in and perhaps an eyewitness observation of the brutal deaths of one's family members?
Jailed 2 Years, Iraqi Tells of Abuse by Americans
By MICHAEL MOSS and SOUAD MEKHENNET
A former detainee said U.S. guards casually used stun guns
and exposed prisoners to periods of heat and cold.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/18/world/middleeast/18bucca.html?th&emc=th
................................
2) that the U.S. and Israel are going to go it alone in denying recognition to the democratically elected Palestinian government. I don't think the lesson will be lost on the rest of the Middle East and elsewhere that democracy is not exactly what Bush and Co. really had in mind when they set out to destabilize the region. Presumably the allies of the U.S. will be making up for our economic boycotts of Sunnis -- both in Iraq and Palestine?
* US and Israel agree boycott plan *
The US and Israel will shun a Palestinian unity government unless it recognises Israel, Ehud Olmert says.
Full story:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/-/1/hi/world/middle_east/6372633.stm
................................
I shall be curious to see whether these implication are spelled out anywhere in our media. Probably not. Figure that Americans will not notice the discrepancies?
Ed Kent]
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 718-951-5324 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
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1) that the U.S. has incarcerated thousands of Iraqi and apparently abused a good number of those along the lines of Abu Ghraib. One also learns that a smart Iraqi with the wherewithal to depart from Iraq -- particularly Sunnis -- are getting out of there as fast as they can. Why? The short term answer is that Iraq is one of the more dangerous places to be living at this time with a brutal religious war being waged. The longer term answer is that when the U.S. finally departs it will have left behind a Shia dominated government bent of revenge for the many years of persecution Shias suffered under Saddam Hussein -- and revenge is not a nice business over there -- no simple execution in many cases, but brutal killing with a stretch of torture thrown in and perhaps an eyewitness observation of the brutal deaths of one's family members?
Jailed 2 Years, Iraqi Tells of Abuse by Americans
By MICHAEL MOSS and SOUAD MEKHENNET
A former detainee said U.S. guards casually used stun guns
and exposed prisoners to periods of heat and cold.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/18/world/middleeast/18bucca.html?th&emc=th
................................
2) that the U.S. and Israel are going to go it alone in denying recognition to the democratically elected Palestinian government. I don't think the lesson will be lost on the rest of the Middle East and elsewhere that democracy is not exactly what Bush and Co. really had in mind when they set out to destabilize the region. Presumably the allies of the U.S. will be making up for our economic boycotts of Sunnis -- both in Iraq and Palestine?
* US and Israel agree boycott plan *
The US and Israel will shun a Palestinian unity government unless it recognises Israel, Ehud Olmert says.
Full story:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/-/1/hi/world/middle_east/6372633.stm
................................
I shall be curious to see whether these implication are spelled out anywhere in our media. Probably not. Figure that Americans will not notice the discrepancies?
Ed Kent]
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
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://groups.yahoo.com/group/AcademicFreedom
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PrivacyRights
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Israel_Palestine
http://BlogByEdKent.blogspot.com/
http://www.bloggernews.net
posted by Ed Kent at 8:45 AM
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