Response to DVD review...I'm sure Marky Mark would agree with this reader.
Here's a letter I received this week from Pat Henry in East Longmeadow about the review I wrote of "The Ghosts of Abu Graib":
"The Reminder described this documentary as 'chilling' and 'disturbing.' It then gratuitously offered the observation that 'most people watching this film [would] question the basic foundations of the conflict itself.' I don' t know how the reviewer could make any connection between a POW camp incident and a UN-sanctioned military action. In English class we call this a non sequitur.
"What I found more chilling and disturbing than forcing captives to wear women's underpants over their heads or be threatened by leashed police dogs, was seeing men being drilled in the knee or the head by an electric drill, having an eye gouged out, having a throat slit on TV with a long knife, men forced to watch their daughters raped in front of them, and burned U.S. soldiers hanging from a bridge. That's what the enemy is doing, and televising, and bragging about every day, while we hash over granting Geneva Convention rights to them. Please give us a break and send reviews like this to the Valley Advocate where they belong."
The reason I thought this film was "chilling" was that I was raised believing we are the good guys. Our military personnel, though, are not perfect and in the heat and chaos of war some have indeed committed terrible acts of violence.
Because of my up bringing I saw these incidents as tragic reminders of the costs of war the destruction of morals and ethics, the erosion of standards. I saw these as I'm sure many Americans did as isolated and not institutionalized incidents.
That's why Abu Graib stood out as such a black spot on our military. We are supposed to be the liberators in Iraq. We operate on a higher moral plane than the terrorists who have committed atrocities. And yet people in command positions made decisions to take a much lower road for the first time in modern U.S. history.
We diminished ourselves by taking actions we had never taken before. Doesn't that mean anything?
Abu Graib was a prison operation, not a POW camp. We were detaining massive groups of people in the hopes of capturing terrorists, but innocent people were hurt. How did that help our cause?
The photos from the Abu Graib inflamed the Middle East even more, hurting our war effort even more.
That's why it was chilling and tragic to me at least.
© 2007 by Gordon Michael Dobbs
8 comments:
Indeed, the tit-for-tat mentality of such responses meshes in a curious way with the similar attempts to link the current US lunacy and foreign policies with WW2. What, we should have emulated the Holocaust, Bataan? Behaved in the same way because 'they' were doing it?
This is contemptible logic, and frighteningly pervasive among too many Americans. We're no longer 'the good guys' in any definition of the term.
We do not behave like them. We are good guys in many definitions of the term. I'll tell you what's contemptible and frighteningly pervasive among too many Americans - handwringing.
Heh heh - you said "tit"!
Caution: the following post may handwringing whatever the hell that is:
Mark...what do you propose we do? What are you doing? Granted I only publish news – a surprising chunk about the war and local people – so does that make me a handwringer? Yes or no.
Let be frickin clear... the American military is an institution does not torture people. Do you agree with this historical fact or not? Yes or no.
The unit serving at the prison did not have any experience as correctional officers... yes or no.
By torturing people we lower ourselves...right or wrong?
What have we gained through torture? Have we won the conflict? Are we seen as the force with a higher moral ground? Yes or no.
The president and vice presient should be impeached. We need to get out of Iraq. We need to hunt down Osama and make him pay, if he's still alive. Concerned about security? Let's stiffen our borders, punish the companies that exploit illegal labor (many contributors to the Republicans there), come to grips with the millions of illegals here (that's a security issues among other things) .
Your turn.
Caution: the following post may handwringing whatever the hell that is:
Handwringing: An excessive expression of distress
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Mark...what do you propose we do?
Chill out and look at things rationally and with perspective.
What are you doing?
Admitting I am not morally superior.
Granted I only publish news – a surprising chunk about the war and local people – so does that make me a handwringer?
Well first of all, why grant you "only" publish news? You don the cloak of persecution too easily. You imply that I'm discounting your expertise. I'm sorry, I forgot the question.
Let be frickin clear... the American military is an institution does not torture people. Do you agree with this historical fact or not? Yes or no.
I'm not sure if that's a frickin clear historical fact.
This says you are wrong:
http://hnn.us/roundup/entries/32869.html
But another "fact" may say you are right. I'm not a qualified historian.
The unit serving at the prison did not have any experience as correctional officers... yes or no.
They probably did not - right? Is that why you are asking? I bow to your newsgathering skills on that one.
By torturing people we lower ourselves...right or wrong?
Depends who we torture and in what way. To make it a black and white question is like saying "abortion is wrong, period".
What have we gained through torture?
I am inclined to think that SOME info has been gathered via torture in the history of war.
Have we won the conflict?
Not yet.
Are we seen as the force with a higher moral ground?
Well duh! We are not Muslim, so we can never be seen as morally superior by the extremists. As far as the world at large is concerned, the U.N. etc - they're a buncha hypocrites. Except Prague and Australia. They think we rock! Who are you asking about? Who do you want to be seen by as a higher moral force?
The president and vice presient should be impeached. We need to get out of Iraq. We need to hunt down Osama and make him pay, if he's still alive. Concerned about security? Let's stiffen our borders, punish the companies that exploit illegal labor (many contributors to the Republicans there), come to grips with the millions of illegals here (that's a security issues among other things) .
I agree with most of that.
Fuck it, I'm going to see Hostel 2 and sign up.
Please take your comments to the Valley Advocate where they belong!
Mighty Mark, Little Tyrant!
We should always become exactly like our enemy. That way, it doesn't matter who wins. Now, let's go shopping!
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