BEHIND OUR BACKS REVISITED
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I had to start a new post to add the unbelievable well written articles that I am coming across, on the same
subject as my previous post "BEHIND OUR BACKS, ON THE ROAD TO BARBARISM".
This next read is from Maureen Dowd. She is by far, one talented writer and she happens to be on our side.
Please read her "TEACHING REMEDIAL DECENCY" It is absolutely heart wrenching. WHEN WILL IT END?
FOR CHRIST'S SAKE, BRING THEM HOME NOW! thinkingblue
Teaching Remedial Decency
By MAUREEN DOWD
Before the war, America railed against the Iraqi leader for slaughtering
innocent Iraqis. Now the Iraqi leader is railing against America for
slaughtering innocent Iraqis.
Iraq is blustering about sending away American troops to make life
better for Iraqis, after American troops were sent in to make life
better for Iraqis.
With fury swirling over the Haditha massacre and the shooting on
Wednesday of two women, one of whom might have been pregnant and on the
way to a hospital, Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki laced into the
American military, accusing it of regular attacks on civilians that were
"completely unacceptable" and pledging his own inquiry on Haditha.
"They crush them with their vehicles and kill them just on suspicion,"
he said, adding that some in the military "do not respect the Iraqi
people," and that assaults on unarmed civilians will help determine how
long American troops are welcome in Iraq.
Bold talk from a tenuous government dependent on U.S. forces to prop it
up during a sectarian bloodfest.
It's a bitter irony. And not even a terribly illuminating irony, since
Saddam truly had a regime of butchery and the American military is not
in the business of atrocity, even if an undeniable atrocity was
committed and even if the war has become something of an atrocity.
"It's one of those things where we have become the enemy," John Murtha
said ruefully on CNN.
American troops are under spectacular emotional pressure. They go out
every day, not knowing Arabic, not understanding the culture, not
knowing who the insurgents are, not knowing when they can go home or
which of their buddies will be blown up before their eyes by an unseen
enemy.
The troops were not trained for a counterinsurgency, because Bush hawks
ignored the intelligence reports that predicted an insurgency and civil
war. These kids were turned into sitting ducks because the neocon con to
sell the war needed a gauzy prediction of Iraqi gratitude and a quick
exit.
It is admirable that the Marine commanders want to morally sensitize the
troops while they are in such a hostile environment, but it also seems a
bit absurd, sending them to summer school in "core values."
There's no way to teach someone not to shoot an unarmed woman or child.
If somebody doesn't already know why they shouldn't murder a baby, it's
not clear that a refresher course will help.
The problem with brushing up on core values is that if you don't know
them by a certain point you can't learn them. You can't teach remedial
decency, any more than you can teach remedial ethics to White House
officials who vindictively leak information about critics of the war
after vowing not to leak.
As Norman Schwarzkopf said, in a quote that is part of the military's
slide show on core warrior values: "The truth of the matter is that you
always know the right thing to do. The hard part is doing it."
From Reverend Dimmesdale to Bill Bennett to President Bush, people who
righteously preach values and aspire to be moral exemplars often get
bitten in the end.
The world is now looking askance at American values, even though W. ran
on a platform of restoring values to the Oval Office and was propelled
to victory by "values voters."
Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld engineered the invasion of Iraq in part
to revive what they saw as lost American values. They wanted to stiffen
the squishiness about using force left over from Vietnam and the moral
ambivalence left over from the do-what-feels-good 60's.
In their worry about a spineless America, they made America all spine —
overly vertebrate. They started thinking with their spine.
They wanted everyone to be afraid of us, and now nobody's afraid.
Certainly not the nutty president of Iran, whom the administration is
forced to kowtow to, now that the American military is not a fearsome
force in potentia, but a depleted, demoralized and disparaged force
trapped in Iraq trying to police a civil war.
The invasion that was supposed to help terrorism has made it worse. The
invasion that was supposed to make America more feared and beloved has
made us more hated. The invasion that was supposed to banish
post-Vietnam syndrome has revived it.
The virtuecrats of the right thought they would demonstrate American
virtue to the world as they imposed American democracy. But now, with
murder charges expected against some marines, and a cover-up
investigation under way, the values president is running a war that
requires a refresher course on values. A bitter irony.
CLICK HER TO GO BACK TO "BEHIND OUR BACKS" ONE
THE IMPEACHMENT OF GEORGE W BUSH.
posted by thinkingblue at 10:20 AM
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