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May. 7th, 2004 09:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
threeplusfireRumsfeld did not describe the photos, but U.S. military officials told NBC News that the unreleased images showed U.S. soldiers severely beating an Iraqi prisoner nearly to death, having sex with a female Iraqi female prisoner and “acting inappropriately with a dead body.” The officials said there was also a videotape, apparently shot by U.S. personnel, showing Iraqi guards raping young boys.
I haven't written anything much about the war, or the increasingly disquieting news that flashes across the screen each day. While I have my political prejudices, I wanted to know how this story pans out.
But with Rumsfeld's testimony today, I feel as if something has let loose. Holy fucking shit, what the hell is going on over there? I've always thought you can't judge an entire group by the actions of a few. The news reports make me wonder just how few the few are now. I wonder about the chain of command, and who failed where and when.
"The American public needs to understand we're talking about rape and murder here. We're not just talking about giving people a humiliating experience," Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina told reporters after Rumsfeld testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee.
I've known many people who served in various branches of the military, and for the most part they were honorable and good people. I know there are also bad eggs in there too. But that's life. Some people are brutish and cruel, and others are honorable. It would be unreasonable to expect things to be different.
But here, we are supposedly liberating oppressed people from a regime that tortured and murdered and houned its citizens for years. What does it say to the world when our soldiers behave no better? Why could it be considerable acceptable in any way shape or form? Because they had post 9/11 rage? What the fuck?
It makes me angry and sad, and I have no idea what to do except pray that my vote in November counts somehow.
I haven't written anything much about the war, or the increasingly disquieting news that flashes across the screen each day. While I have my political prejudices, I wanted to know how this story pans out.
But with Rumsfeld's testimony today, I feel as if something has let loose. Holy fucking shit, what the hell is going on over there? I've always thought you can't judge an entire group by the actions of a few. The news reports make me wonder just how few the few are now. I wonder about the chain of command, and who failed where and when.
"The American public needs to understand we're talking about rape and murder here. We're not just talking about giving people a humiliating experience," Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina told reporters after Rumsfeld testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee.
I've known many people who served in various branches of the military, and for the most part they were honorable and good people. I know there are also bad eggs in there too. But that's life. Some people are brutish and cruel, and others are honorable. It would be unreasonable to expect things to be different.
But here, we are supposedly liberating oppressed people from a regime that tortured and murdered and houned its citizens for years. What does it say to the world when our soldiers behave no better? Why could it be considerable acceptable in any way shape or form? Because they had post 9/11 rage? What the fuck?
It makes me angry and sad, and I have no idea what to do except pray that my vote in November counts somehow.