Subject:
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Re: Wining Hearts & Minds
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Wed, 5 May 2004 14:34:32 GMT
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Viewed:
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738 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Don Heyse wrote:
> > Additionally, more and more ugly details keep surfacing about The Big
> > Picture, such as this, if true:
> > http://news.com.au/common/printpage/0,6093,9465475,00.html
>
> But this is not the big picture. It's more ugly details about a tiny
> portion of the big picture. Apparently very bad things have been
> happening in the Iraqi prisons for a long time. And yet, before the
> US got involved you and the media had no interest in such things. I'd
> say things US involvement has improved things for the prisoners. At least
> now their plight is known and something might be done about it. That's
> where this fits into the big picture.
Perhaps I'm unclear on your conception of The Big Picture. Here's mine, and I'd
be interested to see how it fits alongside yours:
The United States is widely perceived to be a hegemonic and militaristic
juggernaut bent on securing its own pro-Israel, oil-grabbing, colonial interest
in the Middle East. Additionally, the pro-democracy drum-thumping by the US is
seen as hollow propaganda to justify massive incursions against its perceived
and nominal enemies, and the liberties of individuals who disagree or who happen
to get in the way are irrelevant at best. Moreover, the citizens of the United
States are perceived to be blinded by overzealous quasi-patriotism infused with
a bizarre mix of "Left Behind" fundamentalism and anti-Arab xenophobia. All of
these, coupled with unmatched (and perhaps unmatchable) military power and the
obvious desire to use it make the US seem like a dangerous and unstable presence
in the world, far more potentially destructive than Saddam Hussein ever could
have been, even with the chemical weapons we gave him.
The Big Picture isn't about Iraq or Al Qaeda or the infinite War On Terror. The
Big Picture is about whether an unchallenged military power will use its might
responsibly or recklessly. So far, it's been fairly reckless.
And it's not up to the world to prove that the tortures at Abu Graib aren't
isolated incidents; it is up to the United States, as the unprovoked military
aggressor, to demonstrate that these incidents are aberrations and that swift
corrective action will be taken to prevent future torture. The world sees Abu
Graib as a metaphor of things to come under US expansionist policy, and it's up
the US to demonstrate that such fears are unjustified (if they *are*
unjustified).
> > > I think you need to spend a bit more time with your toys. After all,
> > > that's what we're really here for. Tell me, what do you think of the
> > > new colors?
> >
> > Haven't noticed them, honestly! 8^)
>
> I wasn't talking to you.
I know, but I can't let a day go by without a little pro-clone propaganda...
Dave!
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: Wining Hearts & Minds
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| (...) here. People still swim in the ocean even though it's inhabited by sharks. However the media will always cover the shark bite stories because it's easy to sell pictures of shark bite violence. But they'll never tell you anything about the (...) (20 years ago, 4-May-04, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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