Sunday night!
I've had enough, I cain't stands it no more! Time for me to get my voice on again.
The world has been patient enough, and it's time to get Switzer's take on things. First of all, what the hell is with the prison photos?
While it's deplorable what's happened there, and everyone involved should be punished, the question is who is really responsible? Many leap to the idea that Bush is that responsible party. That may be so. Some say this is proof that the military is just an imperialist machine, bent on destroying those poor Iraqis that we hate so much.
I think it's simpler, and more complex than we want to think. We need to know who made the decisions, if there were any, that led to the behavior. Anyone with children can tell you that sometimes no decision is made, behavior just follows its own natural course - from a minor wrong to a serious injustice is not as long a path as we like to believe. But can anyone really be surprised? Are people foolish enough to think we sent 135,000 golden angels over there?
The odds are against it. Take that many people, some of whom are overly macho and designed for the military, some of whom are broken people looking to straighten out their lives in the military, and some who don't even want to be there...but all of whom are trained to be aggressive and kill. Put them in a country where they're hated and shot at constantly. Let them see their friends and comrades killed by the locals.
Now tell me you're surprised that we might have 7, or 17, or 700 really bad people in that group. Tell me you're surprised some of them might commit atrocities against innocent (or even not-so-innocent) Iraqis. This isn't an argument for never going into war; sometimes you must. But this is an argument for putting serious thought into what you're doing when you send the military overseas. We know this kind of thing will happen, and one of many questions you must ask before committing to war is, will the end result be worth dealing with this type of atrocity? In this case, I don't think so.
Rumsfeld has to go. But first, he has some questions to answer. I say it's long past time we start hearing those answers.
The world has been patient enough, and it's time to get Switzer's take on things. First of all, what the hell is with the prison photos?
While it's deplorable what's happened there, and everyone involved should be punished, the question is who is really responsible? Many leap to the idea that Bush is that responsible party. That may be so. Some say this is proof that the military is just an imperialist machine, bent on destroying those poor Iraqis that we hate so much.
I think it's simpler, and more complex than we want to think. We need to know who made the decisions, if there were any, that led to the behavior. Anyone with children can tell you that sometimes no decision is made, behavior just follows its own natural course - from a minor wrong to a serious injustice is not as long a path as we like to believe. But can anyone really be surprised? Are people foolish enough to think we sent 135,000 golden angels over there?
The odds are against it. Take that many people, some of whom are overly macho and designed for the military, some of whom are broken people looking to straighten out their lives in the military, and some who don't even want to be there...but all of whom are trained to be aggressive and kill. Put them in a country where they're hated and shot at constantly. Let them see their friends and comrades killed by the locals.
Now tell me you're surprised that we might have 7, or 17, or 700 really bad people in that group. Tell me you're surprised some of them might commit atrocities against innocent (or even not-so-innocent) Iraqis. This isn't an argument for never going into war; sometimes you must. But this is an argument for putting serious thought into what you're doing when you send the military overseas. We know this kind of thing will happen, and one of many questions you must ask before committing to war is, will the end result be worth dealing with this type of atrocity? In this case, I don't think so.
Rumsfeld has to go. But first, he has some questions to answer. I say it's long past time we start hearing those answers.
posted by switzerblog at
11:38 PM
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