roseembolism (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
roseembolism) wrote2004-05-14 11:05 pm
roseembolism) wrote2004-05-14 11:05 pm
(no subject)
This isn’t an easy LJ post- the truth is, I've been fussing with this post for over a week. It's also unlike most of my posts up until now, serious, political, and written in a nasty mood. But here it is anyway:
Stupidity is the topic today, and the source of much of my anger over the Iraq situation. Stupidity, all the more galling and frustrating to me because it perverted good intentions into an atrocity.
First there's stupidity on the part of the soldiers in the Abu Ghraib prison. Torturers grinning as if they don't even realize what despicable acts they are participating in.. Mugging for the camera like frat boys who've pulled a prank, shit-eating grins saying they know they're doing SOMETHING wrong, but not comprehending the scale of their crime. Stupid enough to not realize that taking photographs means that they are simply gathering solid evidence against themselves.
I can't help but think that the standards for the people who engage in atrocities have declined precipitously. During the last "win at all costs" administration, the black ops operatives in Nicaragua and El Salvador did their best to keep things out of the public eye. They used third party operatives, avoided reporters, and allowed for few witnesses. Above all, they did NOT take pictures. The American public could discount second hand reports of atrocities published in leftist papers- but the operative knew that pictures taken by the perpetrators could not be ignored. That sort of ruthlessly intelligent evil, that ability to grasp basic truths is gone; now that we have people who are simply brutal and stupid.
Then there's the stupidity of the military higher ups who were willing to turn a blind eye to atrocities as long as the CIA and independent contractors were able to get information. Their idiocy in allowing a disgraced former prison employee, with a record of abuse charges, run their prison is mind boggling. But this is classic military stupidity, and the Pentagon is intelligent enough to have leaked the pictures to the media, a form of scorched earth maneuver in their long-running fight with the civilian DoD over the prosecution of the war. They've said since the beginning the war was going to be tougher than the White House said, and they needed more people- and they were ignored.
The prizes of stupidity, the "six idiots who lost the war" reside in the White house. It stems from the neocons who had a vision of the future middle east completely devoid of any touch with reality. An administration stupid enough to ignore the warnings from their own military about the resources and people needed to conquer and rule a country, who in fact made no plans for the post-war rule. Above all, an administration willing to ignore the reports coming out for six months on the atrocities, because it would be impolitic.
If there is ONE thing we learned from Vietnam, it was that the military should be used carefully, for limited, well-thought-out objectives. It should not be used for broad ideological goals. Above all, when it is on missions, the military should be allowed to go about its business without political interference. It took twenty-five years for that lesson to be completely forgotten by the people in charge. We, and the people in the Abu Ghraib prison, are paying the price for that stupidity.
There will be punishments handed down the line of course- the brutal, stupid torturers and guards will be punished with prison; the military officers will find their careers at a dead end. But for the people who were blinded by the particular stupidity of ideology? And odds are their punishment will be to win another four years of power. And I can[;t even think of where to lay blame for that.
Stupidity is the topic today, and the source of much of my anger over the Iraq situation. Stupidity, all the more galling and frustrating to me because it perverted good intentions into an atrocity.
First there's stupidity on the part of the soldiers in the Abu Ghraib prison. Torturers grinning as if they don't even realize what despicable acts they are participating in.. Mugging for the camera like frat boys who've pulled a prank, shit-eating grins saying they know they're doing SOMETHING wrong, but not comprehending the scale of their crime. Stupid enough to not realize that taking photographs means that they are simply gathering solid evidence against themselves.
I can't help but think that the standards for the people who engage in atrocities have declined precipitously. During the last "win at all costs" administration, the black ops operatives in Nicaragua and El Salvador did their best to keep things out of the public eye. They used third party operatives, avoided reporters, and allowed for few witnesses. Above all, they did NOT take pictures. The American public could discount second hand reports of atrocities published in leftist papers- but the operative knew that pictures taken by the perpetrators could not be ignored. That sort of ruthlessly intelligent evil, that ability to grasp basic truths is gone; now that we have people who are simply brutal and stupid.
Then there's the stupidity of the military higher ups who were willing to turn a blind eye to atrocities as long as the CIA and independent contractors were able to get information. Their idiocy in allowing a disgraced former prison employee, with a record of abuse charges, run their prison is mind boggling. But this is classic military stupidity, and the Pentagon is intelligent enough to have leaked the pictures to the media, a form of scorched earth maneuver in their long-running fight with the civilian DoD over the prosecution of the war. They've said since the beginning the war was going to be tougher than the White House said, and they needed more people- and they were ignored.
The prizes of stupidity, the "six idiots who lost the war" reside in the White house. It stems from the neocons who had a vision of the future middle east completely devoid of any touch with reality. An administration stupid enough to ignore the warnings from their own military about the resources and people needed to conquer and rule a country, who in fact made no plans for the post-war rule. Above all, an administration willing to ignore the reports coming out for six months on the atrocities, because it would be impolitic.
If there is ONE thing we learned from Vietnam, it was that the military should be used carefully, for limited, well-thought-out objectives. It should not be used for broad ideological goals. Above all, when it is on missions, the military should be allowed to go about its business without political interference. It took twenty-five years for that lesson to be completely forgotten by the people in charge. We, and the people in the Abu Ghraib prison, are paying the price for that stupidity.
There will be punishments handed down the line of course- the brutal, stupid torturers and guards will be punished with prison; the military officers will find their careers at a dead end. But for the people who were blinded by the particular stupidity of ideology? And odds are their punishment will be to win another four years of power. And I can[;t even think of where to lay blame for that.