Friday, November 26, 2010
Enhanced Demonization
I have never been a supporter George W. Bush OR water-boarding. Hell, folks, I wouldn't even mind a fact-finding investigation that ended up with Mr. Cheney (especially) being "cuffed" for a while. But, please, can we at least have a little perspective here? During WW2, Churchill and Roosevelt ROUTINELY targeted major population centers in Germany, Italy, and Japan. According to MIT's John Dower, possibly up to 1.2 million civilians were slaughtered during these attacks (and, no, this doesn't even include Hiroshima and Nagasaki). So, yeah/no/I don't know, this sounds a hell of a lot more like a war-crime than Bush Inc. water-boarding a bevy of lunk-heads (and, no/again, I'm not in any way excusing it).
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4 comments:
Sue, welcome! Yeah, this is a tough one for me. On the one hand, I don't really want (and neither, apparently, does Mr. Obama) a big fiasco that could literally tear apart the country. On the other, when I see Mr. Cheney go on national TV and actually brag about doing this stuff, I'll admit it, there's a big part of me that boldly wants to say, "Book 'em, Danno (the original Danno, I'm saying)!!"
We can really get a lot of angels dancing on the head of a pin here discussing actions during WW2. Hitler wasn't just some bogus boogeyman largely created by Karl Rove to get Bush "reelected" in 2004. Now before anyone on the right hyperventilates, Osama is a real enemy and we are at war with him but in the greater scheme of things he ain't Hitler.
Hitler had the force of a technologically advanced nation and people behind him. Not to get all military history here but everyone should thank God that the crazy bastard went to war with no where near the subs he needed to cut off supplies to Britain. Even with the number he had he almost did just that which would have forced Britain out of the war.
Lets not let the decades that have slipped by color the fact that for whatever reason Germany, Japan, and Italy to a lesser extent were playing for all the global marbles with most of the people in those countries all gung-ho on the subject.
No I don't agree at all with torture and in fact many of Bush's policies have only assisted Osama in his message to Muslims. Osama is a more an idea or a cause and the only way to defeat something like that is to discredit it.
The uncomfortable fact remains that yes, in war shit happens and when you are fighting for your life and WW2 was just that you have to defeat the enemy.
I'm not even sure what my point was here, double b. It probably had/has a lot to do with the fact that a lot of Bush's critics (a club to which I include myself as at least a part-time member) a) lack perspective and b) use a lot of Monday morning quarterbacking. I think that we have to face the fact that all of us (well, except for maybe Paul Wellstone) pretty much lost our head after 9/11. Bush, out of what may have been good will, wanted to pretty much make sure that it didn't happen again. And so he did what he did. Yes, in retrospect, it may have been wrong. But, beyond that, to compare him to Pinochet, etc. (which a lot of people have done) - that, in my opinion, is a tad over the top.
I was probably also examining OUR (America's) hypocrisy. I mean, think about it here. We're always excoriating our enemies for the way that THEY target civilians and, yet, look at us....
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