Listening: "serpico," Machines of Loving Grace

FYI - Abu Ghraib is a holding prison where many hundreds of men and women are held, interrogated and, more often than not, let go without ever being charged. Several of the individuals in the photos you've seen are now free and were never charged.

I'm no longer shocked, just deeply sad and somewhat annoyed at a few nitpicky things. I'm no longer sure of what we should do in Iraq, the only areas we haven't completely fucked up seem to be that which regards industry being usurped by our own conglomerates - Bechtel and Halliburton. If there wasn't a clear reason for why they hated us before, it should be as clear as day now.

There are charges of rape and indications that pictures of same exist. THESE ARE WAR CRIMES. We're so busy bringing liberty and democracy, believing that we're the good guys it doesn't occur to us to make sure to instigate the methodical rule of law that allowed us to claim the high ground at home.

We believe we're such nice folk we look the other way when our boys, our representatives, humiliate the locals and take pride in their own power. This does not make us better. This makes us the same as our enemy. There is no right or wrong when we do this, there is just the different uniforms.

I've had enough the media trying to clarify that something in particular is offensive to Moslems. There are precious few Christians who would not be humiliated at being stripped naked for cameras while his friend is forced to suck him off. There are few Americans who would not think it bad for a woman to be strip searched by a man.

We know it's wrong because it's wrong. It's not a nuance of a culture or a religion. It's something we typically believe belongs only in the hands of tyranny and that don't exist anywhere we carry our light of democracy and freedom. If we could just make ourselves believe that it's the work of a few living their own Heart of Darkness we might get away with believing it won't happen again.

But there has been so much buck-pushing, there has been so much denial of foreknowledge, so much denial of the law, let alone what is right, how can we ever claim any sort of moral righteousness? The entire doctrine of preemption is based on knowing right from wrong.

I'm so tired. I'm aggravated, mortified, sad and just _tired_. My father, a veteran of WWII, stated, and I concur, that he never thought he'd see the day when boys on the front would embarass us and bring such shame to the uniforms they wear.