On Aug 19, 7:00Â am, Robert Cohen
msn.com> wrote:> On Aug 19, 1:19Â am, Shrikeb...@
gmail.com wrote:
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>> On Aug 16, 6:19Â pm, "bigflet...@
gmail.com"
gmail.com>
>> wrote:>
>>> On Aug 17, 3:45Â am, Shrikeb...@
gmail.com wrote:
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>>>> On Aug 16, 12:16Â am, turtoni
fastmail.net> wrote:>
>>>>> What do you love about America?
>
>>>>> That is my question:
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>>>>> What do you love about America?
>
>>>> One late Christmas night, I was stopped by a Sheriff's
>>>> Deputy while driving home from a friend's place. Â After
>>>> the usual checking of license and registration, he
>>>> pretended to be convinced I possessed marijuana. Â I
>>>> did have the long-haired maggot-infested dope-smoking
>>>> FM-type look Oxycontin Rush used to talk about. Â Anyway,
>>>> I told him I didn't possess any such thing. Â He asked , "so
>>>> can I search your car? Â If you don't have anything to hide..."
>>>> I told him, "I don't have anything to hide, but this is America,
>>>> and I don't have anything to prove either."
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>>>> That's what I love about America: not having anything to
>>>> prove to a cop.
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>>> Cop? Whats a cop. We have 'elders of the tribe' and they are all
>>> incredibly wise, but heaven help you if you try to steal their
>>> 'stash' :-).
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>>> In Quantanimo it works well. No need to prove anything...
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>>> BOfL
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>> Sucks to be a foreign "illegal combatant," eh?
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>> But those guys are really PoWs, in spite of what
>> the Administration says. Â As such, all they should
>> have to give is name, rank and serial number... just
>> like the Geneva Convention says. Â At least it ain't
>> the good old days of WWII, when they threw civilian
>> American citizens in interment camps.- Hide quoted text -
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>> - Show quoted text -
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> re: pow treatment under the geneva conventions
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> the prisoners & prisons of al qaedae  are (surely) not being inspected
> by the red cross
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> because this is not a "traditional war" & "traditional enemy," the
> admirable civilized norms of the geneva conventions (imho) should not
> legalistically apply,
To be sure, there's a lack regimentation on the part of
the enemy. That shouldn't mean we have to abandon
civilization ourselves. All that is required for barbarianism
to win is for everyone to abandon civilization.
> the usa is trying to adapt to the explicit enemy threats, tactics,
> and the implied perceived menace
>
> plus the enemy seems to be sometimes winning in afghanistan & iraq
> because the enemy's "low standards" by way of killing innocents and/or
> non-combattents is seemingly the enemy'strademark un-Geneva means of
> operation
Ah, but note that the Japanese treatment of
POWs was murderous. It would not have
excuse a concomitant savagery on our part.
There are those, though, who point out Dresden
and Hiroshima as examples of the savage
slaughter of civilians by the US. Still, a
helpless captive is a helpless captive.
> "war morality" should be a two way street, otherwise it's an
> idealistic, admirable though crazy-absurd concept
I am shocked by this attitude, coming as it
does from a liberal. I think that one of the
biggest mistakes of the W administration
has been its tendency to appear to be
vinidicating the Hitlerian accusations of its
worst enemies. Wiretapping, waterboarding,
Gitmo, Patriot Act.
> i do acknowledge gitmo et cetera are ad hoc, and are very imperfect
> adaptations.
Likewise, such things as the Patriot Act
were primarily Cover Your Ass measures,
like the creation of The Dept. of Homeland
Redundancy Dept. As if the solution to our
problems was the creation of another
bureaucracy. Give the people the appearance
that you are doing something worthwhile.
