The Therese Defarge school of Social evo

History for those engaged in creating it. Comprehensive activism and applied memetics.

Self-Destruction In Iraq

"women in fear of getting up in the hours of darkness to go out to the port-a-lets or the latrines were not drinking liquids after 3 or 4 in the afternoon, and in 120 degree heat or warmer, because there was no air-conditioning at most of the facilities, they were dying from dehydration in their sleep." Col. Janis Karpinski testifying before the International Commission of Inquiry on Crimes Against Humanity Committed by the Bush Administration

Can it really be surpricing that outside of Abu Ghraib prison were under orders from the Bush administration women soldiers were sexually exploited for the purposes of torturing the Iraqi population that the rape of women serving in the armed forces would grow to be a problem? Nor is the attitude expressed by Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez "The women asked to be here, so now let them take what comes with the territory," at all uncommon in those who do not truly beleave in justice and equality. What is surpricing is that as more and more is revealed of the lies and cover ups involved in Abu Ghraib our nation has refused to demand accountablity to those who our leading our nation towards destruction.

In his work Self-Destruction: The Disintegration and Decay of the United States Army during the Vietnam Era (New York: W. W. Norton, 1981, Lieutenant Colonel Cecil B. Currey, known more widely by his pentagon nickname Cincinnatus outlined the effects of an unprofessional military cutting off real data in order to protect it's high command. Like a driver refusing to open their eyes while never letting up on the gas there is no feed back to correct a course that is bound at some point to lead to distruction. As those who remember the events of vietnam can recall the Pentagon papers revealed that the US military new as early as the Johnson Administration that they had no chance of winning the Vietnam war. In Self-destruction, the reasons why this is the case become very clear, the military just renamed strategies and tactics, like renaming a product whose poor proformance record was well known in order to remarket it. Deception allows no possibility of re-evaluation and correction, no improvement and in the end no chance of success.

The only way That the deception in Iraq today differs from the deception Cincinnatus outlined in Vietnam is reflected in Mr Bush State of the Union address were he once again repeated the lie that Iraq was involved in 911, a claim the CIA told the President was false before the war started, a claim dismissed as unfounded by the 911 commission. Still The US press has repeated this claim without challenge every time the president has made it.

What are going to be the effects of this war. Already we have seen how the waste of our national resources has failed the american people in New orleans. A few marginal resources have documented the destruction of our economy and the overwhelming national dept which the war has brought on. Hundreds of thousands of americans will return to our country needing aide to heal from a brutalization that will create an epidemic of social problems our nation will have no resources to address. Still we charge forward blindly while those at the wheel keep their eyes shut to the desolation to humanity along the way.

Elizabeth Parenti Soba

posted by: EzizabethParentiSoba at 20:09 | link | comments |

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