The Callous Policy of an Evil Government
From a Washington Post article on changing US counter-insurgency tactics:
Col. David Hogg, commander of the 2nd Brigade of the 4th Infantry Division, said tougher methods are being used to gather the intelligence. On Wednesday night, he said, his troops picked up the wife and daughter of an Iraqi lieutenant general. They left a note: “If you want your family released, turn yourself in.” Such tactics are justified, he said, because, “It’s an intelligence operation with detainees, and these people have info.” They would have been released in due course, he added later.
The tactic worked. On Friday, Hogg said, the lieutenant general appeared at the front gate of the U.S. base and surrendered.
If you can read that and not flinch, you’ve emigrated.
Folks, anti-interventionists have argued that among the problems with “preemptive” “defense” and “benevolent hegemony” is that you can only successfully pursue these policies by immoral means. Past a certain point, apologists can shout “Moral equivalence!” all they want - moral equivalence becomes simple fact. US troops
picked up the wife and daughter of an Iraqi lieutenant general. They left a note: “If you want your family released, turn yourself in.”
Collective responsibility is the notion in play here.
picked up the wife and daughter
War annhilates the concepts of individual rights and responsibilities. The question changes from “What did you do, or not do?” to What use can we make of you?
If you want your family released, turn yourself in.
Stamp it on our coins. Include it in the prayers that open Congress. Add it to the instruction block of all triplicate government forms. Use it as the description line for your warblog.
. . . and to the Republic for which it stands, One Nation, Under God, Indivisible. If you want your family released, turn yourself in.
Atrios has the relevant quote from the Geneva Conventions, Protocol I. It turns out that the taking of hostages is not only an abomination, it’s against the laws of war. Who knew?
By the way. I never want to hear another word about the alleged iniquities of Justin Raimondo, ANSWER, Robert Fisk, Patrick Buchanan, Lew Rockwell or even, god help us, the French. Not one more fucking word.
