SwiftVets.com

sparky · Former Member Joined: 06 May 2004 Posts: 546

I have to limit my posts. The administrator said "I'm posting too much" in a chat session we had.

As for Saddam, I was speaking out against Saddam beginning in 1987 when I was an organizer for Amnesty International at my college. I also recall being completely apalled that Saddam sprayed nerve gas on his own people, killing thousands, yet because he was our ally (and not the Soviet's), nobody really seemed to care at that time.

Check newspaper accounts then ....seriously...it didn't get very much attention at all.

But things change, don't they? Geopolitics transformed him into our enemy and because our never-ending history of bedding with dictators, we found a former friend become our enemy.

And suddenly the world knew about Saddam's torture chambers, nerve gas and the Kurds. If you've read Orwell, Oceana has always been at war with Eurasia.

When human rights becomes subservient to a political agenda, it becomes meaningless. That's why reputable human rights organizations work so hard at maintaining the accuracy and honesty of their reports and the evenhandedness in reporting adherence to the UN's Universal Declaration on Human Rights.

I've always been horrified by Saddam and I still have hopes that his departure will end up for the better. But I'm becoming less convinced of this by the day. And the atrocities that didn't matter in the US when the rest of the world gaped in horror were still not enough to justify this invasion. After all, we've supported, armed, funded and defended juntas or dictators who murdered larger shares of their population.

And we also screwed over the Kurds too many times in the past to be credible for giving a crap about them.

I refuse to let my concern for human rights be influenced by puppeteers who want to use it to distract from the real reasons for the war, whatever else we debate they may be.

sparky · Former Member Joined: 06 May 2004 Posts: 546

The BBC reports...

The father of Nick Berg, Michael Berg, calls on Rumsfeld to resign.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3721207.stm

Mr Berg told Israeli Army radio: "I very definitely do hold the department of defence, the FBI, the Bush administration and especially Donald Rumsfeld responsible.

In other news,

Defence officials said there had been 25 deaths of prisoners in Afghanistan and Iraq since December 2002. Twelve were considered to be from natural or undetermined causes, one was considered justified homicide, two were murder and 10 are still being investigated.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3686427.stm

Frankly, I'd rather have my hand ripped off than be murdered.

Grampa · Lt.Jg. Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 143 Location: Eureka, CA

Your attempt to smear the US Military by portaying the criminals at Abu Ghuraib and Bucca, who have been arrested, charged and in some cases, convicted, is despicable. You sir, are a liar.

I served at Abu Ghraib and we were all stunned when OUR OWN INVESTIGATION revealed what was going on. It was NEVER our policy to turture. The troops claiming it was intell guys telling them to do what they did is a butt covering lie, as they only did these acts in the early morning hours, when supervision was the least.

Shades of Vietnam style anti-war propaganda press coverage all over again.
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Iraqi Freedom 2003-2004. We won't take any of that 1960s crap when We come home!