Archive for the 'Abu Ghraib' Category

Political Healing Begins When Republicans Make Good on Rule of Law

Thursday, November 6th, 2008

Bush and many others need to be tried in a court of justice. Justice and Rule of Law are the cornerstones of democracy.
And the process began some time ago, driven NOT by democrats, but by good republicans. Here is the list of Republican indictments since 1998.
Lets be honest, the number should at least [...]

The Poison Fruit from the Tree of Corruption

Saturday, November 1st, 2008

There’s been a great deal of talk about corruption in politics. The last 8 years have seen a truly shocking level of corruption in government - from the Republicans K Street Project, to the Bushies’ endless politicizing of every aspect of government starting with no bid contracts for any firm connected to the Administration [...]

General Who Probed Abu Ghraib Says Bush Officials Committed War Crimes

Thursday, June 19th, 2008

By Warren P. Strobel | McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON — The Army general who led the investigation into prisoner abuse at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison accused the Bush administration Wednesday of committing “war crimes” and called for those responsible to be held to account.

[...]

ACLU Obtains Secret Torture Memo

Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008

Via Talking Points Memo and other sources, today we got to read the infamous torture memo that sought to justify the horrifying abuses of detainees at the hands of the U.S. government at Guanatanamo, Afghanistan, Abu Ghraib and CIA secret “black site” prisons. It was written on March 14, 2003 by John Yoo, then [...]

Who is to blame?

Sunday, March 30th, 2008

This post is part three in my series on good and evil.
In The Lucifer Effect Philip Zimbardo explores the way in which situational factors play a role in individual behaviors. 
Zimbardo sums up his argument:
“Bad systems” create “bad situations” create “bad apples” create “bad behaviors” even in good people.
The point of course is simple - I [...]

Morality in Neutral

Wednesday, March 26th, 2008

The Stanford Prison Experiment strongly suggests that moral and immoral behavior are hugley influenced by environment. It’s not so much that we change our morals from setting to setting but that the setting in which we function has the power to put our morality into neutral.
The Stanford Prison Experiment, conducted by Philip Zimbardo, suggested that in [...]

Are you good or evil?

Monday, March 24th, 2008

The Stanford Prison Experiment is one of the more famous pscyhology experiments (another is the Milgram experiment) - it revealed an alarming ability of people previously deemed “normal” to engage in shocking, abusive, cruel behavior but also that similar persons would submit to that abusive behavior.
The SPE was planned and conducted at Standford University in [...]

Making Torture Moral

Sunday, March 23rd, 2008

I hate the way the so-called War On Terror has been twisted to make morally repugnant acts like torture acceptable.
Rather than argue that torture is a moral good, supporters of torture have argued it is a regrettable moral necessity.
The argument goes like this:
Terrorists do bad things. Doing bad things proves they are bad men. [...]

Because George Bush Detains, Tortures and Kills Innocent Women and Children

Saturday, March 8th, 2008

Because we also hire mercenaries and hundreds of others like Blackwater to help us kill more, better, faster - because we are no longer the beacon of liberty and human rights in the world - because we have become a nation of evil and stupid people…the world did something.
They are The Elders. (I’m pretty sure [...]

Terrorists or Freedom Fighters?

Monday, October 15th, 2007

NBC News reporter Richard Engel discovers that the occupation of Iraq created a breeding ground for “terrorists.” You could also simply say that people are angry because the United States invaded their homeland and tore it apart, killing hundreds of thousands in the process. Tens of thousands have been arbitrarily arrested, imprisoned and [...]

Gen. Sanchez: ‘The best we can do is stave off defeat’

Saturday, October 13th, 2007

From today’s Washington Post:
Retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, who led U.S. forces in Iraq for a year after the March 2003 invasion, accused the Bush administration yesterday of going to war with a “catastrophically flawed” plan and said the United States is “living a nightmare with no end in sight.”… “The best we can [...]

What About a Sin Tax For War Profiteering?

Sunday, August 12th, 2007

US Soldiers in Iraq
killed
wounded