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Banned from the DCMBs since 2002. 15000+ posts
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 15,367 Likes: 14 |
Torturing reporters is totally, totally unacceptable. Quote:
PenWing said:
I know I'm taking your statement out of context here, but bare with me a moment. Why doesn't the media do stories about what the US is doing over there? Yeah, here is a sensational story of US officers torturing prisoners. Great. That gets ratings. But, it looks very bad for our media, and our society, when they take the time to report these inexcusable actions, but have not taken the time to report, with equal detail, the good things the US has done since the beginning of the occupation.
And that's another thing, T-Dave. Sure, the occupation isn't a good thing, but what was the US supposed to do, take out Sadam and leave the country to the animals who are commiting constant acts of terror? Would it have been responsible for the US to remove a government, no matter how evil it was, and then just leave, knowing that many innocent, peace loving Iraqis, who suffered greatly under Sadam, would have been ruled by another, most likely worse regime, probably in the form of another Taliban? If we are above that, and I hope we are, we could not just leave. The US must stay to clean up the mess. The hope is that when the US leaves, it will be turning over the nation to a peace loving democracy. Is that a bad thing?
I guess what I'm saying is that, while the media had an obligation to report the story, it failed us in the way it was done. I am also saying shame on those who would rather the US just up and leave. Right now, there is hope for Iraq. If the US leaves before Iraq is ready, and there is a set date (although I don't know that Iraq will be ready), many good people will be subjugated to yet another evil dictatorship of some form. And then the question becomes what was the point of the US going in in the first place?
I don't know that I can answer that question.
I think you don't fully understand my posiiton. I support the presence fo US troops there, and deplored Spain's decision to withdraw its troops.
You can't invade a country and then leave it to rot, as you said. Creating anarchy like that is the height of injustice.
Australia is sending more troops to Iraq, and its something I totally agree with.
As for media reports on the good things happening in Iraq.... on the domestic front, I have little idea of what you guys are seeing on TV, but I assume you aren't seeing the good thinsg happening there. The overwhelming preoccupation is security, in the media, and I thnk its a correct preoccupation. What's the point of building schools and hospitals if they are going to be looted, or the people heading up the education department are shot? Having only 170000 soldiers or so (plus the large number of "military consultants") on the ground in Iraq clearly isn't enough. The US taxpayer shouldn't be shouldering it all, either: NATO and the UN should get involved, but with France in a corner that won't happen in a hurry. Some better diplomacy - multilateral instead of the chest-thumping Bushite unilateralism - would fix that up.
In asking me in response to my complaints about torture whether I see any reasonable alternatives to pulling troops out, your post kind of implies that torture is a necessary evil in a military occupation. I don't accept that at all.
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