December 2, 2002
MORE LAMB SCREAMS:
Amnesty attacks Iraq torture dossier (The Guardian, December 2, 2002)The government was today accused of manipulating information on human rights abuses in Iraq to build its case for war against Saddam Hussein.Amnesty International said a dossier released today by the foreign secretary, Jack Straw, listing torture, rapes and other abuses perpetrated by the Baghdad regime, is a "cold and calculated manipulation" of the work of human rights activists.
"Let us not forget that these same governments turned a blind eye to Amnesty International's reports of widespread human rights violations in Iraq before the Gulf war," the group's secretary general, Irene Khan, said.
"They remained silent when thousands of unarmed Kurdish civilians were killed in Halabja in 1988."
So, let's see if we have this straight: it's cynical to bring up Iraq's human rights record if you're using it to justify improving the human rights situation in the country? Even if we suppose that the US and Britain are figurative Hannibal Lecters and Amnesty a starry-eyed Clarice Starling, isn't this the
moment when Dr. Lecter says, "I'll help ya' catch him Clarice", and she grudgingly agrees? Amnesty and the rest of the Left seem to be unwilling to
accept the lesser evil, which may make them feel pure, but it does those they're trying to help rather little good. Posted by Orrin Judd at December 2, 2002 3:41 PM
BING -freeking-GO!!
"Feel Pure!!!" That's it. No further explanation necessary for every...... single...... solitary..... action, opinion, position ever taken by the Left about anything.
It is ALL about people "feeling pure" about THEMSELVES, never about anyone else, although that is how it is drressed up, of course. An almost transcendental selfishness.
Stalin, Vietnam, anti-Iraq war, and all points in-between, what matters is what makes me FEEL PURE and just and true about what I'm doing, and who cares about foolish concepts like facts and logic (Western constructs), actual history (written by the oppressors), proper context, and whatever the end result of my ever-so-pure activities might turn out to be in the real world.
I just want to FEEL PURE... and if I have to burn down the house to do it, so what?
Puerile and adolescent idiots, all.
This Andrew X (below) is a good
writer.
Apparently, human rights abuses are bad, but use of American military power is worse.
Posted by: scott h. at December 3, 2002 12:57 AM