May 12, 2004
The moral price of occupation
The shock over torturing Iraqi prisoners is all a show. How many people reading this believe that torturing Iraqis is new? How many people believe that this was just an isolated incident of six wayward soldiers who had not been trained properly?Posted by Norwood at May 12, 2004 07:15 AMThere are twenty open cases of systematic torture under investigation that we know of right now. But this is only the proverbial tip of the iceberg. Americans are coming face-to-face with what occupation means. Succinctly put; occupation destroys the moral fiber of both the occupied and occupier.
French television got a hold of stolen footage from an American helicopter "blowing away" a few of the occupied. Using its 30 mm guns, a scrambling Iraqi holding "a tube- like implement" was severely wounded. He was crawling, apparently no threat to anyone anymore (30 mm caliber are extremely destructive to human flesh) and the helicopter circled over him.
We next hear the words, "Hit him"...and the wounded Iraqi moved no more. Occupation is a dirty business. Rules of engagement are thrown out the window, especially when the occupied have a different color skin, have a different religion, and everything about them is, well, different.
