Friday, June 16, 2006

Oh, The humanity....

Lolita C. Baldor writes about a report that goes into extraordinarily terrifying detail regarding US forces "abuses" of captured terrorists.

First, can someone translate: "did not comport with the spirit of the principles set forth in the Geneva Conventions," which require humane treatment of prisoners." into a known language?

Having done so, how does the following:
Formica said, for example, that the forces used five interrogation techniques that were allowed at one point but had been rescinded by then: sleep or food deprivation, yelling and loud music, forcing detainees to remain in stressful physical positions and changing environmental conditions - which could include making their locations too hot or too cold.
constitute "abuse" in any meaningful sense?

Sleep deprivation
Food deprivation (actually bread and water)
Yelling and loud music
Forcing detainees to remain in stressful physical positions
Changing environmental conditions

Perhaps the writer should go through what is known as "Basic Combat Training" in the Army or "Boot Camp" in the Marines. Had she done so she would not have been able to type that paragraph without collapsing in laughter.

This is it? This is the "abuse"? 17 days of bread and water?

The saddest part about this report is that the brass in the Pentagon responded to it with other than ridicule. No wonder this war is taking so long.

Dear Gen-gens,

Get a grip. Try and be worthy of the men you "command".

This ain't Miss Elizabeth's Finishing School

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Rick:

My mother would use any or all of those tactics on me from time to time.

The food deprivation was the worst.

Terrorists cut off people's heads and here these people are worried about someone yelling at them. Unbelievable.

BTW, I heard the Haditha report is out and it is thousands of pages long. I have no idea what it says.

Rick Ballard said...

Terrye,

I can still remember quite clearly awakening to the dulcet tones of Reveille and the gentle voice of the DI urging us to make haste in our preparation for the day - followed by a comforting assurance that the last man out of the barracks would spend an indeterminate time in meditation and reflection while holding the position humorously referred to as the "dying cockroach". What sweet and innocent fun we enjoyed.

I believe the first report on Haditha is by the Army on the official reporting of the incident.

Anonymous said...

Rick:


Gale has told me some horror stories about his time in uniform. Back then no one gave a damn.

buddy larsen said...

Well, the hand-wringers DO have a point. Their friends would be much happier in a suite at the Ritz.

Barry Dauphin said...

Oh...for a second I thought the report was about an episode of Gomer Pyle, USMC. Well, instead of that stuff I have another suggestion. We should make the terrorists read Krugman and Dowd after paying for it. Maybe the international community will allow that. Soon the jihadists will tell us everything we want to know if we make it stop.

buddy larsen said...

Yes...please make it stop....

buddy larsen said...

The Krugman Truth Squad is what I attempted to link. dangit--

buddy larsen said...

Somehow Krugman is fouling my links.

Rick Ballard said...

Buddy,

The NRO search engine takes you to the article - when you get there click the time/date stamp to get the right URL. The URL that the search engine returns won't work - he said with his famous flare for the obvious.

Barry Dauphin said...

Buddy,

No...it's the new US torture technique...try to get the right url, but no dice. Are you a terrorist? ;>)

buddy larsen said...

Terrorist? I've been trying for years, they just laugh. Someday, though...heh heh....

buddy larsen said...

Anyhoo, back to my train of thought, or at least my tinkertoy of thought, an economist named Donald Luskin (an entrepreneurial economist who runs TrendMacrolytics and often guests on Larry Kudlow's CNBC show, sometime back around 2002 found himself so exasperated with this Krugman propagandist that he began regular fisking his NYTimes column, to the point that it became a regular feature, picked up by National Review. I like Luskin's humor--so will you. Ridicule is about all you have, in the face of the NYTimes' lock on its zombie jamboree.

Anonymous said...

You want to drive these people crazy andmake thme talk? Play a tape of a crying baby...for hours...I swear it will break anyone.

Anonymous said...

It ain't just you knuck. no sir i feel the same way.