faces of war
Erika Meyer
My heart goes out to this child, her grandparents, and to her father in his final hours.
"Even as the young Afghan man was dying before them, his American jailers continued to torment him."
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connect with blueoregon
3:53 p.m.
May 20, '05
Another example of how it is hard to be patriotic.
Thank you for the post.
6:38 p.m.
May 20, '05
I'm a patriotic American, but this makes me sad.
I've got a basic fact question - does U.S. law permit sentencing an American soldier to the death penalty for torturing and murdering a prisoner of war?
May 21, '05
The truth is less puzzling, but more sickening than the spun fantasies. Why the US employs torture:
Torture's Dirty Secret: It Works
May 21, '05
Today's newspapers say the Army is 40,000 soldiers short of their recruiting goal. You'd think the 63,000,000 people who voted for W (including my flag-waving brothers) would enlist. But I guess torturing innocernt cabdrivers isn't as much fun as it looks.
2:07 p.m.
May 21, '05
"Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And when you look long into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you."
-Friedrich Nietzche
May 21, '05
Now, for some constructive criticism, post Downing Street Memo
There are many positive stories happening in Baghdad, so why doesn't someone from Fox radio or other local MSM grab a laptop and a cellphone and do "Good Morning Portland" from Baghdad? The morning show would be happening around dinner time in Baghdad so the reporter could do a day's wrapup as Portland rises.
Why not? Besides genuine fear. I believe the reason this is not happening is that the Pentagon would shut down a "good and bad" news stories outlet.
But, imagine, even for a moment, watching (or listening) to a Portland morning show with a reporter you "knew" having a late night coffee with some locals and asking what they really thought about the new Iraq, the war, America, GIs, the President. Not Ted Koppel in a flak jacket with interviews arranged by a DOD hack. Real people, interacting with Portland anchors and even callers. Imagine. Too Real TV? It'd be nice to see what $2,000,000,000 a week is getting us.
I do applaud The Oregonian for sending some of their best people to Iraq and finding positive news stories -- like the Oregon National Guardsmen who threatened to fire on newly-trained Iraqi police as they slapped around and kicked bound Iraqi prisoners. One of our young men almost shot one of the out-of-control Iraqi policeman to uphold human rights (for a change).
It's the flip side of Abu Ghraib and Afghanistan horrors. Oregon men and women who made our nation proud that day. And if The Oregonian's own Mike Francis (and photographer) weren't there, the world would have never known. I wonder what else we might be missing?
The Francis story, "Ordered Just To Walk Away", at