This is topic Just when I thought.... in forum Books, Films, Food and Culture at Hatrack River Forum.


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Posted by Alexa (Member # 6285) on :
 
I had faith in humanity... Fallujah

After looking at the pics of the charred bodies hanging from the bridge and children kicking the mutilated bodies.... [Angst]
 
Posted by Corwin (Member # 5705) on :
 
[Frown] I saw the news earlier, but didn't read it thoroughly... Crazy people... It's really, really sad...
 
Posted by Alexa (Member # 6285) on :
 
You know what the difference between the "free world" and aocieties that seek to ppress people? We do not delight in the death or suffering of others. Could you imagine how the middle east would respond if we hung Saddams Body (assuming we kill him),or tied it to a car and drove round town, or mutilated it with children? Why can't they see?
 
Posted by Corwin (Member # 5705) on :
 
Yeap, I think I know the differnce pretty well... I just cannot understand the hatred or whatever drives these people do the things they do...
 
Posted by Danzig (Member # 4704) on :
 
What are you talking about? We love violence, and we did the equivalent of hanging up those bodies when we showed the photographs of his slain sons. Do you honestly believe that a public execution of Saddam Hussein (held in America) would be poorly attended? Would no one watch if they were allowed to televise it?
 
Posted by Eduardo_Sauron (Member # 5827) on :
 
Well...I guess Denzig has a point there. Historically, hangins, executions and even slain bodies of evildoers were always a guaranteed success.
 
Posted by Sweet William (Member # 5212) on :
 
and we did the equivalent of hanging up those bodies when we showed the photographs of his slain sons

Not even close. We treated the bodies respectfully. Period. No hanging. No burning. No kicking around. No torture. No mutilation.

We televised the bodies so that they could be identified as who they were. No other dead Iraqi bodies have been "displayed" by us in any way.

Good Grief. To compare the two action is just beyond ridiculous.
 
Posted by Alexa (Member # 6285) on :
 
Of course there would be a turn out if we hanged Saddam, BUT..how many people would protest such a thing. Infact, do you think we even could publicly execute him. I think any efforts would result in ruin for the person who suggests it.
 
Posted by Belle (Member # 2314) on :
 
I must agree with SW, Danzig, there is no comparison.
 
Posted by Danzig (Member # 4704) on :
 
Dead is dead. They probably displayed the bodies on the gallows to be identified, or to inspire the resistance against the evil US government, or for some other doubtlessly noble purpose. The details are different; the utter lack of concern is the same. No one in America needed to see those pictures. We have (for the most part) freedom of the press; those pictures would not have been shown if they were not going to attract readers/viewers. And as for treating the bodies respectfully, I have heard different rumors, and there is no way to tell anyway. The same people who would condemn real vigilante justice still killed them without trial.

The point is not exactly what we did to the bodies, or even that we killed the two evildoers. The point is to illustrate American hypocracy. [The alternative spelling is intentional.] It is ok for us to use Iraqi corpses and deaths for propaganda, but not for Iraqis to do the same with our corpses. I know I have read of people (not necessarily on Hatrack) speak in favor of sewing Muslim corpses in pig skins to desecrate their bodies and raise fear in the hearts of terrorists. We are not so very different from them.
 
Posted by Rakeesh (Member # 2001) on :
 
Danzig,

quote:
The point is not exactly what we did to the bodies, or even that we killed the two evildoers. The point is to illustrate American hypocracy. [The alternative spelling is intentional.] It is ok for us to use Iraqi corpses and deaths for propaganda, but not for Iraqis to do the same with our corpses. I know I have read of people (not necessarily on Hatrack) speak in favor of sewing Muslim corpses in pig skins to desecrate their bodies and raise fear in the hearts of terrorists. We are not so very different from them.
Newsflash, jackass: the corpses we displayed were unrepentant tyrants, torturers, and murderers. Equating publicizing their bodies with mutilating contractors bodies is idiocy and hypocrisy in the extreme. You're an idiot, because you're equating the two in order to grind a pre-existing axe.
 
Posted by Sopwith (Member # 4640) on :
 
Actually, Danzig, I mentioned the pig skin thing. Historically it was done during the Mau Mau uprising in the Phillipines in the early part of the 20th Century. It actually caused the collapse of the rebellion and an end to the violence. It also showed that if one side wanted a war of religion, then their religion could be used against them.

A similar thing is happening with some of the homicide bombings in Israel. Some of the bombs have been set off in public places just hours before the beginning of the Jewish sabbath. If what I have been told is true, the timing is aimed at making it near impossible to have the corpses and all of their body parts recovered and buried before sundown on the sabbath to meet some of the Jewish laws. In one case, a set of trees at a shopping area had to be cut down and buried immediately because of the bits of bodies that were sprayed across the trees.

It's religion used against the religious in the areas. It's a terrible, terrible idea but it does strike at the hearts of those affected. I'm not exactly sure how I feel about the ends justifying the means in this sense.
 
Posted by aka (Member # 139) on :
 
This was not an official action on the part of anyone, it was a mob. So I don't think the comparison is valid between this and the displaying of the bodies of the sons. What this reminds me of is the mob scene at the greyhound bus station when the freedom riders were pulled off the bus and beat up in Birmingham in the early 60s. Certainly people are the same the world over. Mobs are mobs. Great upheavals in the established order of things in a society, even when they are for the better and redressing terrible wrongs, still upset people and make them angry. That anger can be tapped into by people wanting to exploit it for their own gain.

We aren't hypocrites. We are trying to help Iraqis transform their society after decades of brutal oppression. It's not a simple thing like flipping a switch. It's a long hard struggle. I believe it's a worthy and important one.
 


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