01 February 2013

Drones and torture...........again and again and.........

Greetings to all.
Yes another day, another rant.
No doubt all have heard of if not actually seen the movie "Zero dark thirty".  According to the reviews I have read, this movie apparently glorifies torture. No kidding, a Hollywood production that seems to be made for the likes of "Darth" Cheney. Yes, no doubt "dead eye" Dick may actually enjoy a movie where torture "does" help catch and kill the "bad guy".
Well, for my part, I have no intention of ever watching such a piece of garbage. Torture IS illegal in every civilized country. It has been seen as a crime for centuries. When US Army troops gave the "water cure" to captured Filipino civilians/insurgents in the last year(s) of the 1800's and early year(s) of the 1900's, it WAS seen as a crime. Torture seems to have never been of any real use in getting to any truth, ever. Torture only "works" in Hollywood movies or TV shows, the program "24" comes to mind here. Again, a TV program I never saw and have no desire to ever see.
Why my resolve to never watch these shows among others? Because I have seen war up close and all too personal. I do NOT approve of torture in any case. I think torture in all its forms is a crime and should be punished. Yes, those who do the torture must be held to account for their actions. They have committed a crime or crimes and need to be made to suffer the consequences of their actions.And, NO, they cannot, in fact MUST not be allowed to use the "Ollie North" escape plan. Remember back in the days when "Iran-Contra" hearings were on the TV, old Ollie tried to escape punishment (he resigned his commission is all he "suffered") he told the Congressional hearings that he was just "following orders". Well, that should have been disallowed as the victors of WW2 declared such an excuse invalid during the Nuremberg tribunals. IF, and I admit it is a HUGE if, these people who are and have done torture are ever brought to trial, they must NOT be allowed this excuse, for any. IF the US of A has any claim to being even remotely civilized, we cannot allow the "following orders" excuse, ever.

On a related subject, drones have made a come-back news wise of late. Probably due to Gobomber naming a certain Mr. Brennan as his choice as the CIA head honcho. Ah yes, the man who has aided Gobomber with the infamous "kill list". Well, no doubt Mr. Brennan has never met a drone strike he did not approve of. My guess is this may be so only because he has never been the target of such an attack.
Even more of a controversy comes with what are being called a "double tap" drone strikes. This is when after the initial drone strike, the drone or perhaps another drone waits for the rescuers come to find the dead and wounded and launch another missile hit. This is another illegal/unlawful act. International law and even the Laws of armed conflict state that such an attack IS unlawful.
I will again state that I am 100% certain that killing by drone is an act of cowardice in the extreme. The lingering around until other people come to rescue the wounded and retrieve the dead is doubly such a cowardly act.
The US of A has done such things and continues to do them. Now, does anybody who still has any small portion of humanity still wonder why so many people around the world despise if not hate the US of A? Imagine, for a moment, that your family home was hit by a drone strike. Now imagine how you and your neighbors rush to the remains of said house to see if any of your family are still alive and to retrieve the bodies of the dead, only to be hit by a "double tap" hit. IF you survive somehow, or this happened to a relative of yours, how "nice and warm" would your feelings be to the country that did such a thing? I'll bet the farm that you would NOT have any "warm fuzzy" feelings for that country at all, ever.
As I have said here before, in the middle East and countries like Afghanistan and Pakistan (just to name two) have very close family ties.  In some cultures, such as the two mentioned above, kill my second cousin, twice removed and now I am your enemy. Yes, wars are very nasty, brutish things, as I said many times, war is the most pornographic thing we humans have ever invented. The use of remote controlled killing is even worse and in my opinion, very cowardly. There is NO glory in war, but the combatants can be honorable, remote killing is NOT.
In my opinion, remote killing shows no respect for the person(s) targeted. even in war, one does begin to respect the enemy, even while he/she may be viewed as less than human, as the Japanese were portrayed as during WW2. On a personal note, I soon learned to respect the VC while I was in Vietnam. Yes, they were the "enemy" and we did not have many kind words for them, but many of us  DID respect them. There is no respect (in my view there ca be NO) for those we kill by remote control.
Even the despised Robert McNamara eventually admitted that had the US off A lost the war, our leaders could have been tried for war crimes. I wonder if any of the remote control killers ever have any thoughts about this. Or, do they see themselves as somehow heroic?
semper fi