So much for the battle for hearts and minds. We might as well bring back the troops from Iraq – and the rest of the world while we’re at it. If it’s true that one negative remark can cancel out a hundred positive statements in a relationship, the same is true in spades for the semiotics of nation-building. The administration has lost the battle for the hearts and minds of the American people in this matter, never mind the Iraqis.
Nation-building is a stupid, stupid idea anyhow. Germany and Japan were civilized, unified nations before they came under the control of dictatorships. Iraq, on the other hand, was an artificial former colony of diverse Arab tribes mixed with Kurds. It was NEVER going to work. This isn’t rocket science. However, some good may come of this. It should explode the ludicrous idea that Americans are more inherently virtuous than other people. It’s not hard to imagine those smirking idiots smiling and taking pictures at Dachau or Buchenwald, is it.
VDH attempts to defend the abusers with the predictable line. It wasn’t as bad as the terrorists, it was only a few bad apples, not all the facts are in, and besides, war is Hell. He writes:We who are appalled in our offices and newsrooms are not those who have had our faces blown off while delivering food in Humvees or are incinerated in SUVs full of medical supplies — with the full understanding that there will be plenty of Iraqis to materialize to hack away at what is left of our charred corpses. War is hell, and those who do not endure it are not entirely aware of the demons that are unleashed, and thus should hold their moral outrage until the full account of the incident is investigated and adjudicated.
Right, like those rear-echelon reservist MPs in the pictures have seen any of that either. It is fully understandable when a front-line trooper blows away a few prisoners in the heat of battle. It may not be right, but it is understandable. That’s hardly the case with these sadistic girls gone wild. Now we know what women in the military buys you – if they don’t avoid deployment with pregnancy, they’re making a bad situation worse. Seriously, what are the most noteworthy accomplishments of women in the military thus far?
1. Captured a dog kennel in Panama.
2. Crashed and killed trying to land on a carrier
3. Been victimized at Tailhook.
4. Committed adultery and grounded.
5. The Love Boat, aka the USS Eisenhower, where 60 women, or 12 percent, of the female crew got pregnant.
And now a female general presiding over the sexualized abuse of POWs, hiding behind incompetence as her defence. This is not proof of one, but two failed experiments.