I agree that our leadership could be doing more in Iraq and Afghanistan, but having been to Afghanistan (and many other places), it’s not as simple as storming the beaches of Normandy, or dropping a bomb on Nagasaki or Hiroshima to make the “enemy” surrender. One writer commented on the drug trade in Afghanistan. We’ve already proven that winning the War on Drugs is near to impossible. It’s very difficult to win any war when there are so many factors other than what we read in the papers, see on television, or hear on the radio. The old economic rule about supply and demand seems the real winner in a lot of these types of cases – Drugs, Oil, News Stories – but what about some actual factual information for a change without a political spin to it?

I’ve also found that most media sources do not seem to have very much investigative spunk when it comes to looking at actual historical events and how they relate to current issues. The closest Afghanistan and the opium trade has ever come to being controlled since the invention of the poppy was probably during the reign of the Taleban. Should we have praised the Taleban for stemming the flow of opium and heroin during their reign, or condemned them for their abuse against woman? There are more factors here, oh yeah, and don’t forget that 9/11 incident and Usama bin Laden supposedly being camped out in Talebanland. Where do we put the weight of our decisions? Incidently, the Taleban did stem the flow of opium and heroin for a period, but stored it in nice warehouses to sell at a much dearer price when there was less available (supply and demand? economics? general business common sense?), but I digress…

Ms. Scarry, how do *you* suggest we interrogate interred combatants? (This presumes you even believe in combat and internment in response to attacks on US civilians…)

I find no torture in this definitive article about how we are torturing people in one part of the world out of supposed many. Some darn forceful interrogation to be sure. And there have been abuses and deaths from those abuses, and these are not condoned by the military But “torture”, no. However, we do know that the North Koreans are starving their entire population to feed their military machine. We do know that the Chinese kill little girls because boys are more favored. We do know that millions were slaughtered in Rhowanda in the 1990′s. We do know people are killed if they meet together to worship Jesus in Saudi Arabia.We know that the Taliban were involved in all kinds of atrocities such as: http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,4305530-103681,00.html I think the indignation at the rough treatment of Taliban prisoners and others is missplaced. Where is all the outrage at the REAL torture that goes on in the world?

You missed my point. They are not being tortured at Gitmo was my point, nor at Abu Grab for that matter. They are living better than prisoners caught by the insurgents, or any where else in the world. Which would you rather be, a prisoner at Gitmo with 3 squares a day, a prayer rug, a compass painted on the floor showing the way to Mecca, and a free Koran, or in an abandoned warehouse in Iraq in front of a camera with a big butcher knife blasting through your neck? Leave the prisoners to the military to sort out….Or maybe you don’t trust our military in the first place. If you don’t, then you do have a problem. Our men and women in the armed forces are the ones securing the freedoms we have to even be able to speak this way in a forum such as this. War is not a court of law. It is WAR. And no other country in the world conducts itself with higher moral standards than our military.

…By the way, great interview of Mr. Kanan Makiya!!!!

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Acutally, I am not sure how you think you know that I am a ‘mister’ – but that’s OK ..

I don’t know if you have spent time looking at the news reports, but a number of people have been killed while in detention by US forces; at Gitmo, at Abu-Ghraib, and god knows where else. They have been beaten, sexually humiliated, attacked by unmuzzled dogs .. the pitcures show the undeniable truth.

One US soldier during an ‘exercise’ at Gitmo, where he was told to play the part of a prisoner, was so badly beaten {even as he tried to tell his fellow soldiers he was one of them} that he now has brain seizures 6 to 10 times a day.

Here is a link, if you are inclined to read about it. I was unaware of this case until just yesterday {thanks American press for covering this one so closely} ..

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/11/02/60II/main652953.shtml

I read with interest your comparisons of the soft cushy life at Gitmo for people who you claim are ‘better off’, and the blazing heroics of our troops, in every aspect of what they do. Somewhere, far off in the distance is reality. Your description has quite a ways to go, however.

I see our troops as ill-equipped, poorly trained for the task of nation building, and a military chain of command that is, at the very least culpable of allowing mayhem, and at the worst, promoting it. I see an administration that is allowing massive fraud, waste of billions of taxpayer money and not much to show for it.

I happen to have friends and family in the military, so I am not pleased by the tone of your comment concerning my trust in the military. Our men and women are not securing anything in Iraq that was not already ours. Iraq was not a threat to the United States, to you or to me. Iraq could have been controlled by applying pressure from it’s neighbors and the world community – but this was not given enough time.

Our men and women in Afghanistan have been held back from doing the correct job by poor leadership in Washington – the proliferation of the poppy fields and warlords there show that the US adminisitration has no political backbone, common sense or honor.

The issue is not trust in the military – my concern is with those civilians who lead the military.

Dershowitz works – IN THEORY. Nice theory.

Please, someone, anyone: show one case – IN FACT.

Has there any claim by the ‘administration’ that they have prevented an attack based upon something they got by torture?

One?

How much of this ‘acceptance’ of torture is a result of mass media portrayal in video games and movies of over the top violence?

Are we allowing ourselves to be dulled to the aversion of harming another?