just plain speechless
Well, as most people who know Stella and me can attest, we're not often shocked into silence. We have things to say. Good things, mostly. Occasional bad things. We try to be reflective. We try to be critical. But holy smokes. Sometimes even we, the snarky girls, have nothing to say.
This morning we finally decided to visit the Abu Ghraib photos and videos posted on Salon.com a few weeks ago. We've actively avoided it, mostly because we weren't sure how much we could stomach. And let me tell you, 279 photographs and 19 videos later, I'm sick. I'm saddened. I'm outraged. I'm disgusted. I'm speechless. Literally. Now the government has finally, as of Tuesday, agreed to release said photographs and videos. If you have not seen them, please visit salon.com. If you're not already a member, you'll sign on for a day pass and watch some ads, then have access to the site.
Everyone should see these. Why? you might ask. Simple. That some members of our military thought these photographs would be - what? funny? insightful? just dessert? - is appalling. Even more appalling? Except for a handful, really, of soldiers, no one has truly been held accountable for the abuse and degredation of the Abu Ghraib prisoners. And if the people who took these photographs and videos thought they'd be lending some insight into what was happening with the war (sorry, Bush, that's what it is - a war), wow, they did. They showed us how how stupid, unintelligent, small-minded, cruel, un-patriotic, un-American, and ridiculous they are.
There are 10 chapters and it's hard to discern which set of photographs is worse. The detainees placed, naked and hooded, into sexually suggestive photos? The female detainee who is posed and photographed - again in sexually suggestive photos? The corpse who died as a result of interrogation - and whose dead body is degraded as these soldiers expose his body and take photographs with it?
My father fought in the Korean War. He's a veteran. He does not condone war. He is against violence and guns. He refuses to talk about what he experienced in Korean. He is absolutely and totally disgusted by what has happened at Abu Ghraib. Lennox is a veteran. The man has surrounded himself by peace and tranquility and doing all he can to make the world a better place. These are good people appalled and wanting to distance themselves from what is happening in Iraq and has happened at Abu Ghraib.
Stella brought up some good points this morning, as we sat in our living rooms, in our charmed existence, with the dogs and the cat, our ibooks powered up, fully aware that our liberties and independence are safe because of countless brave men and women in the military, and because our forefathers valued and institutionalized those freedoms, including:
This morning we finally decided to visit the Abu Ghraib photos and videos posted on Salon.com a few weeks ago. We've actively avoided it, mostly because we weren't sure how much we could stomach. And let me tell you, 279 photographs and 19 videos later, I'm sick. I'm saddened. I'm outraged. I'm disgusted. I'm speechless. Literally. Now the government has finally, as of Tuesday, agreed to release said photographs and videos. If you have not seen them, please visit salon.com. If you're not already a member, you'll sign on for a day pass and watch some ads, then have access to the site.
Everyone should see these. Why? you might ask. Simple. That some members of our military thought these photographs would be - what? funny? insightful? just dessert? - is appalling. Even more appalling? Except for a handful, really, of soldiers, no one has truly been held accountable for the abuse and degredation of the Abu Ghraib prisoners. And if the people who took these photographs and videos thought they'd be lending some insight into what was happening with the war (sorry, Bush, that's what it is - a war), wow, they did. They showed us how how stupid, unintelligent, small-minded, cruel, un-patriotic, un-American, and ridiculous they are.
There are 10 chapters and it's hard to discern which set of photographs is worse. The detainees placed, naked and hooded, into sexually suggestive photos? The female detainee who is posed and photographed - again in sexually suggestive photos? The corpse who died as a result of interrogation - and whose dead body is degraded as these soldiers expose his body and take photographs with it?
My father fought in the Korean War. He's a veteran. He does not condone war. He is against violence and guns. He refuses to talk about what he experienced in Korean. He is absolutely and totally disgusted by what has happened at Abu Ghraib. Lennox is a veteran. The man has surrounded himself by peace and tranquility and doing all he can to make the world a better place. These are good people appalled and wanting to distance themselves from what is happening in Iraq and has happened at Abu Ghraib.
Stella brought up some good points this morning, as we sat in our living rooms, in our charmed existence, with the dogs and the cat, our ibooks powered up, fully aware that our liberties and independence are safe because of countless brave men and women in the military, and because our forefathers valued and institutionalized those freedoms, including:
- at what point will the general public be moved to action?
- who will stand up and say these things were not done in our name?
- where are the veterans who must surely disagree with these atrocities?
- how are we supposed to have respect for a military that allows this to happen?
- how long can we maintain a difference between supporting the troops as a theorhetical concept and having to support these people as part of that concept?
posted by lynda at 2:37 PM
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