Posted on 12/18/2014 8:05:16 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Terrible findings in the torture report "are not who we are," John Kerry claims. Well, here's a U.S. history lesson.
Its comforting for those whose actions are not aligned with their stated values to believe that what one does in real life is not what ultimately defines who one really is. Its nice to think who we are is determined not by the things we did the day before, but by the stated ideals we hope to aspire to fulfill, starting tomorrow. In a nation-state founded by settler-colonial Protestants, the argument is familiar its whats deep down inside that gets one up into heaven, not the good or genocidal nature of what one does down here on Earth and as with any half-decent lie, its relatable: as fallible human beings, wed all rather like to believe that were not as bad as we are but as good as we say we would like to be.
While founded on the ethnic cleansing of the continents original inhabitants and the enslavement of its African workforce, the news or rather, confirmation that the CIA employed a revolting range of enhanced torture techniques in the wake of 9/11 is being portrayed by some as a vile exception to the United States otherwise exceptional history; a stain on our values and history, in the words of Senator Dianne Feinstein, whose committee released the report detailing the agencys use of near-drownings and mock executions and sexual abuse to humiliate and demoralize a foreign other under the guise of gathering intelligence. These practices, the terrible things this country has again and again been shown to do, are not who we are, added Secretary of State John Kerry. Indeed, the awful facts of this report do not even represent who they are,(continued)
(Excerpt) Read more at salon.com ...
I just love it when these so called "historians" go out of their way to take facts out of their historical and cultural context in order to paint the United States as evil.
The native tribes of the Americas were a stone age culture that were inevitably going to be conquered by the European nations. It happened in both North and South America. The North American tribes fared far better in my opinion.
The author seems to think that human rights and property rights can some how be separated. They can not. There can be no human rights with out property right. If property rights are not guaranteed no other rights are guaranteed. If property can be confiscated by the government at will then all other rights are negated because the government can take your property retaliation for some perceived misdeed.
The taking of slavery out of its historical context to condemn the founding of this country and deny exceptionalism the founding is such a common shibboleth that it has become a cliche.
Up to the time of our Civil War slavery was a world wide institution and a world wide market existed for slaves. To this date the United States is the only nation to fight a civil war to eliminate slavery. And an important fact almost universally neglected in this type of article is that slavery still exist in this world and is still often found in this country. It might also be mentioned that slavery is enshrined in the Koran (non-believers may be taken as slaves) and in the Muslim countries of North Africa they are this very day.
The author seems to be placing property rights at the root of our country's misdeeds. This is laughable. The very root of this country's exceptionalism and its strength is property rights. Without property rights there is no freedom. If your property can be taken from you by the government on any pretext property becomes worthless. If property is worthless then commerce and trade become impossibly complex because the measure of worth is difficult and there is little in which wealth can be stored. Property rights and liberty are inseparable.
The mind-bogglingly mendacious musings of a mewling, muddle-minded moron.
I was unusually well-developed for a 12 year old.
I looked great in my fairly modest two-piece bathing suit as I went to the public swimming pool in Hyde Park MA.
While i was innocently enjoying the pool, two teenage boys suddenly held me under the water and “copped a feel”.
I almost drowned, and the boys were gone before i could point them out to the lifeguard.
The point of this narrative is that I went through something far worse than waterboarding, I was an innocent little girl, and I was sexually assaulted at the same time. I had not undergone any “training”, was not a terrorist, and was not responsible for the death of thousands of Americans.
And I survived the experience quite well and turned out ok, thank you very much.
The standard leftist screed, written for the gazillionth time.
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