| GREG-STRANGE.COM |
"If you haven't found something strange during the
day, it hasn't been much of a day." -- John A. Wheeler
day, it hasn't been much of a day." -- John A. Wheeler
PROVIDING SUBSTANTIVE COMMENTARY ON THE
PEOPLE, POLITICS, EVENTS AND ABSURDITIES OF
OUR TIME. SERVED UP WITH ACERBIC WIT, YOU
SHOULD FIND IT QUITE SATISFYING.
PEOPLE, POLITICS, EVENTS AND ABSURDITIES OF
OUR TIME. SERVED UP WITH ACERBIC WIT, YOU
SHOULD FIND IT QUITE SATISFYING.
Abu Ghraib Prison Blues
"The country that advocates human rights principles is now
violating them and taking us back to the dark ages." --- Nour
al-Huda Zaki, senior journalist and columnist at Al-Arabi, a
Cairo newspaper, in reference to the mistreatment of prisoners
by Americans at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad.
If this statement weren't so indicative of a seemingly
impervious attitude held by millions of insular and
brainwashed people, its preposterousness would be the cause
of knee-slapping hilarity. Taking them back to the dark ages?
The only way they'll ever be brought OUT of the dark ages is
kicking and screaming, but that's what we're trying to do.
It goes without saying that the selective outrage of the Arab
world over the prisoner abuses committed by a handful of Jerry
Springer-ready American soldiers/losers at Abu Ghraib is a
pathetic joke, especially when you consider that their outrage
never includes their own governments who humiliate,
intimidate, rape, torture and murder Arabs and Muslims all
day long, every day of the year.
Every sentient person on the planet knows that if any of
these prisoners had been held by Saddam & Psycho Sons, Inc.
rather than the U.S. military, and had received the exact same
treatment, they would have been singing Allah's praises to the
high heavens for having gotten off so easy. One can imagine
t-shirts reading: "I went to Ghraib Prison and all I got was a bit
of sexual humiliation!"
Which beats the heck out of having the heck beat out of you,
or far worse. (Remember the shredding machines that hapless
Iraqis were casually dropped into?) None of which is to say
that the treatment the Ghraib prisoners received from that
handful of American reprobates was okay or justified in any
way, but it does put things in stark perspective. Nonetheless,
for the foreseeable future we can expect to be bombarded with
continuing imbecilic twaddle about dark ages, infidels,
invaders, etc.
Speaking of the dark ages, it must be frustrating for the
average Arab on the street to think that after fourteen
centuries of Islam--during which countless millions have faced
Mecca and prayed five times a day, 99% of infidels have been
run out of Arab territory and every other guy has been named
Mohammed--the Arab world is no better off than it is. Instead
of being a utopian paradise of brotherly love and spiritual
contentment, it is a vast, poverty-ridden wasteland of
oppressive despotism, mindless fanaticism, ceaseless conflict
and human stagnation. Does it ever cross anybody's mind over
there that it might be time to try something different?
America is trying to give Iraqis a country where human
beings aren't dropped into shredders at the whim of a
psychopathic dictator, a country with elected leaders and a
reasonable system of justice. And in case nobody in the Arab
world has noticed, this prisoner abuse scandal has Americans
running around like chickens with their heads cut off
demanding that something be done about it because they have
no tolerance for other Americans who do such things. So we
have televised hearings for all the world to see, and President
Bush and others have apologized profusely.
By contrast, how many public hearings have there been in
the Middle East lately to address some wrong or grievance?
How many Middle Eastern leaders have apologized to the world
for any of the trouble they or their people have caused, such as
the endless terrorism, the hijackings, the suicide bombings, the
kidnappings, the beheadings, the endless calls to jihad, the
dancing in the streets after 9/11, the wars against Israel and
the incessant cries for its destruction, the madrasas, the lack of
representative government, the inexcusable mistreatment of
women, the lack of tolerance for anything not Muslim, and just
the general insanity that keeps the world stirred up? Where's
our apology? We're waiting.
The Arab world is like the most violent, incorrigible,
hopeless sociopath you've ever known who on any given day
appears to be on the verge of hitting bottom and then does
something even more depraved the very next day, all the while
acting like he's normal and the rest of the world is screwed up.
The family of nations (i.e., the UN, i.e., the "international
community") has done nothing except enable this tireless
maniac for decades, much to the detriment of the world.
The United States decided, finally, on an intervention
because it desperately needed to be done and because no one
else would do it. It may not have a snowball's chance of
succeeding anytime soon, but without it there is an absolute
certainty that many thousands--perhaps even millions--will
die needlessly at the hands of the deranged fanatics who, for
whatever unfathomable reason, are a result of the peculiar
dysfunctionality of this region.
Back to the dark ages? Forget about it. We're trying to drag
them into modernity, but they're kicking and screaming every
step of the way.
"The country that advocates human rights principles is now
violating them and taking us back to the dark ages." --- Nour
al-Huda Zaki, senior journalist and columnist at Al-Arabi, a
Cairo newspaper, in reference to the mistreatment of prisoners
by Americans at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad.
If this statement weren't so indicative of a seemingly
impervious attitude held by millions of insular and
brainwashed people, its preposterousness would be the cause
of knee-slapping hilarity. Taking them back to the dark ages?
The only way they'll ever be brought OUT of the dark ages is
kicking and screaming, but that's what we're trying to do.
It goes without saying that the selective outrage of the Arab
world over the prisoner abuses committed by a handful of Jerry
Springer-ready American soldiers/losers at Abu Ghraib is a
pathetic joke, especially when you consider that their outrage
never includes their own governments who humiliate,
intimidate, rape, torture and murder Arabs and Muslims all
day long, every day of the year.
Every sentient person on the planet knows that if any of
these prisoners had been held by Saddam & Psycho Sons, Inc.
rather than the U.S. military, and had received the exact same
treatment, they would have been singing Allah's praises to the
high heavens for having gotten off so easy. One can imagine
t-shirts reading: "I went to Ghraib Prison and all I got was a bit
of sexual humiliation!"
Which beats the heck out of having the heck beat out of you,
or far worse. (Remember the shredding machines that hapless
Iraqis were casually dropped into?) None of which is to say
that the treatment the Ghraib prisoners received from that
handful of American reprobates was okay or justified in any
way, but it does put things in stark perspective. Nonetheless,
for the foreseeable future we can expect to be bombarded with
continuing imbecilic twaddle about dark ages, infidels,
invaders, etc.
Speaking of the dark ages, it must be frustrating for the
average Arab on the street to think that after fourteen
centuries of Islam--during which countless millions have faced
Mecca and prayed five times a day, 99% of infidels have been
run out of Arab territory and every other guy has been named
Mohammed--the Arab world is no better off than it is. Instead
of being a utopian paradise of brotherly love and spiritual
contentment, it is a vast, poverty-ridden wasteland of
oppressive despotism, mindless fanaticism, ceaseless conflict
and human stagnation. Does it ever cross anybody's mind over
there that it might be time to try something different?
America is trying to give Iraqis a country where human
beings aren't dropped into shredders at the whim of a
psychopathic dictator, a country with elected leaders and a
reasonable system of justice. And in case nobody in the Arab
world has noticed, this prisoner abuse scandal has Americans
running around like chickens with their heads cut off
demanding that something be done about it because they have
no tolerance for other Americans who do such things. So we
have televised hearings for all the world to see, and President
Bush and others have apologized profusely.
By contrast, how many public hearings have there been in
the Middle East lately to address some wrong or grievance?
How many Middle Eastern leaders have apologized to the world
for any of the trouble they or their people have caused, such as
the endless terrorism, the hijackings, the suicide bombings, the
kidnappings, the beheadings, the endless calls to jihad, the
dancing in the streets after 9/11, the wars against Israel and
the incessant cries for its destruction, the madrasas, the lack of
representative government, the inexcusable mistreatment of
women, the lack of tolerance for anything not Muslim, and just
the general insanity that keeps the world stirred up? Where's
our apology? We're waiting.
The Arab world is like the most violent, incorrigible,
hopeless sociopath you've ever known who on any given day
appears to be on the verge of hitting bottom and then does
something even more depraved the very next day, all the while
acting like he's normal and the rest of the world is screwed up.
The family of nations (i.e., the UN, i.e., the "international
community") has done nothing except enable this tireless
maniac for decades, much to the detriment of the world.
The United States decided, finally, on an intervention
because it desperately needed to be done and because no one
else would do it. It may not have a snowball's chance of
succeeding anytime soon, but without it there is an absolute
certainty that many thousands--perhaps even millions--will
die needlessly at the hands of the deranged fanatics who, for
whatever unfathomable reason, are a result of the peculiar
dysfunctionality of this region.
Back to the dark ages? Forget about it. We're trying to drag
them into modernity, but they're kicking and screaming every
step of the way.