Misunderstanding? Or...?
Dean
I've been meaning to write a response to this piece on the Simian Brain blog for a few days.
The claim, in short, is that because I believe the press is irresponsible to tell stories that slam the military based on anonymous sources and rumor and inuendo, I "hate American values." Also, if I point out that we actually prosecute our worst offenders and that it's insane to draw a moral parallel between us and regimes which commit much greater crimes, this supposedly means I am dismissing bad things our people do. Also, although it doesn't say so explicitely, I get the feeling that, for these folks, if I exercise my First Amendment right to criticize the press, I'm doing something evil.
This is pretty much why I walked away from the left--this tendency toward deranged non-sequitur thinking, I mean. I can't tell whether the distortion of my words is deliberate or accidental, but the mischaracterization of my position is so extreme I'd appreciate a retraction. I somehow doubt I'll get one though.
Still, anyone who reads Dean's World knows that I have been writing for years against the use of torture, and that I was one of the first to loudly condemn what happened at Abu Ghraib. Nor have I ever suggested that the press should not report things that it knows to be true.
What's not acceptable to me is only reporting bad things, and habitually reporting gossip, rumor, and inuendo, some of which might well just be enemy propaganda. It's also insane to think that what happens at places like Guantanamo or Abu Ghraib can be compared on the same level as Soviet gulags or Saddam Hussein's torture chambers.
The New Republic (a highly respectable left-wing journal) has an excellent article on this topic (it requires registration but it's worth it), comparing the worst accusations about prisoner abuse by Americans with what real human rights atrocities look like. The whole piece is good, but the summary line is probably the best:
The detention center at Guantánamo is legally dubious and has been a public relations disaster for the United States. The treatment of certain prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan has been far worse. Amnesty's president Irene Kahn says that these practices are "undermining human rights in a dramatic way." Her outrage is valuable and essential. If only she could express it without employing obscene moral parallels.
That, to me, is an entirely sane and rational position for someone left-of-center to hold. Suggesting that human rights atrocities are common and everyday things for the American military, on the other hand, is neither sane nor rational--it's just hateful and nasty and stupid. It also would indicate to me that the person making the comparison hates America more than he cares about human rights.
But you know what? Maybe I'm wrong. Val Prieto has some horrifying tales of human rights abuses documented down there in Cuba that the mainstream press rarely reports on. I would like to invite the folks at Simian Brain to read and respond to what Val has documented. Who knows? Maybe we can get a blogospheric "left and right alliance" together to fight against such horrifying human rights abuses. What do you say guys?
