Wednesday, November 17, 2004

Doublethink

From Bob Harris:

[. . .]

And there we find the very definition of doublethink.

Sure enough, many of the very same people who were so outraged that John Kerry would dare describe known atrocities to which the perpetrators had already confessed, insisting that this was a betrayal, and American troops would never do such a thing... are now saying that shooting an unarmed man who presents no threat is completely justified.

There's only one way this mindset is consistent: if you believe that Americans, by definition, are always on the side of light and therefore never commit atrocities. Whatever Americans do is justified.

There are some notable people in the not-so-distant past who believed something similar.

American troops died in large number to fight them.

What followed was the creation of a large body of international law on what is and is not a war crime. Much of this law was purchased with American blood.

And now... this is where we are.

[. . .]


Listen to Hannity and Limbaugh and you'd think this Marine killed the Iraqi on the steps of the Capitol as he tried to blow up an icon of our society. Being a combat vet, I'll withold judgment of the Marine until the entire story is told. Shit happens in combat . . . and I'll leave it at that.

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