Post by whatever on Mar 8, 2005 12:30:20 GMT -5
Are we there yet?
Evidence of a White House 'Cult'
By Kevin Wood | Book Review
The Daily Yomiuri (Japan)
Tuesday 08 March 2005
Chain of Command: The Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib
By Seymour M. Hersh
HarperCollins, 416 pp, 25.95 dollars
Seymour Hersh's Chain of Command is a stunning expose of the mismanagement, mendacity and misconduct behind the actions of the U.S. government and military in relation to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The book is a reworking and updating of Hersh's shocking series of investigative reports, originally published in The New Yorker, on various disturbing aspects of the foreign policy of the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush.
Despite administration claims to the contrary--Richard Perle, one of the architects of the Iraq war, called the author "the closest thing American journalism has to a terrorist"--Hersh is hardly a wild-eyed radical. He earned his journalistic spurs and a Pulitzer Prize breaking the story of the My Lai massacre during the Vietnam War and recently won his fifth George Polk Award for his work breaking the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse story.
In a recent interview, Hersh asserted that the United States has "been taken over by a cult"--the neoconservative cabal of ideologues the White House has put in control of U.S. foreign policy, military and intelligence apparatuses. Chain of Command paints a chilling portrait of an administration so convinced of its righteousness that it refuses to see any facts that do not fit its preconceptions. Goals set by the president, vice president and defense secretary were to be achieved by any means necessary--and woe to those who let moral or practical objections get in the way.
snipped...
In one of many examples of the inappropriate use of military dogs in Iraq, Hersh writes: "One military intelligence witness, Spc. John Howard Ketzer, told Army investigators that he watched a dog team corner two male prisoners against a wall at Abu Ghraib, with one hiding behind the other and screaming. No interrogation was going on. 'When I asked what was going on in the cell, the handler stated that...he and another of the handlers was having a contest to see how many detainees they could get to urinate on themselves.'"
There's more...
and we're all to blame.
No one will EVER feel sorry for the Americans. We're sitting ducks now. Free shot. Open for looting. NO ONE will come to our defense. And we're just too dumb to realize we might not be strong enough to defend ourselves against anything, might NOT always be the strongest. No one will side with us, especially if they can profit from our downfall.
And there's always profit to be made from the downfall and misfortunes of others.
Isn't there?
Evidence of a White House 'Cult'
By Kevin Wood | Book Review
The Daily Yomiuri (Japan)
Tuesday 08 March 2005
Chain of Command: The Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib
By Seymour M. Hersh
HarperCollins, 416 pp, 25.95 dollars
Seymour Hersh's Chain of Command is a stunning expose of the mismanagement, mendacity and misconduct behind the actions of the U.S. government and military in relation to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The book is a reworking and updating of Hersh's shocking series of investigative reports, originally published in The New Yorker, on various disturbing aspects of the foreign policy of the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush.
Despite administration claims to the contrary--Richard Perle, one of the architects of the Iraq war, called the author "the closest thing American journalism has to a terrorist"--Hersh is hardly a wild-eyed radical. He earned his journalistic spurs and a Pulitzer Prize breaking the story of the My Lai massacre during the Vietnam War and recently won his fifth George Polk Award for his work breaking the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse story.
In a recent interview, Hersh asserted that the United States has "been taken over by a cult"--the neoconservative cabal of ideologues the White House has put in control of U.S. foreign policy, military and intelligence apparatuses. Chain of Command paints a chilling portrait of an administration so convinced of its righteousness that it refuses to see any facts that do not fit its preconceptions. Goals set by the president, vice president and defense secretary were to be achieved by any means necessary--and woe to those who let moral or practical objections get in the way.
snipped...
In one of many examples of the inappropriate use of military dogs in Iraq, Hersh writes: "One military intelligence witness, Spc. John Howard Ketzer, told Army investigators that he watched a dog team corner two male prisoners against a wall at Abu Ghraib, with one hiding behind the other and screaming. No interrogation was going on. 'When I asked what was going on in the cell, the handler stated that...he and another of the handlers was having a contest to see how many detainees they could get to urinate on themselves.'"
There's more...
and we're all to blame.
No one will EVER feel sorry for the Americans. We're sitting ducks now. Free shot. Open for looting. NO ONE will come to our defense. And we're just too dumb to realize we might not be strong enough to defend ourselves against anything, might NOT always be the strongest. No one will side with us, especially if they can profit from our downfall.
And there's always profit to be made from the downfall and misfortunes of others.
Isn't there?
...when he's around
