Flame — HabitableZone

Flame » in reply to When one has manure on their moustache, the whole world smells like shit.

It Is Ridiculous
Mark Eby — (archived)

to compare US policies from centuries and decades ago to what is currently going on in the world elsewhere. The US has learned from past mistakes just as western Europe has and is trying to spread this more enlightened view. The past policies you rail about are common throughout human history. The US is not unique in it's failings, but rather just symptomatic of human nature in general. It is rare in moving beyond those failings. In economic and technological development it is clearly the leader. In human rights it is clearly a leader. Do you dismiss France as having any legitimate say on human rights because it let over 10,000 people die during a heat wave? I think the slow response there is far more indicative of a low level of concern for general human suffering than the treatment of a small group of prosoners.

The US was roundly praised for it's treatment of prisoners in GW1. That is our basic stance. Unfortunately a tough situation in GW1 and the lack of proper command oversight has allowed some horrible abuses to occur here. These are not comparable to Saddam however as you and others seem to imply. Being posed naked and tricked into believing torture was immenent is not the same as routine murder and physical torture. While this is no excuse for the sorry excuses for US prison guards involved in this scandal their behavior is no exuse for Bush bashers to wildly exaggerate what has actually happened.

Regards,
Mark

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