Mark LeVine: Where is the Anger at the Horrors Revealed in the Latest Wikileaks Iraq War Logs?

[Turborama]

No more rage against the machine

Where is the anger at the horrors revealed in the latest Wikileaks Iraq war logs?
Mark LeVine: 08 Nov 2010



Dishearteningly unsurprising.

This somewhat awkward phrase is, to my mind, the best description of the emotional and moral impact of Wikileak's release of 400,000 classified US military documents.

In the wake of the GOP "landslide" in the US midterm elections, most commentators have moved on from this all-too-troubling and familiar story. But their doing so only reinforces the basic problems that the release of the documents has revealed - an almost brazen disregard for reality and willingness to ignore the lessons of history for political expediency and economic and strategic gain.

And Barack Obama's post-election "move to the centre" and unwillingness to face the core systemic issues that helped lead to this electoral debacle will only strengthen the Republicans and diminish further the US' global standing.

Violating the laws of war

The individual details are bad enough. First, there are the details of hundreds of civilians killed at checkpoints and over 60,000 killed more broadly during the war; a figure the US military had refused to release and denied even having collected.

Then there is the continued torture by US troops of prisoners well after Abu Ghraib, and the even larger problem of ignoring, as a matter of official military policy per "frago 242" (Fragmentary Order 242) the even more systematic torture and mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners by their own jailers. And even more stunning, the cavalier manner in which military lawyers okayed the killing of Iraqis trying to surrender merely because "they could not surrender to an aircraft".

Full piece: http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/2010/11/2010117111525824181.html

[EFerrari]

1. K&R

[msongs]

2. endless war is as american as.....apple pie n ice cream now nt

[snappyturtle]

3. Where's the outrage? News such as this isn't widely broadcast.

We need to get out of Iraq before it gets any worse. I'm so ashamed of what has happened in Iraq.

[Vinnie From Indy]

4. The answer is simple actually

Our modern media has so perfected the art of persuasion and misdirection in the service of powerful elites that the average American in 2010 only gets angry at those things and people they are told to get angry at by our corrupt media. Until some leaders emerge to challenge the ever increasing consolidation of media, it will continue to get worse.

[truedelphi]

18. + 10,000 n/t

[Catherina]

5. Rec'd. I will never again vote for any Democrat who won't stop these wars n/t

[NRaleighLiberal]

6. I get the sense that the Bush years dried up many people's outrage.

So hard to maintain it through 8 years of constant disaster....just part of human being's inability to not get bored with the same old, even when that same old is outrage and endless war.

[EFerrari]

11. Just as the Bush years ended, a lot of us were knocked over by the economy.

It wouldn't be very surprising if the overload made people shut down in self defense.

[ibegurpard]

22. kind of hard to summon more of it when the current administration won't go after them for it

[Luminous Animal]

7. I've increased my anti-occupation actions in real life but it is worthless doing similar here.

Now that it is Obama's occupation, the majority of DUers can barely work up a furrowed brow.

[SweetieD]

8. People are fatigued by talk of the war. If these things were leaked in 04 or 05

it would've been a much bigger story.

[sabrina 1]

12. It was leaked in 2004. That's when the Abu Ghraib photos were

released. Some of our represnetatives said they were more outraged by the outrage, than they were by the photos and what they revealed. Hearings about the crimes, were stopped. The American public mostly just sighed at best, at worst, they supported it.

But at least on Democratic boards there was outrage. Now, there is hardly any. Even people condemning Assange, just as Republicans used to condemn the brave soldier who handed over the Abu Ghraib tapes.

I don't see any real hope for this country, when a country goes down the road we are on, it will probably take outside intervention to awaken the consciences of the American people. We have a president who will not allow victims to sue, to get even that little bit of justice. And now we have democrats afraid to be too vocal about these horrors in case it might reflect badly on this president. And the right, who could use it as a weapon in elections, but it isn't an issue to them.

[sabrina 1]

9. We have become the evil we claimed to be fighting.

The only hope to fight these evils in this country was the Democratic Party. Now, look at this thread! When Bush was president this thread would have been filled with outraged comments. So what happened? Are those tortured human beings less important now that Bush is gone?

Thank you to the author of this article, and to all those including Wikileaks, who still believe that those who torture are evil and should be brought to justice.

Americans have barely reacted to this devastating information. The right always supported it, the left is silent now. And the criminals who put the policies in place are selling books boasting about it.

At least in Britain, Tony Blair had to cancel his book tour because the people would not tolerate a war criminal profiting even further from his crimes. But here, Bush is treated like a king.

We are a disgrace.

[BeFree]

23. We are

The more I read the more I begin to see that which I have been trying not to see.

And what I am seeing is that we are a disgrace. Where did honor go?

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

10. till there's pictures of the injured men, women, children on TV and paper

we'll just keep on waging war against folks who have tan or brown skin.

[Turborama]

14. You mean pictures like these...?

US soldiers in Iraq approach a car after opening fire when it failed to stop as requested. Despite warning shots it continued to drive towards their dusk patrol in Tal Afar on 18 January 2005.



Chris Hondros a photographer with Getty News was on hand to record these pictures.

WARNING: This gallery contains graphic images
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/05/middle_east_shooting_in_tal_afar/html/1.stm

I saw a video of this on one of Al Jazeera English's specials about the Wikileaks release. I can have a look for it, if you want.

[Bonobo]

13. Ya think, to the Iraqis, that Ralph Nader was wrong about the parties being the same? nt

[Scuba]

15. We're at war?

[Solly Mack]

16. K&R

[Blue Owl]

17. Illegal war is the new norm

Thanks to the Decider and a few complicit Democrats who seem intent on carrying out his noble, brilliant mission.

[FiveGoodMen]

19. Tell the truth: How many DUers care as much about this as they do about whether their hero looked

good in a suit?

Or whether the rest of us are cheering loudly enough?

Everyone has forgotten the war now that a Dem is running it.

[maryf]

20. Or whether KO got his job back...

or whether millions of others got their jobs back...oops, no not that important... :sarcasm:

[maryf]

21. K&R

thanks!