Hearts and Minds
Posted by
Kevin
Jeanne tells us what the fact that four people found guilty of helping to abuse an innocent Iraqi to death got minimal sentences means:
Pushing a detainee against a wall.
It sounds so insignificant, and that’s the problem. Dilawar wasn’t killed by one brutal soldier, but by many people given a license to act on their most sadistic impulses. You can prosecute all of them. Or you can, more reasonably, blame the people who were issuing the licenses.
He also admitted doing nothing to prevent other soldiers at the US base at Bagram from abusing him.
Under that standard, we’re all guilty.
Yes, we are. If quaint little concepts like justice and decency don’t convince you of the essential wrongness of these penalties, then spare a moment to think how these sentences are going to play in the Arab world.
And then spend some time trying to develop a conscience.
