Dan Feidt's log on Minnesota, Information Operations, spinstorms and latent contradictions.
I just finished all my work for the semester, in the form of a very extensive report, "Outsourcing War: the Emergence and Deployment of Privatized Military Firms in the United States."
Within lie my reactions to the Abu Ghraib war crimes, as well as their evil schemes for world domination and all the rest.
After watching that testimony for five hours yesterday and writing this paper about the evil contractors, I am feeling emotionally winded and mentally distorted. That is why God made this a Saturday. It is time to party. I will have something more to post tomorrow.
Here is an excerpt from the paper's conclusion:
As testimony on torture at Abu Ghraib unfolded before Congress today, the focus on the images themselves is conspicuous. While the Taguba report clearly details widespread torture and a breakdown of the Geneva convention, Rumsfeld clearly indicated that he believed it was the images that carried such staggering impact.
It is perhaps fitting that people frame their view in terms of the images, from the bodies of the Blackwater personnel swinging on the bridge to the images of sexual humiliation and torture at the prison. The prison images fix the depraved heart of darkness at a place and time, bringing forth an overwhelming revulsion that cuts across the huge, widening abyss between America and the Arab world. If these images deliver the shock therapy to our identity that finally forces us to return to the norms of basic human decency, peace and kindness, then perhaps the torture served a higher moral purpose.