>the point of the point eludes me.
The point is that the American men and women who had themselves photographed while torturing Iraqis, grinning and giving thumbs up, are not "cynics," contrary to Ian's suggestion: <http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/pipermail/lbo-talk/Week-of-Mon-20040426/009359.html>. Their grins and thumbs up may be read as "social gests" -- "scenes where people adopt attitudes of such a sort that the social laws under which they are acting spring into sight" (Brecht). More on the subject at <http://montages.blogspot.com/2004_05_01_montages_archive.html#108351723206766410>.
Carrol wrote:
>Ted is merely point out that in the present case the torture was not
>for a purpose beyond itself (extorting information, gaining a
>confession, etc) but for its own sake, as pleasure.
Over on the Solidarity member listserv, José wrote me that we ought to be clear that the seven individuals -- an army reserve brigadier general and six members of an Army Reserve military police unit -- publicly exposed in the unfolding scandal about torture of Iraqi prisoners are not "the real torturers or death squad types from army intelligence and the CIA. These were the folks in charge of prisoners *between* torture sessions." That's an important point, and I blogged a new entry on this topic: "But Who Will Guard the Guardians Themselves?" <http://montages.blogspot.com/2004_05_01_montages_archive.html#108352110715203145>. -- Yoshie
* Critical Montages: <http://montages.blogspot.com/> * Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/> * Calendars of Events in Columbus: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html>, <http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/> * Student International Forum: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>