[lbo-talk] RE: Why the torture at Abu Ghraib should be no surprise

[C. G. Estabrook]

I think there's something to this.  The out-sourcing of torture and
interrogation in the prisons and of the general death-squad activities in
Iraq is evidence of some desire for distancing in the Pentagon.  (When
asked about the rape of one teenager in Abu Ghraib, the Pentagon responded
that the accused was a "contractor" and not under military discipline.)

They felt no need for that distancing during the Phoenix program, but now
the "contractors" constitute the second-largest military force in Iraq --
i.e., there are more US mercenaries there than there are British troops.
This is, in an odd way, progress.  Just as Reagan could not invade
Nicaragua as Kennedy had Vietnam and had to resort instead to a proxy
army, so Bush perhaps can't get away with an occupation as brutal and
racist as the one we sponsor in Palestine. (Admittedly, that didn't help
the tens of thousands of people we killed in Nicaragua, or in Iraq.) --CGE

On Fri, 7 May 2004, Doug Henwood wrote:


> Why not concede Chomsky's argument, that the U.S. is "incomparably
> more civilized" than it was 40 years ago? Only the right-wing nuts are
> defending this - even the gang on CNBC warming up for the jobs report
> this morning looked uncomfortable. Why hasn't the U.S.  flattened
> Fallujah and Najaf already? Could it be partly for fear of public
> revulsion, and the need to keep up an appearance of sparing civilian
> life?
>