Moving to a new neighborhood - Issue #5
Explanation here
My previous post Cockroaches are disgusting, reminded me of another unpleasant individual I wrote about almost a year ago on my old website.
May 11, 2004
The Limits of Our Language
It certainly is encouraging to see people who disagree with the war in Iraq and want the current administration to lose the election, actually speak out with conservatives against the same editorial cartoon. In it Ted Rall portrayed Pat Tillman as a dunce eager to kill Arabs. The Tillman editorial cartoon was so appalling in its depiction of an American hero that even voices from the left who do not support this administration’s foreign policy have criticized him. I suppose we should be fortunate that his artwork is so lacking in quality or else some on the left would resist criticizing the “art” even though it conveys such a horrible message. Stooping so low seems to be the only real talent Rall has as recent events have given him another opportunity to display the blackness of his heart.
We now have the abuse of prisoners in Iraq ranging from humiliation on the level of a homoerotic frat house initiation to physical beatings and much worse, including rape and murder. One problem, among many, in telling this story is the culture of victimhood. Victims are elevated to expert status and automatically control discussions and definitions. Is it not possible that they have an emotional drive to make things worse then they are or were? Humiliation and temporary physical discomfort are not torture in the normal sense of the term. Of course the cut-off point should be debated and limits enforced and we are doing this. We are also investigating to determine the extent of what happened and who was responsible so they can be punished. I don’t recall Sadaam or CNN in Iraq acting this way.
Rall’s response to all of this is to compare our troops to the SS in Nazi Germany. He is clever enough to include a few tepid qualifiers. The U.S. military does not have gas chambers he writes. If only he had stopped there; but then he has to add that this is the only thing keeping American troops from achieving moral parity with the Nazis. Those words of his are revealing to say the least. You can almost hear him sputtering under his breath - they don’t have gas chambers - just yet. He does admit that most soldiers don’t condone torture. However, this statement is surrounded and overwhelmed by pathological hatred for the military and the President. So much so that a sense of proportion and understanding of history is lost.
History shows us that the SS rounded up Jews, gypsies and other undesirables to physically torture, commit medical experiments on and then kill. If they were lucky they were allowed to live a bit longer. But only so they could dig their own graves. Genocide and cruelty were the norm of the day and such actions were rewarded. Contrast this to the investigation started by the military command structure and the offer to compensate the victims. The few involved are outnumbered by the thousands who are helping to rebuild Iraq after freeing the people from a dictator who was more like the SS then Rall seems able to comprehend. He is either flirting with becoming a holocaust denier or he is merely braying for attention as only a spoiled, maladjusted, childish and mentally deficient jackass can.
It is almost as if he is trying to be the Axis Sally of the War On Terror. His expected denials of treason, while hard to believe, will undoubtedly save him from being prosecuted for such, even by this administration he so hates and vilifies. But is he not aware or care that the enemy will use such screeds against us and that his bile will prolong the war and endanger more lives? The term useful idiot comes to mind. The only other alternative is that he lives in a completely different reality and is clinically insane.
To aid us in understanding this mental disorder it will be helpful to name it. I propose that this pathology be called moveonophelia. Fortunately several famous individuals seem to be afflicted with this disease. They could use their fame, such as it is, to suckle up to the teats of the media hogs in Congress for largess to research and treat their affliction. Imagine the moving testimony of Bill Clinton, much less so the wooden Al Gore, even less the ranting of Michael Moore or other “professional” hate America types.
It was interesting that the latest screed by this moveonophile was followed by an ad for a book he has written. Apparently book sales trump common decency to the point of providing comfort and encouragement to the enemy with the attendant result being more death and suffering the world over. The terms traitor, useful idiot or insane do not seem adequate. The truth is our language is incapable of sinking to the depths necessary to accurately describe such a person.
My previous post Cockroaches are disgusting, reminded me of another unpleasant individual I wrote about almost a year ago on my old website.
May 11, 2004
The Limits of Our Language
It certainly is encouraging to see people who disagree with the war in Iraq and want the current administration to lose the election, actually speak out with conservatives against the same editorial cartoon. In it Ted Rall portrayed Pat Tillman as a dunce eager to kill Arabs. The Tillman editorial cartoon was so appalling in its depiction of an American hero that even voices from the left who do not support this administration’s foreign policy have criticized him. I suppose we should be fortunate that his artwork is so lacking in quality or else some on the left would resist criticizing the “art” even though it conveys such a horrible message. Stooping so low seems to be the only real talent Rall has as recent events have given him another opportunity to display the blackness of his heart.
We now have the abuse of prisoners in Iraq ranging from humiliation on the level of a homoerotic frat house initiation to physical beatings and much worse, including rape and murder. One problem, among many, in telling this story is the culture of victimhood. Victims are elevated to expert status and automatically control discussions and definitions. Is it not possible that they have an emotional drive to make things worse then they are or were? Humiliation and temporary physical discomfort are not torture in the normal sense of the term. Of course the cut-off point should be debated and limits enforced and we are doing this. We are also investigating to determine the extent of what happened and who was responsible so they can be punished. I don’t recall Sadaam or CNN in Iraq acting this way.
Rall’s response to all of this is to compare our troops to the SS in Nazi Germany. He is clever enough to include a few tepid qualifiers. The U.S. military does not have gas chambers he writes. If only he had stopped there; but then he has to add that this is the only thing keeping American troops from achieving moral parity with the Nazis. Those words of his are revealing to say the least. You can almost hear him sputtering under his breath - they don’t have gas chambers - just yet. He does admit that most soldiers don’t condone torture. However, this statement is surrounded and overwhelmed by pathological hatred for the military and the President. So much so that a sense of proportion and understanding of history is lost.
History shows us that the SS rounded up Jews, gypsies and other undesirables to physically torture, commit medical experiments on and then kill. If they were lucky they were allowed to live a bit longer. But only so they could dig their own graves. Genocide and cruelty were the norm of the day and such actions were rewarded. Contrast this to the investigation started by the military command structure and the offer to compensate the victims. The few involved are outnumbered by the thousands who are helping to rebuild Iraq after freeing the people from a dictator who was more like the SS then Rall seems able to comprehend. He is either flirting with becoming a holocaust denier or he is merely braying for attention as only a spoiled, maladjusted, childish and mentally deficient jackass can.
It is almost as if he is trying to be the Axis Sally of the War On Terror. His expected denials of treason, while hard to believe, will undoubtedly save him from being prosecuted for such, even by this administration he so hates and vilifies. But is he not aware or care that the enemy will use such screeds against us and that his bile will prolong the war and endanger more lives? The term useful idiot comes to mind. The only other alternative is that he lives in a completely different reality and is clinically insane.
To aid us in understanding this mental disorder it will be helpful to name it. I propose that this pathology be called moveonophelia. Fortunately several famous individuals seem to be afflicted with this disease. They could use their fame, such as it is, to suckle up to the teats of the media hogs in Congress for largess to research and treat their affliction. Imagine the moving testimony of Bill Clinton, much less so the wooden Al Gore, even less the ranting of Michael Moore or other “professional” hate America types.
It was interesting that the latest screed by this moveonophile was followed by an ad for a book he has written. Apparently book sales trump common decency to the point of providing comfort and encouragement to the enemy with the attendant result being more death and suffering the world over. The terms traitor, useful idiot or insane do not seem adequate. The truth is our language is incapable of sinking to the depths necessary to accurately describe such a person.
Author: Mark K. Sprengel | 10:07:00 AM |
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