on the human rights watch organization site, buried under 7 pages of 
criticism of us involvement in iraq and the human rights abuses 
committed by the coalition forces since their invasion of the country, 
is an article entitled "Iraq: The Death Penalty, Executions, and 
'Prison Cleansing'" from march 2003.

please read it.

http://www.hrw.org/backgrounder/mena/iraq031103.htm

behavior of the occupying, coalition forces in iraq is directly related 
to the conditions they found when they arrived there.

i find it ironic (and indicative of the nature of the criticism brought 
against the us and the coalition forces) that the first american 
soldier to undergo a court marshall was the one who took the 
photographs - not the two soldiers shown in the photo.

i'd like to know if those who criticize the coalition for their human 
rights abuses base their criticisms on some very disturbing photos or 
on the deeds that were committed in them.

personally, i think it's the photos that piss you off.  if it were the 
other way around then you would have to imagine all the photos in all 
the police stations and prisons and concentration camps in all the 
countries of the world - including your own - that were never taken.

if, however, criticism of this behavior is based on an understanding 
that "they (the coalition) should know better" then i suggest you read 
rudyard kipling's "white man's burden " to experience again the 
pomposity and embarrassment of such a notion.

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/Kipling.html

anyone interested in buying a tiple from the canary islands?

- bill

On Marted�, giu 1, 2004, at 15:42 Europe/Rome, James A Stimson wrote:

>
>
>
>
> Dear All:
>  In the highly entertaining "Picasso on Art" (Da Capo Press, 1972), in
> which the artist's views and comments on art are meticulously 
> translated
> into English, politics makes an occasional entry. Mostly it's Picasso's
> rants against Nazis and fascists. But he also said "Guernica" was his 
> only
> consciously political painting.
>  So sometimes the intrusion of politics is unavoidable, but hopefully
> minimized.
> Yours,
> Jim
>
>
>



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