2008 Woodie Awards
October deaths in Iraq could affect results of election
Daniel Black
Issue date: 11/2/06 Section: Opinion
November 7 approaches, and (hopefully) so too the demise of many political careers in Washington D.C. Just eight days before this long awaited opportunity to oust a large fragment of arguably the most despicable, self-serving party from public office, the hundredth U.S. serviceman's death for the month of October was announced by the U.S. military.
October, I believe it has been reported, ranks as one of the deadliest months of the 44 month-old campaign, an iron fact that eradicates any truth or meaning from the hogwash rhetoric of "final throes of the insurgency" or "major combat operations have ended". It makes very difficult the acceptance of our government's instructions like "stay the course," which suggests blind acceptance of government behavior simply because that's what we've done in the past. With the arrival of November 7, 'staying the course' becomes an option, a choice to be decided by the people, and as a result, the congressmen whose power is threatened are attacking one another ruthlessly and shamelessly. I have removed myself from these reprehensible feeding frenzies because, as with most voting seasons, slander is in abundance but truth is in short supply.
Let us bear some facts in mind, as the libel campaigns and childish mud fights of politicians and potential politicians don't seem to have any wisdom to be gleaned. President Bush recently passed the "Military Commissions Act" -a harmless sounding title- which allows him to interpret the Geneva Conventions as he pleases and insulates intelligence agents and government officials (himself included) from facing justice. This Act is truly mortifying for a couple of simple reasons, an appreciation of which requires a little background knowledge the Geneva Conventions themselves and their history.
In the wake of World War II, just a couple of years after the atomic bomb, a whole bunch of developed countries gathered in Switzerland with the common interest of preventing the Holocaust from recurrence. They had basically decided that the Holocaust was something very, very bad and nobody wanted to see history repeat itself. They convened a series of meetings, the substance of which led to the drafting of such documents as the Geneva Conventions and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is important to remember that the sole, single, lonely purpose of holding these meetings and writing these documents was contempt for the actions of the Nazis and a conceited attempt to lay those sorts of atrocities to rest in the pages of human history for all time.
October, I believe it has been reported, ranks as one of the deadliest months of the 44 month-old campaign, an iron fact that eradicates any truth or meaning from the hogwash rhetoric of "final throes of the insurgency" or "major combat operations have ended". It makes very difficult the acceptance of our government's instructions like "stay the course," which suggests blind acceptance of government behavior simply because that's what we've done in the past. With the arrival of November 7, 'staying the course' becomes an option, a choice to be decided by the people, and as a result, the congressmen whose power is threatened are attacking one another ruthlessly and shamelessly. I have removed myself from these reprehensible feeding frenzies because, as with most voting seasons, slander is in abundance but truth is in short supply.
Let us bear some facts in mind, as the libel campaigns and childish mud fights of politicians and potential politicians don't seem to have any wisdom to be gleaned. President Bush recently passed the "Military Commissions Act" -a harmless sounding title- which allows him to interpret the Geneva Conventions as he pleases and insulates intelligence agents and government officials (himself included) from facing justice. This Act is truly mortifying for a couple of simple reasons, an appreciation of which requires a little background knowledge the Geneva Conventions themselves and their history.
In the wake of World War II, just a couple of years after the atomic bomb, a whole bunch of developed countries gathered in Switzerland with the common interest of preventing the Holocaust from recurrence. They had basically decided that the Holocaust was something very, very bad and nobody wanted to see history repeat itself. They convened a series of meetings, the substance of which led to the drafting of such documents as the Geneva Conventions and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is important to remember that the sole, single, lonely purpose of holding these meetings and writing these documents was contempt for the actions of the Nazis and a conceited attempt to lay those sorts of atrocities to rest in the pages of human history for all time.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
george.lukes
George Lukes
posted 11/02/06 @ 2:15 PM EST
Well articulated, rational, and factual arguments.
When you have the same party in the White House, Congress, and controlling the Supreme Court, you can do just about anything, which is what we are seeing. (Continued…)
Post a Comment