With reference to last night’s discussions, check out what the_christian said about war crimes.
It’s pretty much what I was saying but with more vehemence, bitterness and actual examples. Except I wasn’t saying “it’s been worse in the past so we shouldn’t be shocked”, I was saying “we know these things happen in wars, so I’m more revolted because Bush and cronies are trying to pretend this is isolated and the culprits are saying “not our fault…”. And I think I have a little more emphasis on “this is one of the reasons we protested the war in the first place, because we *know* it dehumanises”. And I don’t believe in “human nature”, so I do think we can resist doing these things, but army training is *designed* to remove that conscience, leaving us with people who will always act as these guys did. Or almost always.
As for the discussion of “shock”, I’m still shocked, just not surprised, and I’m still disgusted and revolted and saddened and furious. Because this was avoidable. We didn’t have to go to war. We said, over and over, don’t go to this war. And they went anyway. And this result was pretty much inevitable. And that makes me sick.
Anyhow, great post, Mister Christian.
Sorry for the lack of coherence on my part. Have just finished re-ordering the second half of the thesis now. Almost there…