I had kittens when I was young. When you first get a kitten they are so cute and cuddly. But they pee and crap all over the place until you house train them. How do you do that? There is one very fast and fool proof way. Rub their noses in their crap. All it takes is once and they never crap on that place again. Rub their noses in it and then put them outside in the dirt. They make the connection.
Our country and our leaders need to have their noses rubbed in the crap they do. They need to take a good long look at the death, pain, suffering and destruction these wars are. Look at the lost limbs, the dead infants and toddlers, the devastated families, the broken bodies of our GIs, their broken families, their lost wages of never being able to work again. Take a good long hard look at those pictures, show them to the American people and then once again. tell us why these wars are so necessary. Tell us why wars that proliferate terrorism, instead of quelling it, are necessary. These wars are a liability to freedom. They motivate families of the innocent victims of our racist military to become terrorists against the U.S. military. If the U.S. were occupied and our families killed, we would do the very same. Our troops don’t protect our freedom. They endanger it.
The President has stated he will not release photos of torture carried out by the U.S. The argument is that this release would endanger the lives of Americans. Meanwhile, it’s obvious the photos would implicate the U.S. and the Obama administration, even though the torture was carried out in the previous administration. The wars continue. GITMO is scheduled to close, but it’s still open. Renegade marines loyal to Rumsfeld continue to carry out atrocities against Afghan civilians. Bush is gone but his policies still linger like the stench of a week old litter box.
The problem here is that the truth is censored. This is the policy of the U.S. military and it is how they get away with the war crimes they commit. If people saw what goes on in war, as they did in Vietnam, these wars would be stopped. There are two photographs that are purported to have stopped the Vietnam war, one by Eddie Adams of a Vietnam officer executing an alleged Vietcong officer. The other is by Nick Ut of a naked 9-year-old girl running toward the camera to flee a South Vietnamese napalm attack . During that war the American public saw weekly graphic photos in Life magazine of U.S. servicemen with their guts blown out, or their arms and legs shot off. The nightly news reported the body count. We see very little of this today.
The war in Afghanistan is very much like the war in Vietnam. As Ret. Col. Andrew Bacevich testified to Congress, when he quoted The 25 Year War, a book by Gen. Bruce Palmer written in 1984,
“With respect to Vietnam, our leaders should have known that the American people would not stand still for a protracted war, of an indeterminate nature, and with no foreseeable end to the U.S. commitment.”
Bacevich continued,
Today exactly 25 years later, we once again find ourselves mired in a protracted war of an indeterminate nature, with no foreseeable end to the U.S. commitment. Just as in the 1960s we possessed neither the wisdom nor the means needed to determine the fate of Southeast Asia, so today, we posses neither the wisdom, nor the means, necessary to determine the fate of the greater middle east.
The horrors of war, if revealed, and when they were revealed in the past, make us realize how wrong these wars are, and allow no refuge from the truth by our warmongering military complex.
There are pictures of war, of the civilian atrocities, injuries and deaths, along with the same pain and suffering our troops endure in these wars, for which they even admit they know not why they are there. Many such pictures are censored by the military. But some get through. What we are seeing with the administration’s censorship of the torture is more of the same. They censor these photos for political self survival and to keep these wars going. They know if these photos get out the people will not stand for these wars to continue. The rhetoric about such photos endangering lives may hold some truth. But a long protracted war will certainly bring on much more death, pain, and suffering and outlandish war expense. If the release of these pictures stops the wars sooner, an obvious likely result, then their release will save hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of lives, including thousands of U.S. GIs and the devastation to their families.
Iraq is an illegal preemptive racist genocide. It started that way, and it continues that way. The fact that we plan to exit Iraq in another year or so does not make it any less illegal. As long as Americans are there, they are engaged in an illegal preemptive occupation, forsaking the lives of innocent civilians as a matter of policy. Afghanistan has the very same policies. We are there under the pretense of fighting the terrorists who committed 9-11. Those terrorists, Al Qaeda, are not in Afghanistan. They are in Pakistan. So why are we dropping bombs on Afghanistan?
We would never stand for our police to drop bombs on neighborhoods in the U.S. just to make sure they kill some gang bangers, forsaking the lives of the innocent. Yet we allow our military to do this very thing day after day as a matter of policy. Why? Because the victims are not Americans. They are Muslims, Iraqis, and Afghans. No matter that they include innocent men, women, children, and infants. We don’t care because they are not Americans. That is a racist policy. That makes America a racist nation. If you can live with this, then you are racist.
You are certainly making an important and valid point. However, your introduction is inaccurate and outdated. Speaking as a veterinarian with 18 years of experience, I can tell you that kittens do not have to be litter box trained, it is instinctive for them to use a litterbox. Rubbing an animal's nose in feces is unsanitary and cruel, and it does not help with house breaking or litter box training one iota. Your inaccurate introduction raises doubts that the rest of your article does not deserve. Time for a re-write?
Doc, this is an analogy, as I'm sure you understand. Rubbing the cat's nose in her feces may be debatable. But your method certainly did not work for me at all. Of course this was 30 years ago, so perhaps cat litter technology has improved since then. Actually, as I recall. this was before cat litter existed. Take note, I did not mention I used cat litter. However, warmongering has remained a constant throughout human existence. Perhaps, you could invent a presidential litter of sorts to address this problem with their disregard for human life.
You say this kind of nose rubbing is cruel. I'm sure it's also cruel to have our leaders and the American people look at the torture, death, dismemberment, and tearing apart of families that they do so nonchalantly, even disdainfully, to their victims, the over one million dead innocent civilians of these wars. How cruel would you say is this racist preemptive genocide and occupation of countries that have done nothing to us, whatsoever. Al Qaeda is in Pakistan not Iraq, not Afghanistan. Duh. What morons are running this country?
By the way, I hate cat litter boxes around the house. They stink. My cats lived outside, in their natural habitat.
Analogies are always inadequate and always allow someone to find holes in their logic. Of course, it's not exactly the same thing. It's an analogy. I actually hate analogies for this very reason and like you, I take the opportunity of their inherent weakness to turn them around on the person citing them, when I disagree.
But in this case, the real world situation is more accurate to the analogy than the analogy itself, if you know what I mean, and I think you do because you stated the point was important and valid. Warmongering Presidents, unlike cats, are not instinctively trained to respect human life above political aspirations. In this case the rubbing of noses is quite warranted. That's the point I'm making. My intent was to rouse a response, not to accurately explain cat training. So I am satisfied I have succeeded. But thanks for the correction. Stay tuned for the film.