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> > clip - > > > The WikiLeaks video is not an indictment of the individual soldiers > involved -- at least not primarily. Of course those who aren't accustomed > to such sentiments are shocked by the callous and sadistic satisfaction > those soldiers seem to take in slaughtering those whom they perceive as The > Enemy (even when unarmed and crawling on the ground with mortal wounds), but > this is what they're taught and trained and told to do. If you take even > well-intentioned, young soldiers and stick them in the middle of a dangerous > war zone for years and train them to think and act this way, this will > inevitably be the result. The video is an indictment of the U.S. government > and the war policies it pursues. > > All of this is usually kept from us. Unlike those in the Muslim world, who > are shown these realities quite frequently by their free > press<http://blogs.aljazeera.net/category/city/doha>, > we don't usually see what is done by us. We stay blissfully insulated from > it, so that in those rare instances when we're graphically exposed to it, we > can tell ourselves that it's all very unusual and rare. That's how we > collectively dismissed the Abu Ghraib photos, and it's why the Obama > administration took such extraordinary steps to suppress all the rest of the > torture > photos<http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2009/06/01/photos>: > because further disclosure would have revealed that behavior to be standard > and common, not at all unusual or extraordinary. > > full -- < > http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/04/06/iraq/index.html > > > > > ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com