So fucking tired

[nancylebov]

NPR is interviewing an anti-torture guy from the ACLU, which is fine. Someone calls in to say that terrorists treat people really badly, so why should we do anything differently? The anti-torture guy says, "Because we're Americans."

I have this werid belief in universal values. I would like Americans to not torture because they have some respect for people and for truth and for the long run. I want Americans to behave decently because it's worth doing, not because it's a special American thing.

Comments

Re: The same argument was used in WWII about Japanese prisoners of war

[mouseworks.livejournal.com]

Boy, there's way more to the Rape of Nanking than I'd realized initially:

http://www.wellesley.edu/Polisci/wj/China/Nanjing/nanjing2.html


The original figure I posted was probably a good 10 times what the true figure was. We've indirectly killed more Iraqis.

One of the problems of war time atrocities is that WWI had a huge number of faked atrocities supposedly committed by the Germans (and publicized in US newspapers by the British) which didn't turn out to be quite so. The Rape of Nanking was real enough, just about a tenth the size of what people commonly believe was the case. And the Chinese peole weren't welcoming the invaders as liberators, either.

The Japanese CP has insisted that Japan apologize for what it did do and pay reparations to the comfort women, but I suspect that demonizing the opposition and glorifying one's own side has been going on forever. I take the middle position here both for us in the Near East and the Japanese in Asia.