Evil Amerika

Do you have the stomach for one more disgusting article?

Neither do I. But I find 'em, I share 'em with you.

This one from (surprise!) The Moscow Times. It's an 'opinion' article:


CONTEXT - This Week in Arts and Ideas from The Moscow Times

("Arts and Ideas"? Give me a break!)

The author's name is cited as "Chris Floyd", and you wonder what someone with such an anglicized name is doing writing to the Moscow Times. Well, it ain't Glasnost!

Seymour Hersh, chronicler of madness from the My Lai massacre to Abu Ghraib, tells a chilling story of the lingering aftermath of atrocity.

As the revelations of brutal torture by the victors were first spilling from conquered Iraq, Hersh was contacted by a family member of a young U.S. woman who had served in a unit policing Abu Ghraib, the Guardian reports. The young soldier had "come back a different person," the relative said: distraught and angry, turning her back on her family.

The relative retrieved a computer she'd lent the soldier to use in Iraq -- and found there a file crammed with torture porn: photo after photo of a naked Iraqi prisoner writhing before the onslaught of fierce police dogs. One of the pictures was later published and became an emblem of the dehumanizing brutality of the U.S. occupation.

The young soldier thought she'd been sent to fight for democracy and freedom, the relative told Hersh, but it was a lie. Instead she found herself in Hell, committing crimes, violating her own nature, her sense of duty perverted by leaders who twisted it into a weapon to serve aggressive war. Since her return, said the relative, the young soldier keeps getting black tattoos, more and more of them, slowly covering her entire body -- literally trying to change her skin.

The fate of this soul-broken, tormented daughter of America embodies the nation itself under the malevolent reign of President George W. Bush. The whole country is changing its skin, trying to cloak its complicity and shame with a wilful disfigurement. Who could look on the hideous form of Bush's America -- the snarling faces belching rancor on Fox News; the rabid partisans oozing bile through the halls of Congress; the money-glutting religious extremists relentlessly pushing ignorance, intolerance and theocratic dominion; the corporate beasts devouring the landscape, destroying communities, writing their own laws, gorging on unprecedented profits wrung from global sweatshops, corruption and war; the somnolent, silent, acquiescent public, blankly countenancing torture, deceit, military aggression and the destruction of their constitutional order -- and not see in all this a body politic in profound psychological crisis: traumatized, guilt-ridden, turning itself inside out in a frantic attempt to escape the truth?


And this desperation only grows as the truth piles up, fragment by fragment, dug out from Bush's slagheap of lies. In the past month, there has been a barrage of "smoking guns" outlining the Regime's criminality in such stark and blatant terms that even the U.S. corporate media -- those cringing enablers of atrocity -- have been forced to take some notice.

Take a break, Pal.
In 1970, I came back from Vietnam "distraught and angry" and found myself turning my back on my family.

But it wasn't because I had been leading naked VietCong around on a leash; it was because I had seen too many friends killed by the VietCong. It took me a while to regain my perspective, and to realize that my grief was alienating me from civilized society. It's a thing that happens, and stable people learn to (a) not sucumb to savagery in the midst of war, and (b) not assume that everyone is your enemy.

The young woman in question apparently didn't have sufficient moral guidance to make the simple step from the Senior Prom to (a). That, or the entire article is based on lies. Either is possible.

I find it interesting that no names, no second sources, are cited. I'm inclined to believe that the author is engaging in a flight of America-hating fantasy.

"The fate of this soul-broken, tormented daughter of America embodies the nation itself under the malevolent reign of President George W. Bush."

Was this written by Teddy Kennedy? This guy has a real boner for Bush and America, doesn't he?

... the hideous form of Bush's America ...

This guy is from out-of-town. He may or may not be a charter subscriber to "Le Figaro" (the French magazine which is too arrogant to provide an english edition on the internet), but he is surely getting his information from some America-hating source.

Well, even the French can't be all bad. They rejected the EU constitution, didn't they?

Okay, I'm about burned out on this puppy. You can go read the whole thing by clicking on the link at the top of the page, but here's the last gasp from the guy who apparently did what Alex Baldwin didn't have the guts to do ... move to a country which really appreciated him:

We have reported here in great detail on the voluminous evidence establishing that the endemic, systematic torture in Bush's gulag was instigated by the White House, sanctioned by Bush's appointed "legal experts" who ruled that as commander in chief, he is not constrained by laws against torture -- or, indeed, by any law whatsoever. Equally copious evidence establishes that Rumsfeld and selected Pentagon officials eagerly implemented the torture regimen -- then systematically worked to block or limit investigations once the truth began leaking out. For example, one of the low-ranking "bad apples" finally convicted in the Afghan murders -- after extended Pentagon cover-ups -- was sentenced to just three months in jail by a military court this week, The Associated Press reports. Three months for helping beat a chained, helpless man to death.

Oh, wait. One more thing. The webpage (disengenuously) invites you to write to them if you are 'startled' by the contents:

To Our Readers

Has something you've read here startled you? Are you angry, excited, puzzled or pleased? Do you have ideas to improve our coverage?
Then please write to us.
All we ask is that you include your full name, the name of the city from which you are writing and a contact telephone number in case we need to get in touch.
We look forward to hearing from you.

Yeah, right. Like I'm going to give you my name, address and phone number, Ivan.
Sheesh!