It seems that Colin Powell entered the fray regarding the George W. Bush administration’s attempt to redefine parts of the Geneva Conventions regarding the prohibition against torturing prisoners of war; the United States was a major signatory of these Conventions. Mr. Powell wrote the following in a letter to Senator McCain, “The world is beginning to doubt the moral basis of our fight against terrorism. To redefine Common Article 3 would add to those doubts. Furthermore, it would put our own troops at risk.”
The fact that this man could refer to the moral basis of the alleged war against terrorism is quite beyond any real concept of personal integrity. It should not be forgotten that this man was instrumental in planning the strategy used in the First Gulf War in which so many atrocities were committed against human beings, including burying alive untold numbers of Iraqi soldiers in the Kuwaiti desert. It should not be forgotten that in this conflict the infrastructure of Iraq was literally destroyed ultimately leading to the death of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians. It should not be forgotten that depleted uranium ordinance was used extensively in Iraq, especially in the southern part of the country putting the Iraqi people at risk. For a person with such a history to refer to any kind of moral superiority, is ludicrous and essentially obscene.
We are a nation whose behavior abroad is forged in blood, and as the recent catastrophe in New Orleans suggests, is readily displayed at home as well. If we, as a people, are ever to be respected in the world, we need to acknowledge our own brutality and legitimately work towards building a better world based on the tenets of peace and not those of war and needless carnage.
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