Pinthouse Pizza
Atrocities Committed in Our Name
RECEIVED Thu., April 12, 2012
Dear Editor,
I admit it: I left myself wide open for the editing slight, the titling of my last letter “Tolerating Atrocities Makes Americans Complicit” [“Postmarks,” April 6]. Without retracting the statement whole cloth, in all its orneriness, I would qualify it; if it is not a moot point because no one read a letter the title of which accused them of complicity in heinous acts of barbarism.
While Americans may not be morally responsible per se for Abu Ghraib, those atrocities were committed in our name. America is hated because of this act of ruthless imperialism, and will be for decades, if not centuries to come. The consequences are not abstract. We now must absorb our service men and women returning – psychologically and physically shattered from multiple deployments several times exceeding the maximum considered advisable (many on psychotropic drugs) – to an economy robbed blind by the very crony “capitalists” who engineered the hostilities.
Because I was immersed in conspiracy reality well before George W. Bush was “elected,” I knew that he was hell-bent on invading Iraq and that it would be a debacle exceeding Vietnam. 9/11 – whether a spectacular example of ineptitude by American intelligence or an inside job – was the event Bush/Cheney would exploit to rush American troops into Iraq, overstepping Congress and deceiving a shell-shocked citizenry with terror-baiting about nonexistent weapons of mass destruction. But Cheney opportunistically retained his profitable stocks in Halliburton throughout his tenure.
I would also point out that Seymour Hersh, whose lecture in Austin last month incited this line of thought, was listed by the author of The Last Circle (intrigue, murder, government drug-smuggling) as one of the good guys. The title of the book is a reference to Dante’s ranking of traitors as inevitable inhabitants of the lowest level of hell.
I admit it: I left myself wide open for the editing slight, the titling of my last letter “Tolerating Atrocities Makes Americans Complicit” [“Postmarks,” April 6]. Without retracting the statement whole cloth, in all its orneriness, I would qualify it; if it is not a moot point because no one read a letter the title of which accused them of complicity in heinous acts of barbarism.
While Americans may not be morally responsible per se for Abu Ghraib, those atrocities were committed in our name. America is hated because of this act of ruthless imperialism, and will be for decades, if not centuries to come. The consequences are not abstract. We now must absorb our service men and women returning – psychologically and physically shattered from multiple deployments several times exceeding the maximum considered advisable (many on psychotropic drugs) – to an economy robbed blind by the very crony “capitalists” who engineered the hostilities.
Because I was immersed in conspiracy reality well before George W. Bush was “elected,” I knew that he was hell-bent on invading Iraq and that it would be a debacle exceeding Vietnam. 9/11 – whether a spectacular example of ineptitude by American intelligence or an inside job – was the event Bush/Cheney would exploit to rush American troops into Iraq, overstepping Congress and deceiving a shell-shocked citizenry with terror-baiting about nonexistent weapons of mass destruction. But Cheney opportunistically retained his profitable stocks in Halliburton throughout his tenure.
I would also point out that Seymour Hersh, whose lecture in Austin last month incited this line of thought, was listed by the author of The Last Circle (intrigue, murder, government drug-smuggling) as one of the good guys. The title of the book is a reference to Dante’s ranking of traitors as inevitable inhabitants of the lowest level of hell.
Sincerely,
Kenney C. Kennedy
Kenney C. Kennedy