Lifted from comments about teaching Geneva Conventions in US schools.
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Yet more reasons not to like Bernard Lewis
Read from my referrer here. This man is an Ottomanist who has become the most vocal interpreter of modern, Arab Islam in the US right now. It boggles the mind that he is considered an expert on the topics for which he is consulted – topics that affect whether or not we go to war. Even his medieval Arab history has been attacked as being slip shod and polemical.
The Real Lesson of 9-11
By Gary Kamiya. Sept. 11 is a totemic date for the Bush administration. It justifies everything, explains everything, ends all argument. It is the crime that must be eternally punished, the wound that can never heal, the moral high ground that can never be taken. Bush’s reaction to 9/11 was to declare a “war on terror,” of which the Iraq adventure was said to be the “front line.” The American establishment signed off on this war because of 9/11. To oppose Bush’s “war on terror” was to risk another terror attack and dishonor our dead. The establishment has now turned…
Torture and Cowardice, Pt.2
JMM hits it out of the park with this piece. Being bold means taking responsibility for being bold. As I’ve argued before, I think the answer to the ticking time bomb rationale for torture is this: that in the extremely unlikely circumstance that government officials ever found themselves in that position of having a ticking time bomb ticking away, they might have to make the decision to break the law. Not fudge it or keep their actions hidden, but take the decision on their own responsibility that it was the best thing to do in the situation — despite it…