Views from Eagle Peak » War and Peace

Prosecute them

Jack — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 22:56:16 +0000

I voted for him. I support him on most things. But Obama is so wrong to avoid prosecuting those who tortured suspected terrorists. The US has been actively involved in prosecuting people throughout the world for the same kinds of deeds done for purposes allegedly fair but more often admittedly foul. The fact that others could honestly say they were following orders or had the authorization of superiors did not inoculate them from prosecution. Oh, but we are the good guys. We were aggrieved. We were just trying to protect ourselves. No! It is not a legitimate defense; it is pure sophistry. Yes, it is certainly arguable (and I would be one to so argue) that those most deserving of punishment are those that wrote the specious legal opinions and offered the guidance that the torture was OK. Their crimes are more reprehensible than those of the interrogaters whose hands poured the water over cloth covered faces or slammed people into walls using plastic collar grips. There is an especially hot (or perhaps icy cold, to match his heart) hell awaiting Dick Cheney; but I don’t hold my breath that he will suffer any legal harm in this lifetime. While the laws of society may fail, the law of cause and effect never does. For the sake of our society, those who tortured should be punished. Those who authorized it will be–sooner or later.

Gaza Strip and Vietnam

Jack — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 17:24:09 +0000

Way back when, during the Vietnam War, there were areas designated as “free fire zones.” Those were pieces of land that the U.S. military described to the locals, via air-dropped fliers in Vietnamese language, as subject to automatic weapon or artillery fire without asking questions. In the old Wild West parlance, “shoot first and ask questions later,” only in this case no questions were asked. The purpose was to clear an area of Viet Cong, the communist guerrillas that were the focus of U.S. military combat. The problem was that they blended in, indistinguishably, with the local population. Much the same as Hamas militants/terrorists do with the civilian population in the Gaza strip. Much like the situation with the civilians in Vietnam, the locals in Gaza have difficulty moving anywhere else. Even when they take shelter in UN refugee facilities, they still are attacked. I am not unsympathetic to the Israeli predicament; with Hamas sending rockets indiscriminately into Israel, the Israelis have a reason to respond. Unfortunately, as in Vietnam, the cure may prove worse than the disease–”we had to destroy the village in order to save it.”

Violence begets violence. The us versus them thought process dehumanizes those with whom we are in conflict. When we feel justified in responding with violence, to those we believe (with some justification) hate or disrespect us, we soon conclude that we must win at all costs. We will kill them before they kill us. We will stop only when they are all dead or in complete surrender. But then, inevitably, the cycle begins anew. The resentment among the losers boils up into terrorist activities. The simple answer is: STOP. Stop and realize that those others are fellow human beings. Stop and engage in dialogue. Simple, yes; easy, NO! But in Gaza as in every other area of the world where people fight over land, religion, money, power, self-determination, ethnicity or any other rationalization, it comes down to this. There is no point in debating relative virtues or who has committed more evil or suffered more harm; that only prolongs the suffering of all.

60th Anniversary of the UN Declaration of Human Rights

Jack — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 17:22:33 +0000

I come late to the party, honoring the 60th anniversary of the UN Declaration of Human Rights. I won’t waste space here reinventing what news and commentary you can find elsewhere. I do want to mention the sad irony of the recent report of the Senate Armed Services Committee on detainee abuse under the Bush administration. The senators blame Donald Rumsfeld and the White House for countenancing and actively encouraging the torture of high-level detainees. On this point, among others, John McCain and Barack Obama had no differences during the campaign. January 20th cannot come too soon, to right the wrongs of Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, etc. By denying the humanity and denying the rights all humans should be afforded, we are no better than the criminals, the terrorists or other evildoers we mistreat. But we need to move well beyond self-reflection and correction to stop coddling China, ignoring Darfur, and generally speaking–acting not simply on the basis of our American economic self-interest but on the basis of recognizing and supporting human rights everywhere. As an elective democracy, it is important to remember that the American people are sovereign. Presidents, congressmen and senators are elected to do our bidding. At the same time, we are all equally citizens of the world, with the opportunity to express ourselves and communicate with our fellow human beings wherever they may live around the globe.

A day to remember, 9/11

Jack — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 22:55:37 +0000

About 7 1/2 years ago, my wife felt frustrated that she had not received a promotion she had applied for. Everyone (her coworkers and associates) were surprised when someone else got the job instead of her. She worked for the Department of the Army then, before retiring in 2004. As Buddhists we recognize that sometimes we don’t get what we want–what we think we deserve, for a good reason. As it happens, the job that she applied for was at the Pentagon. The location of the section she applied for was at or near the point of the plane’s impact on 9/11. Several people in the section, including the person who did get the position, died in the attack that day. In Buddhism, we refer to this as protection from the Shoten Zenjin (Buddhist Gods or protective forces of the Universe). Karma is a strange thing, which we cannot fathom or explain completely. It’s what makes some people miss the train that crashes and others rush to get on the Titanic before it sets off from port. I empathize with those who lost loved ones on that day even as I feel great appreciation that my wife didn’t get a promotion that would have killed her.

Iraq, Afghanistan and the American Psyche

Jack — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 17:38:34 +0000

For those whose loved ones are there now or who suffer after effects from time they spent in combat, Iraq and Afghanistan remain an immediate concern. For others, like myself, the conflicts are an abstraction. The sufferings of the soldiers and the civilians do not pain my psyche. I have to remind myself again and again, despite regular news coverage, of the real pain that war causes. Am I alone in that respect? I suspect many Americans find themselves in the same place, given the relative scarcity of antiwar protests for some time now. How much more removed from our psyches are the conflicts elsewhere in the world, with far greater casualties. Few American families have a substantial stake (i.e., loved ones) fighting elsewhere in Asia or in Africa. There are dictatorships as bad or worse than that of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein yet America makes no efforts to replace them as we did Saddam. There are perhaps people and situations that require a military response; dictators with whom no negotiation is possible or useful. Yet war inevitably leads to massive suffering. Each war in which America has been involved over the past fifty years has resulted in more serious and longer lasting injuries over the immediate trauma of death. Families suffer and soldiers suffer. Typically, it is the young who are sent off to fight and die (or suffer horrible injuries). In Africa, children are conscripted to fight. If the leaders of all the countries in the world were to agree that no one younger than age 50 could be sent into combat, do you suppose a substantial reduction in wars would result? I do. An unlikely proposition perhaps, but one worth considering. Then again too, it is far past time for the people, not the leaders, to make such decisions. How could they do so in dictatorships? It all comes down to a matter of will. As for me, a belief in the power of prayer–specifically the invocation of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo is the critical element. For others, a different prayer will be their focus. But in all cases, the intention to view fellow humans as other than villains or the enemy and instead with respect is critical.

Waiting for Gitmo to Close

Jack — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 17:35:05 +0000

Comes now a military (meaning a U.S. military legal officer, not some outsider) defense lawyer saying he was shown an SOP manual for interrogators provided by the Pentagon that urged them to destroy handwritten notes of questioning to avoid the potential disclosure of harsh interrogation techniques. It just keeps on coming. I don’t think I need say more about closing Guantanamo or the need to investigate and prosecute U.S. officials. McCain would likely close Gitmo, but would he mount as vigorous an investigation as Obama? Something to remember for November.

Amanda Knox and Guantanamo

Jack — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 17:08:52 +0000

I caught a bit of Good Morning America this AM. They featured a story about the seven month ordeal of Amanda Knox, an American student jailed in Italy without charges–apparently on suspicion of complicity in the death of her roommate. GMA painted a grim story, tugging at the heart strings of viewers by interviewing the girl’s teary-eyed parents as well as her three sisters. GMA noted without comment but implicit criticism, that Italy allows a person to be jailed without charges for up to a year. I can empathize, without having any knowledge of the girl’s guilt or innocence. Ironic isn’t it, that there are parents and siblings from various countries around the world who are experiencing the same pain with loved ones being held in Guantanamo Bay by the U.S. Unlike Ms. Knox, they don’t have any family visitors. Their incarceration is not limited to one year. They may be subject to torture as well. Makes one wonder what expectation Americans should have in the future if they should have the misfortune of being locked up abroad. Will the government of the foreign country, its citizens or the world in general feel any concern or sympathy? In Christian parlance, I believe the verse goes “you reap what you sow.” As a Buddhist, the notion of creating karma can be readily understood in much the same way–even as in the familiar, “what goes around comes around.”

The Washington Post Says the Surge Is Working AND No It Isn’t

Jack — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 11:19:46 +0000

Let no one accuse the Washington Post editorial and news staff of fraternizing with one another or perhaps even of observing the same world around them. This is especially true when it comes to their respective observations of the Bush administration and the war in Iraq. For 3-4 years, Fred Hiatt (or whoever else writes the “official” no byline editorials) has been nearly as reluctant as Hillary Clinton to admit and apologize his error in originally supporting the invasion of Iraq. In opining on the recent testimony of General Patraeus and Ambassador Crocker, Hiatt had this to say in the Wednesday Post:

“Gen. Petraeus and Mr. Crocker have gotten more confident about calling the surge a success, and rightly so. ‘It’s worth it,’ said the general. ‘We have seen a significant degradation of al-Qaeda’s presence and its abilities,’ said the ambassador.”

Meanwhile, the editorial takes Democrats to task for not, in essence, moving on to accept that the surge is working well, the war has not been lost and they should not be considering an early withdrawal. While I concur in the risks of an early withdrawal, I wonder whether Fred or the other denizens of the editorial page either don’t trust or don’t believe their own well-regarded news staff. While Fred credits the surge, despite the history of mendacity from the Bush administration, Glenn Kessler notes in a sidebar news analysis of General Patraeus’ charts in his testimony to Congress, that the data doesn’t really add up:

“WHAT IT SHOWS: This chart combines maps of Baghdad’s ethnic neighborhoods with density plots of ethno-sectarian killings to show that violence has declined significantly from December 2006 to last month.

ANALYSIS: Hidden beneath many of the density plots are colors that show a major reshaping of Baghdad, from an ethnically mixed city to a patchwork of rival ethnic and religious enclaves whose residents rarely intersect outside their gated communities.

Many analysts, including in the U.S. government, believe that this de facto division of Baghdad — as opposed to brilliant U.S. counterinsurgency work — is largely responsible for the decline in violence.”

So, if you believe what Kessler is saying, Fred Hiatt is guilty of the logical fallacy of post ho ergo propter hoc (after this, therefore because of this) in assuming the surge is working. So, once again, I have to wonder why it is that a paper I once thought of as liberal or progressive (and has so often been so castigated by the right wing) now takes a neocon-friendly editorial slant. What’s up with that Fred?

Martin Luther King

Jack — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 11:21:08 +0000

Forty years ago today, shots rang out in Memphis, killing the Reverend Martin Luther King. I was in Hawaii that day, on R&R from Vietnam. I returned to my unit in Bearcat, the 9th Infantry Division basecamp 25 miles east of Saigon after the riots had spread across America. Things were not much more wonderful there. Tensions between blacks and whites were already high. So when this cracker doing KP said to the black cook, “Well at least I got somewhere to go back home to,” the cook knocked aside the blistering hot stovepipe of an immersion heater with a bare arm and said, “Where’s my gun; I’m gonna kill this mutherfucker!” Fortunately for the guy on KP, our weapons were kept locked up in bunker. Yes, in a war zone our weapons were kept locked up. The brass correctly concluded we posed more danger to each other than the VC did to us. Race relations have improved in America since then. Perhaps we are not yet where we should be, but there can be little doubt how much has changed when we have a black man not only running for president but having a good chance of being elected.

I wasn’t a Buddhist then, but I wasn’t a racist either. While only a eight or nine, my mother cried at reading a newspaper article. I asked her what was wrong. “They banged his head on the curb until he was dead, just because he was Chinese.” He was a cook at the Bandbox, a hamburger joint in Camden, a mile or so from our house in North Minneapolis. She went on to tell me about the KKK and their terrible treatment of blacks. So I found it all the more startling when my fiancee’s father took strong exception our planned marriage 11 years later. She was black, I was white. But we overcame his objections through the power of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, praying for his happiness. On this anniversary of violence, it is my hope that everyone will find it in their heart to forgive and embrace those who they may have reason to hate. That is the best way to honor the memory of Martin Luther King and the way to advance our own humanity.

Past 4,000 Dead in Iraq–More than 1,000 beyond 9/11

Jack — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 11:54:54 +0000

About 18 months ago, U.S. troops deaths in Iraq passed the number of civilians dead as a result of the 9/11 terrorist attacks (which had NOTHING to do with either Iraq or Saddam Hussein). Now the U.S. deaths in Iraq exceed 4,000 people, more than 1,000 beyond the number of Americans killed in the 9/11 attacks. Dubya says it’s worth it; those 4,000 didn’t die in vain. Do you agree? I am still waiting for any progeny of the neocons who foisted this war upon us to volunteer for service there. I suspect Dubya’s perspective might differ if the twins were inclined to try their luck in the desert. I am not holding my breath.