Category Archives: Politics

Lost Lives in Iraq

Politics, Well Worth Reading

U.S.A. Today has compiled an interactive feature showing each of the 3,982 soldiers who have died in Iraq to date. This somber piece represents an important effort to present the loss at an accessible scale. Each icon lists a soldier’s name, hometown, rank, branch, duty status, date of death, place, and cause. Many feature photos as well, some in graduation gowns, others in camouflage.

A search feature enables visitors to sort the losses by categories including age (33 18-year-olds have died), gender (96 women have died), city (thankfully, no one from my hometown), and more. It’s thought-provoking, and it does a good job of evoking the losses that are easy for most of us to ignore. A similar site for Iraqis who have died would be a nice counterpart, although, sadly, it would have to operate on an entirely different sense of scale.

A “Cure” Worse Than the Disease

Politics,

In a story relevant to the present day, the February 25 issue of the New Yorker has an article, “The Water Cure,” exploring waterboarding and other acts of torture committed by U.S. forces in the Philippines during the “anti-insurgency” there in 1902.

The parallels are striking: U.S. forces turn to illegal practices in a guerilla struggle against a little-understood enemy far from home. Opponents of torture are derided as traitors and apologists for the enemy. The acts of others—past mistreatment of Filipinos by the Spanish, the supposed savagery of the “uncivilized” insurgents—are used to rationalize torture. And the public, initially outraged, quickly loses interest.

So what inspired that initial outrage? The article recounts:

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Scaring Ourselves to Death

Politics

The Spymaster, Lawrence Wright’s January 21 New Yorker article on Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell, has received some coverage due to McConnell’s laughable attempt to evade stating that waterboarding is torture. For those who haven’t read it, the money quote is:

“I know one thing. I’m not a water-safety instructor, but I cannot swim without covering my nose. I don’t know if its’ some deviated septum or mucus membrane, but water just rushes in….If I had water draining into my nose, oh God, I just can’t imagine how painful! Whether it’s torture by anybody else’s definition, for me it would be torture.”

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American Apparel Stands Up for Immigrant Workers, Sexiness

Politics

Controversial clothiers American Apparel has released a provocative new ad, eschewing scantily clad Lolitas in favor of a statement on immigration reform. As the New York Times reports, “In a new series of ads, American Apparel is moving in a political direction. The cause is immigration reform, and the ads say in part that the status quo ‘amounts to an apartheid system’ and should be overhauled to create a legal path for undocumented workers to gain citizenship in the United States.”

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