Dubai bound

[giantlaser]

We're off to Dubai in about 10 hours, and I'm up staying up late. Jayme and I were talking tonight of how the day before a vacation makes us feel like it's Christmas Eve. I'm just relaxing and letting all the stress of 8 months of constant work and worry run out of me. And reading a lot of porn and web comics.

My new favorite is a Get Your War

Comments

[14cyclenotes]

Heya, I hope you're enjoying your vacation. Something you said about the INC struck me with a question. You said,

They now occupy the building of the former Iraqi secret police, complete with functioning detainment (read: torture) cells in the basement. They "arrest" and investigate former Baathists and opponents of the occupation, root out resistance fighters and terrorists, and pass their information on to their DoD liasons. Which means they are doing the job of the new Iraqi secret police.

Reading between the lines, I gather that the INC uses torture on its political opponents - is that correct? If it is, and if you know this, then I have to assume that the CPA knows it as well, and continues to fund the INC.

So if I'm reading all of this right, it means that American taxpayers are funding torture, under the impression that they're furthering democracy in Iraq. Yes?

[giantlaser]

Correct on all conclusions. When I lived in the States such facts might have really surprised me. But seeing how things work here, and the reality of trying to apply one culture's ethics on another, it's just the way it is.

American taxpayers also fund the School of the Americas and the overthrow of democratically elected leaders all over South America. It's nothing new.

[14cyclenotes]

Hmm. I can't say I'm surprised, exactly. But, while it is true that American taxpayer money has been used for some unsavory things, generally the American taxpayers are fairly annoyed when they find out about it. And they almost never find out while it's still happening, when they could do something about it if they wished.

I mean, for example, I assume that you pay American taxes on your income. Do you have an opinion about the fact that you, personally, are paying right now to have electrodes applied to someone's genitals in Baghdad? And that your government is claiming that the money is being used to give that same fellow the right to vote freely?

My apologies if that's an overly frank question, but it's difficult to approach this subject delicately.

[giantlaser]

No apology necessary.

I don't currently pay taxes. Prior to coming here, I did. But thanks to the foreign earned income exclusion and the fact that I'm out of the US for more than 330 days in a consecutive period of 365, I get to exempt my entire salary from taxes.

However, your point is taken. The answer is of course that I'm not happy about such activity. But it's also foolish of me to apply my cultural biases to an entirely different culture, and to believe that US forces can effectively form a new government under the same biases. What is accepted practice for interrogation here is considered torture elsewhere. So which path do we take? The moral, but ineffective one? Or the one that has worked for this culture before?

Regardless of our opinions, this invasion and the formation of Iraq's new government is completely immoral. That's not going to change.