Mood:
d'ohTopic: "Crawford Convention" (2)
There was an actor, name unknown to Frodo, who used to always play a cruel Japanese Officer in the black-and-white movies that starred John Wayne. In the movie, "Back to Bataan," the Japanese Officer ordered that the School Teacher be hung from the flagpole. He also beat the young Filipino boy mercilessly in order to find out where the Americans were hiding. Always, in those days, Frodo heard that the Japanese were operating in defiance of the Geneva Convention, and that is what led to their eventual defeat. It is what separated "good" and "evil."
Two former Secretaries of State, George Schultz and Colin Powell, both of whom served under Republican Presidents, have publicly stated their severe reservations about the "guidelines" regarding the treatment of prisoners which the present Administration is seeking to enact. Nearly every student of the subject feels that it is the first attempt to "amend" the Geneva Convention since its' inception 54 years ago. The specificity of treatment to be included as "legitimate" has Frodo particularly wary of the intent.
Dear reader, do you know what "water boarding" is? As best surmised by Frodo, it is something that makes a subject feel as if he (or she) is about to drown. Before this debate, Frodo would have assumed it was one of those things teenagers throw along the shoreline and jump on as they are propelled through the surf. Regardless, the Administration has addressed this specific "act" as an example of legitimate means of coercion, as long as it does not bring about "organ failure."
"Why," asks Frodo, "is this specifically addressed, as compared to say, attaching electrical wires to the scrotum?"
Frodo has a theory. Frodo's theory is that the Administration is well aware that "water boarding," has taken place, and that they are desperate to avoid the slightest suggestion that one of them may have violated the Geneva Convention. That one, according to Frodo, is George W. Bush. There is also the concern that this conduct is about to become public knowledge all around the world. Frodo believes there are pictures.
Should the citizens of Middle Earth discover that the Japanese Officer from those old John Wayne movies is actually George W. Bush, it will be the loneliest days of the American Experience.
Even Tony Blair has scruples.
Posted by loveysdaddyga
at 9:05 PM EDT
