Posted by Benjamin on: 10.06.2008 /
This is a question that came into my mind upon reading about Dilawar (H/T Martin)
This 22 year old Afghan taxi driver was arrested, imprisoned, and tortured to death by American soldiers in Afghanistan, having never done a single thing to invite such treatment. He died in December 2002. The only consequences for anyone, so far, have amounted to a two to three month prison sentences for a couple of American soldiers.
It seems very easy, to me, to divide the culpability for such a murder among the 305 million of us, and thus each of us get a share that is so incredibly tiny that we can basically altogether ignore it.
Do *you* feel it, notice it, etc.? I certainly don’t. or at least haven’t.
Do you think there is any sort of actual or metaphorical truth behind the image so often used in the Christian Old Testament–the Hebrew Scriptures–in which the blood of the murdered person is said to “cry out from the ground” for justice? What does such a truth mean in this particular case?
One wonders, in a nations such as Afghanistan where sexism is arguably far more rampant than it is here in the U.S., to what extent the loss of Dilawar ongoingly affects his mother and three sisters and his now 8 year old daughter?
From the New York Times Story in 2005:
Nor were the rules of engagement very clear. The platoon had the standard interrogations guide, Army Field Manual 34-52, and an order from the secretary of defense, Donald H. Rumsfeld, to treat prisoners “humanely,” and when possible, in accordance with the Geneva Conventions. But with President Bush’s final determination in February 2002 that the Conventions did not apply to the conflict with Al Qaeda and that Taliban fighters would not be accorded the rights of prisoners of war, the interrogators believed they “could deviate slightly from the rules,” said one of the Utah reservists, Sgt. James A. Leahy.
“There was the Geneva Conventions for enemy prisoners of war, but nothing for terrorists,” Sergeant Leahy told Army investigators. And the detainees, senior intelligence officers said, were to be considered terrorists until proved otherwise.
So are we guilty of murder? And if so, what shall we do about it?
Comment by: joe
1It seems to me that this is one of the almost inevitable features of unaccountable authority - it hurts and kills people. Whilst most of us are not directly responsible for the abuse, we are all responsible for creating conditions whereby the authority feels that it can act in this way. Our struggle is with powers and dominions and not with flesh and blood.
Comment by: martin gugino
2I do feel guilty, yes. Didn’t the jews deal with this by picking a scapegoat, and driving it out into the desert?
I do not understand the reference.
Comment by: Andrew Gray | Photosensibility » Blog Archive » The mysterious “post turtle” and other news and views
3 10/14/08 11:53 PM | Comment Link |[...] Are the people of America guilty of murder? Who is accountable when an innocent man is tortured to death by US troops who believe they are following the will of their government (OUR government). Someday I would like to see the current leadership of the USA indicted for war crimes, but what about all the ordinary Americans who have cried out asking them to “take the gloves off.” Well, they took them off, and now what moral authority will we have to tell others not to torture our sons and daughters when they are captured in future conflicts? [...]