| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"Fredric L. Rice" |
| Date: |
27 Nov 2005 09:41:18 PM |
| Object: |
"Atrocity fatigue" and Noah's Flood |
Here it is again, covered by a newspaper. The Noah's Flood version
of the world-wide flood myth was attributed to the gods' revenge for
humanity ignoring the wonton murder of innocent people.
Any Christian who defends Bush is just as guilty in the eyes of the
Christian gods.
-=-
Growing bored of the carnage . as crime of the century unfolds
Powerplay: Iain Macwhirter on atrocity fatigue in Iraq and sympathy for the
first minister over asylum
http://www.sundayherald.com/53063
We've all familiar now with "compassion fatigue", when we become inured to
the plight of disaster victims in uncharismatic parts of the world such as
Kashmir. Well, I fear we are now developing a kind of "atrocity fatigue"
over Iraq.
Last week, we learned that George W Bush had contemplated bombing the
offices of Al-Jazeera in Doha. According to a leaked e-mail, which we are
not supposed to talk about because of the Official Secrets Act, Tony Blair
stayed the Americans' hands.
Yet this led to a curiously muted public response, as if - heck - we all
know that Dubya is crazy; what's new? It was all a joke, according to one
insider. Media wits were saying that Tony Blair actually wanted him to bomb
the BBC instead - ho ho.
Well, at least one Al-Jazeera journalist, Tarek Ayoub, has already died
laughing. He was killed when the US "accidentally" bombed the satellite
station's offices in Baghdad in April 2003. They also destroyed
Al-Jazeera's Kabul office. And it's not just Al-Jazeera. More than 70
journalists have been killed in Iraq, most by "friendly fire".
It has also now been confirmed that the Americans have been using chemical
weapons in Iraq. White phosphorus (WP) shells were used against insurgents
in the siege of Fallujah last year in defiance of the 1997 Chemical Weapons
Convention. The shells were used for "shake and bake" operations, in
conjunction with high explosives.
There's no evidence that WP was used against civilians. But since some
50,000 Iraqis remained in Fallujah last November, it seems only a matter of
time before we discover that it was. WP works by entering the body though
soft exposed tissue and burns down to the bone.
The use of WP by the Saddam Hussein against the Kurds in 1991 was cited by
the US Defence Department in 1995 as an example of the dictator's own
infamy, and was one of the justifications for regime change. The US have
also used thermobaric or "fuel air" weapons and depleted uranium shells.
Really, if they wanted to turn public opinion against them, the occupying
forces could not have done better if they tried.
But where was the outrage? The thunderous editorials, the questions in
parliament. Prime Minister's question time last week was dominated by gas
prices. Either we have acquired double standards or we have just become so
used to hearing about such atrocities that we've stopped caring. Allied
barbarity is no longer news.
Except, of course, in the Arab world, where the Americans' conduct is
increasingly being compared to that of Saddam Hussein himself. The
maltreatment of suspected insurgents by the Americans in Abu Ghraib prison
rightly caused an international furore last year. But evidence that torture
and abuse is continuing in Iraq emerges almost by the week. The only
difference is that the abuse of detainees has been devolved to the Iraqi
government - more specifically to the interior minister, Bayan Jabr
al-Zubeidi.
He was formerly commander of the militant Shia militia, the Badr Brigade.
(I'm tempted to say: "Badr by name Badr by nature," but such flippancy is
one of the means by which we desensitise ourselves.) Bayan has admitted
that "a few" of the mainly Sunni detainees at the Jadiriya centre had been
maltreated. Opposition and human rights groups say this is widespread and
systematic. What is becoming clear is that the US- sponsored Iraqi
government has turned into an instrument of sectarian oppression by
Iranian-backed Shia cliques.
But the pictures of bruised and beaten bodies have become a macabre cliche.
I find my own eyes wandering over accounts of the ongoing tragedy that is
post-war Iraq. Moral outrage has given way to cynicism.
This is partly because nothing seems to change. Large numbers of people die
every day in suicide bombings - 40 here, 70 there. So what's new? Even the
deaths of four Americans on Wednesday hardly merited a news report. We have
become inured to the deaths of our own forces.
Compare the coverage given to the female police officer, Sharon
Beshenivsky, killed in Bradford last week, with the perfunctory coverage of
the death of the British soldier, Sergeant John Jones, killed the same
weekend also in the line of duty. The government's response was to inform
us that the British forces had killed or wounded more than 400 Iraqi
insurgents since June 2003, as if this were some kind of result.
It is the stupidity of this war that is most offensive. The stupidity
especially of its author, Tony Blair, who is increasingly becoming regarded
as the greatest dupe ever to occupy Number 10. Sir Christopher Meyer's
self-regarding and patronising memoirs, DC Confidential, confirmed that
Blair was cynically cultivated by his American NeoCon friends.
They coldly identified and exploited his weaknesses: Blair's vanity, his
intellectual shallowness and his susceptibility to being easily led by
powerful figures. They ferried him around in Rolls Royces, introduced him
to stars, awarded him medals, held him aloft as a true American champion,
worthy of ovations in Congress. It was like a Mafia sting.
As the former US diplomat Joseph Wilson remarked on the BBC last week, Tony
Blair was "hoodwinked" by Bush into believing that the Iraq war was a kind
of disarmament process, when the real objective was regime change. The
Republicans used Blair first as a human shield, second as a kind of moral
hedge fund, and third as a Trojan horse within the United Nations.
I suppose, again, this is nothing new. We already knew that Blair had
signed up to the invasion of Iraq back in 2002, a year before parliament
was informed. Sir Christopher Meyer has confirmed what was revealed by the
infamous "Downing Street Memo". Blair believed the Republicans' distorted
and unreliable evidence about weapons of mass destruction as it never
occurred to him that the Americans would lie. He didn't try to establish
the truth as that isn't his way. He's essentially a political salesman, not
a policy analyst. The Americans knew that too.
So, the picture is now pretty much complete. It is beyond doubt that
parliament and the British people were misled by Blair, and he by the
Americans. The invasion was a miscalculation of heroic proportions which
has devastated Iraq, destroyed Britain's credibility abroad, made this
country a target for Islamic terrorism, and may even have corrupted our
armed forces through contamination by the torture culture of the US
military.
And it doesn't end there. British democracy has been damaged, the BBC has
been undermined, civil rights are under attack by a prime minister who now
appears determined to bend the knee before the UK police in the same craven
way that he succumbed to the persuaders of Republican America.
Iraq is an extraordinary scandal. It is like Watergate, Suez and Northern
Ireland rolled into one. Indeed, the sheer scale of the deception has
blinded us to it. It is almost too much to comprehend.
Of course, Blair and his cabinet of supine clones seek to exploit this
atrocity fatigue by saying that it's time to "move on". That this is an
"old story". That we have "been here before". And it is true that a
weariness is setting in, as this story repeats itself like a Quentin
Tarantino remake of Groundhog Day.
But the fact that these things have been said before doesn't make them any
less serious. We can't allow boredom to dull our moral sensibilities to
what is beginning to look like the crime of the century.
27 November 2005
---
http://www.ElmerFudd.US/ http://www.rightard.org/ http://www.thedarkwind.org/
"We're going to sue your *****, AND your balls!" -- Scientology's leader
.
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| User: "Yournameheres personal Cthulhu" |
|
| Title: Re: "Atrocity fatigue" and Noah's Flood |
28 Nov 2005 12:31:21 PM |
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|
(Fredric L. Rice) suddenly spluttered:
The Noah's Flood version
of the world-wide flood myth was attributed to the gods' revenge for
humanity ignoring the wonton murder of innocent people.
He fed them minced pork, then flooded the world to hide the evidence?
------------------------------------------------
Conflict over the exact will/purpose/nature of God cannot ever be
resolved, since there are no facts to go on.
D Silverman FLAHN, SMLAHN
AA #2208
.
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| User: "" |
|
| Title: Re: "Atrocity fatigue" and Noah's Flood |
27 Nov 2005 09:57:48 PM |
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Christian gods = Oxymoron
(P.S., not all Christians support Bush 100%)
.
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| User: "Lörd Phÿltêr" |
|
| Title: Re: "Atrocity fatigue" and Noah's Flood |
28 Nov 2005 07:44:19 AM |
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astounded us with: news:1133128668.517767.131850
@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:
Christian gods = Oxymoron
(P.S., not all Christians support Bush 100%)
Only those that feel the need for their president to be smarter than them...
--
Lörd Phÿltêr
Alt.Atheism #1938
Denizen of Darkness #44 & AFJC Antipodean Attaché
Remove "s" to respond
http://www.jesusneverexisted.com
.
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| User: "Michael Gray" |
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| Title: Re: "Atrocity fatigue" and Noah's Flood |
28 Nov 2005 09:55:27 AM |
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|
On Mon, 28 Nov 2005 07:44:19 GMT, "Lörd Phÿltêr"
<phylter@hsotmail.com> wrote:
michaelleeking@gmail.com astounded us with: news:1133128668.517767.131850
@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:
Christian gods = Oxymoron
(P.S., not all Christians support Bush 100%)
Only those that feel the need for their president to be smarter than them...
But that would still be 100%...
.
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| User: "Lörd Phÿltêr" |
|
| Title: Re: "Atrocity fatigue" and Noah's Flood |
28 Nov 2005 11:33:43 PM |
|
|
Michael Gray <fleetg@newsguy.spam.com> astounded us with:
news:tvklo1dg3rorp052cqkpevlor1vpb1r69o@4ax.com:
On Mon, 28 Nov 2005 07:44:19 GMT, "Lörd Phÿltêr"
<phylter@hsotmail.com> wrote:
michaelleeking@gmail.com astounded us with:
news:1133128668.517767.131850 @g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:
Christian gods = Oxymoron
(P.S., not all Christians support Bush 100%)
Only those that feel the need for their president to be smarter than
them...
But that would still be 100%...
My point exactly...
--
Lörd Phÿltêr
Alt.Atheism #1938
Denizen of Darkness #44 & AFJC Antipodean Attaché
Remove "s" to respond
http://www.jesusneverexisted.com
.
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| User: "Fredric L. Rice" |
|
| Title: Re: "Atrocity fatigue" and Noah's Flood |
28 Nov 2005 01:24:54 AM |
|
|
wrote:
Christian gods = Oxymoron
Try again:
Here it is again, covered by a newspaper. The Noah's Flood version
of the world-wide flood myth was attributed to the gods' revenge for
humanity ignoring the wonton murder of innocent people.
Any Christian who defends Bush is just as guilty in the eyes of the
Christian gods.
-=-
Growing bored of the carnage . as crime of the century unfolds
Powerplay: Iain Macwhirter on atrocity fatigue in Iraq and sympathy for the
first minister over asylum
http://www.sundayherald.com/53063
We've all familiar now with "compassion fatigue", when we become inured to
the plight of disaster victims in uncharismatic parts of the world such as
Kashmir. Well, I fear we are now developing a kind of "atrocity fatigue"
over Iraq.
Last week, we learned that George W Bush had contemplated bombing the
offices of Al-Jazeera in Doha. According to a leaked e-mail, which we are
not supposed to talk about because of the Official Secrets Act, Tony Blair
stayed the Americans' hands.
Yet this led to a curiously muted public response, as if - heck - we all
know that Dubya is crazy; what's new? It was all a joke, according to one
insider. Media wits were saying that Tony Blair actually wanted him to bomb
the BBC instead - ho ho.
Well, at least one Al-Jazeera journalist, Tarek Ayoub, has already died
laughing. He was killed when the US "accidentally" bombed the satellite
station's offices in Baghdad in April 2003. They also destroyed
Al-Jazeera's Kabul office. And it's not just Al-Jazeera. More than 70
journalists have been killed in Iraq, most by "friendly fire".
It has also now been confirmed that the Americans have been using chemical
weapons in Iraq. White phosphorus (WP) shells were used against insurgents
in the siege of Fallujah last year in defiance of the 1997 Chemical Weapons
Convention. The shells were used for "shake and bake" operations, in
conjunction with high explosives.
There's no evidence that WP was used against civilians. But since some
50,000 Iraqis remained in Fallujah last November, it seems only a matter of
time before we discover that it was. WP works by entering the body though
soft exposed tissue and burns down to the bone.
The use of WP by the Saddam Hussein against the Kurds in 1991 was cited by
the US Defence Department in 1995 as an example of the dictator's own
infamy, and was one of the justifications for regime change. The US have
also used thermobaric or "fuel air" weapons and depleted uranium shells.
Really, if they wanted to turn public opinion against them, the occupying
forces could not have done better if they tried.
But where was the outrage? The thunderous editorials, the questions in
parliament. Prime Minister's question time last week was dominated by gas
prices. Either we have acquired double standards or we have just become so
used to hearing about such atrocities that we've stopped caring. Allied
barbarity is no longer news.
Except, of course, in the Arab world, where the Americans' conduct is
increasingly being compared to that of Saddam Hussein himself. The
maltreatment of suspected insurgents by the Americans in Abu Ghraib prison
rightly caused an international furore last year. But evidence that torture
and abuse is continuing in Iraq emerges almost by the week. The only
difference is that the abuse of detainees has been devolved to the Iraqi
government - more specifically to the interior minister, Bayan Jabr
al-Zubeidi.
He was formerly commander of the militant Shia militia, the Badr Brigade.
(I'm tempted to say: "Badr by name Badr by nature," but such flippancy is
one of the means by which we desensitise ourselves.) Bayan has admitted
that "a few" of the mainly Sunni detainees at the Jadiriya centre had been
maltreated. Opposition and human rights groups say this is widespread and
systematic. What is becoming clear is that the US- sponsored Iraqi
government has turned into an instrument of sectarian oppression by
Iranian-backed Shia cliques.
But the pictures of bruised and beaten bodies have become a macabre cliche.
I find my own eyes wandering over accounts of the ongoing tragedy that is
post-war Iraq. Moral outrage has given way to cynicism.
This is partly because nothing seems to change. Large numbers of people die
every day in suicide bombings - 40 here, 70 there. So what's new? Even the
deaths of four Americans on Wednesday hardly merited a news report. We have
become inured to the deaths of our own forces.
Compare the coverage given to the female police officer, Sharon
Beshenivsky, killed in Bradford last week, with the perfunctory coverage of
the death of the British soldier, Sergeant John Jones, killed the same
weekend also in the line of duty. The government's response was to inform
us that the British forces had killed or wounded more than 400 Iraqi
insurgents since June 2003, as if this were some kind of result.
It is the stupidity of this war that is most offensive. The stupidity
especially of its author, Tony Blair, who is increasingly becoming regarded
as the greatest dupe ever to occupy Number 10. Sir Christopher Meyer's
self-regarding and patronising memoirs, DC Confidential, confirmed that
Blair was cynically cultivated by his American NeoCon friends.
They coldly identified and exploited his weaknesses: Blair's vanity, his
intellectual shallowness and his susceptibility to being easily led by
powerful figures. They ferried him around in Rolls Royces, introduced him
to stars, awarded him medals, held him aloft as a true American champion,
worthy of ovations in Congress. It was like a Mafia sting.
As the former US diplomat Joseph Wilson remarked on the BBC last week, Tony
Blair was "hoodwinked" by Bush into believing that the Iraq war was a kind
of disarmament process, when the real objective was regime change. The
Republicans used Blair first as a human shield, second as a kind of moral
hedge fund, and third as a Trojan horse within the United Nations.
I suppose, again, this is nothing new. We already knew that Blair had
signed up to the invasion of Iraq back in 2002, a year before parliament
was informed. Sir Christopher Meyer has confirmed what was revealed by the
infamous "Downing Street Memo". Blair believed the Republicans' distorted
and unreliable evidence about weapons of mass destruction as it never
occurred to him that the Americans would lie. He didn't try to establish
the truth as that isn't his way. He's essentially a political salesman, not
a policy analyst. The Americans knew that too.
So, the picture is now pretty much complete. It is beyond doubt that
parliament and the British people were misled by Blair, and he by the
Americans. The invasion was a miscalculation of heroic proportions which
has devastated Iraq, destroyed Britain's credibility abroad, made this
country a target for Islamic terrorism, and may even have corrupted our
armed forces through contamination by the torture culture of the US
military.
And it doesn't end there. British democracy has been damaged, the BBC has
been undermined, civil rights are under attack by a prime minister who now
appears determined to bend the knee before the UK police in the same craven
way that he succumbed to the persuaders of Republican America.
Iraq is an extraordinary scandal. It is like Watergate, Suez and Northern
Ireland rolled into one. Indeed, the sheer scale of the deception has
blinded us to it. It is almost too much to comprehend.
Of course, Blair and his cabinet of supine clones seek to exploit this
atrocity fatigue by saying that it's time to "move on". That this is an
"old story". That we have "been here before". And it is true that a
weariness is setting in, as this story repeats itself like a Quentin
Tarantino remake of Groundhog Day.
But the fact that these things have been said before doesn't make them any
less serious. We can't allow boredom to dull our moral sensibilities to
what is beginning to look like the crime of the century.
27 November 2005
---
http://www.ElmerFudd.US/ http://www.rightard.org/ http://www.thedarkwind.org/
"We're going to sue your *****, AND your balls!" -- Scientology's leader
.
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| User: "stoney" |
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| Title: Re: "Atrocity fatigue" and Noah's Flood |
30 Nov 2005 10:41:33 PM |
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On 27 Nov 2005 13:57:48 -0800, wrote:
Christian gods = Oxymoron
(P.S., not all Christians support Bush 100%)
Of course not.
--
Contempt of Congress meter reading-offscale.
Hello, theocracy with a fundamentalist US Supreme
Court who will ensure church and state are joined
at the hip like clergy and altar boys.
America 1776-Jan 2001 RIP
"As democracy is perfected, the office of president
represents, more and more closely, the inner soul
of the people. On some great and glorious day the
plain folks of the land will reach their heart's
desire at last and the White House will be adorned
by a downright moron." --- H.L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)
Religion is the original war crime.
-Michelle Malkin (Feb 26, 2005)
.
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| User: "Michael Gray" |
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| Title: Re: "Atrocity fatigue" and Noah's Flood |
28 Nov 2005 02:44:41 AM |
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On 27 Nov 2005 13:57:48 -0800, wrote:
Christian gods = Oxymoron
(P.S., not all Christians support Bush 100%)
What, only 98%?
.
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| User: "Steve Knight" |
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| Title: Re: "Atrocity fatigue" and Noah's Flood |
29 Nov 2005 02:23:06 AM |
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On Mon, 28 Nov 2005 13:14:41 +1030, Michael Gray
<fleetg@newsguy.spam.com> wrote:
On 27 Nov 2005 13:57:48 -0800, wrote:
Christian gods = Oxymoron
(P.S., not all Christians support Bush 100%)
What, only 98%?
It's ironic that the christians beat up the atheist with the false
premise of Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot etc. as being atheist killers and when
one of their own ruthlessly kills people of the 'evil religion', they
are stone silent.
They have a christian president dyed in the wool running the
country. Is this a better place? Is there any aspect of our lives
improving by christian rule?
I can't even stretch a maybe.
Warlord Steve
BAAWA
www.sonic.net/~wooly
.
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| User: "stoney" |
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| Title: Re: "Atrocity fatigue" and Noah's Flood |
30 Nov 2005 10:42:26 PM |
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On Mon, 28 Nov 2005 18:23:06 -0800, Steve Knight <wooly@sonic.net>
wrote:
On Mon, 28 Nov 2005 13:14:41 +1030, Michael Gray
<fleetg@newsguy.spam.com> wrote:
On 27 Nov 2005 13:57:48 -0800, wrote:
Christian gods = Oxymoron
(P.S., not all Christians support Bush 100%)
What, only 98%?
It's ironic that the christians beat up the atheist with the false
premise of Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot etc. as being atheist killers and when
one of their own ruthlessly kills people of the 'evil religion', they
are stone silent.
They have a christian president dyed in the wool running the
country. Is this a better place? Is there any aspect of our lives
improving by christian rule?
I can't even stretch a maybe.
I know. :\
--
Contempt of Congress meter reading-offscale.
Hello, theocracy with a fundamentalist US Supreme
Court who will ensure church and state are joined
at the hip like clergy and altar boys.
America 1776-Jan 2001 RIP
"As democracy is perfected, the office of president
represents, more and more closely, the inner soul
of the people. On some great and glorious day the
plain folks of the land will reach their heart's
desire at last and the White House will be adorned
by a downright moron." --- H.L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)
Religion is the original war crime.
-Michelle Malkin (Feb 26, 2005)
.
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| User: "Michael Gray" |
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| Title: Re: "Atrocity fatigue" and Noah's Flood |
29 Nov 2005 05:19:20 AM |
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On Mon, 28 Nov 2005 18:23:06 -0800, Steve Knight <wooly@sonic.net>
wrote:
On Mon, 28 Nov 2005 13:14:41 +1030, Michael Gray
<fleetg@newsguy.spam.com> wrote:
On 27 Nov 2005 13:57:48 -0800, wrote:
Christian gods = Oxymoron
(P.S., not all Christians support Bush 100%)
What, only 98%?
It's ironic that the christians beat up the atheist with the false
premise of Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot etc. as being atheist killers and when
one of their own ruthlessly kills people of the 'evil religion', they
are stone silent.
They have a christian president dyed in the wool running the
country. Is this a better place? Is there any aspect of our lives
improving by christian rule?
The Aqueducts?
I can't even stretch a maybe.
Benedictine!
Warlord Steve
BAAWA
www.sonic.net/~wooly
.
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| User: "skyeyes" |
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| Title: Re: "Atrocity fatigue" and Noah's Flood |
28 Nov 2005 11:36:48 PM |
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Frederic L. Rice wrote:
Here it is again, covered by a newspaper. The Noah's Flood version
of the world-wide flood myth was attributed to the gods' revenge for
humanity ignoring the wonton murder of innocent people.
They were beaten to death by Chinese noodles????
Brenda "On a Cooking Binge Today" Nelson, A.A.#34
EAC Professor of Feline Thermometrics and Cat-Herding
.
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| User: "Michael Gray" |
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| Title: Re: "Atrocity fatigue" and Noah's Flood |
29 Nov 2005 05:20:18 AM |
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On 28 Nov 2005 15:36:48 -0800, "skyeyes" <skyeyes@dakotacom.net>
wrote:
Frederic L. Rice wrote:
Here it is again, covered by a newspaper. The Noah's Flood version
of the world-wide flood myth was attributed to the gods' revenge for
humanity ignoring the wonton murder of innocent people.
They were beaten to death by Chinese noodles????
The FSM in history!
.
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