Left I on the News

McClatchy has just published a major series detailing not only the extensive abuse of American detainees in Afghanistan (in particular) and elsewhere, but also the fact that a great many of the detainees were not only not terrorists of any kind, they were in fact allies of the U.S.!

Physicians for Human Rights has just published a major report detailing the extensive use of torture by the U.S. in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo (and, by inference, all sorts of other places they and we have no access to). In a preface to that report, an retired member of the U.S. Army who was very much in a position to know, Maj. General Antonio M. Taguba, writes (and this absolutely screams out for emphasis added):

"There is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes. The only question is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account."

And in light of all this, I turn on the TV over lunch, and what are the cable channels talking about, aside from flooding in Iowa? Whether Michelle Obama is "proud" of America or not.

Incidentally, on a subject that was being addressed (the flooding), there was talk about how the Iowa National Guard was working "all out" to sandbag levees to prevent flooding. I didn't hear a single word, nor have I in the last week, questioning how many more Guardsmen and how much more equipment might have been available for the job were they and it not currently in Iraq and Afghanistan. Because if they really were working "all out," and I'm sure they were, then even a few dozen or a few hundred more might have prevented just one of the many levee breeches which did occur, and saved thousands of acres of cropland. But, like the McClatchy revelations and the Physicians for Human Rights study, that's one more place the mainstream corporate media doesn't want to go.