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POLITICAL ESSAYS
With Decades Of Hypocrisy
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Tuesday June 6, 2006
New York Times [1]
Degrading America's Image
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With its usual hypocrisy the Times editorializes:
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"For more than seven decades, civilized nations
have adhered to minimum standards of decent
behavior toward prisoners of war — agreed to
in the Geneva Conventions.
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"They were respected...because they reflected
this nation's principles and gave Americans some
protection if they were captured in wartime.
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"It took the Bush administration to make the world
doubt Washington's fidelity to the rules."
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America died August 6, 1945 while giving birth to
The Superpower.
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August 6, 1945 *proved* to the world that The
Superpower has only contempt for "the rules."
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But if you insist on proof-in-writing, here's John
Foster Dulles reminding the French Prime Minister
in November 1954 [2]:
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"...it was unwise to quote treaty language [since]
the experience of mankind showed that nations
act in accord with what they consider their basic
interests
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AND NOT BY THE LETTER OF TREATIES."
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But even while being candid, Dulles hypocritically
spoke of "mankind" and "nations" rather than
specify The Superpower.
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Background?
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"The Geneva Conventions consist of four treaties
formulated in Geneva, Switzerland, that set the
standards for international law for humanitarian
concerns.
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"All four conventions were last revised and ratified
in 1949...; the whole set is referred to as the 'Ge-
neva Conventions of 1949' or simply the 'Geneva
Conventions.'"
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"[The] Third Geneva Convention 'relative to the
Treatment of Prisoners of War'...[was] first adop-
ted in 1929...." [This is where the Times get its
"more than seven decades."]
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"Despite the Convention protecting the inherent
human rights of those involved in war, whether
they be active participants or not, [The Super-
power has]...decided to 'omit from [its] new de-
tainee policies a key tenet of the [Third] Geneva
Convention that bans 'humiliating and degrading
treatment,' a step that would mark a potentially
permanent shift away from adherence to inter-
national human rights standards." [3]
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In case you're wondering what contempt for "the
rules" might mean from a purely practical point of
view: abrogation of the The $uperpower's public
debt.
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[1]
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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/06/opinion/06tue1.html?n=Top%
2fOpinion%2fEditorials%20and%20Op%2dEd%2fEditorials&pagewanted=print
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or
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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/06/opinion/06tue1.html?_r=1&n=Top%
2fOpinion%2fEditorials%20and%20Op%2dEd%
2fEditorials&pagewanted=print&oref=login
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The editorial is a takeoff on:
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Monday June 5, 2006
Los Angeles Times
Army Manual to Skip Geneva Detainee Rule
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http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/la-na-
torture5jun05,1,1143219.story
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[2] Page 75 of--
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Matthew Connelly
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A Diplomatic Revolution: Algeria's Fight for Inde-
pence and the Origins of the Post-Cold War Era
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Oxford University Press
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2003
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400+ pages
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ISBN 0 19 514513 5
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I capitalized the words "and not by the letter
of treaties."
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[3] Last modified June 7, 2006.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geneva_Conventions
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I substituted American punctuation for the English
punctuation in the original.
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Also:
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Last modified June 5, 2006.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Geneva_Convention
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