Thought Reform

1. 0

   Zarm Nefilinposted 17 years ago

   http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/02/us/02 … 20xDq%20eQ
   
   This article talks about torture and thought reform from past Communist Chinese torture methods that were being used in Gunatanamo Bay by the C.I.A.
   
   So, what do you think about what the article specifically says about those things?
   
   Opinions?

   replyreport
2. 60

   knolyourselfposted 17 years ago

   Well you see not our fault. The evil Chinese made us do it,
   'cause we would of never thought of it.

   replyreport
   1. 0

      Zarm Nefilinposted 17 years agoin reply to this

      Pfaw, the chinese didn't invent this stuff, it's been around for ages going back to the Inquisition.  The Communist Chinese just systemitized the modern version of it.
      
      At least read the article please.

      replyreport
3. 60

   TheCapnposted 17 years ago

   I'm not condoning torture but I think the hooplah about torture is kind of funny. Generally speaking, in wars both sides kill each others soldiers. You'd think the issue would be over the killing of each other, not over the crap we do to the ones that we keep alive and held prisoner.

   replyreport
   1. 0

      Zarm Nefilinposted 17 years agoin reply to this

      One does not have to stick up for the rights of POW's and yield to the rights of people caught up in war in general.
      
      That would be my answer.

      replyreport
4. 60

   solarcaptainposted 17 years ago

   The media and others have been slow in the USA to condemn the immoral and illegal war waged by the US. We can hardly police the world when we haven't got our own act together. But slow doesn't mean they aren't speaking out now. Many writers and journalists as well as newscasters have made their distaste of the past eight years known. It's paradoxical that freedom gives one the right to an opinion, but those in charge of policy fear that coming out against certain policies is disloyal or even illegal. The writer got tossed from Yahoo,when criticism of Mr.Rumsfeld, Mr. Cheney, or Mr. Bush just wasn't done. I have had to pay in other ways as well, and I will talk about that another time.
   
   Not since Nixon/Reagan has this country been more divided on who is getting a free ride on taxes, the course of the war, environmental policy, economics, and even race. What do the candidates talk about?  Alice through the glass, darkly. And how long should an egg be hard boiled and should there be a war over it?
   
   Not one word about homelessness, or climate change, or the kids who go to bed hungry at night.
   Not a word about the thousands of soldiers coming home with physical and major mental trauma, at a time when Bush cut the VA budget (since restored but not nearly adequate).
   
   But lots of praise for the Mexico fence, which is like trying to stop water from leaking out of a thousand holes in a big cooking pot. For the first time since the war with Mexico, we sent
   troops to the border between the U.S. and Mexico. No firearms they promised. They are there to observe. When the troops began carrying firearms, they promised that the guns were unloaded.
   What happened?  A soldier kills a Mexican citizen who worked and lived right where he was killed, even though the army assures the world that he was a major drug runner. Right. Going  through an area known as highly patrolled by INS, the DEA, sound and video equipment, and US army patrols, as well as aircraft.

   replyreport
5. 60

   knolyourselfposted 17 years ago

   There is a line of thought that what was so evil about Chinese and Vietnamese techniques of thought reform was that they
   taught 'Critical Thinking'. So for instance US prisoners were forced to write answers to a question like why are you 5,000 miles from home bombing civilians, in a country that has never bothered you, that you know nothing about, that you have no reason being in, and interferring in the internal politics of complete strangers??? Places where they asked these kinds of questions were called 'Concentration Camps', and the technique itself was called 'Brainwashing'.

   replyreport
6. 67

   Mishaposted 17 years ago

   Actually those are very good questions for all Americans to ponder about

   replyreport
7. 73

   William F. Torpeyposted 17 years ago

   Well said, solarcaptain. The Times' article makes clear what all of us suspected the Bush Administration has been doing all along. American propaganda during World War II, largely through war movies, demonized the Germans, Italians and, especially, the Japanese for torturing our fighting men. The Bataan Death March was one of many such examples. The Bush Administration, by adopting the torture techniques of the Chinese, has turned the United States on its head -- and has made us all war criminals. I guess it wasn't enough that he trashed the Constitution, ruined our economy, tried desperately to take Social Security away from the elderly, paved the way for the oil companies and big business to rake in huge, unearned profits and allowed Katrina to decimate thousands of poor New Orleans citizens (largely Democrats.) Oh, yes, and then there's that pre-emptive "war" against that mighty foe, Saddam Hussein. Where was Dick Cheney and John McCain while all this was going on?

   replyreport
8. 61

   Marian Swiftposted 17 years ago

   Well, that article made for most unpleasant reading.  But it's vital information we all have to know, so ... thank you, Zarm Nefilin!
   
   
   
   I think that's something they don't want us to know ...

   replyreport
9. 60

   knolyourselfposted 17 years ago

   Well William, Dick Cheney was on the morning of 9/11 it is said, in the Pentagon running ghost excercises of phantom planes attacking buildings in New York, such that he controlled all possible interception defence, which there was none. Mostly he runs the show, and in my opinion he has mostly been here: http://www.converger.com/eiacab/caspian3.gif engaged in a gas/oil war with Russia, which it is now said, he has apparently lost.

   replyreport