In Pakistan recently nine health workers who were
administering polio vaccines were killed by the Taliban. For several years now,
Pakistanis in general and the Taliban in particular have been skeptical about the
honesty of the program, believing that it was a Western base for spying and a conspiracy
to make them impotent amongst other evils. As a result of those murders the
program was halted.
Pakistan is one of only three countries in which Polio is
endemic (Afghanistan and Nigeria are the others) and great progress has been
made over recent years bringing down the yearly total of infections from around
20,000 to about 50.
Pakistani suspicions about the program were confirmed when
it was revealed that the CIA used a fake vaccination program to try to get
information about Bin Laden’s whereabouts. While the doses administered were
real enough, immunization only comes with three doses and they only did one so the
program was a total scam. It was unconscionable for the CIA to set up the fake
program and even worse for the Pakistani doctor they used to run it. The doctor
was given a 33-year sentence, which the US strenuously objected to, for
collaborating with the CIA. The sentence was well-deserved, since it’s not only
the health workers who’ve subsequently paid with their lives, but also the tens,
hundreds or thousands of children who may eventually suffer from polio because
they were denied access to the vaccine. Polio kills or permanently maims an
individual within hours of being infected.
In the end result, they got no useful information from the
fake program, but did manage to jeopardize the lives of many innocents. When
you come right down to it, America’s action was the equivalent of murder, but
since it’s only Pakistani children who’ll die or be crippled, it’s clear they
don’t count for much. Whatever it takes to kill Bin Laden, right?
There’s a popular new movie, Zero Dark Thirty, about the capture of Bin Laden which bills itself
as based on a true story. However, the major theme of the film, and which takes
up the first 45 minutes of action, is the efficacy of torture in gaining useful
information on his capture. That was a total lie since no useful information
was gained from torture. When confronted by that fact the director of the film
said, It’s just a movie. Just a movie which tries to make torture cool, useful
and acceptable when it had nothing to do with the capture of Bin Laden.
As I understand it, there’s also a popular TV program in
which terrible terrorist acts are thwarted at the last minute by the use of torture.
Torture is never justified. As far back as the 18th century, the
prohibition of ‘cruel and unusual punishments’ was enshrined in the 8th
amendment in the US Bill of Rights. The routine use of torture insures that
innocent people will be abused, not to mention that the torturers themselves become
dehumanized. No matter, it’s now the American way along with motherhood and
apple pie.
Torture is not the only part of the abrogation of basic human
rights that has been embraced by the American people and their government. The
US now assumes the right to assassinate anyone, anytime in anyplace, including
American citizens, it thinks is a bad guy. Forget the right to a fair trial and
presenting of evidence; that’s so 18th century. And if innocent
civilians get caught in the crossfire, well that’s the price of war.
America’s drone strikes have been a lot more successful
lately, since the definition of insurgent/terrorist was changed. It used to be that
a person had to be individually identified as a bad guy to be targeted, now
every man killed in a drone strike between the ages of 18 and 35 is
automatically assumed to be an insurgent.
In the latest killing innovation the CIA has begun signature
strikes. Previously, they only targeted known bad guys; now, activity that’s
merely suspicious is enough to get blasted to smithereens. That is how 11 girls
aged 10 to 17 were murdered in Pakistan recently. They were out before dawn
collecting firewood when they were taken out by a drone pilot sitting in a
comfortable chair in front of a computer monitor thousands of miles away. Those
of you dependent on the mainstream media probably didn’t hear about that
incident, they’re only Pakistanis, after all.
Twenty American children killed as a result of a crazed gun
culture and it’s the top news for weeks; eleven Pakistani kids killed by US
drone strikes and it barely rates a mention in the US media. Well, there’s a
war going on and collateral damage is inevitable, so they say. Still, it’s not
hard to understand why an overwhelming percentage of Pakistanis hate America.
And why Bin Laden couldn’t have asked for a better outcome to his death.
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