Damn! I Wish JK Hadn't Disavowed The Word "Atrocities" on MTP

[stopbush]

Remember Kerry's MTP interview where he stated that using the word *atrocities* to describe the actions of US troops in Vietnam was - in retrospect - too strong a term? At the time, I was disappointed with that bit of a nuanced dodge. I wished he had stuck to his guns then, because such fortitude would have served him well now as the mis-administration tries to start a semantic war over *torture* or *abuse.*

Kerry has an opportunity to stand up and express deep disappointment that the kinds of abuses he fought against in Vietnam are now back in spades in the Iraq debacle. He should make the point that this is what happens when a wrong-headed policy is carried out at all costs by an administration that answers only to ideology, not to realities on the ground let alone common human decency.

[NMDemDist2]

1. just because he didn't think he should have used it 30 years ago

doesn't mean he can't use it now :)

[Pepperbelly]

2. they may be terms of art in international law or something ... nt

[dolstein]

3. Sorry, but not everyone believes our soldiers in 'Nam were war criminals

NT

[zoeyfong]

5. Nobody said "all' were... but just like the Iraq prison abuse cases,

they were also most likely not isolated incidents. There are too many accounts to be disregarded, and the details suggest that higher-ups had to know. I am not surprised or shocked at the recent prison abuses, because this is what happens during war, and i think it is disingenuous and not helpful for kerry or anybody else to try to present american war-making as some kind of uninterupted display of pure virtue and morality.

[zoeyfong]

4. Pretty soon kerry will be renouncing previous opposition to the war.