Re: Charges Sought Against Rumsfeld Over Prison Abuse
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Any comparisons to true genocide like the holocaust only show how ridiculous these charges are.
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It has nothing scalewise to do with holocaust, but culturally it has a lot to do with it. The 2nd world war raised an awareness in many European countries that war crimes should not be accepted for any reason. However, Germany and France and others had their guard down allowing de facto war crimes in Eastern Europe etc. (i.e. crackdown on Hungarian revolt in 1956), and I don't think it was really until after the collapse of the communist bloc and the wars in former Yugoslavia that their awareness and confidence grew high enough to take a strong position against it. They have still not matured and are lost in some old power thinking still (allowing secret CIA-flights, not putting more pressure on Sudan via China etc.) but I sense a pride here in Germany, in France, in Norway and other places that we have not retorted to facing terrorism with war crimes and human rights abuses. Hopefully from this pride in the peoples will rise more brave politicians, so that the likes of Rumsfeld, will be too politically expensive for any US president to appoint in the future, and Guantanamo will become a historical shame. The world's most powerful nation accepting human rights instead of joining the ranks of China, Iran, Sudan etc. would be an important step in the right direction. I can't believe that so many of you are allowing to let your country join that club in such an important matter.
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