A comment on the Administration's comment on suicide.

[xiphias]

Okay. So three detainees at Guantanamo manage to commit suicide. A military spokesman calls it "an act of asymmetric warfare."

This explains a hell of a lot about the Pentagon's strategy.

Apparently, they think that whoever has most people die pointlessly wins. So that's why they don't armor Humvees, prevent soldiers from buying their own body armor, make people drive broken trucks, and pay KBR for failing to provide vital services to the Army. If we can have more soldiers die than they do, we win!

Maybe civilians count toward our total, too.

Comments

[alcinoe.livejournal.com]

I swear our military leaders are getting dumber and dumber. *sigh*

[sethg]

The smart ones have either resigned their commissions, or have decided to keep their mouths firmly closed until the next Administration comes in.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

When I heard that (hi by the way, I'm coming to you via amberdine because "Xiphias" is such a cool name!) from the Pentagon, I thought, wow, I've heard of victimhood syndrome, but this has GOT to take the cake. ...gah, could type an essay on the topic, but I'll spare your journal my ranting...

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Go right ahead and rant. I can't see any reason why I should be the only one to rant here.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Well then (clears throat)!

What is it with folks taking the 1984 notion of doublespeak literally?

If some prisoners committing suicide is an act of warfare, think of all the other unrecognized acts of warfare out there:

Suffragette hunger strikers--terrorizing the patriarchy!!
Vietnamese Buddhist monks who immolated themselves--agressors against the United States!

And think of the potential victims! Pity poor Stalin, victimized by all those purge-ees Pity poor Pol Pot, victimized by all those killing fields corpses. And so on and on....

I just wonder why these lines don't make even the news reporters laugh when they try to repeat them...

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Because the modern journalistic standard is to simply report what is said, and pointing out that something is nonsensical, or even an outright lie, is inserting yourself into the story.

Jim Leherer said that, if a public official stated that it was raining during an event, and he personally had been there and it HADN'T been, he wouldn't report that the statement was wrong -- he'd simply report that the official said that. He MIGHT report that the National Weather Service's records showed something different, but he wouldn't report his own personal experience. Because that would be taking sides in the story.

[copperpoint.livejournal.com]

I just keep thinking of the suicide squad from The Life of Brian.