Monday, October 19, 2009

Hearsay and Anecdotes

That's all we've got really,* so far as these allegations of torture and child-rape in Afghanistan go. Of course, the gigantic pink elephant in the room is that the powers that could investigate these serious charges have refused to do so and are actively blocking anyone else from being able to do so.

The latest in this sickening display of cynicism is Peter MacKay whom "Impolitical" and others have referred to as "Sgt. Schultz" for his claiming not to have even noticed any of the SIXTEEN memos he received from Richard Colvin from Kabul. "Sgt. Schultz" was the character from the television show "Hogan's Heroes" who was supposed to represent all those Germans who remained willfully ignorant about what was going on in Germany in World War II. (Of course, many Germans had tried to fight against the Nazis before and after they came to power, and millions more would have found themselves arrested, tortured and perhaps executed if they'd spoken out against Hitler's crimes because Germany was a violent dictatorship during World War II. Canada is more of a democracy than was Hitler's Germany and the lack of outcry against our warcrimes is mainly due to apathy and lazy ignorance.) MacKay, harper, Stockwell Day, and others in that gang of scum have referred to all of the torture allegations as unsubstantiated and even "Taliban propaganda." It becomes clearer everyday that they've been engaged in a cynical cover-up.

Elsewhere on the intertubes, "Junker" refers to the stories of the raping of children by the Afghan security forces as:
Getting back to your post. The 2nd and third hand comments of a dead soldier, the awful story of a "15-year-old, named Sitara", and alleged rape of a young Afghani on CF property. All worth reporting. Certainly tragic. Somewhat anecdotal, and largely irrelevant to the larger debate.

"Anecdotal" 'eh? Even here, when it comes to the possibility that the people our tax-dollars are providing weapons and training for are raping children, these detestable scum-bags are deliberately averting their eyes.

To say that these are all unsubstantiated rumours and isolated anecdotes is akin to police hearing calls to check out serial-killer/cannibal Jeffrey Dahmer and refusing to even investigate. When they hear actual direct claims that someone was last seen with Dahmer, seemingly under the influence of some powerful sedative, and now their half-digested remains have been found in a dumpster outside Dahmer's building, the police (if they were acting like Canada's Shittiest Government) would again refuse to investigate and concluding that all of this is merely anecdotal.

The only thing missing is that this hypothetical police department isn't then wondering why the murder rate seems so inconveniently high the way the harpercons and the other morons and assholes supporting "The Mission" (tm.) wonder why the insurgency is growing even after 8 years of our work there.

(Actually, there's shitloads more than that, but for the sake of argument ...)

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