Hypocrisy or bigotry – you decide.

We can, I suppose, [unproductively] quibble about degrees of illegalness and culpability, but the fact is that from where I sit there is a high degree of blatant hypocrisy happening here.

I think you’re being to loose with the racsist card. I think it comes down to a “we’re right they’re wrong.” mentality more than anything else.

You may be right, a lot of politics revolves around that sort of divisiveness and hypocrisy , but don’t discount the racist element. There is a huge concern and chest thumping when the soldiers of good, Christian, white, armies are captured and/or abused in any way what so ever that we simply do not see when those dark skinned foreigners are captured.

If you doubt that go looking for any sort of significant and official condemnation about the dark skinned, innocent folks, including kids, who were rounded up by coalition forces and thrown into detention or interrogation camps for years by coalition forces for no other crime than being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Maybe, but there is a difference between whats shown on a government run media outlet and what is shown by a free press.

I’m not saying that what Iran is doing is fine and dandy, I’m not saying that they are not breaking (at the very least) the spirit of the treaties they are a party to, and I’m not saying that the Brits (or anyone else who gets captured by them or anybody else) deserves what they get – I am saying that Tony Blair’s “outrage” is hypocritical and possibly bigoted. I am also saying that people like Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh (and all the others currently ramping up the outrage over this) are hypocrites (and more than likely bigots) for their current stances.

Thank you for the clarification on the Iranian Govts actions. However I think you’re being to loose with the racsist card. I think it comes down to a “we’re right they’re wrong.” mentality more than anything else.

There’s alot of hair-splitting over what side is doing being worse than what the other side does.

As an ex-soldier, I’d take being filmed with a bag on my head over being forced to make propaganda statements on camera and in writing any day.

You’re jumping to conclusions.

I made that reference to the conventions not applying in regards to Uday and Qusay. Not detainees in US British or allied custody. They were not soldiers, besides, they were dead, not in custody. Conventions don’t apply to the corpses of dead rapist scumbags.

You’re sounding a bit like George Bush here — ’since they’re detainees not prisoners the Conventions don’t apply’, sound vaguely familiar?

How about if Iran pops up and says — ’since we’re not actually at war with Great Britain these people cannot really be considered prisoners of war, so the conventions don’t apply’.

You don’t think the Iranian version of Tony Snow wouldn’t stand up and say something exactly like that?

How about if Iran pops up and says — ‘yes, we’re showing their images, but it’s not for propaganda purposes, we’re being considerate to the needs of their countrymen, it’s to show their families at home that they are alive and being fed’?

You don’t think that an Iranian Sean Hannity wouldn’t say something exactly like that?

The problem with the quibbling that the west has engaged in is that it comes back to bite them on the ass at times like this.

And a free press taking pictures through a fence doesn’t count either.

I’m afraid that a goodly portion of the footage we see splashed across our TV screens is either shot by the military or shot with their consent.

Just a note, you do not have to be a soldier in uniform to be covered by the Conventions nastyboy. As much as I happen to think that Uday and Qusay didn’t quite get what was coming to them if their end was either quick or painless, that does not change the law.

I’m not saying that what Iran is doing is fine and dandy, I’m not saying that they are not breaking (at the very least) the spirit of the treaties they are a party to, and I’m not saying that the Brits (or anyone else who gets captured by them or anybody else) deserves what they get – I am saying that Tony Blair’s “outrage” is hypocritical and possibly bigoted. I am also saying that people like Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh (and all the others currently ramping up the outrage over this) are hypocrites (and more than likely bigots) for their current stances.

I have never seen American or British captives forced to make statements on TV. And a free press taking pictures through a fence doesn’t count either.

The Geneva conventions state that soldiers aren’t to be used for propaganda purposes. If The Brit’s, US or Canada use captives for that purpose it’s deplorable. And you’re right to be critical of it.

Oddly enough I don’t here any condemnation of Iran for mistreating their prisoners.

As for Uday and Qusay? Fuck em’. They weren’t soldiers. If they could show them being analy raped with pitch forks in Hell, they should have it on tv 24/7.