How about walking in a 15 year old young Muslim woman’s shoes?

http://www.aztlan.net/abu_ghraib_revisited.htm

Here’s the link so that you can read the comments to that video…

http://www.youtube.com/comment_servlet?all_comments&v=qFOF-jv32dA&fromurl=/watch%3Fv%3DqFOF-jv32dA%26feature%3Dchannel_page

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/5413633/Telegraph-report-over-Abu-Ghraib-abuse-photos-confirmed.html

http://www.salon.com/news/abu_ghraib/2006/03/14/introduction/

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1815813330?bctid=9472299001

We’ve ALL got a very serious problem here and this has NOTHING to do with passing “judgement”! You’re cousin is going to have to deal with all the effects of this too… and the only way for any SOLUTIONS to come about is for complete honesty and taking FULL responsibility for one’s actions.

http://www.truthout.org/120108K

There is the law… and then there is THE LAW!

I am glad that you equate murdering a detainee with fighting for freedom and his country — not that he was an actual soldier, but rather a mercenary. Anything goes, as long as Muslims get murdered, right?

1. Saying I could not be farther from the left…does not necessarily imply one is a right winger — it could suggest that one is simply so far left that what is normally considered “left wing” seems to the right. That is actually the more common accusation I get, and it has more legitimacy than what you imply.

2. For someone who wants to argue that one needs to know all the intimate little details about a person’s life before making any judgments…then why don’t you follow your own advice and quit doing so when you write about me? The turn towards the personal is something that you initiated.

3. I very well know that the U.S. is not alone in Afghanistan. Why do you even make that point? You have not seen my articles about NATO, and about Canada in Afghanistan. But now this is another of your diversions: this story is not about Canadians or any other NATO forces…so why even bother raising it?

4. “And the mere fact that you have openly admitted that you haven’t looked into Loyd shows that you don’t know what she was doing there, or WHY she was there.” I do not call reading through a mass of soppy personal sanctimony about Loyd, of which there is an endless amount on the web, and going to some lousy little Facebook group, “looking into Loyd.” Yet, this blog is one of the very few sources, anywhere, that features both video of Loyd and quotes from interviews she gave in Afghanistan. I also know about the program she worked with. Looking into her personal life, is simply irrelevant. I do know what Loyd was doing in Afghanistan, and your likening it to a humanitarian mission, and likening her to a divine figure, invites scorn and ridicule.

5. You don’t believe it is fair to judge people. So once again I discover that I am not a person — no surprises there. Of course it is fair to judge, in fact, it is absolutely essential, if critical thinking matters to you.

6. “The public does not need to be defended from Ayala.” Which public? Here you stumble on the fatal flaw that is one of a number that make this case a farce, the same reasons voiced by those who help set up the International Criminal Court, who work for human rights groups, etc., and that is the problem of the U.S. trying people within its ranks for crimes committed while serving in a U.S. mission. Does the concept “in house” mean anything to you? The crime was committed in Afghanistan, and if it really were that sovereign nation that the U.S. lies to everyone that it is, then the crime would have been tried there, where he was a demonstrated danger to the Afghan public. Had he murdered someone in Canada, do you think we would have let him go to be tried somewhere in Virginia?

Don’t you ask yourself any of these questions? I am certainly not suggesting that you are in any way intellectually deficient, and I apologize for those moments in our sparring when it seemed I was pushing that idea. I also don’t think you are the most close-minded person I have ever corresponded with, and so I am surprised that you would not consider alternate viewpoints more carefully, and see past your personal relationship with a childhood friend.

One thing that this story is absolutely not about, is whether Loyd was a “good” person.

And, if you got back through EVERY post I’ve made, there is A LOT ignored, so don’t say that you haven’t ignored anything, because you have. Mainly, you have ignored direct questions and points, and turned to insults or inaccurate analysis’ of me as diversions.

And when I say Canada is “safe”, I mean, “It is in NO DANGER of being invaded or attacked any time soon, or if ever.

The other thing I’d like to remind you of is that the US is hardly the ONLY country with troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. There are countries who support “our” plight, if you will, even though there are many Americans who don’t.

I happen to be one of those Americans who DOES NOT believe war should be ANYONE’S first course of action. I absolutely, 100% was against Iraq when we went, and I still am, but it isn’t as easy as saying, “Let’s pack up and go. Look at the mess we made. You clean it up now. Bye.” The same thing with Afghanistan. And the mere fact that you have openly admitted that you haven’t looked into Loyd shows that you don’t know what she was doing there, or WHY she was there. She wasn’t there as a soldier. She was there to learn about the culture and help Afghan women, yet you fail to see that, and defend the man who killed her without knowing anything about him other than that he was in his homeland. That isn’t open-mided, seeing things for all sides and telling the WHOLE story in any way, shape or form.

Personally, I don’t have any problem with what your opinion is. I just think it’s ridiculous to form opinions when you don’t know what you’re talking about, and to write things that are opinion or half truths and call them fact.

But what I know is this…

If I were in Ayala’s shoes, I can’t honestly say I wouldn’t have done the same thing. I can’t say I would have either. I can only say, “I don’t know.” I don’t believe it’s fair for ANYONE to judge anyone else in this world like people have on this blog, and other places, until you have walked in that person’s shoes. Do people do it all the time? Sure they do, but it doesn’t make it right. Do I pass judgement, yes, but I try not to, and it isn’t right when I do it. I am ashamed when I do it, and the world isn’t a better place when anyone does it.

Like someone said before, the US justice system isn’t perfect, but I think you’d be hard pressed to show me one that is. That’s what happens when you deal with people. People are imperfect, and all you can do is strive to make things work, but I honestly don’t even know what you want. If you read my blog, you read that I wanted a fair sentence for Ayala. I happen to believe he got a fair sentence based on how sentences are decided. His public defended even said something I said to a friend on Thursday night, “The public does not need to be protected from Mr. Ayala.” And that, in my belief, is WHY he got probation.

Of course I embrace the difference that you seem incapable or unwilling to comprehend, since you are stuck on the familiar: Paula, your tennis matches, and the fundamental goodness of all Americans like you.

Funny that you should suggest below that I am an extreme leftist…earlier today another commenter was saying I am an extreme right winger. Ritalin is in very short supply it seems.

“why is it do you think Canada is always so safe?”

Safe? From what? Try being an Aboriginal woman, try being a homeless person, try living next door to the most dangerous and violent country on earth, then get back to me with your comments about safety.

I certainly did not invent the fact that Salam was an Afghan, in Afghanistan, a country invaded and occupied by the U.S.

Ayala’s guilt in perpetrating a war crime is beyond doubt. The credibility of those who defend him is well within the bounds of serious doubt.

And the straw man of the Abeer case is ridiculous. You’d find few WITHIN the Army that would demand anything less than a death sentence for Green, let alone defend him. Also, mercenaries fight for FOREIGN POWERS. Ayala is a contractor, hired by a company working for the DOD. You’re just being dramatic.

And while I’m at it, while you’re sitting there cozy and comfy in Montreal, which you totally ignored before, why is it do you think Canada is always so safe? And no, I’m hardly conservative, or anywhere near it. If the people who know me best read the things that you said about me, they would choke, just like my mother did, because you couldn’t be farther from the left than I am from the right. I’m a realist who likes to be happy.

But, the biggest differences between you & I are that I KNOW we’re all the same, no one is better than anyone else, I love everyone, I look at the POSITIVE side of things & I’m smart enough to know I don’t everything. Take a lesson from Mother Theresa when she says, “If you judge people, you have no time to love them”.

And, if you don’t answer questions, you’ll never be able to explain your point to people like me who you claim have made the place a much worse place to live. Perhaps if you answered the questions, I’d understand & see what yout point is, but the way it is now, all I see is someone who is against everything, close-minded & unwilling to see any other view but his own. On your page ‘The Blogger’ you have a quote that says “…is only further proof of how little difference is appreciated, and how far we have yet to go”, which seems to imply that you embrace difference, yet you obviously don’t. In fact, you stoop to name calling, inaccurate psychological analysis & insults that have no basis. So, if you won’t discuss it any longer, that fine with me.

Signed,

The Idiot w/142 IQ

In addition, while Ayala’s defense had over 50 people in the courtroom to stand up for him when called, during the sentencing hearing, to show their support for Ayala, no such privilege was allowed for the friends and family of Salam, of course. While a video documentary of pleas from friends and family of Ayala was produced, there is not a single word from the friends and family of Salam. Not a single Afghan got to speak about a crime that was committed on Afghan soil. Ayala was airlifted out of Afghanistan, to be “tried” by Americans, in an American court, for a crime committed on behalf of an American. Talk about an “intra-mural” event!

If that doesn’t interest you, then yes the way you construe matters might seem legitimate — to you.

Unlike the Churchill trial, where masses of evidence and testimonials for all sides was presented, examined, cross-examined, debated, etc., over a period of weeks…nothing was presented in this trial, because it was made to work this way. I never understood how you could compare the two trials, since they were fundamentally different, and, only one of them involved a crime committed by an American against a foreigner.

If it’s not a farce, then at least it’s a damn good comedy.