Petty thieves, Corrupt Cops, Oppressive Regimes

Three hypothetical situations:

1. A slightly demented man walks into a local McDonald's, takes out a gun, and kills 20 customers


2. A cop, who turns out to be a closet white supremacist, walks into a local McDonald's, takes out a gun, and kills 20 black people


3. A soldier, serving in Farofistan, walks into a local McDonald's, takes out a gun, and kills 20 customers


4. An authorized government commando team enters a local McDonald's, and, after securing the perimeter, kills 20 customers.

End result? 20 dead people in all situations.

Are all the crimes the same though? Obviously not, despite the identical consequences, all of the crimes have different meanings attached to them and require appropriate action. I would suggest that the response to the above crimes should be (respectively):

1. Take the guy, and throw him into jail for the rest of his life, preferably with some hard labour to boot


2. Take the cop, and throw him into jail for the rest of his life, preferably with some hard labour to boot. Furthermore, as a precaution, take steps to minimize the number of white supremacists on the force. Do not disband the police force.


3. Take the soldier, and throw him into jail for the rest of his life, preferably with some hard labour to boot. Furthermore, as a precaution, take steps to minimize the number of idiots in the army. Do not withdraw from Farofistan


4. A very serious problem! Do whatever you can!

What is the point of all this? Obviously it has to do with the recent revelations that some soldiers were abusing prisoners in Iraq.

The pictures being displayed in the media right now are despicable. The soldiers involved should be heavily punished, and I expect that they will be. However, neither the American leadership, nor the American public, nor the American military supports the actions of these soldiers. That is a huge point that is being overlooked, and it impacts heavily on the situation. It makes the difference between situation #3 and situation #4.

Does the public ever support atrocities? Sure, just take a look at the support Hamas gets over in the West Bank and Gaza for the atrocities it commits regularly against Israeli civilians... except of course that Hamas doesn't humiliate civilians, they just kill'em.