Dear Uncle Sam - enemies are human too
Dear Uncle Sam
I'd like to draw your attention to the fact that people who are non-Americans, even those who might be the enemy, can have normal human responses, just like Americans. Sammy, I know its difficult for you to understand, but when prisonsers, whatever their ideological flavour or fanaticism, are kept in prison without knowing why, without access to human contact or even knowing if they will be brought to trial, they may actually prefer to die.
I agree that it's tough fighting a war when you don't know what the war is about or who is the enemy or where they come from. But surely even you must be embarrassed at finding three of your proclaimed Most Evil Men on the Earth, exposing your inability to comprehend that even they are human. Your views that these people must be some kind of automatons, de-humanised of any reaction that we might call "normal" to situations of immense stress and hopelessness, has been writ large in the words of one of your Spin Doctors. 'A top US official has described the suicides of three detainees at the US base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as a "good PR move to draw attention"'.
Surely you can only think like that about others, if you're already in that mindset. Are you so embroiled in a culture of PR and media, that all you can imagine is that everyone else is doing so too? What else am I to make of the camp commander at Guantanamo saying that "two Saudis and a Yemeni were 'committed' and had killed themselves in an 'act of asymmetric warfare waged against us'". Aysmmetric warfare? Is that like the asymmetric bars in gymnastics? Or is that where you hold a gun to a man's head who is in an orange jumpsuit shackled to the floor? Back to the doctor for some more paranoid pills, Sammy boy.
Mr Sam, if its not out of place for me to say, I recommend that you attend some introductory classes at your local college or university to re-sensitise yourself to Human Beings. Their emotions, feelings and motivations are fascinating things, and may help you to understand why these poor men have chosen not to live. Your people say that America values all life, even that of detainees. Well, all human being including the detainees feel - or should I say felt - the same. What did you do to these people that life became the less attractive option?
Dearest Uncle, I wish that I could laugh at this latest hilarious prank of yours. But I feel sick. So should you.
I'd like to draw your attention to the fact that people who are non-Americans, even those who might be the enemy, can have normal human responses, just like Americans. Sammy, I know its difficult for you to understand, but when prisonsers, whatever their ideological flavour or fanaticism, are kept in prison without knowing why, without access to human contact or even knowing if they will be brought to trial, they may actually prefer to die.
I agree that it's tough fighting a war when you don't know what the war is about or who is the enemy or where they come from. But surely even you must be embarrassed at finding three of your proclaimed Most Evil Men on the Earth, exposing your inability to comprehend that even they are human. Your views that these people must be some kind of automatons, de-humanised of any reaction that we might call "normal" to situations of immense stress and hopelessness, has been writ large in the words of one of your Spin Doctors. 'A top US official has described the suicides of three detainees at the US base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as a "good PR move to draw attention"'.
Surely you can only think like that about others, if you're already in that mindset. Are you so embroiled in a culture of PR and media, that all you can imagine is that everyone else is doing so too? What else am I to make of the camp commander at Guantanamo saying that "two Saudis and a Yemeni were 'committed' and had killed themselves in an 'act of asymmetric warfare waged against us'". Aysmmetric warfare? Is that like the asymmetric bars in gymnastics? Or is that where you hold a gun to a man's head who is in an orange jumpsuit shackled to the floor? Back to the doctor for some more paranoid pills, Sammy boy.
Mr Sam, if its not out of place for me to say, I recommend that you attend some introductory classes at your local college or university to re-sensitise yourself to Human Beings. Their emotions, feelings and motivations are fascinating things, and may help you to understand why these poor men have chosen not to live. Your people say that America values all life, even that of detainees. Well, all human being including the detainees feel - or should I say felt - the same. What did you do to these people that life became the less attractive option?
Dearest Uncle, I wish that I could laugh at this latest hilarious prank of yours. But I feel sick. So should you.
posted by Shelina Zahra Janmohamed at 10:34
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