Posted by Sigismund on March 27, 2009, at 20:50:57
In reply to Re: Obama and stuff » Sigismund, posted by Garnet71 on March 27, 2009, at 18:05:11
>Or do you believe that cultures should be left sovereign no matter how badly citizens are treated due to cultural differences and that there should be no universal human rights (as some people do believe)?
Nice to see someone here. I'm not a cultural relativist, if that's the right expression. I feel very strongly for the women of the Islamic world, and perhaps for the last 5 years, certainly in Afghanistan and I think in Iraq and throughout the region, things have gone backward on that front as extremists have been empowered and moderate opinion sidelined. It's just crazy, really. You may recall bin Laden saying something along the lines of) of the presence of the US army in Saudi Arabia "By God, we do not need to be defended by crusaders and Jewish prostitutes." The odd thing is, just following this chain of thought along, that the CIA and sections of the US armed forces have moved in the same direction by using sexual humiliation in their interrogation procedures.
If we wish to be credible it might be best not to claim that the invasion of Iraq had much to do with Saddam's human rights record, given the support given him in the Iran Iraq war by the west (in retaliation for the Iranian revolution, itself revenge for the overthrow of Mossadeq) of air reconnaissance and perhaps even poison gas.
poster:Sigismund
thread:887302
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/poli/20090221/msgs/887322.html