Foolish and Dishonorable Specimen of the Day

One thing that as the Blogger Samurai in training, that leaves me gasping for air is the seeming ebb of wisdom and honor from the world. Sometimes it is enough to drive me mad.

It is for this that I will attempt to start a new category called FOOLISH AND DISHONORABLE SPECIMENS OF THE DAY, and today’s Foolish and Dishonorable Specimen is:

NGUYET ANH DUNG!

According to this source from Robert Parry;

U.S. forces in Iraq soon will be equipped with high-tech equipment that will let them process an Iraqi’s biometric data in minutes and help American soldiers decide whether they should execute the person or not, according to its inventor.

“A war fighter needs to know one of three things: Do I let him go? Keep him? Or shoot him on the spot?” Pentagon weapons designer Anh Duong told the Washington Post for a feature on how this 47-year-old former Vietnamese refugee and mother of four rose to become a top U.S. bomb-maker.

…

Duong justified this biometric-data program as a humanitarian way of singling out “bad guys” for elimination while sparing innocent civilians.

“I don’t want My Lai in Iraq,” Duong said. “The biggest difficulty in the global war on terror – just like in Vietnam – is to know who the bad guys are. How do we make sure we don’t kill innocents?”

One wonders what possesses Ms Duong, whose own people were once subjected to unbelievable horrors herself, to believe that ultimately that you can ensure that there can be a “humanitarian” solution to war, which is itself never humanitarian. Does she think that ultimately with intelligence that you can ensure that war will be humanitarian? No, in war the individual is always subject to the most barbaric of impulses, in the midst of fear and distrust, how does one expect to act ever humanitarian at all? Does she ever think that intelligence ever runs war? NO, wars are run on emotions, desires, the will to power, the will to profit, the will to protect, the will to defend, the will to KILL. If there’s a WILL, there’s a KILL. That is the essence of war, and nothing can ever hide it.

And of course, that you want the US soldiers to carry out EXECUTIONS rather than submit enemy insurgents to the due process of law? Where is your Honor, Madam? Where is your Honor?

Besides, how honorable does Ms Duong think she is being by choosing to create technologies that stink of such hubris that they can simply label who they wish to as a “terrorist”? Terrorism is a means to an end, and therefore anyone can be pushed to terrorism when he or she gets mad enough. There is no such thing as a professional terrorist. There is only the fact of whether there will be MORE TERRORISM or LESS TERRORISM. The way to avoid another My Lai, is to decide that there WILL BE NO WAR. That is the way to avoid another My Lai.  

And wait, there’s more. Let’s look at these choice quotes from Ms Duong, shall we?

“Look, the way I see it is simple. There are a lot of bad guys in the world. The best defense is offense. If you’re not strong you’re going to die”

“If you are weak you will lose, it’s a simple fact”

Ho ho ho, I swear, those things sound like something Hitler would have said about the menace the Jews posed to the Germans.

“This (U.S.A.) land is a paradise not because of its beauty or richness but because of its people, the compassionate, generous Americans who took my family and me in, 32 years ago, and healed our souls, who restore my faith in humanity, and who inspire me to public service. There’s a special group of people that I’m especially indebted to and I would like to dedicate this medal to them. They are the 58,000 Americans whose names are on the wall of the Vietnam War Memorial and the 260,000 South Vietnamese soldiers who died in that war in order for people like me to earn a second chance to freedom”

Those compassionate and generous Americans were only “compassionate and generous” because they were living in a “war-free environment” when you got there. Also, does Death favor the South Vietnamese or the Americans any more than the even more North Vietnamese that died fighting for the Cause that they believed in? You would have impressed me if you stuck up for them too, but not any longer.

For your lack of a basic knowledge in human nature, your selection of quotes that would have made Hitler proud, and your ignorant commitment to utter evil by any standard, you have won for yourself the title of Foolish and Dishonorable Specimen of the Day.