America Polishes its New Image

(From the BBC)
UN body criticises US on rights

The US should immediately shut all secret detention facilities used in its campaign against terror groups, the UN Human Rights Committee has said.

The committee called on the US to give the International Red Cross prompt access to those held in such jails.

The UN report also covered the domestic human rights situation in the US.

It urged the government to ensure the rights of poor people and blacks are respected in relief efforts.

Both groups were "disadvantaged" in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the UN committee noted.

[As a boy in coastal California, I learned that America was the "land of the free" and home, not only of the brave, but also home to worldwide hopes for the realization of human rights. How far we've come. The country seems to have become one vast Milgram experiment. - LW]

"All aboard!"







Yaks threaten China's 'miracle' train line

From the The Guardian

The safety of passengers on the world's highest - and newest - railway is threatened by cracks, yaks and shifting sands, the Chinese government has admitted.

Less than a month after the opening of the line across the Himalayas to Tibet, it has become unstable in places because the foundations are sinking into the permafrost, railway ministry spokesman Wang Yongping, told the Beijing News today.

Crossing the rugged Qinghai plateau and climbing to 5,072 metres (16,640ft) above sea level, the $4.2bn (£2.3bn) railway was hailed by president Hu Jintao as an engineering miracle for the world. But it was always likely to be harder to maintain than to build. ....

Tunnels were built under elevated sections so that the endangered Tibetan antelope could pass by without danger. But planners have failed to cope with a far less timid and more numerous beast - the yak, thousands of which graze along the tracks and wander across them.

"These form dangers to passengers on the train," Mr Wang said

[In this situation, I favor the yaks, the sand and the Tibetans. The new railroad from China to Tibet is a fine example of a "political artifact," in this case a transportation system whose main purpose is to establish the dominance of the state over a region that has long tried to secure its independence. - LW]

The Empire Strikes Out

A story in the Washington Post, "Waiting to Get Blown Up," goes to the heart of the confusion, disgust and anger that, apparently, many U.S. troops in Iraq now openly express. Sent on a fool's errand by politicians who lied about the reasons for sending them, the soldiers can be counted among our war mongers' victims.

Here are some of their comments:

BAGHDAD, July 26 Army Staff Sgt. Jose Sixtos considered the simple question about morale for more than an hour...."Think of what you hate most about your job. Then think of doing what you hate most for five straight hours, every single day, sometimes twice a day, in 120-degree heat," he said. "Then ask how morale is."

Frustrated? "You have no idea," he said. ....

"It sucks. Honestly, it just feels like we're driving around waiting to get blown up. That's the most honest answer I could give you," said Spec. Tim Ivey, 28, of San Antonio, a muscular former backup fullback for Baylor University. "You lose a couple friends and it gets hard." ....

[Spec. Joshua Steffey, 24, of Asheville, N.C.] said he wished "somebody would explain to us, 'Hey, this is what we're working for.' " With a stream of expletives, he said he could not care less "if Iraq's free" or "if they're a democracy." ....

[Spec. David Fulcher, 22, a medic from Lynchburg, Va., who sat alongside Steffey]... "It's like this never-ending battle, like, we find one IED, if we do find it before it hits us, so what? You know it's just like if the cops make a big bust, next week the next higher-up puts more back out there."

"My personal opinion, I don't speak for the rest of anybody, I just speak for me personally, I think civil war is going to happen regardless," Steffey responded.

"Maybe this country needs it: One side has to win. Be it Sunni, be it Shiite, one side has to win. It's apparent, these people have made it obvious they can't live in unity."