Thursday, July 28, 2005
Richard Cohen - Guantanamo and Auschwitz
Richard Cohen wrote a rather incoherent column in the Washington Post comparing Auschwitz to Guantanamo.
I believe passionately in free speech. In free debate and discussion, the best ideas are honed and improved and triumph while error quickly shows itself as such.
The comparison that Mr. Cohen makes of Guantanamo to Auschwitz certainly fits the latter category. I recently saw "Schindler's List" with a group. It was extremely difficult to watch. I had to leave the room several times to avoid being seen in tears.
For Mr. Cohen to suggest any sort of equivalence boggles the mind. How does putting panties on a prisoner's head compare to the gassing of hundreds of thousands of innocent people? How does the incarceration of murderers captured on the field of battle compare to the putting of innocent people in death camps merely on the basis of their religion?
There is no equivalency; there is no basis that one even elicits a thought of the other no matter how careful one may be in saying precisely what is meant and leaving nothing to chance.
The comparison disgusts me and should disgust any reasonable person who has any concept whatsoever of the horrors of Auschwitz and what the Nazis did to 6,000,000 Jews.
How can anyone even offer such a comparison? Does partisanship so warp one's analytical ability or one's sense of judgment to such an extent that Guantanamo somehow equates to Auschwitz?
We need to take a serious look at how far we have sunk in partisan hatred when a columnist in a major newspaper can make such a comparison.
Please, Mr. Cohen, watch "Schindler's List" again and then ask yourself again if there is any equivalency whatsoever between Auschwitz and Guantanamo. One of the scenes that caused my quck exit from the room was when the Germans gathered the children together at Auschwitz to go to the gas chambers. How dare you make a comparison of that to Guantanamo.
I believe passionately in free speech. In free debate and discussion, the best ideas are honed and improved and triumph while error quickly shows itself as such.
The comparison that Mr. Cohen makes of Guantanamo to Auschwitz certainly fits the latter category. I recently saw "Schindler's List" with a group. It was extremely difficult to watch. I had to leave the room several times to avoid being seen in tears.
For Mr. Cohen to suggest any sort of equivalence boggles the mind. How does putting panties on a prisoner's head compare to the gassing of hundreds of thousands of innocent people? How does the incarceration of murderers captured on the field of battle compare to the putting of innocent people in death camps merely on the basis of their religion?
There is no equivalency; there is no basis that one even elicits a thought of the other no matter how careful one may be in saying precisely what is meant and leaving nothing to chance.
The comparison disgusts me and should disgust any reasonable person who has any concept whatsoever of the horrors of Auschwitz and what the Nazis did to 6,000,000 Jews.
How can anyone even offer such a comparison? Does partisanship so warp one's analytical ability or one's sense of judgment to such an extent that Guantanamo somehow equates to Auschwitz?
We need to take a serious look at how far we have sunk in partisan hatred when a columnist in a major newspaper can make such a comparison.
Please, Mr. Cohen, watch "Schindler's List" again and then ask yourself again if there is any equivalency whatsoever between Auschwitz and Guantanamo. One of the scenes that caused my quck exit from the room was when the Germans gathered the children together at Auschwitz to go to the gas chambers. How dare you make a comparison of that to Guantanamo.
# posted by Thomas A. Becket : 7:53 AM
