Wash Post: Guantanamo Undermines Criticism of Chinese Repression
By Brent Baker | May 11, 2008 | 15:55
Deep into his May 10 treatise, “Playing With Fire: U.S. Holocaust Museum Revisits Fascist Iconography of 1936 Games and Beyond,” Kennicott asserted:
It's impossible to walk through the current exhibition without feeling a repetition syndrome. Just as Jim Crow laws blunted the force of moral outrage against the Nazis, the specter of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo has blunted the force of arguments about Chinese political repression.Even accepting the premise for 1936, a key difference is that Jim Crow laws impacted an entire segment of American citizens while Abu Ghraib was soon-corrected misbehavior by a few soldiers and Guantanamo holds a small number of people captured in a war launched against the U.S., very few of whom may be innocent. The U.S. versus China is a particularly invidious comparison in the midst of a presidential campaign to replace the current U.S. leadership, an opportunity not allowed in China. Many Americans loudly oppose the Bush administration, yet none are imprisoned -- not even Keith Olbermann.
- Brent Baker's blog
- Login or register to post comments



















