Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Ah, Rosie, .... you fucking moron ...

Pogge and Scott have both blogged on this, but I was so appalled that I thought that I'd give it a whirl ...

Rosie DiManno, the columnist/circus freak inexplicably given a regular column by the Toronto Star (perhaps to capture that all-important slavering facist moron demographic and avoid the "stigma" of being a purely "liberal" paper) has barfed-up another monstrosity of a column.

"We can't impose values on Afghans"

Now then. Let's stop right there. As Jim Bobby comments on Scott's blog;

… and another thing. As I understand it, our mission is to help create a stable, democratic society that operates on the rule of law. That’s why we went. That’s why we’re there.

But Afghanistan never had a democratic government before, stable or otherwise. Isn’t the entire mission based on imposing western values on a rogue state? How can we be there to create a democracy and say, at the same, time that we cannot justify imposing our values?

So, Rosie's column, which will only continue to get more embarrassing and nauseating, is a stupid waste of time FROM THE VERY BEGINNING. The whole point of "the mission" (tm) is about imposing Western values, ... so fuck you and the horse you rode in on Rosie!

DiManno's column is such a vile piece of garbage that it deserves a thorough thrashing.

It starts off with the world-weary journalist delivering some harsh reality to us over-sensitive pinko Canadian weenies:

Afghanistan will not fast-forward from the 12th century to the 21st century in the blink of an eye and certainly not according to the agenda of Canadian sensibilities.

Remember now; this is the whole gist (supposedly) of NATO's "mission." So don't go lecturing the decent people who oppose torture Rosie. Spare your contempt for Paul Martin, Stephen Harper, Tony Blair, .... and fools such as yourself.

If you want to see an Afghan beaten by a stick – or otherwise abused, by our standards – just walk out into the street in Kandahar city.

Whoa! That's deep! Actually, Rosie, you idiot; being beaten by a stick is abuse by anyone's standards. Just ask the people being beaten. Dimwit.

Their long history is soaked in violence. They have barely emerged from three decades of civil war

Ah! Such an inscrutable people! So addicted to violence. Oh, Rosie, ... one thing, you forgot to mention that much of the violence was the result of Soviet and American meddling. Kind of important.

...and are coping, as best they can, with a pitiless insurgency that targets the indigenous population even more than foreign troops, preying especially on women, children, teachers, aid workers and civil servants.

Oh Rosie? You forgot something else again. You forgot to mention that NATO has been killing more Afghans than the Taliban/insurgency. Oh yeah, you forgot yet another thing! The Karzai government's police force is also a pitiless scourge. As are the warlords collaborating with Karzai. This stuff is important and I wonder why you neglected to include it in your report. No I don't. I know you're a hack propagandist.

I have met Governor Asadullah Khalid many times,...

Hunh? Who? Whatever are you talking about? Who is this Khalid fellow Rosie?

been in the palace where it is alleged that the young minister

Young is he? Is he good-looking too? What is it that this fine young fellow is alleged to have done?

was directly involved in the torture of detainees held in private cells.
Yikes!! Now, the word "young" conjures up a young, virile fellow who will tirelessly beat his victims! Rosie, seriously, why'd you say he was young? How the fuck was it at all relevant? At least the prisoners got to enjoy private cells. Those beatings in the semi-private cells are the worst, ... there's all this macho pressure not to crack in front of one's cell mates.

Those allegations now dwindle down to one accuser,

What happened? We kill all the others?

transferred last year to the National Directorate of Security prison, an agency far more suspect in the mistreatment of detainees.

This is where Rosie gets all confused, tossing around her mindless contempt too freely. Now she's just gone and created the impression that the whole fucking edifice of justice in Karzai's and NATO's Afghanistan is rotten. She was attempting to pour scorn on the Canadian softies who oppose torture, but being utterly clueless and overwhelmed by her experience with irrelevancies ... ["I'm in the country where things happen! Hundreds of miles away! I can't see these things that happen. But I talk to the people involved! Politicians lie straight to my face! I don't have to get the lies second-hand like you do, when you read my columns! I was in the room where the beatings are alleged to have taken place! When I was there, ... there were no beatings! I think Governor Khalid is H-O-T!!!"] ... that she ends up giving the fraud of the whole Afghanistan nation-building project away.

Khalid is as thoughtful and soft-spoken an Afghan male as you will ever meet.
Two things: Lots of monsters can have side-interests and quiet voices. Stop slavering over this guy and do your fucking job! Secondly, ... what's up with the "an Afghan male as you will ever meet" qualifier? Some sort of Western chauvinism about how Afghan males can't approach Western males for thoughtfulness and etc.?

citizens regard him with affection and respect, as a principled official

Yeah, well, ... that's what Rosie DiManno types anyway.

I don't know if Khalid beat and electrically prodded this prisoner, as claimed. He forcefully denied those reports in a weekend interview with Stephanie Levitz of The Canadian Press. But Afghans lie as effortlessly as they breathe. In this culture, dramatic prevarication is considered an admirable skill. Survival often relies on scheming. Minus any tangible evidence, I would believe Khalid over the testament of a prisoner pouring bile into the ears of Canadian diplomats.

What a breathtakingly stupid paragraph. It's full of so much nauseating drivel and uselessness. How much does TorStar pay this idiot to produce this stupidity year after fucking year? So only now do we hear what this Khalid guy is said to have done. This young, thoughtful, soft-spoken (for an Afghan male anyway), principled governor, whose citizens regard him with affection and respect, is alleged to have beaten someone and taken a cattle-prod to them.

Well, all-righty then. Now we now what the subject of the goddamned article is anyway. Say Rosie, ... let me go out on a limb here, ... are you trying to paint the picture in such a way for your readers to doubt Khalid's guilt? Is that what the use of all those positive adjectives was for? Are you really that clumsy and obvious?

He forcefully denied it did he? Well, that should have gone without saying.

"But Afghans lie as effortlessly as they breath." You don't say Rosie! You know, right now I'm reading Edward Said's Orientalism. It's full of criticisms for the imperialist, racist drivel you just spewed for us there. Now, Rosie, I know you attempted to qualify your arrogant utterance by making idiotic references to the history and politics of the place, but your statement remains what it is: an arrogant, racist, stupid shitty thing to say. Westerners lie as effortlessly as we breath as well for that matter. Take yourself for instance: While you want to believe the garbage you write each and everyday, your resorting to crude and blatant propaganda and spin shows that you know you're lying. What's up with that?

In the absence of any evidence, you'll believe Khalid over his accuser? Fine. Presumption of innocence and all that. But Rosie, ... Rosie, Rosie, Rosie, ... we're not asking you to investigate the matter for us and arrive at an official decision of innocent or guilty. We're asking you to report the facts. Reporters are supposed to "smell a story," ... they're supposed to dig up scandals. Reporters aren't supposed to answer the phone, hear some leads about official corruption, presume the politicians are innocent and not bother investigating anything. And we certainly don't need you to write brainless babbling about how we MUST believe the hot, dreamy (for an Afghan) accused over the unidentified accuser "pouring bile" into people's ears [ewww!] just because you've got a boner for someone. Seriously Rosie, who the fuck are you that we should take your opinion seriously? A racist, know-nothing warmonger, that's all you are.

I mean, especially that given the fact that torture is rampant in Afghanistan (simply reading between the lines of your own stupid columns indicates this), why do we have to take it as a given that Khalid is innocent and his accuser is lying?

Afghanistan is a sovereign nation. We cannot impose our values, our Charter of Rights and our international covenants on them.

Well, regarding imposing our Charter of Rights on them, ... duh! But Afghanistan's sovereignty is an open question. It appears to be powerless to advise the NATO forces blowing up villages at will. It's sovereignty only appears to be operative when we want to wash our hands of the problem of torture. Regarding international covenants, ... I'm afraid they do have to live up to such things, if they want to be a part of the community of nations.

But it just occurs to me; evidently according to the "Responsibility to Protect," the former imperialist nations have decided that their now the "good guys" and they have to go around saving the inhabitants of "failed states" that not only cannot look after the basic needs of their peoples, but which are actually detrimental to the well-being of their peoples. So, what happens when the "good guys" create and prop-up their own "failed state"? Nothing evidently. Not a goddamned thing.

Canadians are there as a primary NATO element, in support of a United Nations mandate, at the invitation of a Kabul government

Blah, blah, blah. How is this relevant to accusations of torture and Canadian complicity in war-crimes? How is it at all relevant?

If that government falls in the next election – Afghans infuriated by corruption and incompetence – that will be their choice. But it won't be because some suspected Taliban detainees have been maybe tortured.

Right. Khalid's presumed innocence is front and center. But all the detainees are no doubt evil, fanatical Taliban, champing at the bit to kill women and Westerners and have wet-dreams about pre-adolescent boys playing soccer in the nude. Who lie about being tortured. And, anyway, this sovereign people can try to get rid of Karzai in the next election. It's their choice. Unless it isn't. In which case, Karzai will stay, either via electoral fraud or by brute force. And anyone who protests is a Taliban lying about torture again. And, anyway, Afghans might be infuriated by incompetence and corruption, but not by themselves or their loved ones getting tortured. Rosie knows. She's there. She has a keen insight into these lying, sadistic people's psyches.

That plays only to a Canadian audience and nowhere as much as the headlines would suggest.
Oh contraire Rosie! I beg to differ! The vast majority of Canadians are appalled at the thought of complicity in torture. The nazis and morons who comprise your fan base and send you letters of encouragement are only a tiny, diseased part of the body politic and are in no way representative of decent, ordinary people.

It is profoundly naïve and inexcusably paternalistic, however, to pretend that Canada can reinvent Afghan culture by exporting our precious ethics when that country is still very much under siege.

Naive and paternalistic to assume we could transform the country and export our values? Then once again you dimwit, if that's the case we shouldn't have gone over there in the first place! And our ethics can't be that precious since according to Rosie, Canadians don't care about them, and Rosie believes you can abandon them the minute things become difficult.

Further, the whole detainee scandal would never have arisen had not Ottawa winced at the optics of handing over prisoners to U.S. authorities.

Thanks Rosie. If I ever had any doubts that you were a brainless, thuggish ignoramus who doesn't deserve to be taken seriously for even a second, you managed to remove them with that one. The Americans are convicted torturers you dunce. link, link, link.

Right there, you display yourself as a talentless, worthless, contemptible hack.

As I said on pogge, Rosie ought not to talk about "our precious ethics" and values She's exhibited time and time again that she doesn't share the values of the majority of Canadians. She shares the non-values of the Blogging Tories. If somebody else was paying her meal ticket, she'd be a willing holocaust denier.

Need proof? What about her defence of the US marine cold-bloodedly killing a wounded Iraqi insurgent? Rosie can find all the compassion and understanding in the world for that criminal act (as could I), but you won't ever find Rosie DiMoron extending that same courtesy to the victims of Western imperialism. DiMoron's bloodlust and callousness is the product of Western civilization, therefore it isn't bloodlust and callousness: It's all an understandable response to the "terrorism" of our inhuman, official enemies. The difference between Rosie and a normal human being is that while an ordinary person might see how shooting a wounded enemy could happen in the stress and dislocation of war time, that act remains a war crime. And therefore, it must receive an investigation and a penalty. And, furthermore, a normal human being would be capable of grasping that the people on the other side of our conflicts have their own emotional baggage, and their acts of brutality can be explained much the same way.

What about her constant cheer-leading for Israel's violations of international law and human rights?

I noticed in a google search for this post that Rosie is described by the loathsome crypto-fascist website "little green footballs" as "one of the Toronto Star's few sane columnists." Hah! How's that for damning praise? She also gets favourable mentions at KKKate MacMillan's smalldeadbraincells.

When that's the sort of vermin that makes up your fan-base, maybe you oughta take a long look in the mirror and, ... oh never mind. If you're as foul as Rosie DiManno is, to already attract the applause of these goons, you're too far gone for any introspection to help you. Why TorStar embarrasses itself with this entirely needless garbage is beyond me.

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